For maybe the first 20+ years on a skateboard, I really had not much of an idea and the main consideration was the price.
Some shops I knew got a lot of seconds (some blank and some with graphics) so we would sort through them, standing on every board and buying up to ten at a time (bulk discount) of which ever decks felt the most comfortable, even though there was almost never the same size, shape or concave twice.
I do think they were simpler times, but I would also put some of the "bad skates" down to having a board that was not quite what I would want to skate.
Once I started figuring out which brands felt better and specifically sought out those boards, more so than just getting whatever I could afford, things got a whole lot easier and although I still had bad days, I knew that was me having a bad day and not my board causing me to have a bad day.
Been skating over 40 years now, so the last 20 with some product knowledge and a whole lot more interest in specific things has made me very conscious of what works for me and what doesn't. That is also not to say that what works for me will work for everyone, so I never try to make people get whatever I liked, when I worked in skate shop environments, but was more open to asking questions and giving them enough information to make an informed decision, usually resulting in them getting something they might not have thought of but almost always something they enjoyed skating.
It really gets me mad thinking of all the times I have been in a shop or somewhere and someone is telling kids or others what they should skate, based on their view of what works, especially if I know I have tried that product or combination and thought it was not so good, or didn't work at all for me.
Anyway, at the end of the day, if you can go in to whatever skate shops - yes any, no matter who, what or where - and stand on as many boards as you can to see what feels good and what might work for you. You don't have to buy from them, just work out board shapes, concave, kicks, etc which is a whole lot easier in person and often almost impossible online.
Then if you are so inclined, combine that with working out which woodshop they come from and what other brands, shapes, etc might work for you and go from there.
I still skate different boards just to see what they are like and still stand on almost too many boards in various places, but I most definitely have my favourites too, even down to making adjustments and changes to existing product just so they work exactly how I want them to.
I would never be 100% correct guessing what woodshop a whole stack of boards come from just by standing on them, but I could definitely tell you what would work for me and sort them in to different piles according to concave and feel without looking at them, which would almost equate to which woodshops they come from.
That is how I became aware of board differences between woodshops, purely from the feel of them under my feet.
Topic: How did you become aware of board differences between woodshops? (Read 1559 times)