Can any of the true wood connoisseurs in here enlighten me on what's good within the smaller woodshops? Seems like BBS is the gold standard but I have to imagine there are other small shops out there doing it even better. I have an Active shop deck that I believe is Anno Domini (Colorado) and it really feels excellent, especially considering it was $21.
So the most interesting thing with that (besides how curious it is to even know which woodshop it comes from sometimes) is most woodshop owners or associated people will often throw around sayings like "Best wood in the biz" or whatever similar saying, but meaning their woodshop is better than the rest.
Nothing against each woodshop owner or associated person, but when you hear that all the time or read it on social media posts, you start to just ignore it as just a common marketing / sales thing and it starts to not mean much at all, or if someone is very vocal about it, I just smile and nod, often with a "Yeah sure" or something, if they really want a response.
Although there is not a definite measure of whose is the best, at least on here there are often any number of people singing the praises of (or putting down) any given woodshop at any given time. What I would also take into consideration is what that individual skater did to have a board last only a day, or last a full year - maybe an exaggeration, but when some people go through a board every week or so, having one last a month might be unexpected in both a good or bad way, eg the board was so soggy it didn't break so lasted a whole month before changing it out, or the board was so stiff and kept its pop they had it on a whole month.
Some places like NHS had a "Research and Development" department, with a machine that puts repeated weight and pressure on the kicks of a board until it breaks, with videos to show it. That's all good and well, but I don't really need what might be considered a big corporate company (using a machine) to show me how long a board will last.
What it does come down to is more often the personal preference of concave, angle of kicks, overall dimensions, size and the shape, so while woodshops differ significantly in some of those areas, someone who is very used to one version of concave might not be able to skate a board from nine other woodshops, if their concave is different - like me as an example. Just because I have very specific needs, doesn't make me think any less of other woodshops, but it does make me not enjoy skating most boards because of how conditioned I am to a specific concave, so someone else in that position might give a negative review of a board because they personally didn't like it for whatever reason.
Then of course there is the unfortunate heavy landing, or misplaced foot, which can end a skate rather quickly, but does tend to happen either in the first session when the board is really new for some people, or after too many hits and it just gives out. I know quite a few people who often put it down to a bad board, but from seeing them skate, I put it down more so to them not landing correctly and breaking a board, not that a board was bad. Even done it myself many times back when I was more keen, never I can recall it being the fault of the board.
So after taking all that into consideration, I would say there are definitely some boards from some suppliers that would break more easily than others, or have other issues, but nothing I have really heard or seen that would make me say Woodshop A, B and C are great, but Woodshop D, E and F are not, especially in the smaller manufacturing sector.
The list is always growing on the first page, second post, mostly with some info here or there besides just a name, link to website or instagram, but I think many of those woodshops are very specific to certain areas and it is not that common for their boards to make it out of their given country, or continent, even though some do end up all over the world, so it might be harder in that regard to track down specific boards from any given woodshop too.
Always curious to hear more from people who have been able to sample a wider range of boards, more so than just a few major suppliers, especially if they are not "first day board breakers".
Topic: CURRENT WOODSHOP DIRECTORY 2021 + misc deck and board info, help, questions, etc (Read 206226 times)