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   The Stereo Vinyl Cruisers are not your typical skateboard in that they have large soft wheels and carvey trucks they are also not your typical longboard in that they are only 22inches long. Which is quite the shortness compared to what you might normally find me riding (i.e. something along the lines of my 48.5in longboard). Being so small it actually took me a day or two to get used to, but after learning not to step off the board it was all smooth sailing.

   The Stereo Vinyl Cruiser comes in at a tiny 22in long and 6in wide. It is rocking equally little trucks with super soft bushings for that carveyness a board like this yearns for. The wheels are 59mm in diameter and 78a in hardness with a pretty wide contact path for such a small wheel. This gives the wheels a nice acceleration and roll speed. But enough with the technical specifications, let’s get into what matters, how the board rides.

This Vinyl little bad boy is super duper fun! Every inch of the cruiser is put to good use without the bells and whistles you might see on other boards. It has plenty of room for a comfortable stance when riding around town and it has a nice little kicktail on the back. The kicktail is great for a couple of reasons 1) any board is better with a kick 2) it makes dropping curbs when cruising through town a breeze and 3) you can actually get a little pop off of the tail so you can ollie and kickflip and what not. Where does this board really shine? It shines in two departments… commuting and looking steezy.
You can grab this bad boy and get ready to SHRED the town, the campus, the skatepark, anywhere. I love getting my Stereo Cruiser under my feet in the sunny weather and just riding. Going from point A to point B isn’t the goal on this board this, instead the goal becomes to get to your destination in the most exciting and creative way possible. You can’t help but have a blast on a Stereo Cruiser, it’s almost like that’s what they were designed for…

Not only is commuting super fun on this board it is super is stylish! You totally turn heads when you cruise by a group of people with this little piece of awesomeness under you. Not to mention the fact that you totally get to rock the matching pair of sunglasses that come with the deck! I love that my lime green board has a matching pair of lime green glasses. Whenever I step on this board I feel like I have to live up to its super stylish fun vibe, so I channel my inner Z-Boy slap on a pair of old school vans and my matching shades and hit the town.
It is also a great board for people to learn on, in fact I give skateboard lessons to some of the kids at the afterschool program I work with every now and then and the Stereo Cruiser is perfect for them. It fits their feet and size super well, it rolls further with every push than a traditional skateboard, and it looks fun with all its bright colors! Everyone I know who has ridden this board has fallen in love with it, haha. My buddies who skate street and in parks like because its different and funky but still functional in many different situations. All my amigos who ride longboards like it because its has great commuting capabilities without all the weight and bulk of a full length longboard.

   Would I recommend the Stereo Vinyl Cruiser??? That is a resoundingly complete yes! It is a great board for someone looking to cruise a town, a fantastic board people to learn on, and those a little more advanced will find it just as gnarly! It can do everything you’re looking for in a little shredder and to top it all off you can stash it in your backpack when it’s not time to skate (even  though that time is NEVER, haha). However, do you know the best part about the Stereo Vinyl Cruiser? The price tag!!! You get the complete and the rocking sunglasses for only 80 bucks! I have had a blast on my Stereo Cruiser and I think anyone who likes to skate would love to grab one of their own, so head and try one for yourself!

My Stereo Vinyl Cruiser with a little grip added

Per Usual, any questions, comments, concerns, love letters, hit me up!

My Heart’s a Stereo — Stereo Vinyl Cruiser Review Posted on Board Mag

   I was really really excited to ride these wheels and I actually got them a little earlier than the release date, which made me feel all kinds of cool (Thank you Loaded and Orangatang)! However, and quite unfortunately, weather and life sort of got in the way me really getting to shred these super hard. I was able to ride them every now and then but never RIDE them like they were meant to be ridden.

Once the weather and my schedule cleared up I slapped them on my board and went to freaking town on these wheels. I put my Baluts on my Apex 40, since it’s kinda rad at both freestyle and freeride, and have really enjoyed them on that board. I started my Balut journey on a set of super mega old Paris 180mm trucks.
My first impression of these wheels was more than slightly off… When I took them out the first week or so they seemed hesitant to slide and they screeched way louder than any other wheel I have ridden in my life. Which was surprising to me for many reasons because I was told this new Urethane formula “euphorathane” is slidey as hell. The more I rode them the more and more confused I was getting…Then I realized something crucial… I wasn’t just riding on really old trucks, I was riding on Really Bent Trucks. When I finally realized how bent they actually were I switched my trucks out. I slapped on some sweet new Surf_Rodz Indeesz. Rocking some non-bent axles made the world of difference I was looking for. My wheels stopped screeching like sirens when I initiated a slide and everything became smooth.

Before I go on with my review of the wheels, lets hit the technical specs of the Baluts:
Diameter: 72.5mm
Contact Path: 35mm
Width: 44mm
The Baluts offer a centerset bearing seat, so that you can flip and rotate your wheels in any which way without any problems. They have an exposed and spoked core in order decrease the weight of the wheels and help increase acceleration time. Like all Orangatang wheels they follow the orange, purple, yellow durometer system; orange being the softest (80a), purple in the middle (83a), and yellow being the hardest (86a).

   One of the things I immediately liked and have literally fallen in love with about these wheels is the acceleration! The pick up speed sooo much faster than some of my more dense wheels. Which is great for like 85% of the riding I do… lots of commuting, freeride, and freestyle. Being able to pick up speed quickly has obvious benefits for commuting and freestyle, less pushing. You get more speed and then glide farther with each push. The acceleration is super awesome for freeride because you can bust 180 slides without having to wait to regain a speed for a long time again before hitting your next slide. I mean it just becomes slides on slides on slides.

   The big ol’ cores have their ups and downs. I like that they make the wheels significantly lighter than other wheels at only 4.7oz per wheel. Flip tricks and manuals are always easier with lighter wheels and the difference with these wheel is substantial, I have really enjoyed freestyling on them. The downside to the cores is that they make your ride louder and rougher, so you can feel every bump on the road when rocking Baluts.

Now let us get on to what I know you really want to hear… “How do they SLIDE?”

   As you may or may not know Orangatang switched up their urethane formula for these wheels. They jumped from their “Happythane” to the new “Euphorathane” formula. This formula was designed to slide faster and longer than the older formula. Let’s just say that they have achieved this goal! Once I switched off my crazy bent axles my slides were not only as consistent as pudding they were freaking effortless. I was switching in and out switch standies like it was my job. Toeside, Heelside, its all the same, just awesomeness and those were just the standing 180s. Holding longer slides is a dream on these wheels. Baluts feel harder in your hand and under your feet than other wheels of a similar durometer, buuut they don’t act like it. The first time I held a really long slide on these wheel I was half expecting to ice out quickly, however, that wasn’t the case. As I worked up to bigger and bigger slides they stayed really controlled and I never iced out (I have the 83a purple Baluts by the way). They have actually become one my favorite sets of freeride wheels! They are just sick.
Baluts may be loud under your feet when cruising town and feel a little harder than other wheels in the same durometer, but I think that Orangatang really hit home with the new Euphorathane formula. Slides Stay controlled and consistent, they are light, and accelerate like a boss. They really know how to rock out in both freestyle and Freeride. I highly recommend them to anyone interested in either of those disciplines of riding.

Any questions, concerns, comments, loveletters, hatemail… Hit me up!

Bird Fetuses — Orangatang Balut Review Posted on Board Mag

Loaded recently sent me a brand new toy to play with, their newest board, the Fattail. The Fattail, as the name might imply to you, has one monster of a tail on it. It is a light, tight, flexy board that just makes you want to shred all around town and then some.

I was really excited for this board because I love (and I mean love with a capital L) flexy boards suited to freestyle. When looking at the board online I was thinking that it would essentially be a cross between the Loaded Bhangra and the Tan Tien, because it is an asymmetrical topmount (like the Bhangra) and is light and flexible (like the Tan Tien). I have really enjoyed both the Tan Tien and the Bhangra (see my other reviews) so needless to say I was stoked about the possibilities of this board. However, I was surprised, and pleasantly so, to find that the Fattail is actually an animal in its own league.

 The Fattail is a super attractive piece of work. It has a sick plant and root system graphic, which happens to be sublimated; a sublimated graphic is pretty sweet because they are basically way more resistant to wearing off than normal ones because they are under the clear top layers of the deck. In addition to the pretty natural wood/graphic combination it has one of the signature crazy Loaded grip jobs. When I ride it through town, it turns some heads.

 Normally when I review a board I talk about its commuting ability last, as usually the boards I rock have other strengths, but not this board. While it may be good at a whole bunch of riding styles, it is phenomenal, and I mean like getting a Swiss massage phenomenal, at getting you from point A to point B. I mean, I have never ridden a board that is as much Fun as this board. And that is honestly the best word to describe the Fattail, FUN!

My Fattail is rocking 150mm trucks, and for that extra carveyness and pumpyness, Purple Orangatang Nipple Bushings. This not only made the board a carving machine but combined with the flex of the board made it an unstoppable pumping juggernaut. I can pump all over the place, even up some smaller hills; it is amazing. The flex in the Fattail can only be described as powerflex. It bounces you around town with style and grace. I got a flex1 (the stiffer flex) and it was still quite flexy. I opted for the stiffer board because I know that I run my boards hard and do lots of freestyle, which really takes a toll on decks with lighter flexes.

 Speaking of which… Let us take a moment to talk about the Fattail’s ability to freestyle. Right behind the board’s mad commuting skills come the freestyle skills. It has not only a super sick tail but a slightly kicked nose, both of which are more than functional. In fact they put the “fun” back in FUNctional!  The tail is huge and makes shove-its, tigerclaws, manuals, and ollies easy as pie. The nose can manual, shove it, and even hit some bigger tricks with a little more effort. I mean, if you have ever made any sort of tricks work on a board with a little tail, then you will find that the nose on this board doesn’t need to overcompensate for anything, haha.

 Very closely related to, if not the same thing as freestyle, is Board Dancing. By far and away my favorite style of riding, and something the Fattail likes just as much as me. Not being a drop through gives more of an effective platform to walk around on. So cross-stepping and peter-pan-ing are pieces of cake. Other more complex moves like pirouettes and 360 body varials are nice to hit on this big platform too. Another thing I really liked about having the kicktails there without the drop through trucks was that it make cross-stepping onto the nose or tail much more accessible so linking tricks became easier than ever.

   Now I want to take a quick second to talk about the camber on this bad boy. Generally I just throw a quick comment in about the camber of a board, but for the Fattail it requires its own section. The camber helps keeps the board bouncey and poppy. It locks your feet for pumping around like a man on a mission. It also really helps with hitting some quick 180 slides, your feet don’t shift around on the board and are held fast… I drop 180 slides like they are hot on my Fattail.

    Speaking of slides, I wouldn’t say that the Fattail is a board that will ever be known for its ability to hold nasty slides. However, what I can say is that you can hit some DIRTY freestyle slides!!! Like I mentioned, 180 slides are super easy because the board is so light and maneuverable and is on the 150mm trucks. It feels like you can just will the board to spin even if you’re hardly moving.  My favorite slide on this deck, which is made easier by the giant tail, is the toeside 180 wheelie slide! It is just soooo steezy and easy to hit on the Fatty.

    The Fattail, for all its strengths does have a weakness. It’s just not the best board for downhilling, which of course doesn’t mean you can’t go fast on this board. It just means that if you purchase the board, keep in mind that it was designed around a certain skill set and downhill wasn’t one of those skills. I have taken it pretty fast but the 150mm trucks and the flexiness make it a little sketchy at times.
Who should consider picking up a Fattail? I think anyone looking for a high performance board to bounce around campus or town with should think about this board. You can pump it basically indefinitely; it has some sweet sublimated graphics that just don’t quit, and just enough flair for some freestyle and board dancing. Grab a Fattail and get ready to shred the town with the greatest of ease and steez!!!

My Current Favorite Set-up:
-Loaded Fattatil Flex 1
-Paris 150mm Trucks
-Orangatang FatFree 65mm 86a
-Orangatang Nipple Bushings Medium
-Loaded Jehu Bearings

Any questions, comments, concerns, nominations… Hit me up!!!

Rolling a Fatty — Loaded Fattail Review Posted on Board Mag

Beastiality — Original Beast Review Posted on Board Mag

   Have you heard the news? The news… the news I’m talking about, the news is that there is a new Sheriff in town in the Original Line-up. That’s right, there is a new Apex hanging around and it goes by the name of the Apex 40.

Let’s get into the technical specifications of the new Apex 40. This may be mildly confusing to some people, especially those newer to the sport, but the Apex 40 comes in two different varieties and it is important to understand the differences. Your two Apex 40 options are the AVRockerConcave and the DoubleConcave, which is the one I have been rocking. The difference between the two boards lie in subtle changes to the platform and kicktails.

The Apex 40 AVRockerConcave is the board devoted more to freestyle and commuting. The AVRockerConcave has taller kicktails than the DoubleConcave board and not as much as much of a drop down. Making it a rockstar for freestyle, hitting those big spin tricks, and taking on some smaller hills. This Apex is constructed with 3 plies of maples and carbon reinforced quad-axial fiberglass making it one tough son of a gun.

That was about all I can tell you about the AVRockerConcave because I was actually given the DoubleConcave Apex 40 to review. This board is meant for a little more freeride than freestyle, although either board can do both. The DoubleConcave has a tiny drop platform (a quarter of an inch), gas pedals, and as the name suggests, some nice concavity.

The Apex 40 series has a rather unique construction. The boards are very thin for their length with only 3 plies of maple. Seeing how thin they were made me question their sturdiness, however, once you stand on one of them that question is cast from your mind, they are clearly built to last. In addition to the maple the Apex 40 has quadaxial fiberglass and carbon holding everything together. This added a huge amount of durability to the board because carbon fiber is damn near impossible to break. The flex on my Apex 40 is not necessarily bouncey but it can definitely pop you in and out of hard carves and what not, but more importantly I think the flex helps it absorb impact shock. You can bottom out the deck if you really try, but its not super easy.

I was super stoked to take this board out and put it through some runs around town, so I set it up right away with a combination I haven’t beat since then (except a wheel change).
-Surf_Rodz 177mm Indeesz
-Orangatang Stimulus 86a wheels
-Orangatang Nipples Yellow (board side)/Venom SHR Barrel 86a (road side)

The reason I like this set up so much is that Indeesz have a similar geometry and surfy feel to the S-Series trucks that Original produces and design many of their boards around. Although I don’t believe that Original necessarily recommends S-Series trucks for the Apex 40 because it is more of a freeride oriented board I DO think that they obviously consider their own trucks when making boards. Anyways, I just never found a set of reverse kingpin trucks that I felt suited the board as much as the Indeesz, they made the board lower, super pumpy, and really really slidey.

Now lets get down to how the Apex 40 performs in different styles of riding. This bad boy excels in that middle point right between intense freestyle and crazy freeride. Which means that it is super fun on both the flats and on the hills. Its not your typical super heavy stiff downhill deck or your featherweight flexy cruiser.

The Apex 40 is rocking some nice gas pedals, which are rails you can wrap your heel or toe around to get extra torque on slides, and they really add a lot of additional UMPH to your slides both 180s and long standees. The microdrop in the deck locks your feet in a surprising amount for being so little. You feel really confident in your stance when riding in the pockets. However, since the drop and concave are pretty mild holding long glove slides takes some getting used to, but once you figure out the positioning of your feet, it gets kind of awesome. The deck is a little light for a typical freeride deck which, in my opinion, made it much more agile on the hills. Throwing the board around for a slide takes very little effort and even more challenging tricks like slide shovits were smooth on the Apex 40.

Taking the Apex to the flats for some freestyle time is awesome, and possibly my favorite riding aspect of the board. The board is symmetrical with two mounting options for your trucks. I tried both and I very much preferred the inner mounting option for freestyle because it gives you a little more pop off the tails. The apex is a little heavier than the majority of freestyle boards, but what it loses in weight it makes up for in awesomeness. The damp flex makes it so you never bounce off your board, I have taken it off pretty high ledges and didn’t bounce off or bottom out. The concave is mild enough and the platform is long enough for some serious board dancing and the concave actually locks your feet in nicely for peter pans. Flip tricks are also super sick on the Apex 40 because you have so much room to land on your board and you have dual kicks. Kicks are literally the best addition to any freestyle board in my opinion, they have opened a whole new dimension of freestyle riding to longboarding.

Commuting around town on this board is pretty rad. It is not the light bouncy commuter many people think of when a commuting board comes to mind, however, the Apex 40 is sick at getting you from point A to point B. What I liked about it was that you could pop the board into a tigerclaw over a curb and immediately tuck and flew down your every day hill with an equal amount of confidence and ease. Mentioned above the board locks your feet for standies really nicely, which basically means you can add style points to your commute by busting some 180 slides all over the place.

Of course it can’t all be good. I’m going to take a second to talk about some of the weaknesses of the board. The Apex 40 is not a dedicated downhill board, which does not mean it can’t go down hills very fast, it does mean that there are better boards out there for strictly downhill longboarding. Having a lower drop down deck and deeper concave is generally desired for a downhill board. Additionally I think I would have liked to see the tailed dropped a little lower so tricks like ollies, which are better with some serious pop, would be easier on the board.

Would I recommend the Apex 40??? I totally would! Like I mentioned, I wouldn’t recommend to someone trying to win DH races. I think that beginners would really like this board if they rode it too, however, I don’t think that is the demographic of riders who would truly get the most use out of it. I think this board is exceptional in that it hit the perfect middle point between serious freeride and nasty freestyle, so those riders who are good at both and love to switch in between them should consider this board. It will hold those long slides, it will flip around in tricks, and it will stand up to a beating.

Thanks for Reading!
Any comments, questions, concerns, letters of Admiration?
Hit me up!

My Current Set-Up:
-Apex 40 DoubleConcave
-Orangatang Balut 72.5mm 83a
-Surf_Rodz 177mm Indeesz
-Bones Reds
-Orangatang Nipples (purple)

Ascending to the Apex — Original Skateboards Apex 40 Review Posted on Board Mag

The kites are shipping immediately so be sure to contact your local dealer to reserve yours!

Flysurfer release Speed 3 Limited Edition Purple Posted on Board Mag

Shit Skiers Say Posted on Board Mag