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So is Toy Machine all Clutch now?
They barely use clutch now actually. Mostly BBS and PS in America with some China wood floating around, almost all seems to be Chinese if you're outside of the states. Interestingly Japan seems to mostly get PS boards imported from the states rather than the China wood. Foundation was mixing more Chinese wood in for a while but they seem to be back to more PS wood lately as well.
The OG monsters that just dropped everywhere are Watson wood as well. I believe this run is lasered, the last drop of those weren't. If you ever see that graphic or the foundation ovals they only seem to run them through watson. Outside of those you'll want to see the top ply or stickers for ID.
how are watson boards? i don’t think i’ve ever ridden a watson popsicle.
had a really nice scram x assault, that was i think watson
Watson made their own for a long time, but more recently they have been making less and buying in blanks from China, so all these could be the China boards, or could be their own boards.
Someone closer to the woodshop or who has actually seen them could probably give you more info.
Watson wood was pretty good back in the day, but the only boards I have from Watson within the last few years have been the old school 80s and pig shapes and they are big, solid and long lasting, for what they are worth.
You're thinking of prime. Watson always pressed their own wood. They mostly survived the modern era by doing more bespoke stuff they could charge a premium for. Blockhead, Sam Hitz, and a few other brands/folks worked very closely with them, to the point they'd often do their own staining and shaping.
If you're not aware O who was sort of the heart and soul of the place passed away fairly recently. This is just personal speculation, but I think that probably had more than a little to do with the decision to shut it down now.
https://otisforever.com/https://www.exposureskate.org/the-otis-barthoulameu-fund/
how are watson boards? i don’t think i’ve ever ridden a watson popsicle.
had a really nice scram x assault, that was i think watson
Probably, assault ran most of their stuff through Watson and scram did some of their big shapes through them.
It looks like Tod took all the popsicles they had sitting around and ran them as OG monsters, so there's a ton of them on the market right now if you want to try one. You can probably still find the foundation ovals from the pandemic if you look hard enough too. Actually I just did it out of curiosity and yes you can.
https://tgmskateboards.com/foundation-deck-oval-orange-8-25-x-31-88/The 8.25 oval I had was great. Wb is 14.38 iirc. Quite flat concave wise, but the kicks are medium. It's very snappy and light feeling like PS wood, but doesn't flex. Im not sure if it was the shape or the wood but I remember flip tricks sticking to my feet really well.
I also have an 8.38 OG monster that's the same mold but 14.12 wb. I didn't get along with it as much as the foundation but I think that was down to not being able to find a truck that matched up well with the wb for me. Oh, those last run OG monsters were full up to the kicks, but not square at all. Not sure if the new ones are the same. It's a very utilitarian, no frills shape but that's kind of why it's great. Neither of mine sogged out though I admittedly didn't skate the Toy a ton.
Edit - forgot there's one more Watson that's still semi in the quiver. I have one of the blockhead hard times 8.38 modern shapes they did a while back. Ive only really skated it as a cruiser but now that I've been enjoying shaped decks more lately I might whip it out and slap some aces on it.