Does wheelbase on a board actually matter all that much?
Now before you tell me to focus my account for asking this question... Up until literal 20 minutes ago I would have said unequivocally yes. Now I'm not so sure.
I have for the last 2 years, for all intents and purposes, ridden 14 inch WB decks and Ventures. Some truck madness here and there, but 14 inch WB. I have had 1 deck in that time frame with that was 14.25WB and I never could get used to it. Everything always felt off, tried 3 different sets of trucks everything felt terrible. (In hindsight I think something was actually wrong with that deck)
On skateshop day my local was one of the shops that got their own custom Deluxe boards so I grabbed one. I wanted to support so I didn't care that the wheelbase was 14.375, figured if I hated it give it to a kid at the park. I tried it with the set of new Royals, and lo and behold it felt pretty damn good.
This afternoon I got a case of gear madness and was switching up wheels and trucks on everything. I laid that deck on top of my usual 14wb board and noticed that when the back truck holes lined up with one another, that both tails were almost exactly the same.
So I decided to throw a set of Venture Lo on that Deluxe board.
When I lined everything up, very scientifically clearly, 2 sets of ventures they are basically bang on the same to the tail.
Now obviously wheel size and truck height will come into how this will feel. However the board those lows came off of is identical in shape, drilling etc to the one board in the right. So my money is on that for almost all of my tricks off the tail this will feel identical to the previous board that had the lows on.
The difference in wheelbase is very different at the nose. So nollie and fakie stuff will feel different but I'm not too concerned about messing with that timing.
I'm going to have a long session later today to test the theory but I'm thinking that it's not wheelbase that is actually the most important measurement for what trucks go with what board. It's where in relation to the nose/tail the truck holes are drilled... plus you know all the other gear madness inducing measurements.
What do you all think?