NOOB Questions Answered By Dopamine David

[Ramune]

Has anyone tried bringing longboards that are too big to fit in your suitcase on a plane? I have a 42 inch longboard I want to bring home but it won't fit in my suitcase. I'm flying Southwest.

[shrimfririceeeee]

Originally Posted by Ramune

Has anyone tried bringing longboards that are too big to fit in your suitcase on a plane? I have a 42 inch longboard I want to bring home but it won't fit in my suitcase. I'm flying Southwest.

on check in luggage you could even check in a cardboard box
soo... if you have a cardboard box you could check it in with your check in luggage and just roll with it

(my parents are safety afraid of being stolen parents so they duck taped the whole entire box when they did this, so that if the box is ripped or damage you know its on purpose because its duct tape)

[mc99david]

ramune: I bleive you can check them without a bag, and they will probably throw it in a plastic bag, but call the airline to prepare ahead of time

[mc99david]

Originally Posted by shrimfririceeeee

on check in luggage you could even check in a cardboard box

shrimfiriceeeeeeeeeeeee: your answer was just great, but the title of the thread is questions answered by David, and you arent me, or one of my approved helpers, so i'd aprecieate if ya left the questions for us. you were totaly right on here, but if i let everyone answer questions, then this thread will be no different than any other thread on sf, where you dont know the validity of the person answering the questions. but i appreciate your modivation to help

[Derv]

How do i ollie higher?

[shrimfririceeeee]

Originally Posted by mc99david

shrimfiriceeeeeeeeeeeee: your answer was just great, but the title of the thread is questions answered by David, and you arent me, or one of my approved helpers, so i'd aprecieate if ya left the questions for us. you were totaly right on here, but if i let everyone answer questions, then this thread will be no different than any other thread on sf, where you dont know the validity of the person answering the questions. but i appreciate your modivation to help

i'm sowwy

1,000,000 characters

[mc99david]

practice practice practice. and probably make sure you are practicing on a street deck. sometimes it helps to watch some vids to copy some style, but really it is all just doing it over and over and over again. most seriouse street skaters will even do kicklfips as practice, just do 100 in a row every day on the carpet in their room. here is a kid that did 1200. 1424 Kickflips on a skateboard in a row | Skateboarding Magazine

anyway, all technical street tricks just take tons and tons of repetative pracice, and it all starts with the ollie. mine actualy suck, i can 180 and 50-50 ollie pretty good, but strait on, i cant get up a curb most of the time

[chaser]

i just found a board called the rum runner by roggs. how does that compare to the others? anyone know anything about that board?

[mc99david]

chaser: I thought i covered this one earlier anyway, get the roggs for sure, its awesome, i havent ridden it, but i can tell by the specs and i know a few people that have spent some good time on it and have nothing but good things to say about it. Def get this board. it didnt make the list before just because its a small builder and for generalities i usualy go with more mainstreem boards. I'm not sure what Lokki's build time is like right now, but do be sure to plan on it taking a bit for him to make, its just a guy in a garrage, that does abolutely amazing work

[Cruiserdude]

Thanks alot for that last reply, David, I've been doing some reading on the board builders forum, and I think I'll just make wheel wells whenever I pull the grip tape off my board to reapply some poly to make the thing last a bit longer, and stay away from big wheels.

Anyway, this next question is more of a technique thing, and it'll show you how much of a n00b at this I am; I only just got my board about 2-3 weeks ago, and have been riding it daily ever since. Anyway, I've got it set up nice with a dewedged rear truck w/ Bones med bushings, wedged/bones soft in front, and it rides really nice, even with the terrible Gravity wheels. Regardless, I'm having some major trouble controlling my speed going down a long slope. I'm sticking to gradual slopes, but the longer ones still give me too much speed. Honestly, I could probably ride them out, but as my 43" board doesn't exactly turn on a dime and I'm running my trucks fairly loose, I don't wanna risk going too fast.

I've snowboarded a good bit, and carving usually works great there, but I find that carving on pavement only slows me down if I'm going almost parallel to the slope, which I rarely have room to do on an average street or sidewalk. I'm learning to footbreak, and have managed to get it down at low speeds, but whenever I try it going faster, it just pulls me right off the board. As I said, I was never afraid of speed on a snowboard, as it doesn't really hurt to wipe out, and I can always bring my heel around and fall backwards on purpose to stop real fast if I need to. But the faster I go on a longboard, the less control I have, and the less ability I have to stop the thing, and the more it'll hurt if I fall. By now I'm missing about a half-dollar sized chunk of skin out of both knees, my left elbow, and the palm of my right hand, and even with pads/gloves, it still hurts really bad because it tears the wounds open again under the bandage, destroying any healing that is taking place. I'll be honest, I can't afford to fall much more anytime soon, or I'll have to call it quits for awhile until I'm all healed up again.

All that to bring me to my main question, of how can I safely control my speed when the run isn't nearly wide enough to carve as sharply as I need to slow down, and when footbraking at speed always throws me off? Sorry to keep asking all these questions, but this is really frustrating, and as I said, I simply can't keep falling until I'm all healed up!

[mc99david]

cruiser: welcome to skateboarding you get hurt, and a lot you need to learn to slide, also, that setup just isnt made to go much over 20 from what i can tell. you can go over 20, but it will take much more work to get use to it. Sliding is best because you can do that any time, if a hill turns into something you didnt plan, or you start to go to fast, or a car pulls out, you can just do a slide.

what you are doing now is the equivelant to snowboarding down a hill but not able to turn sideways to stop. Sliding is just like stoping on a snowboard, but with a hand down. its a must, practice your slides and your foot breaking. I'm still much better at predrifting and sliding than i am at footbreaking, its just what works for me. So get that down before trying any hill that you cant just run off the board on. just like you wouldnt take a snowboard that couldnt go sideways to the top of the mountain, its just not safe.

So that should fix that up for you, watch some vids for style, but realy, just get that coleman down.

also, carving compared to tucking bombing usualy is at least a 10mph difference. even slight carves. just an fyi, i've taken 55mph hills at 35 just from standing up and slightly carving. it still will feel fast, but it is slowing you down more than you think

[Cruiserdude]

Alright, sounds good. Looks like for now I should just work on getting as comfortable as I can on the board just flatland pushing and carving (there's no way I could put my raw hand on the pavement again right now, slide gloves or not). Then once I've had time to heal up and get a decent helmet, I can start working on my slides. They look pretty tricky to get the hang of, but I gotta walk before I can run, and I can't bring myself to go down any decent slope without some sort of bail-out plan that doesn't involve guaranteed personal injury...


BTW, you mentioned that my current setup doesn't seem to well suited for anything over 20. I've clocked myself a few times with a GPS, and I start to get scared right before 20. I've been able to hold off the wobbles so far, combo of the dewedge and just mental, but I still get scared (lame, I know) going faster than about 15.... :-/ Anyway, it would really suck to learn to slide and get some confidence in going faster, only to find I get some mad wobbles once I do. Would it be fairly simple and cheap to make my setup more stable w/o losing carveability, or do I just need to go ahead and invest in some wider trucks on down the road?

[calnick0]

I'm looking for a board that I can use for structure bombing, bombing big hills and for skating pools. I'm 5-9 145 pounds and goofy any good recommendations? I would also like some flex in the board and want it to be as fast as possible.

Thanks for your help.

[ApathyRebel333]

A couple questions:

1. What is proper tuck form?
2. How does a brazilian tuck different from that?
3. With regards to randal style trucks or just wedging in general, what is the difference between a set-up with both hangers pointed inwards \-----------/ as opposed to outwards /----------\ or just the front or the back?

thanks!

[mc99david]

cruiserdude: That board just isnt made to go fast, it has a pretty small wheel base, but some randals will definitly help, i would say with randals that arent wedged you could get that thing up near 40ish with some work, but it will take some skill for sure. also, that board will be a very fun slide setup, you'll probably enjoy those gravity wheels for some carvey sliding.

calnick, there is no such board. if you want something for parking garrages, and some big fast hills, then go with something like a hellcat. If you want something for pools, get a good pool deck, i'm a big fan of black labels and the earthwing street deck, but they dont make that one any more. but you really should get 3 different boards, one flexy carver, mabey a loaded or something, then get a proper dh board, and then get a pool deck.

apathyrebel: There is no such thing as a proper tuck. it is whatever is fastest for your body type and what keeps you the most relaxed and most aero. most people favor the euro tuch, thats what you see most often in pics. a brazilian tuck is just your normal tuck, but you put your back knee on the board

in reguards to wedging, forward wedging makes it more turny, dewedging makes them more stable. and that is the same with your standard truck and your randal style.

[calnick0]

Originally Posted by mc99david

cruiserdude: That board just isnt made to go fast, it has a pretty small wheel base, but some randals will definitly help, i would say with randals that arent wedged you could get that thing up near 40ish with some work, but it will take some skill for sure. also, that board will be a very fun slide setup, you'll probably enjoy those gravity wheels for some carvey sliding.

calnick, there is no such board. if you want something for parking garrages, and some big fast hills, then go with something like a hellcat. If you want something for pools, get a good pool deck, i'm a big fan of black labels and the earthwing street deck, but they dont make that one any more. but you really should get 3 different boards, one flexy carver, mabey a loaded or something, then get a proper dh board, and then get a pool deck.

apathyrebel: There is no such thing as a proper tuck. it is whatever is fastest for your body type and what keeps you the most relaxed and most aero. most people favor the euro tuch, thats what you see most often in pics. a brazilian tuck is just your normal tuck, but you put your back knee on the board

in reguards to wedging, forward wedging makes it more turny, dewedging makes them more stable. and that is the same with your standard truck and your randal style.

Ya I guess I was hoping that you would think of something impossible. If I could be more specific, i was looking for something that could turn real sharp but is still stable at high speeds with a little tail. I just like to pump around in the pool, I don't really do tricks or anything.

[chaser]

Originally Posted by calnick0

Ya I guess I was hoping that you would think of something impossible. If I could be more specific, i was looking for something that could turn real sharp but is still stable at high speeds with a little tail. I just like to pump around in the pool, I don't really do tricks or anything.

depending oh the hills you would be bombing you should look into original boards, with the proper setup from them you could bomb some small or medium size hills ( not over 35mph though) they are not dedicated speed boards, but they are fun for skate parks and amazing (with the right wheels of course) for parking garages. i just bought my original trucks, put them on a board and went through the highlands park and ride.

check out Original longboards.

[mc99david]

chaser: your name is not David, i know your intentions are to help, but this isnt the place for anyone to answer

calnick: a few boards that i've seen people take pretty darn fast are the EW super charger, the s9 bintang (actualy many of the longer s9 boards with kicktales can handle some real speed, i've seen them taken over 40.

actualy, thats what id look for in general if i were in your position, any board that is around 45-47 inches long, with a kicktail, put randal 180s on it, and it will handle as much speed as you are skilled to do.

I hope that helps

[chaser]

Originally Posted by mc99david

chaser: your name is not David, i know your intentions are to help, but this isnt the place for anyone to answer

calnick: a few boards that i've seen people take pretty darn fast are the EW super charger, the s9 bintang (actualy many of the longer s9 boards with kicktales can handle some real speed, i've seen them taken over 40.

actualy, thats what id look for in general if i were in your position, any board that is around 45-47 inches long, with a kicktail, put randal 180s on it, and it will handle as much speed as you are skilled to do.

I hope that helps

sorry dude, i didnt mean anything by it

[mc99david]

no worries, i know its with the best of intentions, and people do it at least once on every page of this thread, just trying to keep this thread what it is made for, thats all