I wonder what the shapes of the boards were like over the years.. For example, I have the impression that in the years 2005 to 2010 (my first years of skating), the boards looked like be much shorter in length and I have the impression that the wb 14 was much more present ? No ?
Today the standard is 14.25 and many more long boards than short boards.
Curious to know the main “fashionable” shape of each board through each year..
Revisiting an old question that never got fully fleshed out.
In early and mid '80s, decks had huge wheelbases. 15" to 16.25". Viewed in the context of history, this isn't too surprising. Vert was the main game, and, well, you want a bigger, more stable wheelbase for vert. The per se "street" deck wasn't really it's own distinct thing yet, and all of the "street" boards that did exist were based-off vert boards. For example, the first Vision Mark Gonzales deck had a 16.25" wb. Early Natas decks had a 15.5" wb. And I can't stress this one enough, NO ONE considered wheelbase as "thing" back then.
Someone already posted it, but it also can't be stressed how much of a game changer that Chris Miller deck was. And it's kind of wild to think a vert skater came-up with an innovation that would have more impact in the streets (e.g. an up-turned nose--Oddly, Rodney was kind of tuned-in to this already, but he didn't run with it. He often did tricks off the nose of his freestyle board (e.g. board backwards), because he realized the tail (when acting as the "nose") could be used as a "hook" to help get more board control and lift). People FREAKED when they first saw that Chris Miller deck, because it was it look SO WEIRD. But then they skated it, and the light went on.
I can't remember when, but very late 80s / very early 90s is when double-drilled decks started coming out (e.g. so you could make longer/shorter nose/wheelbase). I think this was originally just so people could have a longer nose, but a by-product of this, was that wheelbase started to become part of the collective consciousness, because people realized when they set a board to a "bigger nose," that it became easier for
other things. Why? Shorter wheelbase. During this period, things were all over the place with wheelbase lengths.
Late 1992 into early 1993 is when everything dramatically changed. Wheelbases around then went down to 14" (with some at like 13.75, too), and hovered there for quite awhile. I should also mention tail nose/tail lengths were shorter during this period, too. The average tail length was like 6", with some being like 5.8, too. I think, historically, this makes some sense. Boards were super flat and low to the ground. If you have a very low, flat board, and long tail, you're going to have a serious pop problem. So, lengths of kicks were shorter to compensate for this. I was doing a lot b/s tailslides then, and I
hated the shorter tails, because I wanted more tail to slide on. I was also working at a shop then, and I refused to ride any deck that had a tail under 6"...I distinctly remember measuring the tail of every board I got to assure it was at least 6" long...and sometimes it wasn't easy to find one (I was riding a lot of Alien decks then). Eventually, when wheels started getting bigger again, tails also started getting longer (again), too. It's worth pointing out that with shorter wheelbases, and shorter kicks, the overall lengths of the decks were much shorter, too.
In terms of popular "shapes" through the years, a great way to see this, is too look at
www.Artofskateboarding.com. Do a board/price search based off a given pro (that has been around for awhile), and you can see how their deck shapes evolved with time. Caballero and Mike V. are actually two really good ones to use, because they have both been around forever, and you can really see the evolution of deck shapes in one place/person, from 1980 to the present.
Topic: Evolution of product Ex. Wheels Trucks Decks (Read 5531 times)