DIY skateboards

If you're truly obsessive about skateboards, at somepoint you will start to wonder if you could do things better…I reached that point last summer when I realised that pretty much all the boards designed to go fast and sideways are very utilitarian, with form defined by function. Now for some reason this angered my feminine soul deeply, I think skateboarding is a beautifully expressive sport and I like to ride boards that reflect this. Most of the guys I talk to about this don't get it, they seem to view their skateboard merely as a tool for going fast and sideways rather than a thing of beauty in its self. For me form is just as important as function.

So I took matters into my own hands, I was riding a drop through pintail at the time (LY Battle Axe) and while bored one afternoon and hanging out at Timmy's I sketched out a design for drop through, DH race pintail. At the time it was the most fucking awesome thing ever, but know with a bit more experience riding I can see there were some flaws in the idea.

Behold the awesome!!

My pintail never got built, but the idea to design and build my own skateboard never left me and after a small hiatus I am now about to start. The idea hasn't changed though, I want to build beautiful looking skateboards with all the function of the boring utilitarian ones…I have plans in regards to construction of the boards, I have settled on a simple but effective press design (earlier press designs were way too complex and I have a large amount of wood veneers on order. So it's about to be all systems go…oh yeah, I've also designed the first board I'm going to make.

The idea behind this was simple, I wanted a top mount DH/freeride board, built for my smaller feet and narrower stance because a lot of longboards are built for hulking guys way over six feet tall and with massive feet. Finding a cave that works with size 6 feet can be hard. I also wanted to make a board with a symetrical foot platform for epic freeriding fun times, but set off with a beautiful directional shape. Form and function working together for a change. Have I managed that? I'm sure lots of people will disagree with me, but I think she looks sexy and I'm looking forward to the challenge of building her.

Anyway, that's it for now…I'll have more to say about this project once more has happened.

And then we get this

Vomit!



Brighton Skateboards - Girls Video from Brighton Skateboards on Vimeo.

Get your own sammich!

Carmen Shafer and Alicia Fillback shredding hard. Time to learn to cook guys 

Clutch PTG Review

So as you know I recently got a super sexy Clutch PTG, well I gripped her today and took her out and here's a very quick review.

Check out the custom grip job!

She has been shredded! Actually, she's been shredded a bit more than intended as I hit a pot hole while doing a coleman and flipped her into a curb. ooops! The concave is really nice, in fact I'd go as far as to say it's lovely and with some super coarse grip tape your feet aren't going anywhere soon. 

  

With the bushing set up i have in the randals (88a purple sabre barrel boardside and an 83a reflex cone road side) she's quite turny and pumps like a dream, I actually think that on the shorter wheel base and with grippy square lipped wheels you could experiment with a bit of slalom. She certainly feels nimble as hell when skating around.

  

The cult converters still aren't properly broken in yet, so stand up steeze is currently unavailable (i can do stand up steeze on the board i've got my cult classics on), however for hands down slides they slide a very looooooooooooong way…about twice as far as classics at a similar speed. Once they're properly broken in and starting to cone I imagine they'll be ace for freeriding and sliding.

  

All in all a fantastic board and I love her! ♥

She'll also be absolutely bitching for Boarder X…now if only someone in the UK would run a comp!

fuck yeah! Kati Torrebella & Sonso Masiá!

I'm so going to spain to skate!

Questions

Life is hard for us female skaters, not only do we have to shred hard we have additional worries like "does my bum look big on this skateboard?"

Though I imagine if I'd been wearing a bikini when I'd been filming this, two things would have happened: a) Rob Borek would have spent the next three months staring at his computer screen and b) I'd be given loads of free plastic skateboards.