Just read through the whole thread from start to end. What a ride! Took a few days of laying in the bed resting my leg. I had an ACL surgery a week ago so I can’t skate for a good while (9-12 months).
I have a long history of madness, the intensity of which has varied a lot throughout the years. Never have I been fully healed from it once it started. Historically being injured has been something that has flared up the madness. It’s easy to buy stuff you don’t need when you’re injured. Trying to stay stoked on skating when you can’t skate.
When I broke my leg 9 years ago I went into full blown madness for quite some years. I’m not even sure if I had the madness before that at all. I tried all the trucks, board widths and wheelbases, wheel sizes and shapes, grip tapes, bushings, shoes and shoe sizes. At one point I had 8 different setups and I remember going to the session regularly with at least 4 different setups. Insane.
At some point I came to the conclusion that I can’t have more than one setup if I want to actually enjoy skateboarding. I disassembled all but one setup and sold & donated all the stuff I knew I don’t want to skate anymore. Kept some as spares. That has not changed now in over 5 years. I do have three different cruisers though, but those are relatively madness free and not really changing much. A big one, a tiny one and a rain cruiser.
In 2022 I made a table of my setups updating every time I make any gear change. I put the reasoning there as well. I did this because I had forgotten what I had tested earlier and made the same mistakes a few times. That is mad in itself but has also helped me to see that I am mad and should always check the table first before making changes. I have now narrowed my setup down to the following:
- Ace AF1 inverted 55/60. Been on Aces for 5+ years. Got the inverted baseplates last summer and really like those. Did try Lurpiv V2 briefly but didn’t like them so I sold them. Earlier I’ve tried at least Indy, Thunder, Venture, Film & Krux and didn’t like them better than Aces. Ace classics too. Got 8.75 sets of those left in various sizes still. Even have the mag plates. Gotta get rid of them all. I’m fine with AF1s. Tried all sorts of bushings and combinations. I just like the stock ones the best. Sometimes wish for more stability for tricks but I like that turn much more, so I’ll deal with it.
- I use Real 3ply risers with pretty much all setups. Sometimes I try without and realise that it’s no good. Tried the 5 ply as well and didn’t like it. Don’t like plastic risers. Tried some aluminium ones and while they were ok, I like the wooden ones better. Wood is good.
- Decks mostly from 8.5” to 8.75” wide with wheelbases from 14.5” to 14.75”. Been trying to find a deck I could stick with. DLX 8.38” Full was probably the first one that felt like I could stick with it but then those stopped coming out. After that I think the Antihero Blue Meanie was the next one I thought I could stick with. Love that deck. Skated at least three but then they stopped coming out also. Tracked down two more but have been kind of saving them. Should have skated those too and moved on only after I had none but here I am, with two still in my stack of boards. I tried to find a replacement that would be consistently available. I figured that the DLX 8.62” would probably be a popsicle version of the same deck. Isn’t. I fucking hated that deck. I don’t know why but it just wasn’t good at all. Same goes for the DLX 8.38”. I thought for the longest time that that deck is perfect on paper. Tried three separate times. Last time I rolled my ankle really bad with one and decided that I’m never gonna fuck with that deck again. Fuck that deck. Don’t know why, but fuck that deck. Lately I think I found a new deck I could stick with, a Magenta 8.625” with 14.625” wheelbase. Unfortunately I discovered that the one I got is some steep mold, which, to my understanding, has only come out in one graphic like 2 years ago. Got 2.5 of those stashed away. If this will not come out anymore, I have to find something else eventually. Got a stack of boards that are within my spec range, which I will try to skate through before buying new stuff. Sorted them out in the order I should skate them in due to this thread. Let’s see how it goes a year from now when I’m back on board finally.
- Grip I’ve settled to Jessup Ultra. Nothing comes close for me. Really grippy and stays grippy for a long time. Much better than Mob. This used to be the standard grip coming with boards in Finland a few years ago but now it seems to have been replaced with Pepper for some reason. Didn’t like Pepper and now Jessup Ultra is somewhat tricky to track down here. I hope I don’t have to find a new grip.
- Wheels I’ve stuck with Spitfire Formula Fours since they came out. Tried some others briefly on the side. Not worth it. Not for me. Now I’m on the 93A 56mm Radial shape. The 93A are really nice for the crusty streets in Finland and aren’t bad even in smooth parks, unlike the old formula F4 97A.
- I will only use Bones Swiss Six from now on. Tried all sorts of shit with extended races, Bronsons, SKFs etc. etc. They’re all shit. None of them are anywhere close to the Swiss Six. Those bearings are fast and they last. Haven’t broken a single one ever. I’ve mainly used them for years now.
- For bolts I’ve stuck with 1” Allen with small heads (Shorty’s, Thunder, Bronze). Would be silly to change from that.
- For shoes I’ve gone all over the place. Loved the Emerica Reynolds G6s. Had I think 8 pairs of those. I thought my shoe size was 10.5. Then I hurt my big toe snowboarding in 10.5 snowboard boots. I learned that I am most likely using too big snowboard boots. Measured my feet and they’re 26.7 cm long. US size 10.5 is 28.5 cm long. That’s 1.8 cm longer than my foot! Sized down in snowboard boots and had all sorts of difficulties but that’s beside the point. Then I noticed that my feet aren’t 100% locked in in the 10.5 Emerica Reynolds G6. Shoe size crisis! I went to New Balance 1010 in size 9. Too small. Toes were killing me. Bumped up to 9.5 éS Quattro. Ok but still a bit short feeling. Bought and walked around in various shoes in various sizes. For skating I ended up with New Balance 808 in size 10. They’re snug but I don’t think I can go back to 10.5 for skating anymore. I’ll wear 10.5 for casual use but for skating I’ll use size 10s. I usually skate around 2 hours anyway, so I can deal with the extra snugness for such a short time. Unfortunately the 808 has been replaced with the 808 lite, which doesn’t feel or look as good. Got 5 pairs of OG 808s stashed, so I’ll skate those and then figure out what to change to. Maybe the 1010 or 933 in size 10 I bought for casual wear and figured were a bit too small for that. Let’s see.
Even though I’ve had my setup mostly figure out for a good while now, I’ve strayed from it, mainly because I have decks I’ve bought during madness that I’ve kept for some reason when getting rid of other madness related purchases. I guess I’ve kept them because I’ve thought they’re worth considering shortly and if I don’t like them, I can pass them along to someone. I’ve skated an 8.38”, even an 8.3 Ishod Twin and an 8.25” DLX Full. Polar 8.5” with 14.375” wheelbase, Polar 9.0”. Disliked most of them and got rid of the quick. I’ve even gone above 9”, especially with shaped decks. Wheelbase has gone up to 15.5” with the Antihero Grosso shape. That thing was great in the pool but just way too much otherwise. Stepped down to a 9” Hockey popsicle with 15” wheelbase. That was a mistake. Should have stayed with the 8.625” Magenta instead of trying these out. The 9.0” popsicle with 15” wb was surprisingly difficult to turn, even compared to the 9.25”, 15.5” Grosso shape. I was trying to find new lines in the pool to get some more speed. Went too fast and the line didn’t work out like I thought it would with the more difficult to control setup. Something happened and my back foot got off the board, bent my knee 30° sideways and snapped my ACL. All because of stupid madness and unwillingness to get rid of stuff without giving it a proper enough test.
Being injured, I started getting the madness. Started thinking about Lurpivs and changing the kingpin to a Slappy Ultra Low Inverted and then changing my boards to 14.375” wheelbase Polars. This way I could support European companies and give less money to US based companies because I’m not cool with what is going on there politically at the moment. Anyway, this thread saved me. Reading this, I came to the conclusion that I have what I need for the next 5 years probably and I don’t need to buy new stuff until I’ve ran out of the shit I have. I want to get more consistent and learn new shit instead of chasing some dream setup. I’m close enough as it is. Possible marginal gains are not worth the waste of time it takes to test out stuff and decide that it’s not for me or that it is slightly better. I’m not young anymore. I’d rather just skate, have a good time and maybe learn a new thing or two.
Being on Slap has a tendency to increase my madness. That’s why I’ve been mostly away for quite a few years now. Madness brought me back but this thread has grounded me. This thread has been very therapeutic. There was a really good post about how all this madness and tinkering could be about having a small part of your life as something you’re fully in control of instead of being the helpless human in this world with all sorts of horrible shit going on that you can’t do anything about really. That really got me thinking. Good stuff. Anyway, I put looking at new gear on hold, at least for now, and went through what I have. Gonna get rid of the shit I know I’m not gonna use. I want these to go to someone who really appreciates it. If I find a place or an organization here in Finland, I could even buy stuff to make good completes out of these. I make enough money to be able to do that. Spread the love, take care of the community, do it for the culture. I gotta figure this out. I don’t want to drop the shit in the park, like I’ve done before because some fat middle aged hoarder is gonna take it anyway. This stuff needs to go to someone who could not skate otherwise.
Given all of this, I did just start thinking about setting up a wide curb skating setup when I get back. I've got 3 decks where the width over the trucks is around 9.5". Could get Ace AF1 Inverted 77s to pair with those. Could be something easy to get back with and have as a fuck around setup. Something I could use to learn new tricks with. But let's see. There's no rush. I might go ask the local if they can get the trucks in. My local shop is not doing well, so this could be a way to support them a bit as well. So yeah. I'm not fully cured. That's for sure.
