Team no Balls

I went to the Summer Swine Stomp freeride at Hog Hill recently (by recently I mean last july) - it was fun,the weather was good, there were a bunch of ladies skating the hill and generally the stoke was flowing in full effect. However something happened there that just niggles at my feminist soul - I was told I had balls for skating down the hill on my Rayne Phantom (basically an over sized skateboard). Now I let it slide for a number of reasons - I was having fun and didn't want to kill the vibe, it was unintentional, and because (despite everything you may have heard) feminism isn't about publicly shaming individuals; instead it's the case that we live in a world that normalises certain ways of thinking. We all feed and support that system unless we consciously check our privileges and language all the time, and feminism is merely a set of tools that allows us to do this.

Photo by Steven Cornish Photography

This is critical - I know the red mist often descends when I mention the 'F' word - but critique of the system of patriarchy that we live in is not a critique of you. So please take a few deep breaths, maybe have a cup of tea and then come back.

I don't hate you... No really, I don't.

Me "having balls" was most likely a comment and compliment on the fact I was skating the hill confidently on a board with a 19" wb... What can I say, I like wrongboarding. But having balls does not equal confidence any more than having (or being) a pussy equals being timid, doubtful, or apprehensive. Confidence is built up of many different things: experience, technique and attitude. If you put in the time, you learn good technique and you keep at it no matter how hard it seems, then you will get better. Any dangly things you may or may not have between your legs never come into it. As someone of the female persuasion it's actually a little bit insulting to brush aside the blood, skin and tears I've sacrificed to skaten over the years in order to gain that confidence, by saying it's about having balls. It needlessly genders a compliment, it says that my skating can only be good when it's considered to have attained some weird abstract of maleness. It may not be quite the slap in the face of "you skate like a guy", but it is firmly headed in that direction.

You may think this is unimportant, trivial even, but it does genuinely matter. Gendered compliments subtly reinforce male dominance of the space that is skateboarding, and indeed society in general. It's not about swapping one kind of gendered compliment for another, it's about realising how ridiculous they are in the first place. Generally women don't have balls (and most of those that do don't want them). If you happened to meet a trans skater and you told her she had balls, you would ruin her whole day - tell her she looks really confident doing what she's doing and she'll be stoked. There is a growing movement in the world of female skating to reclaim the label of "skates like a girl", not because we think it's better than skating like a guy - see comments about needlessly gendering stuff - but rather because as girls, when we skate, we skate like girls. Some girls shred, some don't - same goes for guys. Experience is gained through hard work and determination and is not gendered. Ever.

So to the point of this little diatribe. Please stop gendering compliments and insults, they demean and lessen the safe and welcoming space that skating should be. I have been told countless times that guy or girl skaters are just skaters, something I agree with completely, but instead of just saying it, make it true by living it. The language is there to say what we need without resorting to tired and damaging gender stereotypes. So, no more telling someone that they've got balls when what they really have is confidence, and no more calling your mate a pussy if they're bottling a trick.

Let's all keep skating awesome.

If you have read this far without rage throwing your cup of tea at you monitor, you may want to learn more about feminism and why it's important for everyone, so I've included some links to some feminism 101s. Enjoy.

https://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/

http://www.derailingfordummies.com/

Rayne Phantom review.

I've spent most of the last year riding my Dangerous Decks SE10, learning the art of downhill slide. Sometimes though I feel the need to ride something a bit bigger, but don't want to break out my DH setup (truthfully this is because I haven't yet progressed my tech-slide style onto softer wheels and bigger boards)... So I bought a Rayne Phantom, which if you've never seen one before is basically just a big skateboard. 

Dangerous Decks SE10 review

At the end of last year I finally had a go at tech sliding and realised how much fun it was... There was nothing for it, I had to get a tech slide board. I knew pretty much straight away that I wanted a Dangerous Decks SE10, and after months of making do with a set up that I'd swapped for unwanted skate gear I finally got one.

look at the shiny

My first thought when I first opened the package was “ooooooooh pretty!”

I had spent a bit more on a board with a carbon fibre layer on the bottom (pink carbon fibre no less) and the finish was beautiful. In fact I know how much effort went into it as Will, the guy who builds them, spent a few extra days re-doing the finish because he wasn't happy with it. Now that's craftsmanship.

The SE10 is 34” long, 9” wide, and has wheel base options from 15.5” to 17” adjustable in 3/4” amounts. There are decent sized kicks (7” with the shorter wheelbase) and an aggressive tub concave. The cave flattens out at the kicks so you have really nice pockets to lock your feet in. The board was designed around Indy 169s, I wasn't able to get any because I'm extremely poor and I had to swap more unwanted skate gear to get some suitable trucks. I ended up with a set of 9” Gullwing Mission 1s, which are slightly taller that the 169s, but seem to work fine set up without risers. For the wheels I went with the ubiquitous Earthwing Slide A in 62mm... Which are epic, somehow managing to combine (possibly through witchcraft) zero hookup with a lovely smooth (and fairly quiet) slide. Like I said... Witchcraft.

no hand HS drift

The deck is very stiff with minimal to zero flex and had a decent about of pop, and as mentioned the combination of aggressive concave and kicks really locks your feet in when your going sideways. Basically it inspires confidence to try new stuff, first time out I was managing to do hands down 360s without even thinking about it. Early grabs magically improved as well... the usual pathetic couple of inches was magnified to over 6... Yes size does matter, especially when it comes to getting air. I also tried a lot of stuff I would never have attempted soft wheel sliding, like laybacks, switch colemans and even hands down blunt slides. Admittedly they all ended badly and I now have a nice collection of bruises, but I was trying.

Nathan trying a blunt slide

The SE10 is also fun away from the hills, the kicks mean you can do all manner of flat land tricks and there's even enough space to do some board walking (I managed a peter pan, but failed at cross stepping). Stick some soft wheels on and it's great for cruising round town or going on a beer run to the local shop. Speed was also handled well, I never felt out of control and the board felt solid under my feet when foot braking.

Overall the SE10 is a solid deck, it may have been designed as a tech slider, but it's certainly versatile enough that you'll want to use it all the time, and certainly with soft wheels it makes cruising round town a lot more fun. This said there were a few down sides... The carbon fibre, while looking pretty, is already pretty shredded (I have abusive relationships with my skateboards), in hind sight I think the plain birch version would be the better choice (it's also the cheaper option). I also managed to delam the nose attempting a kick flip. It's nothing serious and easy to fix but worth mentioning. Despite these minor issues I still love the deck and would gladly hand over more of my money for a new one when this one dies.

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.

Get your own sammich!

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

Girls can shred!

Awesome video of some brazillian girls shredding hard. Great video and there's not a single bikini or cross step in sight (not that there's anything wrong with cross stepping and dancing, I just like seeing girls shred hard)