Changing the Shape of your Longboard

While tinkering with my longboasrd recently, i removed the front riser, and kept the back riser in. I enjoyed the ride and stability of having the front end dropped and connected to the road, but was having serious issues with wheel bite when trying to carve. Being the advocate of customizing your longboard that I am, I took it to the shop and fired up the saw. My Sector 9 is a 7-ply maple that needed a new shape. Making sure the jig saw blade had the right kind of teeth for the up-cut, i traced small crescents on the front part of the deck and began to slice. Being the dirty jigger that I am, it took a few extra cuts to get my wheel wells symmetrical, and then i went to work with a hand sander…..my board has been reborn, and is now a nasty carving machine….

Although to be honest, the shape of the cut changed from a curve to more of an “L”, which leaves me slightly anxious about creating a stress point and the front half of my board snapping off. A circular shpae is significantly stronger and more distributive when it comes to pressure, but we shall see. In the mean time, I am considering putting in a small metal support laterally on the bottom, and am prepared to bust a life-saving manual if the front decides to break.   Until that fateful day, I am going to tear up the streets.

Green Skate Central Park

At least 50 heads showed up to skate Central Park this Saturday. The weather was perfect, which apparently infuriated the already bitter biker punks in their $800 cock shaped helmets (for supreme aerodynamics and douchebaggery). My love for angry cyclists aside, it was a fun ride. Enjoy the pics of the longboarding bonanza in the utterly unnatural Central Park, the baboon heart of New York City.

Spring Arrives, and Longboarders Agree -It’s About Damn Time

I went for an all day longboard rally this past Saturday. It was gorgeous in the city. I met up with Q’bn, Daly and the Belge on 181st for some unforgettable runs on the Neverending Hill and then a quick board through Ft. Tryon, my favorite park in New York to skate around this time of year.

We then proceeded to descend from the Heights and head to Central Park for a few laps. The ride down was absurdly nice, and thanks to suggestions by Q’bn, my Manhattan Mountain Descent Map has been revised for the best 8 mile downhill skate in all of New York City.

A very intriguing monument found in J. Hood Park as we cruised down Haven.The sculpture is calleds 3000 A.D. Diffusion Piece, a sculpture by Terry Fugate-Wilcox installed in 1974. Made of magnesium and aluminum plates bolted together, the artwork is expected to diffuse, or mix, by the year 3000.

After an exhuasting day of skating i managed to take a fall on the Central Park Loop, leaving my mangled hands and pants looking like i had been mauled by a wolverine.  Well worth it. This Saturday is a Central Park skate, see the Bustin Blog for more details.

The Overbored Bus Invades the Upper East Side

As I rolled into Thompkins Square Park yesterday, I come across the legendary Overbored bus and a slew of skaters ready to go for a ride to the UES to bomb a hill on 91st St.  The bus is an old school bus with a bio-deisel conversion, so it runs entirely on vegetable oil. It sounds like a pack of Hells Angels ready to rape and pillage, and smells like chinese food and french fries, but is awesome.  In a few months the bus, along with six longboarders, will skate across the United States to break the current record and raise awareness about longboarding as a alternate form of transportation. Building the inside of the bus will be a project lead by carpenter/longboard beast Theseus Williams, and I can’t wait to start working on the living area, kitchen and common spaces. It was a solid day, a gorgeous afternoon, and a pretty good session. Enjoy.

The first bus skitch of the afternoon was an impressive two miles until a law dog suggested he disengage

Things got crazy when this dude rode alongside the bus through the tunnel on First Avenue. We were going about 40 mph and he was inches from detestation on either side. Crazy shit.

Poised on top of this freshly laid cobblestone hill on 91st St. and 3rd Avenue, we had a decent carve and slide session, although I kept skating and forgetting to take pictures.

The Overbored bus already looks pretty pimp, and once the inside is built up, it will be a mobile longboarding tank with an arsenal of skaters and photographers and coll ass dogs.  We then left to head down 2nd Ave to the Williamsburg bridge, and on a six man big-rig skitch, tragedy strikes….

Two boards were completely destroyed, the trucks were snapped like twigs,  and the wheels savagely ripped off. Sucks. May Solomons sweet carve board rest in pieces.

The rest of the ride back down Second Avenue was pretty damn fun, racing the bus and hitching a ride here and there. Also met Jason from Homage Skate Shop in Brooklyn, whose card is pictured above at the Edge bar during a post skate drink. We finished the night back in the Heights, with this ghostly pic of Q’bn crusing down the tunnel to the 190 St 1 train elevator. Until next time….