Gear madness support thread

[Boog]

Was at shop. They had a DLX 8.5/14.25. I've had those before. And always hated them (too short and stubby for me). But this one was a IV stamp. And my favorite color top stain. Stood on it, and was feeling nice. So, I bought it. Gripped it at home, and it was looking real, real nice. How had I not liked this deck, several times, before? Switched over trucks/wheels, and was excited to go skate it. Then I stood on it. "Oh, right. You really don't like this thing, and now it's all coming back as to why." Skated it for about 2 hours, and pretty much hated every second. Went home, and took that thing right apart. Why did I even buy this? Did I think it's performance aspects were suddenly going to change...if I tried it again? Oh, right. I know why I bought it; madness. That last few times I had that deck, I gave it away. I think this time I'll keep it around, so a year from now, when I decide to try it again...I won't have to buy another one.

It's funny that you don't like this shape because it's one of my favorites. I was skating an 8.3 twin habitat which felt pretty good for everything except my ollie. I swear it made me ollie like a damn beginner no matter what foot position I tried. And I even tried giving it time but I just couldn't ollie right on it which is a deal breaker. It just felt way too steep and the kicks didn't have the spoon like concave that usual bbs boards have.

But anyway I set the trusty 8.5/14.25 up and everything worked including ollies. Also I think what made the habitat difficult to ollie is that it was damn near an inch longer than the 8.5.

[fs1/2cab]

Aight so, my homie told me about his madness.

There is a tiny quarter in our local park. I ride Indys and Thunders (both for 8.25 decks) and can lock in on that coping with my trucks. Things like feeble, axle stall, pivot etc. He rides Venture 5.2 and for some reason he can't lock into that coping, he always rolls on top. So he ordered Venture 5.6 and hopes for the best. Yesterday we sat there, two grown men wondering what's up with his trucks and we can't lock in. ^^ His theory is, that the Venture 5.2 hanger is a bit too small for that specific quarter. My theory is, that he has to lean more into the quarter instead of standing on top. Which doesn't make that much sense because I can lock in there fine, no matter which way I lean but I also don't ride Ventures.
Any thoughts from the pals?

[Sedition]

It's funny that you don't like this shape because it's one of my favorites.

With time and experience, you will learn that people don't always like the same things you do. For example, people may not like the same colors, food, and music that you do. I know it's shocking, but life can be full of surprises like that.

[tuesday]

Aight so, my homie told me about his madness.

There is a tiny quarter in our local park. I ride Indys and Thunders (both for 8.25 decks) and can lock in on that coping with my trucks. Things like feeble, axle stall, pivot etc. He rides Venture 5.2 and for some reason he can't lock into that coping, he always rolls on top. So he ordered Venture 5.6 and hopes for the best. Yesterday we sat there, two grown men wondering what's up with his trucks and we can't lock in. ^^ His theory is, that the Venture 5.2 hanger is a bit too small for that specific quarter. My theory is, that he has to lean more into the quarter instead of standing on top. Which doesn't make that much sense because I can lock in there fine, no matter which way I lean but I also don't ride Ventures.
Any thoughts from the pals?

First guess, it's the wheels.

[Boog]

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It's funny that you don't like this shape because it's one of my favorites.

[close]

With time and experience, you will learn that people don't always like the same things you do. For example, people may not like the same colors, food, and music that you do. I know it's shocking, but life can be full of surprises like that.

Not really shocking at all. Just thought it was a funny coincidence that you brought up that shape not working for you.

[Sedition]

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It's funny that you don't like this shape because it's one of my favorites.

[close]

With time and experience, you will learn that people don't always like the same things you do. For example, people may not like the same colors, food, and music that you do. I know it's shocking, but life can be full of surprises like that.

[close]

Not really shocking at all. Just thought it was a funny coincidence that you brought up that shape not working for you.

I have this bad habit of occasionally thinking that I should/would like 14.25 (or smaller) wheelbases, and getting something 14.25 to try out. The result have never changed; they simply do not work for me. So, why do I occasionally keep trying them again? Well, there is a reason I’m a regular poster in this thread.

[Boog]

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It's funny that you don't like this shape because it's one of my favorites.

[close]

With time and experience, you will learn that people don't always like the same things you do. For example, people may not like the same colors, food, and music that you do. I know it's shocking, but life can be full of surprises like that.

[close]

Not really shocking at all. Just thought it was a funny coincidence that you brought up that shape not working for you.

[close]

I have this bad habit of occasionally thinking that I should/would like 14.25 (or smaller) wheelbases, and getting something 14.25 to try out. The result have never changed; they simply do not work for me. So, why do I occasionally keep trying them again? Well, there is a reason I’m a regular poster in this thread.

Lol I know exactly what you mean. We know what we like yet we still try things we know we don't like thinking it will be different this time.

[j....soy.....]

I think the gear in gear madness gets a bad rap.....

[Mbrimson88]

Aight so, my homie told me about his madness.

There is a tiny quarter in our local park. I ride Indys and Thunders (both for 8.25 decks) and can lock in on that coping with my trucks. Things like feeble, axle stall, pivot etc. He rides Venture 5.2 and for some reason he can't lock into that coping, he always rolls on top. So he ordered Venture 5.6 and hopes for the best. Yesterday we sat there, two grown men wondering what's up with his trucks and we can't lock in. ^^ His theory is, that the Venture 5.2 hanger is a bit too small for that specific quarter. My theory is, that he has to lean more into the quarter instead of standing on top. Which doesn't make that much sense because I can lock in there fine, no matter which way I lean but I also don't ride Ventures.
Any thoughts from the pals?

Have you skated his board and been able to do whatever it is he can't do?

Often that pushes boundaries but I recall one guy who was so pissed at whatever it was he was trying and we all kind of knew he was not doing it right, but it took someone else grabbing his board doing exactly what he was trying and showing him that it was not the board, it was the guy not doing it right.

For some that would be game over, but for others, they might actually see that they need to change things up in the way they skate, more so than blame the board or whatever it is that is not working.

Conversely, has he been able to do the tricks on your board, or any other board?  That would be the easiest way to see whether or not it is the human or the skateboard that needs to change.


Just a thought anyway and not a worry if that option is not a good one.

[jums]

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

[Ok]

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

i am awful, and i buy boards to see if that helps things. it doesn’t.

[Frank and Fred]

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

Sometimes when you are skating well and at the top of your game the madness calls also.

"If I'm skating this well with this ______ then surely with _____, Il'be skate even better."

[rocklobster]

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

Madness is a fickle mistress - one day you've found your Goldilocks setup, the next day that same setup is ass and the reason why your kickflips are doo doo

[Ok]

Expand Quote

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

[close]

Sometimes when you are skating well and at the top of your game the madness calls also.

"If I'm skating this well with this ______ then surely with _____, Il'be skate even better."

it is difficult for me to remember a time when i was feeling really good on board, but i do agree with this as well (the skating well, but lusting for the greener grass).

for me the ‘gear madness’, lines up with mental health issues i’ve been diagnosed with, consumerism, limited time to skate, an aging body, etc etc

the last 10 years have been more about experimentation with equipment, than ‘progressing’ with skating.

[Sedition]

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

Madness can be caused by many things. But, I think it’s a lot like skating itself. You do 50/50 on a curb. Then you want to try it on a bench. Then see if you can go further. Then maybe rail. Etc. Etc. We are constantly trying to tweak and improve things, or try new twists on old tricks. I am under no illusions that switching equipment is going to substantively make me skate better; it won’t (some equipment makes me skate worse, though). However, sometimes toying with equipment just makes things feel better. Sometimes. There is merit in that.

[rocklobster]

It's aligned to the very nature of learning a trick - you tweak aspects of your pop / drag / weight distribution / body posture / feet position to get the trick 2nd nature. Some adjustments are fine, but you can skew too hard 1 direction or the other and your game is completely off. Same goes for gear.

Pros are athletically gifted with refined proprioception to make adjustments on the fly to the minute differences in their setup, and the tricks their trying carries significant risk of bodily harm if they bail or slam. In that case the madness is justified.

For regular joes like us it's just a bit of messing around, consumerism and delusional thinking.

[JM]

Expand Quote

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

[close]

i am awful, and i buy boards to see if that helps things. it doesn’t.

Me too, broski. I ain’t and never was talented at skating compared to others.

Now I just ride a bigger board and enjoy how it hugs my feet, and whenever I can’t do that fakie back tail I just believe it’s me.

It’s always been me.

[JM]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

[close]

Sometimes when you are skating well and at the top of your game the madness calls also.

"If I'm skating this well with this ______ then surely with _____, Il'be skate even better."

[close]

it is difficult for me to remember a time when i was feeling really good on board, but i do agree with this as well (the skating well, but lusting for the greener grass).

for me the ‘gear madness’, lines up with mental health issues i’ve been diagnosed with, consumerism, limited time to skate, an aging body, etc etc

the last 10 years have been more about experimentation with equipment, than ‘progressing’ with skating.

I think maybe the madness is the extra spending money we have as we’re older (hopefully more, apologies if not), and the madness is a way to still be involved with skating at a high level when we can’t do it at as high a level trick or physcially wise.

Since our bodies don’t cooperate, we seek out what we can control: the setup.

This is for old people, though. If you young people, then it could just be you like to Tinker with things, and tinkering gives your mechanically/engineering slanted mind something fun to do

[rikki]

I'm old, and my madness is probably mostly about finding a setup that gives me the feeling of having to put the least amount of physical effort for pop in my personal universe that suffers from ever-increasing pop enthropy.

Combining that with the fact that I still want to ride bigger transition and go as fast as possible as comfortably as possible – and do that on the same setup – doesn't make the madness much easier.

I'm glad I've all but quit snowboarding so I can have more money to spend on this madness.

[Frank and Fred]

I think maybe the madness is the extra spending money we have as we’re older (hopefully more, apologies if not)

For sure that is a factor. I remember having to sell other belongings, to be able to afford a new deck. Basically any change I had went into funds for decks and shoes. I'd sometimes panic about not having the readies for a new board but it always worked out.

Then, I wouldn't surrender a deck until it was in two pieces. I still have a hang up about using equipment until the bitter end but I am a lot better at passing stuff on until its completely dead. A good reminder that its nearly spring. Think I'll pass some shit on soon and crack into my pile.

In other areas of my life I am not materialistic at all but skateboards... damn I love them...

[Ok]

this thread could contain most of the posts i’ve made. it is appreciated.

i have never settled on a setup, or even a size. the closest i’ve come to getting a baseline, was when i tried to only ride setups with 8” trucks, and that didn’t last.

for me, there is a lot of crossover, in some of the thoughtful feedback some of the regulars have made in the ‘old dudes post up here’ thread, and then gear madness, for me. some similar themes of chasing past ghosts of glory.

even during my youth (i started skating again, around 16 ish), i liked to switch things up. i believe i’ve
mentioned before that im not sure if i ever bought the same truck brand, twice in a row. 30 years later im still on my bullshit. i did have a period of time where i identified, culturally, as a 7.5er, but even then i was obsessing about riding something even smaller, an andy stone found in the back of a bin in an ‘above the belt’ (pre-zumiez zumiez) that went more like 7.25, or wanting the menace ams smith/nunez deck (i remember it was short, maybe less than 31”). anyways, what im trying to say, is i don’t remember ever feeling like ‘yup this is it, i skate thunders now. forever’.

the excitement of trying something new, even if what i have is working, is a problem that has manifested in some troubling times, not only in skating (kinda difficult to be a rad partner when your head is always turning, jobs, vehicles, bikes).

having an erratic personality, and struggling with some issues, has created this rhythm in my life, where i skate, stop for a bit, and comeback to it. it used to be how i learned new tricks: not skate for awhile, comeback to it, set something different up, boom nollie heels, or whatever. now that does not work. ha.

i can recognize the patterns of having external pressures (aging, family dramas, financial worries, etc etc) and my spiraling into more madness. also if im skating less. knowing that, doesn’t make it any less true in the moment, unfortunately.
i am also HIGHLY influenced. if wade drops a part i want a wade complete. if i read on here that nick matthews skates 5.2 lo’s im screenshotting ig and zooming in trying to see what deck he’s on.

all of it creates too many moving targets to feel totally comfortable and settled.
and that is ok. i’ve tried to have some kindness for myself, knowing that on some days i might be on here talking about how i’ve loved indy 159s, and also have a deep connection to venture 5.0 lo’s.

i’ve typed a lot and said little.
i do very much enjoy reading others thoughts about gear tho. it seemed to hit a peak 2020-22 ish, with a few ig accounts showing pro setups and that. it is interesting for me to read the ideas and experiences of folks on gear.

[fs1/2cab]

Expand Quote

Aight so, my homie told me about his madness.

There is a tiny quarter in our local park. I ride Indys and Thunders (both for 8.25 decks) and can lock in on that coping with my trucks. Things like feeble, axle stall, pivot etc. He rides Venture 5.2 and for some reason he can't lock into that coping, he always rolls on top. So he ordered Venture 5.6 and hopes for the best. Yesterday we sat there, two grown men wondering what's up with his trucks and we can't lock in. ^^ His theory is, that the Venture 5.2 hanger is a bit too small for that specific quarter. My theory is, that he has to lean more into the quarter instead of standing on top. Which doesn't make that much sense because I can lock in there fine, no matter which way I lean but I also don't ride Ventures.
Any thoughts from the pals?

[close]

Have you skated his board and been able to do whatever it is he can't do?

Often that pushes boundaries but I recall one guy who was so pissed at whatever it was he was trying and we all kind of knew he was not doing it right, but it took someone else grabbing his board doing exactly what he was trying and showing him that it was not the board, it was the guy not doing it right.

For some that would be game over, but for others, they might actually see that they need to change things up in the way they skate, more so than blame the board or whatever it is that is not working.

Conversely, has he been able to do the tricks on your board, or any other board?  That would be the easiest way to see whether or not it is the human or the skateboard that needs to change.


Just a thought anyway and not a worry if that option is not a good one.

Woah. That is great advice. I haven't thought about that and now I feel dumb. ^^ We will try that next session. Thanks Brimmo.

[hiljentaa]

I feel pretty content in my setup(s).

Having a separate board for pushing around town/spot exploration and using that for all decks outside of my normal setup has quelled any need for fucking around with my main. I don't really care about this board, so any and all unwanted (for main) decks end up here to be thrashed and razor tailed. In Western Colorado the roads are literally grooved from studded tires and chains. This frees me to destroy my secondary board with no remorse.

Then main board is 8.125 PS Stix, 5.2 Ventures, 52mm round wheels.

[Ok]

sw colorado is one of the prettiest places i’ve been

[Gandito405]

I have some Ace 60 hollows with ti wheel and kingpin knuts,(total weigh 5.6 pounds.) the other day I went to my local skate shop and decided to try one of their boards in the bowl. The trucks (thunder)were heavier and I felt like I had control over where the hanger/trucks were whereas my other board i can’t even try and get into a axle stall because I’ll flat like 2 feet past the coping. Im thinking about getting non hollow ace 60s but even then im not sure if it would feel the same cause the aces are at least a 1/8 in ward but I take off the bottom washer for more turn so make that like 1/4. Any advice, should I just keep skating light or try and get a little heavy? Or even god forbid put on the bottom washer.

[rikki]

I seem to suffer from constant overall setup madness (COSM). I currently keep switching between two fairly different setups:

- DLX 8.25 (8.38 in reality) x 14.38 wb with Indy 144 Tits
and
- DLX True Fit 8.25 x 13.88 wb x 31.5 length with Venture 5.6 V-Lights

On some days the bigger deck and wb feel perfect and solid. Then all of a sudden on some days it feels like a fucking boat and I can't seem to friggin' ollie it off the ground. Then I switch to the smaller deck and feel light and springy for a bit, especially on flat/curbs/etc.. And then I hit transitions and start to miss the longer deck and wb.

Deck size aside, I can't seem to figure out if Indys or Ventures are better for me. Some days the Indys feel great but then all of a sudden they feel soggy and I lose my pop. Ventures feel solid but some sessions feel off with regards to grinds and turns especially on tranny.

Is there a possible middle ground or should I just stop whining and just resort to riding two different setups depending on the spot/obstacles? Is the dream of an all-encompassing overall setup just a pipe dream?

[Sedition]

Is the dream of an all-encompassing overall setup just a pipe dream?

I really like Thai yellow curry with chicken. I also really like Indian Chicken Korma. In the grand scheme, one is not better than the other. At certain times, however, when the mood strikes, one is certainly better than other in that moment. If someone told me to "pick one," I would laugh at them, for it is an impossible delineation. I would also hate to be delegated to only having just one for the rest of my life.

When I realized this also applies to skateboards, my madness did not go away, but I was much more a peace with it. Some days I just really want Yellow Curry, I mean, my 8.75" set-up. Some days it's Pho, or Indian, or my 8.25". Variety is not something I want to banish, but rather, embrace. Imagine asking, "Is the dream of an all-encompassing overall food dish just a pipe dream?"   

[rikki]

Yeah, that was more of a rhetorical rant than a dead serious question. Through gear madness and learning about oneself via performing the art of skating, one can at least narrow down the options somewhat. Unless one enjoys having several setups, which is all good as well.

Regarding the food analogy -- I don't skate 2-3 times everyday, plus with food I of course want a significantly larger amount of variation between dishes. Point being that with food -- unless you're travelling to Mars -- you don't want to optimize your "setup" to cover all bases. That'd be just plain boring. With skating, there are a lot of people, myself included, who aim towards a minimal number of different variables. More or less unsuccessfully, of course, but that's where the joy of yelling at clouds waltzes through the door.

[Skrotum]

Been going through some classic truck madness. I want the absolute best setup for 50-50 on circle rails. What would y’all suggest. I keep coming back to ventures specifically 6.1(but I don’t like the turn(which is probably why it locks so good)) I’m also using 99a 56 conical fulls. Any suggestions on a great lock-in truck and wheel combo?  I’m learning how to cross lock

[Sedition]

Yeah, that was more of a rhetorical rant than a dead serious question. Through gear madness and learning about oneself via performing the art of skating, one can at least narrow down the options somewhat. Unless one enjoys having several setups, which is all good as well.

Regarding the food analogy -- I don't skate 2-3 times everyday, plus with food I of course want a significantly larger amount of variation between dishes. Point being that with food -- unless you're travelling to Mars -- you don't want to optimize your "setup" to cover all bases. That'd be just plain boring. With skating, there are a lot of people, myself included, who aim towards a minimal number of different variables. More or less unsuccessfully, of course, but that's where the joy of yelling at clouds waltzes through the door.

No, I get you. I strived for a long time for the single, all-purpose set-up (I actually have that, my 8.25). Simplicity is a nice thing. At least for me, the goal/desire for simplicity actually fostered more ambiguity and, well, madness. The "simple" answer for me was actually quite simple: It's OK to like more than one skateboard (product), despite how much I was fighting that on some weird existential level (and still do at times). The best part? The clouds don't go away when I feel like yelling at something.