Sup Y'all.
Despite being a long time poster and observer of skate culture, I haven't been on the board very much over the last several years. I'm 34 now and skating hard for the first time in quite some time.
My prime years were in the early 00's and I never paid attention to anything but deck width in my heyday. 7.6-7.75 was the jam, and I remember that flip tricks got harder if a board seemed long but never bothered measuring anything. The last few months my boards keep getting wider, and 14.25 seems to be the max wheelbase for flip tricks to remain possible.
Was anyone paying attention to wheelbase back in the day? If I had a 7.75 Habitat Janoski in 2003, was that shit 14.00, 14.25, or were boards crazy short with sub 14 wheelbases? I honestly have no idea, but my foot positioning is still locked into ancient muscle memory and I know long boards don't work for me. Currently looking at a Doomsayers 8.4 "shorty" shape that's 31.5 with a 14" wheelbase, but am wondering if it will feel stupid short. If you ever cared to measure back then, my aching old bones would be down for some info.