In my head for quite some time I’ve thought I wanted an 8.5 with a smaller wheelbase. I can’t change the board dimensions, but I do have control over which trucks I skate. I put some old Ace 44s on a 8.5 Lazer deck. The board was shot, cracked and very old so I don’t know how accurate this test was. I started with slappies. They didn’t go so well except for front slappies felt great. After taking several tries to kickflip I went to the side of the school for flatground. It was a different experience to say the least. I could tell the wheelbase was smaller, but it didn’t equate to easier flip tricks. In fact I didn’t really land much of anything. I went up to the rock in the back and could barely frontside axle stall on it. I really thought I was going to like this setup. I was able to kickflip and fakie flip well, had a first try heelflip but then could not do another one. I think I was 0-20 on halfcab flips although I didn’t have the normal problem I do with them. Not close to treflips either which was the main reason I tried this setup. At the time I was optimistic about the setup, but as I write this and digest the session it makes me want to go back to a smaller board and low trucks. Argh.

(setup 8.5″ old null lazer deck, ace 44s with doh doh/venom bushings, old 51mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w/yellow size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10 although i got tired quickly)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2020 at 9:46 pm and is filed under setup change, Skate Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.