As above ,I've been pondering this for a while when you see people on skateboards now the wheels are tiny compared to the ones I've got on my board that I've just found in the garage.
I you st to get stopped by stones with bigger wheels ,so these must get stopped by dust as they appear small and narrow .
Anyway now that I've found my board again i think I'll head to the skatepark and see how much damage i can do to myself.Luckily A&E at the RVI is only 200 yards from the park.
I remember lusting over wheels such as these [url= 
]Kryptonic wheels[/url] never did get them 😥
Skateboard wheel size seems cyclical in fashion.
I remember in the early 90's when everything was ultra-tech and it was all about rolling up to a kerb on 42mm wheels at 2mph and switch double flipping whilst hoping you didn't trip over your marquee proportioned New Deal jeans.
By the time the late 90's came around I was riding 56mm and people generally rode bigger wheels as tech was out and everyone wanted to be Jamie Thomas.
*Looks in wardrobe and finds new deal T-shirt 6 sizes too big*
Swap you a Vision Street Wear t shirt for it!
I was into skateboarding from 87 to around 91, wheels were pretty small then IIRC.I remember using Santa Cruz OJ II's.
So they can ollie easier - otherwise they don't make much sense.
Bones Parkriders and then Powerflex 9s for me:
http://bulldogskates.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=1375851&trail=30
Had Bones on my old board, forget what trucks they were on. Heavy solid old plank compared to the light flexy ones nowadays. Got a lovely Powell 'Bones' tee upstairs, style 'Shred', where the material looks ripped with ribs showing through. Wish they'd re-introduce it in their retro series.
Had some slime balls on my Powell Bonite Lance Mountain with indy trucks (wipes nostalgic tear from eyes)
RVI in newcastle?
I used to use 8 Santa Cruz OJ 11's on my Bauer Turbo's, running on Tracker full-track trucks.
It does amuse me that the wheels and trucks on my hockey skates were fatter and wider than the yoof of todays boards
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Class.
I had white Yo-Yo's (60mm about 75shore A), 2nd generation 65mm Green Kryps (about 95 shore A), Z-Flex wheels, which were crap, I think they were meant to be about 75 shore A but the urethane was terrible, just fell apart. Started on various plastic complete boards, then a Benjy Board White Lightning, then G&S something or other when boards started to get a bit longer and wider, though it was probably only about 27" long and 7" wide. All previous with the wider of the 2 original Lazer Trucks widths. Then a Wesley Humpston Dog Town Skate, 30"L x 10"W with 8" lazer trucks. I was a 70's skater boy.
When I was working I kept having a look at boards but still wanted something more like what I finished up on. No point in a new skool as I'll never be able to Ollie or anything else. Just something to cruise around Stoke Skate Plaza on.
Who knows, may still get one but think I will probably have passed 50yrs old before then as I is out of work and skint. Will be a while before I have cash to spare on a board.
Cockroaches!
I still have a set of the first batch of SMA Gizmos.
I still have a set of those red Kryps
Yep the RVI in Newcastle, if you work there i'll be the 44 year old with the broken ankle.
I'm gonna put some pics up tomorrow of the board.
Powell peralta T bones on my signature tony hawk with independent trucks mmmmmmmmm
Red Kryps were one of my first sets of wheels, Spitfires my last.
Used to love the ride off a new set of wheels on plywood, until the inevitable flat spot 😥
From memory wheels used to fluctuate a bit, I've used huge Powell T-Bones down to tiny G&S Nuts and back again on mini-ramps/vert.
Some of the street-pins used ridiculously tiny wheels.
some gullwing magnesiums, with grindkings...
Girl-wing 😉
Grind Kings were ace though!
[img] http://www.skatesonhaight.com/PhotoDetails.asp?ShowDESC=N&ProductCode=PTEEBS [/img]
Yowza! It's still available. I will be ordering a couple of these very soon.
What a small world, I was part of a research project on the skate scene in Newcastle. We had an exhibition at Dance City during the summer.
The skaters we spoke to weren't very keen on exi park. Five Bridges and the Wasteland is were it is at. More details here: http://playspacenewcastle.blogspot.com/
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Mebbe this pic will work. Love this design.
Woking has a new skate shop after Surrey Skateboards went ages ago - LongBoard Lounge, they specialise is something but I can't remember what...
How about parks visited, to keep the thread going?
Skate City
Mad Dog Bowl
Uxbridge
The Cage in Brighton
The Barn in Brighton
Also Skatestar in Guildford - I saw Shogo Kubo there - this link mentions him being there in 1979 and the slide he did along the top of the half pipe, which I can still remember!
"We were there in August 1979 when Shogo Kubo (right) came to the park and everybody was amazed when he skated along the top of the pipe"
http://darkrepository.com/skateboard.html
I am guessing it was around 95 that small wheels stormed into fashion? I have a few brand new spitfire wheels around 42mm-ish kicking about. They were sold off as "keyrings" or something as they couldnt shift them around 1996 if i remember right.
I had T bones on a ss John Lucero.Still got a set of big red kryptonics on the old G&S i bought too. Its such a smooth ride!
I was given a Planet Earth Ken park deck recently for building a few bikes up for someone. The deck is brand new,unstained/laquered. I`ll take a pic some day and post it.
Had a Santa Cruz Rob Roskopp deck back in about 89/90. Whatever happened to them/him , eh?
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I had a G&S bowlrider, then Benjyboard John Sablosky. Both on tracker full tracks, and excellerator wheels, which werent common, but were fast and smooth.
Used to go to the mad dog bowl, one in wandsworth in an old cinema, stockwell, Brighton cage and One out lewisham way
Wheels are small because California has much better surfaces and trucks are lower than back in the day (2 riser pads anyone?) so you can pop and flip easier. The Big Deal /World times were a bit ridiculous to be honest.
Check this out-
[url= http://www.juicemagazine.com/SKATEFEATURES.html ]http://www.juicemagazine.com/SKATEFEATURES.html[/url]
No idea but but I just moved from a cheapy shortboard with minature 51mm wheels to a longboard with 70mm wheels and the difference is night and day! They roll over everything so much easier, makes commuting by board even better.
On a sidenote, anyone into longboarding in the Bristol area? God knows theres enough hills and I wouldn't mind sessioning Bridge Valley Road before they reopen it.
Hmm, wonder if my parents still have my old board:
Deathbox deck
Tracker trucks
T-Boane wheels with SKF bearings
I think I've still got my old planet earth chris miller, boards I remember having were...
A few twin tail blanks cut v.similar to the shape current decks are now!
SMA/World Industries - Vallely x2
SMA/World Industries - Rocco
Powell Perelta - Hawk (the twin tails one)
Poor House? (I think, memorys a bit crappy) - Bryce Knights
a few santa cruz Natas
a few more hawks including two bonelite one's that snapped
a santa cruz jason jessie (I'd love to get my hands on another of the "sun print" t-shirts, can you get em online?)
loads more...
at one stage I can remember going through a new deck once every two months, shoes lasted about a week before they had to be packed back together with silkaflex and random bits of rubber.
I can remember a friend of mine (Luke) who I saw wear a set of Zorlack Zombu wheels down from their full size(around as big as kryptonite big reds/greens) down to the bearings in a month!! (they were the black ones but he then did the same to some green ones over about two months).
parks I skated were (in no order) Southsea, Dame Em in Bristol, Gillingham, Slades farm, Meanwhile 1+2 and loads more... ...I seem to recall days spent hunting for drainage ditches!!
Street was all around Bristol, Newbury, Marlborough, London and Swindon. Rollermania opened a shop in Swindon and that was great for a while, two indoor ramps out the back, in bristol there was a great place next to the Pink Palace which again rollermania I think helped with. In swindon we all got together, got the council to build a park, loads of fund raising etc, they bought three concrete bowls, put them in, before they added the marblite surface they smashed them up because "they were being used by drug addicts", I always thought it was more along the lines of "swindon council didn't pay for them"!
Briostol scene was a real laugh, what with Skateboard! magazine, the SM5D and the all rest, ah halcyon days!!
Talking of skatebowls, I just missed out on riding [url= http://www.skateparkpages.co.uk/cgi-bin/galleryshow.asp?ID=410 ]here[/url] as me and the ex spilt up just before it opened. Up until then only had a half-pipe on the prom to ride.
Some of the more well known places I skated...
Southsea, Romford, Stockwell, all the Bristol Parks, Banbury (Mons), Leamington Spa, Shrewsbury, Bury, Barrow in Furness Skateshack (a personal favourite) and my local spot Birmingham Wheels (Dickers indoor mini, spine, vert)
I also remember the 2 mini-ramps in the Pink Palace at Bristol, pink and blue dogs I seem to recall?!
this lunchtime I will be mostly...
http://www.whenwewasrad.co.uk/
http://www.middle-age-shred.com/forum/
In my day, wheels were big, trucks were narrow and decks were home made!
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I've still got my board from about '77 - has Sims Conical wheels (one of each colour), they are angled out from the trucks to make grinding easier 🙂
Torn from the darkest recess of grey matter are the names old green kyptonites and calfornia slalom trucks. Bringing it up to date i bought a board for my son recently and thought the same " why are the wheels so small?" .
Ah....
Sims Streetsnake wheels,
DNM bearings,
Indy trucks,
PP Bug deck
Fly tape.
Back in t'day...
Small wheels in the early 90's were 35mm.
They flipz better innit!
My first "skateboard" was a plank of wood with a steel wheeled roller skate that was taken apart and screwed to the plank. I say plank, from memory it would have been about 14" L x 4" W. This was 1974 and was done after seeing "Skater Dater" which was the backup feature to "Rollerball".
Now them wheels really were hard and small.
I was running a Zorlac John Gibson set up around '86 (can't remember what hardwear was on it though). Also just about old enough to have ridden the 2 bowls (1 snake run i think) that they had at Thruxton race track in the mid/late '70s (i was about 7!), although missed out on Andover swimming pool/park.
Haze - Member
Some of the more well known places I skated...Barrow in Furness Skateshack (a personal favourite)
Ah happy memories - The Shack was at the bottom of my street, and as a kid i spent days helping Milly, Russ and Co carry all that ply up the stairs, so we got to ride it before it opened. Then later when Robin used to lock us in during the day so 5 ofnus had the whole park to ourselves, heading home filthy.
I remember seeing Tony Hawk and the Bones Brigade there too!
A few mates reopened it themselves a few years ago, but the whole complex has been flattened now.
Still miss skating, but don't bounce off the floor like I used to!
Aaaah Nice one Haze... Dicker's indoor bowl.. sweet memories... spent many a weekend down there in me youth! God bless the Birmingham wheels scene... How i miss the deadly levels of methane being belched out the ground on a hot day!
afrothunder88 - Member
On a sidenote, anyone into longboarding in the Bristol area? God knows theres enough hills and I wouldn't mind sessioning Bridge Valley Road before they reopen it.
you can check out the forum on lushlongboards.com theres a fair few people who are around bristol.
This thread takes me back. Skating was my life from about 12 to 18 in the mid to late 80's / early 90's.
I'm a Brighton boy so for me it was The Level and the various mini ramps on the seafront at Saltden and Rottingdean plus going to Romford and Southsea.
Tried to get back into it a few years ago but it hurt like hell!
Tried to get back into it a few years ago but it hurt like hell!
Same here mdb and loved it as much as when I was younger, it just got a bit much hobbling into work most mornings.
I can still sit for ages watching this sort of stuff...
Labor Day BBQ at Bucky Lasek's backyard bowl.
It was becoming a professional that put an end to my skating too...
Meeting with Directors with cuts all over your hands...
'you did that skateboarding?... my 7 yr old loves skateboarding!' 🙁
you can check out the forum on lushlongboards.com theres a fair few people who are around bristol.
I shall do just that, cheers!
Anyone want to buy a longboard?
Haze / Sid Killerest,
I built Dickers with Stampy, used to skate the Vert ramps mostly. Still see quite a few of the old guys around. Quite a few into MTBs now, if you remember Jester (Si Patton) hes running the (mtb) DH national series now.
Anyone want to buy a longboard?
Details?
It's a foundation longboard, circa '96, massive indys on it, some huge soft wheels (will have to check what make) they're so soft that the inside edges are a bit knackered, has amazing bearings though I'm not sure how good they are these days as I've not touched it in 12 or so years. I'll have to dig it out.
i started skating again around 98/99, back then it was almost impossible to get anything other than street stuff (longboards were ok funnily enough). for a while i rode santa cruz bullets or somesuch as it was the best i could get.
was also funny riding my fibreflex 42 around the village, the kids would literally stop and laugh at me as in their eyes i was way too old and my board was massive to them. yet now all the cool kids ride longboards down this way.
these days though i don't skate parks much at all, i'm afraid the fear of hurting myself - meaning i can't surf - is too much. a bit of slalom, downhill cruising (we've got a couple of 2 mile runs down this way) and sliding is fun though.
anyway, for some lovely kit have a look [url= http://www.octanesport.co.uk ]here at octanesport[/url]
oh, started around 75 or so on a 2x4 with rollerskates nailed to the bottom.
back in the day skated southsea for many many years, leigh park bowl was fun, indoor ramp at crantock, the funky little bowl in barnstable, ilfracombe bowl(that was a fun one), bournemouth (thats another fun one), farnborough, rom, loads of random half pipes and more i've forgotten. recently st georges, that bowl in wales just over the border (nice), newport indoor, mount hawke (my lad now goes to the under 11s session on monday night), saltash, helston, hayle, playing place (love that) and was instrumental in getting a major bowl built in penzance. in addition i once barged, drained and skated a swimming pool, a lifetime dream that, and a natural super smooth rock bowl in australia.
and i've got about 20 skateboards, tons of bits, and one of [url= http://www.skateandannoy.com/features/ebay/2008/ebay062/ ]these : )[/url] under lock and key. yes i could'nt believe the price either.
Matt - I travelled up from the Midlands a few times to skate the shack for the weekend, get stupidly stoned and kip in the car overnight or end up at a party.
Skated it with Milly on a couple of occasions and rode the comp up there with Gooey, Rocker et al. Long time ago when Andy Scott was only knee high and already pulling off stalefish fakies etc.
Fine memories except the black bogeys!
Scruff - I remember Jester and certainly remember Stampy. I reckon I'd probably know you too!
It's a foundation longboard, circa '96, massive indys on it, some huge soft wheels (will have to check what make) they're so soft that the inside edges are a bit knackered, has amazing bearings though I'm not sure how good they are these days as I've not touched it in 12 or so years. I'll have to dig it out.
Oooo, deck type and dimensions? How much are you after? I want a board to start learning how to slide on.
Hasn't anyone else got any old photos of them skating?
>In my day, wheels were big, trucks were narrow and decks were home made!
My first vaguely proper board was a '4 vouchers from hovis loaves + £3' thing (prior to that it was a single clay wheel skate separated over two ends of some floorboard timber). Next I replaced the (smallish) wheels with blue krytonic seconds (I think they were something like £16 or £20 circa '77 !) - istr they were about 65mm, and the larger ones were 75mm or so - so at the larger end of things..
Shortly followed by some ACS580 trucks - relatively wide, apart from slalom trucks.
Finally, a homemade deck which was an old ply cupboard door. Last time I used it for any distance was in about '89 - after a day's diy on my OH's flat I'd scoot down to the local kebab shop for supper. It's in the workshop at the bottom of the garden and still rideable after..err..32 years. Think I might need to learn how to foot drag, I never could, don't think my knees would take jumping off at any kind of speed now !
afrothunder - It's at my parents. I'll try and get hold of it at the weekend. It must be over 45", but this is from memory. I'll get a pic. The wheels were super soft though so sliding might be tricky.
Hasn't anyone else got any old photos of them skating?
Posted this before, it's the only one I've got on the PC. Taken at Barrow, lipslide up the escalator...
[url= http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1063/5154106771_3d70102534.jp g" target="_blank">
Great to see that Haze - nice to see you're rocking just the one elbow pad! Used to love that ramp so much - gapping the roll over in the corner of your pic. The black bogeys were legendary!
I remember the night there when the guys from Zorlac had come up to see Dave Harkness, and he killed the place - somehow pulling off christ airs inbetween the rafters!
Would love to see any other pics you have from up there?
Some quality footage here: Deathbox Spirit of the Blitz.
afrothunder -It's at my parents. I'll try and get hold of it at the weekend. It must be over 45", but this is from memory. I'll get a pic. The wheels were super soft though so sliding might be tricky
I don't mind changing the wheels for something harder so that's fine. Drop me an email once you have a pic if that's okay? Email is in my profile. Cheers.
Scruff - Cool mate the dickers bowl was a classic.... yellow plastic coping and corners you could go through! Ace... I remember seeing Eric Dressen tear the place apart...Stale to tail on the vert wall? ridiculous! and Stampy's Skates - possibly the smallest shop ever? I always preferred it to Yah Dude... that place just smelled of patchouli oil and sweaty skaters.
Have you seen the Birmingham skate archive on facebook? well worth a look, full of blasts from the past!
Sid, yes theres a few pics of me on the archive. Alex Luffman.
I was there when Dressen and the Dogtown boys demo'd but best thing I ever saw ever in skating was Gonz on the vert ramp no less, his style was so different to anyone elses.
I was on the spine when the Gonz turned up, he had his helmet on and I didn't recognise him at first. We took turns dropping in, just some nice grinds and stuff.
He upped the game with some huge frontside ollies, I soon realised who it was and sat down and watched in admiration.
Great style, a proper legend.
Blimey, a bast from my past.
I started boarding in the late 80's, my parents when they moved a few years ago dug a load of my old boards out, it was like a trip down memory lane.
I started riding ramp, I remember dropping in on the half pipe in Farnborough for the first time, it was pretty scary.
As I progressed into my teens, I rode more park & street, and got pretty good, had a bit of support - I even made it into a VHS video my parents still have! I used a few New Deal boards, then went onto World Industries, and finished up on Blind. Always with Independent trucks & Deathbox wheels.
Dressen and Gonz demos-
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