It's been awhile since I've written any content, due to the fact I've been stuck in a hellish winter for the past few months. But as the days turn warmer and friends pull out their boards once again, skating has once again became my life. I've been skating for a good 3 years now, everyday I possibly can for as long as I can. Of course, the many friends I used to have skating have grown away from the hobby which once occupied our entire summers. With a small group of close friends, we keep our love for just cruising kindled. Which brings me to my point.
Recently, one of the owners of a small, independently owned skateboard wheel company sent over two sets of wheels for me to review, a set of 49's and a set of 54's. Then name of the company is "Better Skateboarding," they can be found online at http://www.betterskateboarding.com.
In the review (consisting of two parts, running close to 20 minutes in total), I test the claims that the wheels they produce are fast and flatspot resistant. I hope you find the reviews informative, but keep in mind that when talking about skateboards and the parts they're comprised of, everything's subjective... different people look for different things in their gear.
Recently I posted in “Do you skate anymore thread”, and claimed that I didn’t. This is where the story starts.
Last Friday, I got onto a tube train on the way home from Uni. As I took my seat, a young guy, about 17-18 sat down opposite me, a skateboard underfoot. As he sat there, rolling in backwards and forwards, it reminded me of my former passion. A passion, which in the aforementioned thread, I had said, had passed.
And yet, this guy, board beneath feet, shoes scuffed, rocking gently back and forth, simulating all the tricks he was going to hammer out in his session, really stirred something up in me. It made me wish I could do that again. That same anticipation you feel as you sit on the public transport on the way to a session. Hopes of nailing hammers and tech lines, dreams of having the perfect style, in the perfect moment, with the perfect camera frame, a document of achievement.
This site is not a blog, and it's not a forum either. It looks like a piece of forum software freshly pulled out of its box and skinned with a strangely odd combo of too much gray, super thick black borders, and an old school red-to-dark-red gradient.
Flawed - okay, but none the less, I cannot resist to question the movement of the DON'T DO IT army and everyone else touting the "anti-outsourcing" slogan.
One thing we can all be sure of. When a company is in the business of selling skateboarding products of any sort, they're either turning some kind of a profit or they won't be around next month.
With that laid out, it's fairly easy to side with the major skateboarding brands. They sponsor pros, they put out videos and they pride them selfs on making reputable products of quality and they've been around for many months.
But is that it? Are we all content with buying brand names because we are "supporting the soul of skateboarding"?
