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teck, you're in NYC right? I'd probably just stop by Labor and pick up a shop deck (the Labor branded decks). You'll go through several decks as you feel for what you like the best, like shape. So when you first start it's not super important. I'd probably start off with an 8.25" deck though, they sit between the 8 and 8.5 as a happy medium. Ask the shop staff too, they should be more than helpful

In the end there's not too big a difference in equipment — you can grow accustomed to one setup or another within an hour

I'm kind of overwhelmed by the choices of decks as far as artwork goes. What's some good brands to look at that have less derivative based artwork? I feel like everything is either a stylized version of the company's logo or lame joke. This krooked deck caught my eye for example.

damn i'm so excited that more people on c-t are picking up skating! maybe we can all submit a line or something and we can have a short compilation a la tired. hahaha

cruising w/ homies is now my favorite part of skating. just simple tricks like wallies, no complies, slappies
i used to live a block away from this shop too (510 sbing). also own bows & arrows if you're ever looking for some cool sneakers (smiling)
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/159399795[/vimeo]

Goddamn this thread is making me want to pick up skating (or build a bmx bike). But I reaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllly don't need another sport where I can fuck myself up. Someone convince me yes/no build a skateboard/bmx bike.

New deck arrived. Just waiting on hardware which will be here Monday, I might just steal the stuff off the deck a friend is loaning me(pictured).

Good idea I've got only the lewd bits of a Supreme hentai sticker that I could use to cover it up perfectly. Will update with results later.

Stopped by the local slate shop and put together a board today! very excited.

8.5 5boro deck, indies, ricta clouds and bones reds

Welp, just posted asking for local shop recommendations on facebook. I'm going for it.

Now taking bets on when I end up in the ER with a stupid injury.

After a really intense semester of PhD coursework, I finally got back on the board over the past few weeks, and am experiencing a world of pain. no acute injuries-- just the pride-wounds and knee inflammation that accompany a few hours of sketchy early-spring noseslides and 5050's.

Anyway, has anyone been watching the new Fancy Lad video? A new pinnacle of outsider avant-gnar skate performance art.



between fancy lad and ssquirted, i sense brewing growth in juggalo/nu-metal/post-witch-house/post-post-internet/guy fieri trash vibes... and I like it.



in the face of endless FA-clones I find this shit pretty refreshing. although there's a very thin line separating authentic weirdo performance from the current just-bought-oversized-bluejeans-and-learned-nocomply-everything trend.

some super gnar tranny skating


the invert to eggplant is just plain what. also a guest appearance by someone you might recognize from gosha rubchinsky, eckhaus latta, and/or japanese magazines n lookbooks

Those are some great picks.. I also really like the art on Magenta skateboard decks... and I am a bit of a fanboy of anything Evan Hecox has done for Chocolate over the years.

I've found Polar to have some of the most enjoyable shapes out, but sometimes have trouble getting them with sizes/graphics that I like. Maybe it's because they're imports? I also have yet to find out where their wood comes from. The shapes seem different than any of the distributors whose decks I'm used to riding.

Lately, I've been riding more popsicle-style (Chapman wood i'm pretty sure?) decks, in the form of some Fancy Lads and a KCDC shop deck. Totally serviceable, but not the same kind of subtly asymmetrical comfort-machines that my last Polar was.

Unpopular opinion: The current trend toward wide decks is another fad that will go down like 90's-era tiny wheels and 00's era puffy shoes. Above 8.25" I find the decks get kind of heavy and I get tuckered out from pushing them around. Ok maybe I'm just a wimp-- I know that true-ripper-pro's have always used really wide boards. But most of us are not professional athletes. It's like, we don't all drive race cars, do we? In surfing, there's been a backlash against tiny tri-fin performance boards lately, and I think skateboarding could learn a bit from that. Moderation is key.

Of course, I am always glad to see fewer grown adults pushing featherweight 7.5" toothpicks around than they did say, 8 years ago-- but seeing skinny 16-year-old kids riding 8.5" decks is almost equally silly.

polar's distribution in the us is probably to blame tbh although out here in california i've found most of polar's seasonal decks in a lot of skate shops

my 2c on deck shape/size:

wide boards in my opinion skate much better than skinny decks. sure it's more weight but not by much and your muscles will acclimate in due time. in addition to that, wide boards are much better for transition since they're also a lot more stable at the higher speeds (the other secret of transition being skating a long wheelbase, a la WKND or similar). of course, it's harder to flip a wider deck, but unless you're doing a double flip or more it's not a big deal. wider boards also mean you have more space to land, so you can sketch out your landings more than if you had a skinny deck. although i think when you're weak as a kid, it's harder to pop the wider decks (in transition not a problem since you don't pop as often)

shaped decks i think are making a comeback because there's this push back to the roots of skateboarding, where there was more an emphasis on individuality. with shapes you could choose a shape that was good for bag of tricks you had. popsicles are all nice and dandy, but if you don't skate a lot of nollie or switch then it loses a lot of it's appeal

re: small wheels, i'll just leave from one of my favorites, dane brady

i could write more about this but i definitively think the middle ground is 8.0 and not 7.5

torey pudwills skating has always looked super unappealing to me and i think a big part of that is due to the super skinny decks

i used to hate tre so much and now its probably the flip trick im most comfortable with

suprisingly i find it much easier on wider boards, you get a lot more area to catch it with

any entry level skating resources that come recommended? i've been googling everything and cruising everywhere, getting better for sure but definitely looking to step my game up (smiling)

Honestly I think other skaters in your area are your absolute number one resource. I might just be weird so you can take this with a grain of salt but I've been skating for 10 years now and no how-to video has ever helped me actually learn something. If you have a local park or there's one nearby, make a habit of going often. Watch other skaters, cruise around, etc. It will come naturally.
Additional advice that you didn't ask for but something that I feel is worth saying: I think it's extremely valuable to get really, really comfortable cruising and turning and pushing before you ever even attempt to do tricks. There's nothing wrong with wanting to do some radical maneuvers, and everyone skates for a different reason, but from my perspective I've always had much more fun rolling around fast and doing ollies up curbs than perfecting my nollie 360 flips.
(Side note: not trying to talk down to any one approach to skateboarding, just speaking from personal experience. That's what's so gr8 about it, you can approach it however you want and it will still be fun and also probably injure you. Additionally, I'm super happy to see how active this thread has been lately and how many people here have interest in skateboarding.)

too long for comment:
hell yeah! i absolutely appreciate that advice, the learning curve on tricks is certainly higher than anything else so i'm definitely just gonna focus on being as comfortable as I can via cruising so it comes more naturally. my biggest issue with trying anything new is definitely comfort level so I'm absolutely just gonna keep cruising, maybe try and skate to work, and see how things naturally evolve.
Thanks a bunch!

is this where we'd talk about some skate brands and stuff

some new ones on my radar


(the ysl logo rip cap is funny)

I'd assume this is where we talk about them not really sure.

Anyways I got in a bit of a grail of mine. I've been wanting one of these for a while even before I took up skating but they were always sold out and finally after a second run ceased production. It's a Bronze 56k "Jamaica" anime deck, I picked up off ebay for a price that I wasn't really all that bad considering how bad I wanted one. I never intend to skate it and have it mostly as wall art, part of me feels bad about that but I don't really care. The graphic is from Kimagure Orange Road.




Edit. I haven't really been able to skate much at all these last couple weeks. I've been super busy with school and life stuff. I managed to get out this weekend for a bit but that was the only time in the last couple weeks.

Assuming that most have seen this but I got a good laugh out of it. I really like WKND's skaters and I think they have a cool art direction. And who doesn't love them some Koston?



And his welcome to the team skate edit..I loved it when they tried to re-enact his ''footage''from the Tony Hawk video games.

My new setup has a grip job you guys might appreciate



Also has a ton of air bubbls >:(

the quasi proto decks have the white blocks, the images are just printed out, cut, and applied on grip i was just too cheap to get sticker paper lol now i'm regretting not shelling out

i know nothing about skateboarding but i sure do like the vids!

New Dime video.
[youtube]watch?v=JrCdpu6RHOs[/youtube]

New lurk video.
[youtube]watch?v=ZMuJSLHglwg[/youtube]
I also took this while I was out skating yesterday.

i really want to see the new gx1000 video! anyone from the us who wants to proxy it for me?


i did two tricks at a park today:

[youtube]watch?v=HTS-NPG-7go&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

i finally got around to a board. my fiance was barely tolerant of my new toy ("you are so old!"). didn't help that the other customer at the shop was a young kid with his mom who paid for stuff. in a way i guess i also went with my old lady.

i skated a tiny bit. it was fun.

After posted that Japanese skate video I decided to check out some other skate videos from Japan to see what skating is like over there. Here's a couple of my favorites that I found.
[youtube]watch?v=Eu4I7yZeqJw[/youtube]
[youtube]watch?v=yXQCWF-yzHA[/youtube]
[youtube]watch?v=K5-4hrSKZwM[/youtube]
There's some more on my tumblr in my sig and I'll be posting some more there if anyone liked what they saw.

didn't know that. However Polar, Magenta, Quasi, 5boro, Quartersnacks etc are all distributed by Kukunochi which is a Japanese distributor. Quasi has the Kukunochi Raw Fi video on their site which is mostly Japanese skaters, I'm probably going to buy it next week when I get paid.