This girl rips. Oh, and it’s Neilson. End

I like hearing about people skating. I love hearing about people skating a long way. Earlier this year Jason Murphy decided to skate 905km across Newfoundland. The pics on his website www.boardlong.co.cc look amazing. He got hooked up by his local shop Sideways in Corner Brook with some Element shoes. Click on the pic below to go and see his site and find out more. If you are thinkking of any type of skate journey, get yourself over to skatefurther.com. There really isn’t a better place to get advice, hints and while you are there set yourself up a blog so people can follow your every move.

Yet more wheels! This time from the stable of Stoked Skateboards.

The beast is the first wheel to come from newly founded company Fireball and they look good. Rolling in at 76mm and 84a they have a pre-worn SlidePrepped^TM surface which allows you to break into a slide and create clean lines when you feel that urge. They have offset cores with fat lips, allowing for the proper amount of grip when cornering and carving. Angled lips create a progressively larger contact patch as the wheel is slowly worn down from slides. Sounds good huh?

So a good buddy of mine, Eric,  lives and skate in Houston, Texas and they have a really good garage bombing scene over there. So good infact, that Earthwing have released some super limited H.G.R. wheels in the mythical black ’thane.  These are only available from Carve Skateshop in Houston and are super limited edition. Get them if you can.

I like skateboarding, I really do. But when it comes to kit; especially bushings, I throw on what i think will work and deal with it until I’m happy with it.

I have been getting it terribly, terribly wrong…

There is a huge science to this and it is being researched on a daily basis with hours of intesive work. Not by scientists but by skaters putting in the miles.

This picture alone is worth a thousand words.

Bearings come in 3 general styles; Barrel, cones and hourglass. There are lots of variables; urethane used, height, inserts, size etc. However, people like James Peters et al. over on pavedwave and John Galac are really fine-tuning the science behind bushings and their properties and I can only applaud what they are doing.

With a bit of light reading, it will mean that my slalom turns quicker, has better return to centre and hopefully that I can skatefurther on my mermaid with less effort. Cannot be a bad thing.

Not really got many words for this. This is going to we an amazing skate. 20+ people have signed up already. In association with Skatefurther and Liquid boards of Plymouth. BribaBri.

This happened a month or so ago, but I’ve been meaning to write something up about it for a while. The King of the forest push race in Vancouver, Canada is really leading the way in distance races. Now in it’s 5th year, the 20km longboard endurance race offers a $1000 first place prize, a hefty amount for any kind of race.

The race itself is partnered with Metro Vancouver and the BC Brain Injury Association to promote and deliver a challenging and fun form of recreation for all rider skill levels and runs along the Seymour Valley Trailway in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve.

Skatefurther forum member Paul ‘Fuzzydeer’ Kent claimed the King title again this year with a time of 38 minutes, whilst fellow Rayne rider Brianne Davies claimed the Queen. Paul’s Wife, Rachel got third in the womens.

Queen of the Forest
1. Brianne Davies 47.14
2. Charlie D. 52.15
3. Rachel O neill 53.25

King of the Forest
1. Paul Kent - 38.00
2. Graeme Hystaad - 38.42
3 David Mitchell - 39.03

So, if you have anything to do with distance skating you probably know that Holey’s have been the truck of choice for distance skaters the world over. They have been used on journeys across the UK, Scotland, Europe, New Zealand, Australia as well as Rob’s world record skate across Europe, the US and China.

The reasons are simple. They are built tough, (mine have done thousands of miles on and are still going strong) the hangar design means they can be lowered more than the competitors and the bushings and angle mean they can be super-carvey but stll handle speeds up to 40 with ease. Perfect huh?

I thought so. Till the sabres arrived.

Sabres are a UK designed truck from the stables of lush longboards. They are a competitively priced downhill truck offering a stable 45 degree angle and 190mm width. Now I was a little sceptical about these for distance, would the width be an issue? Would the 45 degrees make them super unresponsive? and most importantly how low could they go?

The answer to all these questions is pretty much answered by the simple fact they haven’t left my demonseed since I got them a month ago. I also have the spherical bearing versions from octane sporton my speedboard (going to review these later when I’ve sorted the bushings out) The finish is flawless, the baseplate is sleeker and simpler than the holey and the hangar lets you drop the truck as low (if not lower) than the holey.

The only thing that really remains is how they hold up over time. There is a really good discussion about Sabre trucks over on the Skatefurther forum in the equipment thread. Is it worth shelling out for some? If it’s to replace Holeys, probably not. But if you like a bit of speed and want a truck that can be lowered for a pusher and take high speeds, then they may well be the truck for you.

Ok, so it’s been super hectic over the past 8 weeks. Actually hectic really isn’t a big enough word for it! 2 months ago Julia was just beginning to feel the first pangs of labour. 50 odd hours later at 11.35 p.m. on the 15th of September Noah came into our lives. Julia is the strongest and most wonderful girl ever. I could never go through what she did for our son. I am so proud of her.

As you could probably expect, we think Noah is the raddest little man ever. Hes a big bugger and is smiing and giggling away already.