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Aren't Bones sPf made specifically for ramp surfaces? Don't those work?
I swear there's a hundred posts in here about indoor ramp surfaces, and I'm not sure if I've seen a single mention of SPF.
If you guys are honestly skating indoor parks so much, just have a separate deck set up specifically for that park.
I honestly thought the SPF were specifically for concrete parks, and they’re like super hard at 81b and 84b, so it seems counter intuitive.
The board I’ve setup is setup towards that indoor “park”, as it is just a 3 minute walk from my house. I’m just a noob, and I got advised to get the 99a F4s by a local dude, and so far I’m not ready to give up on them, as they seem to be everyone’s favourite formula. It’s probably just me being a chickenshit kook.
The most simple way to break it down is this:
Yes most people skate normal 99 duro wheels (Spitfire Formula Four in particular but Bones in any formula as well - STF, SPF or other) on everything, including myself and I find they work great on the indoor street area too, as I would not want soft wheels when trying slide tricks on the ledges as they grip and stop.
Yes many of the older dudes or those with less balance slam hard on the mini ramp and bowl at my indoor park because they are not used to how slick the surface really is compared to a more grippy concrete surface or when they are skating in the street area on concrete floor.
This is why quite a number of those type of people will set up a board with softer wheels to ride on those ramps, or skate that for everything, as it is just way less likely to slip out and end in breaking something for them, as per a board I have specifically set up to skate on the slippery ramps with Spitfire 92 duro softer wheels, which feels just like normal 99 duro wheels on raw concrete in the outdoor section of my park.
It is not far off a cruiser in the overall feel of it, but it gives me way more confidence to skate the ramp and bowl that I know I would slip out on with normal 99 duro wheels.
As for anyone else who is not used to soft grippy wheels, they find the thing a beast, but no one has ever slipped out on it and I use it for beginners who are learning a lot on the ramps too as it still rolls fast, but will not have that icy feel to it that normal wheels do.
I do still skate the ramp / bowl quite often on my normal boards just as a warm up or to see how well I mopped the ramps, for which the surface is quite fast and not overly slippery when just having a few easy runs, but I only push it a bit to feel how much they slide, which is more than they grip, that's for sure.
As for your own local indoor park, if someone is cleaning the surfaces regularly and doing a good job, then it should be way less slippery, but if there is a dust build up, especially in certain areas, those can be like black ice on normal wheels and I saw that a lot at another indoor park I used to work at, people slipping out all the time on those slick ramps.