It’s Jéjé, the big boss, who got the idea of adding a key-shaped carbon layer into the upper layer of the board.

The drawing :

It’s a very well thought drawing,  with Paris’ skyline all over the upper end of the key and a nicely done “L” and “P” (Lucas Puig)  logo on the other end.  Purple still, like the first Lakai Lucas

But why the key ?

well, it’s all about the keystone : the central wedge-shaped stone of an arch that locks its parts together. Cliché went for an old Europe style…. since, indeed it’s a European brand

The shape :

8 inches large (perfect) and 32,125 inches long, simply great.

It’s obvious that it’s a board Lucas would skate himself, unlike other 7,5 pro models we all know almost no pro skates.

Most riders of Cliché’s team seem to enjoy riding the board, I do too !

The nose and the tail

The concave :

Moderately concave, real sweet.

The origin :
All Dwindle decks are made in China, same as Enjoi skateboards,Almost skateboards, Blind skateboards or Darkstar skateboards.

Other available boards from the keystone series

The weight :

The deck is slightly lighter than an Almost impact support. It’s made of 7 different layers including the upper wooden layer from which they cut out 2 hole in the shape of a key, that’s where Cliché folded the key-shaped carbon layer. In other words, the layer # 7 is half made of wood and half made of carbon

Other specific features :

On top of the deck, the screw holes are pre-extruded. Indeed, as the carbon layer covering the holes is very strong and rigid, it is almost impossible to drive the screw trucks in. That’s why Cliché extruded few millimeters of carbon layer from the top so that the head of the screw wouldn’t form a hump under the grip.

Unlike the Almost impact support, there are 2 big carbon layers on each side of the deck, the layers go further towards the center of the board, they don’t start from the center and off, thus the board can still broke in two in case of a hard landing with your foot in the middle of the board.

Jéjé Daclin (Cliché HQ @ Lyon) thought the whole system through. Even if the brand was bought by Dwindle in 2009, they still rely on no one but themselves.

The price : between 80 and 89 euros, varies by shop.

The test :

The painting on the underside of the deck is really smooth, high quality paint, but the black paint on top of the deck is sprinkled a bit erratically, it needed a bit of rubbing.

The board is super stiff and has an amazing pop.

The deck does sometimes a strange little noice when I go down an inclined plane…it must be the carbon layer when it’s under pressure.

Not a crack around the screw holes, something I have not seen for a long time in a board !

Official website : http://clicheskate.com/

The Pro Team

Charles Collet, Ricardo Fonseca, Lucas Puig, Javier Mendizabal, Jeremie Daclin, Jb Gillet, Cale Nuske, Joey brezinski, Andrew Brophy

Amateur Team
Flo Mirtain, Sammy Winter

Team Flow
John Tanner, Boris Proust and the young Adrien Coillard

Video

+ads Keystone with Andrew Brophy doing an ollie with a 43 inches

[youtube SW6Xbcyv7ho]

+Another Cliché novelty, the Pre-Gripped board, check out here

+Cliché – United Nations

[youtube Vvoo35vDhgk]

Attention everyone, the new 2010 Gamble series will be out this month ! We just received ours !

The product : Gamble Skateboards Lucky You Kate Moross Series 1 – size 7,9 inches

I used the board for the first time at Aix en Provence on February the 1st, it broke at Créteil on the 3rd of March (over some blocs) – all in all, the skateboard lasted for 10 sessions.

The drawing :

You only get to discover the drawing of your board after scratching it…or you could let the grey paint wear off naturally, but that was too much of a suspense for me

Thus, I scratched (half of) mine and SURPRISE ! I got the one with the black background covered with colorful drawings of diamonds and cherries in blue/gold/pink/green… 5 different colors that leave well-marked traces on the curbs (on the first ride) so that everyone would know where you did your tail slides.

The artist Kate Moross – profile :

“Kate Moross is a 24 year-old London based creative. She runs ISO & Isomorph Records which you can read about here. She has a fascination with three sided shapes, illegible typography, and freeform lettering.”

Below one of her works :

The deck Gamble model

+

Gamble’s logo on top of the board

Size/shape/concave :

The concave is a bit shallow on my 7,8 board, you can still check it on this picture although my board is already broken into 2 ; the nose and the tail are rather flat…almost like all 7,8  there is no bowl inside the board (if you try spilling some water over it, it won’t form a “lake”)

The nose is much bigger than the tail…thus, you’ll be sure to be using your board in the right direction on all times. But given the big difference between both ends, I feel the need of doing shuvits before nollies all day in order to get the board straight again.

+

The origin:

MADE IN USA : the boards are made of maple wood from the North of Canada, they’re 3 stains color boards manufactured in California, printed by “ArtPrint Europe” in Bordeaux, they are either screen printed or digital depending on the visual complexity. The grey paint/ink/varnish is laid by a spray-paint-gun (which was specially created for Gamble).

All in all : the wood is from Canada, the board pressed together in the US and then printed in France.

The rest of the series – the other boards:

9 graphics are available in this Gamble first series : Supercinq, Bus, Kate Moross, Plume, Hannes Isaksson
And all available in 7,5 / 7,75/7,8/ 7,9

The price :

The boards are sold in shops at 65 euros + you get a scratching coin with it

Availability in shops :
- Nozbone Skateshop -
295, rue du Faubourg St Antoine
75012 Paris
http://www.nozbone.com/

- Zeropolis Skateshop -
7, rue des Ponts de Comines.
59 000 Lille
http://www.zeropolis.fr/

- Workshop Skateshop -
3, cours Pasteur
33000 Bordeaux
http://www.workshop-bx.com/

- Okla Skateshop -
4, rue Puits Clos
31000 Toulouse
http://www.okla-shop.com/

- East Pro Shop -
24, rue des quatres églies
54000 Nancy
www.eastproshop.com

- Empire shop -
64, rue Emile Guichenne
64000 Pau
http://www.empire-leshop.com

- Shifty Board Shop -
2, rue des Perrières
21000 Dijon
http://www.shiftyboardshop.com/

- Pisolo ProShop -
3, rue St Antoine
71 100 Châlon sur Saône
http://www.pisolo.fr

- End to End Skateshop -
3, rue Pie Qui Boit

35 400 Saint Malo

Technical characteristics :

IT’S A SCRATCHING BOARD ! Dam’s already mentioned it in his first Gamble test and went through details regarding the grey paint and how the board should be scratched in order not to ruin the drawing that’s behind it…I thereby suggest you read over what was specified :

“It almost took me 10 minutes to scratch the board entirely ; but even when you think you’re done, you’ve actually barely finished : on the white parts of the drawing you can still see some light grey lines that look like pencil traces. If you want a bright clean board, you’ll need an eraser and 5 more minutes.

Next, the paint used for the drawing is pretty thick…it has a nice feeling when used for the first time: the board slides very easily on all types of material and you have a thick layer of paint to scratch. Check how even the scew hole are filled.

+

THE TEST :

The 5 first sessions were at La Friche skatepark in Marseille along with Dam’s, from the 1st of February till the 15th. Then 5 other sessions – from the 15th to March the 3rd – including 2 at the Dome and 3 at Créteil.

During my last session, the board broke from beneath the tail’s screws while I was running over some blocs. I could still ride my skate for an hour before it breaks, this time, at the MIDDLE!

Which leads to believe that the board is very resistant!

sessions at skatepark of Aix en Provence + at  Marseille La Friche a full week in the South dedicated to skate equipments tests.

The wear of the grey layer + paint left on the tail :

I took these 4 photos at different time intervals so you can see how the drawing that is at first protected wears off gradually…

1. begining of first session 2.end of first session 3. 4th session 4. last session (10th)

You can see that the grey ink on my tail (that I hadn’t previously scratched) can easily protect the  drawing untill – approxilativily – the 10th hours of skating…afterwards the markings reach the drawing which starts to get scrabbled.

Thus the  grey layer of ink has a SLICK effect, like in the older days - there is almost  no slicked boards nowadays : process of adding a very solid transparent plastic layer ALL OVER the drawing of a deck in order to protect it… this process was communly used in the 90s, like for instance the Alien Workshop boards…

The first cracks :

Cracks in the middle of the board – no influence as for the pop of the board. these are just paint cracks or shallow cracks on the wooden layer beneath the paint - double checked it

No cracks on the nose, but some more on the middle of the deck in the lengh of the board. Which is rather classic… All boards get the same cracks after one month of skateboarding.

Last minutes of my Gamble :

board broken in 2  over 4 layers (last 2 layers under the grip won’t let go)

after a tré on some blocs..I failed my landing 

Results :

BOARD EXCEPTIONNELLY RESISTANT + NICE TECH

REVOLUTIONARY= I am very satisfied with this product which is a 100% French product too… so by purchasing a Gamble skateboard, you’ll be supporting the french skateboard industry. I’ll put together another one, this time from the up comming series (series 2 – 2010) as soon as possible.

Moreover, Dam’s and I usually broke our skateboards with a jerk, they tend to burst most of the times, but contrary to the others, this Gamble skateboard just broke into pieces after a week (same as Dam’s Crème Skateboards Bertrand Soubrier)…Apparently, the boards’ quality is only getting better

Gamble Skateboards Team :

• Valentin Bauer
• Gregoire Cuadrado
• Vincent Touzery

Flow Gamble Skateboards Team :

• Damien Bulle,
• Olivier Boucle
• Thomas Gerard
• Valentin Jutant
• Allan Panek,
• Thomas Leclerc
• Olivier Durou
• Idris Jani

+ for more info :

• The officiel website / eshop Gamble Skateboards : http://willyougamble.com/

Videos of the team :

Vincent Touzery @ Bordeaux

[youtube oHWC2LCnZGY]

A couple of days spent with Valentin, between Paris and Bordeaux. Filmed and produced by Ludo Azemar

[youtube DFvuz4jUryo]

However, Jéremie Daclin was a big fan of cruiser board (proof : cover of Sugar 52), therefore, he reshaped the Banana board so it would better adapt to modern skateboarding…plus, seen the fact that the brand was recently bought by Dwindle, Cliché can afford being eccentric in terms of shapes (due to the availability of Dwindle manufactures)

So here on the left is the Banana, next to it, the Baguette (French bread)

The product :

Cliché banana cruiser board . (Olivier will be testing the Baguette soon)

Below, a picture of Jeje, creator of both the brand and the board. Have you heard of the  Résumé book ?

The drawing :
On top of the board, a logo that reminds of the brand Chiquita with a yellow contour around the circle.
On the other side of the board, there’s a big banana…but hey, what else would you draw ?!?

Shape / Concave:

Shape of a banana from the 70s

Today’s shape comes with a nose and a raised tail

A pretty thin board : 7,75 inches
This width is reached at only one point of the board : the centre.  The nose is pointed and the tail is much longuer, that is just perfect for an ollie at 20km/h.

The board’s length is 31,7 inches, almost the same as a classic street skateboard… with 3 centimetres less.

Its origin :

Made in China, same as all Dwindle’s boards and Enjoi skateboards, Darkstar skateboards or even Blind skateboards. The board is made of layers of canadian maple wood glued all together in China… the finish is so impeccable that even Cliché allows a fold of bamboo on top of the board. Thus, it is easy to street-skate with and do a couple of tre flips without fear that it breaks !!!

The upcoming Banana boards would have the same  smell as bananas due to some added aroma.

Unknown availability for the moment being. You could still call your shop for more info.

Test :
Sold without grip (Unlike the baguette) but with the Cliché Clé DVD as a bonus.
In order to do the test, I added the trucks Bullet and the wheels Bullet in a 93A, same as with my Santa Cruz Mini Roskopp.

A friend lent me his Krooked Zip Zinger skateboard, which I must admit had one flaw: the tail’s length, a flaw that didn’t exist in the Banana cruiser (ideal shape, light and a perfect agility.

With the bamboo fold and the Epoxy glue, this board is as good as the best selling boards on the market in terms of technology and solidity.

Yes, indeed the latest DC Shoes True S in blue

And yes, you can very easily do flip tricks or tail-slides, but when it come to crooked, well, it’s tougher…the nose being too thin and short, the heel touches directly. On the other side, a switch ollie or a pop shove it front are  very easily passed: when the board get slammed it rises even higher.

Actually, you can very well use this kind of board during your skate sessions but be sure to use soft wheels on a cruiser, so that you can skate almost everywhere.

Slides imprints

Site du Skate / Cliché montage: The Baguette and the Banana Cruisers

[youtube CqidWx_Y8bg]

The team Cliché skateboards 2010 :

Andrew Brophy, Cale Nuske, Charles Collet,Javier mendizabal, Jb Gillet, Jeremie Daclin, Lucas Puig, Joey brezinski,Ricardo Fonseca, Flo Mirtain, Sammy Winter

Official website of the Lyonnaise (from Lyon, a Franch region) brand: http://clicheskate.com/

The product : Etnies Portland Black /White

“Portland” is a MID shoe that holds tightly the ankle, it looks a lot like the Half Cab’s from Vans ; an interesting shape, seen the fact that the Half Cab is the best selling shoe in the world.

The outer sole of the shoe :

Etnies finally reviewed the sole of their shoes, the same sole – Square One sole – they used on all of their shoes.

The vulcanized new generation sole has a nice grip and doesn’t wear out  fast (at least for what I’ve seen so far). The wafflelike sole is shaped differently, well glued and pretty resistant…we’re finally over with the soles that always come loose because of the glue without chemical!

The inner sole :

The inner sole is moled to the shape of the foot, therefore it suits it better, it prevents heat or prespiration issues. Actually, I feel really good in those shoes, they adapt nicely to my feet. There are no heel counters like in the DC’s shoes.

The tongue :

A long tongue for it is a MID shoe which makes it easier for you to tuck your pants behind it. It’s also more practical for those who like tying their shoelaces to the top.

The used matirials :

Black leather with a soft napped surface from the outside and an airy foam in the inside !!! Portland is probably the nicest of all Ethnies latest footwear, it no longer has the fabric sewn on the front foot. Same as some Vans or the Sb Janoski from Nike, there are some stitching on the front which make the shoe last longuer, good thing, bacause there’s only one single piece of cloth stitched on top.

The particularity :
Tyler Bledsoe a color pro model Collab Alien Workshop skateboards that you can check out here below :

Colors available :

Price :

85 euros, relatively expensive, but it’s a quality skating shoe, pleasant to skate with, thus, it really depends on what you’re looking for…

The test :

First session: the shoes are very smooth and the sole is skateble from the first try. There’s an amazing feeling of board control.

The stitching on top of the foot, Janoski style, flattens the shoes from the front which consequently refines them. No shoelaces protections, but somehow, they don’t get cut.

The ollie pad is pretty resistant to, no holes even after the 6th session…I think that the  shoe Goo or the Glue are becoming more and more undispensible : there’s a seam right in the middle of the ollie pad.

Result :

After being overtaken by other brands, Etnies has finally gave up the copy from shoe to shoe strategy and repositioned itself at the top with a good looking, good skating but semi-resistant shoe.

The official website : http://etnies.com/

Team Etnies Footwear Pro: Sean Malto, Ryan Sheckler, Mikey Taylor, Kyle Leeper, Jose Rojo, Devine Calloway

Team Etnies Am : Davis Torgerson, Tyler Bledsoe, Christoph Wildgrube Willow

Team Etnies  Europe : Axel Cruysberghs, Charles Collet, Juergen Horrwarth, Julian Furones, Tuukka Korhonen, Joe Gavin, Barney Page

Etnies advertisements

Tyler Bledsoe Portland commercial

[youtube NIhxADZha8M]

Tyler Bledsoe in Portland

[youtube MhIm_4FpChU]

This book summarizes the story of Cliché (from its conception to where it stands today) throughout pictures, some of which taken in the mid 90s (one with Jéjé before even the brand was created!). The pics are more or less presented in a chronological order often followed by annotations and comments. For example, one of those annotations explains why Jéremie decided not to sponsor Arto Saari although being the first to send him a sponsor-me video !!

Moreover, apart from the pics and comments, you can find other interresting stuff like an extract of a letter written by Jeremy Fox or some artists roughs like Gonz or Pontus.

The Cover :

A lovely picture taken by master Fred Mortagne, who I think represents well Cliché : a brand that kept growing throughout the years and it seems it won’t stop any time soon.

The summary :

A ranking by year including portfolios of their photographer friends.

Every 40/50 pages there are photos of patchworks of the current year.

Boards made by talented artists

Very nice matching pictures – here, it seems as if those 2 were taken at the same time on the same spot:)

Roughs of Marc Gonzalez that helped inspire the Frères lumière board series

Last pages :

A complete timeline of Cliché/the team first riders/important events – on 3 double pages. Even if you’ve been following the brand since its beginning, you’ll still get to discover new things about numerous riders…

The entire Cliché Skateboard collection on 4 double pages.

If you enjoy collecting books about skateboarding, you’ll more than appreciate this one! Especially that Cliché has succeeded in the world of skateboarding.

If however you’ve never really showed any interest in books about skateboarding, well, now is a good time to purchase your first and start your own collection, which i bet you’ll be proud of in a couple of years ! (PS: the Sugar and Soma’s books are also GREAT references)

Personally, I think that RÉSUMÉ is better than the Matix clothing’s book, This is Progress

http://clicheskate.com/

It’s more of a photo collection…very different from the Cliché Résumé or the This is Progress. I must admit, the pictures are really awesome!

In the first 4 pages, Johnny Schillereff (creator of the brand) summarizes the steps that lead to the conception of his company, the company that started from nothing but a dream. the rest of the pages are covered in pics and incredible skateboard tricks.

The one and only famous flip !!!!

As I mentioned earlier, the book and DVD can be purshased online for 20 dollars. I’m more than sure this book will delight Element’s fans.

http://www.elementskateboards.com

WWCD? it means What Would Carroll Do. It is an initiative of Lakai that allows pro riders to reshape the brand’s shoe model in their own way. There is also a  WWKD series  (K for Koston) and WWHD (Rick Howard).

So this is not a pro model, but simply another model  revisited by Carroll.

PRESENTATION:
So the product is: Lakai Rick Howard 5 high remixed by Mike Carroll (argh it’s complicated with lakai )


  there is a plastic bracelet inside the box  with the WWCD inscription

OUTSOLE
The outsole is identical to the Guy Mariano 2 model, known for their lightness, and that’s what it is about here.

INSOLE:
  The insole is basic, no special technology .

THE TAB:
The tab is thin, and as it’s also high, it allows the pants to pass below. There is also the WWCD symbol.

THE MATERIALS :
The materials are mainly synthetic fabrics which does not look very resistant at first.

Another color of the same model:

Another model remixed by Koston this time, it is a Lakai Coda Hi

THE TEST:
The sole offers an excellent comfort because it is very flexible, no need to walk with it during a week before riding with them.
Another good point is the fat cushioning to maintain the ankles (I just come from 2 heavy sprains and I really  appreciate the safety feeling).

Negative point: the fabric wears out very quickly, after only  a single session I could already see holes appearing within the fabric.
First session:


  The synthetic fabric doesn’t grip at all so it’s very difficult to do flip tricks in the beginning.

Other important problem: no air or gel cushioning, so you quickly hurt your heel even with a little gap or while doing flat. So you’ll have to forget about jumping big sets of stairs with this pair.

After a few sessions, the shoe really wears out and you quickly end-up with some kind of plastic shoe, wich, besides the shitty look, grips much better in order to do flips.

No laces protection so they break easily.

Here are the shoes after less than 10 session of Park and curb ,and very few rails because of the soles.

To resume
I would say that Lakai proposes a shoe that doesn’t compete with DC’s super suede wich is very resistant…
I would say that it’s a quite weak shoe, not very solid, much more curb and flat oriented.

Quite strange coming from a brand with one of the best team in the world.
They lasted for a month and a half, almots two.

Team lakai Footwear:

• Rick Howard
• Mike Carroll 
• Marc Johnson 
• Brandon Biebel 
• Jeff Lenoce 
• Rob Welsh
• Guy Mariano 
• Eric Koston 
• Jesus Fernandez 
• Mike Mo Capaldi 
• Cairo Foster 
• Lucas Puig 
• JB Gillet 
• Danny Brady 
• Nick Jensen 

Access to Lakai website: http://www.lakai.com/

Other lakai tests:

• Lakai Koston Ltd election series 
• Lakai Koston KOST-ONE 
• Lakai Telford Hi 
• Lakai Telford Blueprint Nick Jensen/Danny Brady 
• lakai Mike Carroll 4 mid Edition Crailtap 
• Lakai Scott Johnston 3 

Mike Carroll videos:

Mike Carroll‘s part  in Modus Operandi:

[youtube IHtiXDSraMM]

Mike Carroll‘s part in fully flared:

[youtube 4SW0s97ZoyM]

Battle at the Berrics – Mike Carroll vs Joey Brezinski (Starring Randy from My Name is Earl) :

[youtube 74FCqm-GvVc]

BATTLE AT THE BERRICS: MIKE CARROLL vs MIKE MO CAPALDI 
[youtube VzBtyTRNamo]

I bought this BLIND deck ,pro model of the Finnish rider Jani Laitiala, about 3 months ago.
This board is from the new Blind series, ETERNAL LIFE. The specificity of this series is that Blind included a Texalium ply between the first two plies.

What the fuck is Texalium ?
It is a fabric composed of fiberglass and aluminum, supposed to make the board stronger.

——— Post Scriptum Oliv ———
In general, composite boards ( you put a different material between the wood layers) are made of:

carbon

• Almost Uber technology in carbon fiber
• or life Blind life in composite carbon ply
• or Darkstar Armor Ply and Darkstar Armor Light
• or Almost Impact Support Series
  

Bamboo

• like Habitat Bamboo Composite

with hemp ( weed)

• like Habitat Skateboard in Hemp

with gases such as helium (the balloons that make you speak funny when you swallow it)

• like Element Helium push carbon (carbon and helium)

or wood (hehe) like Birdhouse Black 6

For more details go see the article about the skateboard technologies from Dams

——— End Post Scriptum Oliv ———

PARTICULARITIES / GUARANTEE of  the Blind skateboard Jani Laitiala:
Furthermore, it is possible to activate the board’s guarantee like Olive’s darkstar armor ply ,as Blind guarantees that the board will not break until 90 days when riding normally.

PRESENTATION
The design of the board is fairly standard, you can see Blind’s famous REAPER in front of a burning house with a JANI logo on the nose, and the Blind’s eternal life logo on the tail.

Personal note: blind logos are related to death … we all remember the little war between Element and Blind whose commercials were  Element for life and blind for death . .

The deck comes with a box containing stickers of the brand and a little documentation explaining the eternal life technology.

The SHAPE
The deck is a 8×31.5 ie 8 inches wide and 31.5 inches long. The deck is slightly shorter than most 32 inches long decks, but you don’t really feel the difference.

The nose is slightly bigger than the tail but as a whole, the tail and the nose have almost the same shape. it’s a bit different than usual at first but after a few hours , you quickly get used to it and the problem is solved.

Nose and tail


THE CONCAVE
I would say that the concave is medium that is to say that it is not very high , therefore perfect for flip tricks.

The SOURCE
I am not an expert but like with most American brands, I think it’s Canadian wood.

PRICE
For quite some time now I’ve been buying my gear on US internet skate shops , that time I payed 76 DOLLARS , about 58 euros.
But in general, the shop price must be around 70 or 80 euros.

OTHER MODELS OF THE 2009 ETERNAL LIFE SERIES

  TEST

Because it is slightly shorter (31.5 inches), the board is very easy to handle during the first sessions ; you just need to get used to the tail which is a bit short.

Otherwise, making flip tricks is a delight thanks to  the concave.
The board has a very good pop that lasts long.
In addition, I note that the Texalium technology works perfectly . I badly landed some tricks over gaps ( a regular deck would have break ), several times , such as flip front, where the nose usually breaks, or tre flip when you only land with one foot ( when you fear the landing ), stuffs that usually break the deck in the middle.

So it’s great to do gaps , because I badly landed when jumping over 6 or 7 steps , and the deck is still solid.

As I said before, the handling of the board is also an advantage for the practice of curb or manual pad.

The paint doesn’t crack and holds fairly well, but that’s not the most important part

After two and a half months of skateboard (I ride almost every weekend , going to skate spots and to the park , and I also have my couple of flat sessions per week )

the first crack appeared on the tail when fliping over a set of steps.
But I was still able to do more flat and park sessions afterwards, even with that little crack.
C’est en replaquant un stalefish au skatepark en  prenant de la pyramide jusqu’au flat que la fissue s’est vraiment agrandie. The crack really got bigger when I landed after a stalefish.

But the board still does not break ! Nonetheless, the tail was getting twisted so I decided to kill it and jumped on it. It took me several tries to really break the tail.

After the breaing, when can see the Texalium.

To resume
Finally, I am very satisfied with this board which is definitely suitable for all-terrain , street, gap, rail, wheeling, curb thanks to its maneuverability and its solidity  with 2 and a half months of skateboard and almost 3 months if I count the much less aggressive final sessions of flat and park.

The team:

• Ronnie Creager 
• James Craig 
• Jake Brown 
• Jani Laitiala 
• Jake Duncombe 
• Danny Cerezini 
• Rob Lorifice 
• Grant Patterson 
• Filipe Ortiz 
• Morgan Smith 

Go to BLIND website:
http://www.blindskateboards.com/

jani’s part on the DIGITAL Blue Monday from NEW ORDER Jani Laitiala – Digital Get Tricks Or Die Trying

[youtube MzcEeMgqP3w]

teaser of the next BLIND video:

The trailer + flyer:

[youtube j9N658I4DlU]

Blind_Video_Trailer.mov (.MOV format – better quality) 

A very good idea that we must put forward ….

The product: sustainable Ecothane Satori wheels

The design of the wheel:

Nothing incredible, warm colors with yellow black and orange. There are arrows indicating which direction they should turn to…  Lol
What I like is that we get both the size and the hardness, 2 very important factors in the process of choosing a wheel.

Size:
A 51 mm wheel, therefore

perfect for street. It also looks square when viewed from above. Watch the comparison pic with Autobahn.

Hardness:
"The harder the weel (101A), the better it slides and the more vibrations you’ll feel within your feet. On the other side, a soft wheel slides badly but offers real comfort."
A good 101A for a strong skate. A real street wheel that protects the environment
PS: there is also a guarantee against flat wheel but we all know that this kind of guarantee is meaningless.

The source:
Made in USA, in the state of Virginia. Same manufacturer as Chaka Wheels.
Is it really a plus for the wheel? is the gum better in the US ?
All I know is that this wheel is very well done.

The particularities :

Satori Wheels is proud to announce the release of their new breakthrough in the skateboard wheels industry. Ecothane Satori Core Technology is a victory for the environment and for the riders as it allows to reduce waste during the manufacturing process while still producing a quality wheel.

These wheels are recycled and characterized by an Oil free manufacturing process therefore ( they use vegetable oil). A low price wheel built with vegetable based oil, so it is a quality ecological product

There is another recycling program from the brand which is to recover the hard cores and re-use them to make other wheels: The Core Technology EcoThane which is a recycling program.

As a rider, do you feel  like owing anything to  the planet?

Other models in the collection

Availability: In Hawaii Surf (click here to go to the product).

Price:
45 Euros at Hawaii Surf (click here to go to the product). c’est raisonnable quand tu vois que de la Ricta c’est à 50 et la Spitfire Classic Wheels à 45€. It is reasonable when you see that the Ricta costs 50 euros and the Spitfire Classic Wheels 45 €.
These wheels are available since February 2009

The test:


This is the kind of wheel I love the most, square and very thin.
Big slide … !!! !
The gum is good to ride but if there is a screw that goes beyond the curb, the head of the screw will tear a large piece of gum appart ; because of this ecological formula, the wheel does not react to external agressions the same way as a classic wheel does.
So large pieces of gum blew out , wich never happened with my Autobahn.
Actually, the ecological formula is brand new so for now, it really slides a lot.
Even when the curb isn’t really waxed, you will be able to do lipslides and bluntslides (if you know how to of course).

The gum issue                         

After 2 weeks ,with a rate of 10 hours/ week, still no appearance of flat zone despite big slides.
The test is conclusive … Satori is the shit

To resume:

For a reasonable price of 45 euros, you have a wheel sliding a lot and that helps the environment.

The official website of Satori: http://satoriwheels.org

The team:

• Aaron Suski
• Alex Carolina 
• Ben Krahn 
• Bren Atchley (vidéo en dessous)
• Danny Fuenzalida
• Danny Montoya 
• Dave Caddo 
• Ed selego 
• Flo Marfaing (vidéo en dessous) 
• Josh Falk 
• Karl Watson 
• Kenny Anderson 
• Kenny Hughes 
• Kenny Reed 
• Matt Pailes 
• Nilton Nieves N
• Ron Allen (vidéo en dessous) 
• Shuriken Shannon 
• Willy Santos

A Satori commercial

Videos

Satori wheels Ron Allen skatepark

[youtube WYlOAbyu5QQ]

SATORI MOVEMENT / HAPPY 420 3UP 3DOWN CONTEST 2008

[youtube iiU1g3T02_k]

Brent Atchley in the video "This Is My Element "

[youtube kHcCNLr_Oy4]

Checkin’ In Flo Marfaing

[youtube 2yr2Z_SRbzc]