So I'm completely whoring myself out to gear this year, and while the weather is pretty chilly here in NY, I'm getting some tasty packages arriving at my doorstep.

My latest bit of longboarding goodness is GromBiz's C2 Special Opps Complete.

First impressions: The whole board is LIGHT. Its pretty compact and very very light.
It feels that the weight is mostly in the wheels. Length is 35.5 inches. It has nice amount of flex, not a trampoline but has some give without sagging. I am 180 pounds.
On the deck is says "Made by Madrid Skateboards Huntington Beach California", so I'm assuming that the deck is a Madrid deck made for GromBiz.

So far I've only stood on it, on my carpet, so initial reaction would be only from that. Tomorrow, no matter how chilly it'll get, i'm taking this baby to the boardwalk.

So, first feeling of standing on this board... It is very "tipsy", in a good way. It is a mix between Original and Revenge. It has that smooth and deep slant for when turning/carving, but it still feels more like urethane compressing than springs of the Original trucks.

It is very smooth on side to side action, but there is no dead spot at the top, like on Originals, so it might be a good and a bad thing. Good thing is that it feels really nice going between transitions (I'm assuming, since I didn't ride it yet), and bad, since I'll have to retrain my ankle a little bit for more balance control on a tipsier board.

Changing angle of the truck is quite easy, if you get both trucks that are smooth to pull the pin out and rotate to the desired angle. In my case, my back track is as smooth as butter, and it takes NO effort what so ever to pull the pin and rotate the truck to the desired position.

The front truck on the other hand is a bitch to adjust. The pin is pretty small, and if it doesn't want to get out, its really hard to pull it out because you get no leverage, the wheel can get in a way and there is not enough of endcap to comfortably grab it for a more forceful pull. It is also tough to rotate the truck into desired angle. Overall my front truck either needs some lube, or some riding time to smooth out a bit.

So far I have a slight bruise under my nail on my thumb from all of these manipulations.

Another thing is the bushings. The board came assembled. After adjusting my trucks to a certain angle, I stood on my board, ans tarted to feel the limits of the carving motion. Immediately one of the bushings on my front truck popped out like a bullet (they are pretty soft and light so its not a big issue if it happens in your home, but they might knock something down).

This is the problem that Grombiz guys warned me about over the phone, prior to me receiving my board, and they are FIXING it by sending a free set of slightly different bushings. The second "improved/fixed" set, came with the board, so no waiting.

After examining two sets, here is the conclusion. The "popping" bushings, are really smooth all around. They are just mold formed urethane with plastic ends. Because they are so smooth, they just pop out of the seats when really compressed.

The replacement bushings are a bit rough on the sides and the bottom. It just looks like they've been hit with a sander just to get rid of that smoothness.
Once I replaced smooth ones with the rougher ones, they stopped popping out.
I don't know if its an issue down the road, when they loosen up a bit, but for now, they are staying where they are suppose to be.

So after all this, I tried "double" bushings. With this setup, it felt closer to a regular truck. It dampened the tippiness of the board, and the compression of bushings felt closer to regular bushings.

I liked the tippy, surfy feel of single bushings, so I removed second set. However, I'll have to try both setups on the road to come to any sort of conclusion.

Putting bushings in, and removing them is a breeze. Tightening them is also easy, just have to mind how many turns each side gets, so that I get equal tightness on both sides.

So at this point, I am VERY impressed with the feel of this board. However carpet test can only go so far. I'll post more after riding on it at least once.

BUT...

After standing on this board, and standing on one of my boards with Original trucks, I'm wondering if Grombiz is going to be quite a competition for Originals.

I love my Original trucks, they carved a nice deep line of appreciation and stoke in my heart. However, just after half an hour of tinkering with Grombiz trucks, I'm starting to feel that there is a possibility that they might replace some of my Original trucks.

Anybody who rode Originals and Grombiz trucks for some time, what are you thoughts on this? I know Grombiz is VERY new, but maybe can already share their experiences / comparisons.

P.S. I think Grombiz vs. Revenge is also fair comparison, I just didn't ride or liked Revenges as much as my Originals.