How Has Your Gear Evolved?

[Sedition]

Random discussion point: How, if at all, and why, has your equipment evolved over the last 5 to 10 years? Are you riding the same type trucks you were 10 years ago? Same size board? Wheels? Etc. What's changed, and why?

I've been riding an 8.25/14.38, 144 Indy Forged, and 53mm Classics for a long, long, long time. Yeah, I've toyed with other stuff, but I've always come back to that set-up. Over the last year or so, 8.25 has been starting to feel quite small, and wider decks are beginning to really feel good (use to hate them). Also flipping my board less these days, and the feel of more "stability" under my feet is great. I'm starting wonder if I will even own an 8.25 by the end of 2025, and that's kind of horrifying.   

[Sizzla]

Sizzla mi mek deh switch up from 8.125 move on up dem to 8.25 cuz Babylon inflation mek it dat nah enuff 8.125 dem fi sizzla to find

I mek change from satori to spitfyah recently cuh be dem strong and satori wheel weedjam too much fi mek good wheel

[manuduncan]

I used to avoid the Nike swoosh like the plague but now that I’m old I’ve come around to the fact that dunks are just the most comfortable and last like three times as long as my vans would

[Jort250]

A lot of this is figuring out that certain things don’t work for me

- I am sticking to 8.25” trucks, I can’t go back to the tiny grind space of 8” trucks
- I probably don’t need to try the latest board technology seeing as I don’t skate stairs…although the Flip P2s and Darkstar Armorlights were great in their day for a guy on a budget
- No more experimenting switching between wheels and shapes. Spitfire F4 Classics are the best
- I can’t kickflip on non-sanded down Mob and stick to Jessup and regular grip gum (pun not intended)
- An okay job and career means Bones Swiss instead of Reds
- No more colored bolts although…hey you never know

[back smith]

Biggest evolution in my gear from 5 or 10 years ago... putting on the pads and helmet!

[Scarecrow Radio]

I switched from vulc to cups about three years ago, was starting to get knee and foot pain from the flimsy shoes. I've skated Spitfires and Independents since I started skating as a kid, I have a set of Ventures now on my street board and I prefer the standard formula wheels to F4. Decks vary, I've been on shaped decks for the last ten years or so, I tend to gravitate towards egg shapes now, preferably Deluxe wood. Not much has changed, even in the 90s/early 00s I was skating bigger boards with Indys and Spit Classics

[turdtastic]

Boards and trucks got bigger.
Trucks switched from Thunder to Ace.
Still skating Vans almost exclusively.
Pant fit varies ever so slightly, but the needle doesn’t swing very far either direction…

[Sedition]

Biggest evolution in my gear from 5 or 10 years ago... putting on the pads and helmet!

I salute! Pads are punk. It’s the biggest “I don’t give a fuck” what the cool guys think.

[back smith]

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Biggest evolution in my gear from 5 or 10 years ago... putting on the pads and helmet!

[close]

I salute! Pads are punk. It’s the biggest “I don’t give a fuck” what the cool guys think.

Pads are great. You can take a pretty nasty slam and... get up and keep on skating! And can skate again the next day. Amazing.

[Sedition]

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Biggest evolution in my gear from 5 or 10 years ago... putting on the pads and helmet!

[close]

I salute! Pads are punk. It’s the biggest “I don’t give a fuck” what the cool guys think.

[close]

Pads are great. You can take a pretty nasty slam and... get up and keep on skating! And can skate again the next day. Amazing.

Who knew?!?

[JM]

I've been riding an 8.25/14.38, 144 Indy Forged, and 53mm Classics for a long, long, long time.   

You’re my board twin, except I’m on Team Bones x formula/dragon, and Thunder 144’s (148)

I think we even had passionate discussions about butt suppository shapes.

Even still, I think the 8.38 DLX is perfect, but if I were to ever stop doing tricks and just cruising fast, I would for sure switch back to 149’s and a 8.5…. Wide decks feel amazing under foot.

[Coffee]

Deck from 8” popsicle to 8.75” symmetrical egg.

Trucks 8” Venture to Thunder to 8.5 Indy standard to 8.5 Slappy ST1 Hollow

54mm Spitfire classics to 52mm Classics back to 54mm

Bones Swiss always.

Jessup to Mob to Pepper back to Mob

Lakai vulcs to New Balance cups.

[Bupstop]

Decks stayed at 8 inches for me.

Trucks from Indy to Thunder

Wheels 52 spitfire classics to 52 spitfire lock ins

Grip was mob now pepper.

[back smith]

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Biggest evolution in my gear from 5 or 10 years ago... putting on the pads and helmet!

[close]

I salute! Pads are punk. It’s the biggest “I don’t give a fuck” what the cool guys think.

[close]

Pads are great. You can take a pretty nasty slam and... get up and keep on skating! And can skate again the next day. Amazing.

[close]

Who knew?!?

Well young people might not know wtf I am talking about at all hehe. Though my front knee keeps reminding me otherwise. So, whatever..

Another change in my gear has been harder wheels in the outdoor season, even 101A is fine. Because only skating at the skatepark... That is pretty lame. Gotta get my middle-aged ass back on those streets hehe.

[conan777]

Gone from a 8 to an 8.25 to an 8.5 gradually over the last 25ish years but been on 52mm Spitfires and Indy's basically my whole life. I don't even know if I like them, I just don't question it. I tried all sorts of stuff as a teenager but then settled on that. I don't skate well or often enough to care really

[Too Frank To Fred]

15 years ago I really started venturing away from the 8.25" 8.5" popsicles, 149 Indys and 56mm wheels that I had been riding for a long time.

10 years ago I was rotating between 8.5s, 8.62s, 8.75s pops with the occasional shaped deck, mostly Thunder 151s/ Indy 159s and F4s of all sizes.

During Covid I went crazy with experimentation, and started to enjoy short WB wide boards... like the Dane 1 and Couch decks, with small wheels. And dabbled more and more with Ace trucks.

Now, its mostly Huffers and the occasional smaller egg/ football like the GFB, Af1 60s or Classic 55s Ace trucks, F4s of all sizes and duros still but the Radial is my go to shape.

Was only Vans for a long time. Era, pros, half cabs, skate mids etc. Now its mostly Numerics (212s, 440s and others) with the occasional Half cab.

[Unkle Fleak]

I’ve been through all the changes from banana board and pig to 2000s baby board and back
These days
I’m trying to only ride shapes. Football egg shuv nose and I’m back into riding trucks that sit in a quarter inch on each side. Saves weight. F lips faster and i feel more in control in all situations. More on top of the ledge. Sometimes i ride rails. That probably the biggest change. I stopped riding rails in the Frsnky Hill Era. I remember the last one with rails.
The Black Street Hawk. Best board he ever made. So functional for a no nose having Powell that my step ma got for my birthday long ago.
I miss Bridge bolts.

And this is the longest I’ve been without thunder trucks in my life. From before the t4 to 2016 I rode thunder near exclusively. A little bit of Gk. I loved the early cups. It depended on how loose I was going for at the time.  Now I ride ventures.

Check these out. The homie who owed (owes) gave um to me long ago.

[BeachChicken]

like anyone stuck in gear madness it hasn't i just cycle between the same shit and get upset at re-living the limitations of all of them and being trapped in purgatory.

Honestly tho I sized up from 8.25x14.25 in 2020 and since then have mostly ridden the generic Generator 8.38 and always come back to it. I have 3 in my garage, but I've already had each graphic before so i go try new stuff i never stick with.

[moonordie]

Board used to be 8 for the most of my life. Now it's 8.25 with some 8.3 and upper sonwtines.
Trucks used to be 8 and Indy. Now 8.5 and currently Lurpivs after being on Ace for like 3 years.
Hardware used to be 1". Now it's 7/8 and Allen since day one.
Before I never cared for grip, maybe I tried to get Mob but overall I was good with whatever grip that was free. Now is Jessup or gtfo even tho I'd try Pepper sometimes.
Wheels 54 and whatever. Now 53 and only F4 99.
Bearings would be HKD 5, now it's swiss 6 or regular swiss.
Before I would care much for shoes, whatever I could find for cheap. Now only NB# cups. 

[Gray Imp Sausage Metal]

Yes, for years I only rode a 7.75 with indys and 54mm spitfire wheels. When I really got back into skating around 10 years ago, I sized up and started riding early 90s style shapes again.
These days I always have these two setups:

Big board/ small wheels setup - 9 - 9.25 deck, 52mm wheels and currently on Royal 159s
EE3 setup - 8.5 - 8.75 board with 56mm wheels and ace 44s

Really dived deep down the loophole/ NFG urethane hole, but my stock will run out soon so I'll probably have to revert (pun intended) back to formula 4s...

[pops]

Everything got bigger. I used to skate 8.25-8.5 popsicles. Currently I ride 9+ eggs. With trucks I went from Thunders to Indy to Ace/Slappy. Truck size is 9". I used to skate 50-52mm hard wheels but now 56+ and slightly softer (93-97a). I prefer cupsole shoes that are supportive. Skated Vans etc slimmer vulcs for too long. NB 808s are my preferred shoe atm. I know it all sounds funky. I skate tanky shoes and setups. 

[Sedition]

...I prefer the standard formula wheels to F4...

Wow. That's a rare bird. I have to ask, what do you like better about the standard formula? Flat spots?

[Mbrimson88]

.

I think the biggest change has been double drilling truck baseplates - I saw the Koston double drilled baseplates a few years ago now and thought that would be a very good idea, but it wasn't until more recently - last year maybe - that I started drilling in all the baseplates for the tails of my boards, just the most minimal amount, but it has meant the longer tail doesn't have to be flattened half as much and the usual 8.38 boards feel way more manageable now, which had 14.5 wb and 6.5 tails, so now about 14.3 wb and 6.7 tails, which I really like.

Going back to 2019, I had been on the black eagle 8.12 for a long time (since about 2002 or so on 8.1 up from 8" boards), mostly with 139s, but then with 144s from 2017 to 2019, but then thought I might just be better off on something a bit wider, so tried the 8.4, 8.5 and 8.38 which ended up being the easiest to get and stuck with it.

To be fair, I have always had one 8.5 blue eagle setup and one 8.75 white eagle setup, which were more just cruisers or best when I was hurt and just had a gentle roll round, but increasingly in the last few years, mainly thanks to this wonderful place, I have since tried and now own almost one of everything there is from the DLX stable for decks, a number of other brand trucks besides Indy, many more options in wheel size, shape and duro - Spitfire Formula Four really needs nothing to just be amazing - along with a whole lot more experimentation with this and that.

There are really too many modifications I make to any one board, but driving over the deck, redrilling baseplates, angle grinding down kingpins, cutting down bushings, reshaping wheels, even taking a graphic off if I just don't want to see it, but at least everything feels just right for me on this setup, so I think I am going to keep this one going for a while now, no other / additional changes needed now.

Madness thread crossover maybe, but it is fun messing with stuff and seeing what works and what doesn't work.

[smellsdead]

from ashy to classy

[Sedition]

Madness thread crossover maybe…

I thought of this thread while reading the Madness one…

[schralp pal]

my pants got baggier - who would have thought, but I guess they couldn't get much skinnier.

Kid
Fish shaped blank or small sector nine
random indys w/ big ass risers
60mm+ cruiser wheels
I also had a long flex-dex board i loved - id be across town in 5 mins.

First 10 years seriously skating (Zero, Girl, Enjoi)
8.25 x 149s
to 8.25 x 44s

2nd 10 years (more enjoi, 917, Frog, Alltimers, Limo)
8.5 x 159s
to 8.5 x 151s

Currently riding the dlx 8.38 (the one that measures 8.5) x 14.5 on 151 standards and I think I'm in love.

[Pastasash]

Went from always on 8.06-8.125, to 8.38-8.5s, to now on 8.25 with 14’ WB.

Was a Indy dude but got influenced by Worrest and flipped to Ventures, v-lights.

Bones were my shit too but that old Manderson shape converted me to Spits.

And used to be Jessup gang but Pepper my jam lately.

Finally for shoes, went from only skating one pair to the ground, to having a trunk full of em in rotation. Vulcs to 95% of the time in cups.

[Sedition]

Sort of off topic, but what’s the deal with Pepper? Not tried it, but noticed it gaining traction (no pun intended).

[BeachChicken]

It's between Jessup and Mob. Easier to apply than Mob, doesn't have that weird shiny fray on the edges Jessup gets after a while. Lasts really long. Basically perfect middle ground.

[fuckmyself]

Haven't moved much over the last 15+ years,
Went from:
8x31.5" 14" WB
147 hi Thunder ti-lights
52-53 spitfire 99a f4s
Bronson Raws
Mob

to:
8.25x31.5" 14" WB
149 hi Thunder team lights
52-53 spitfire 99a f4s
Whatever bearings
Pepper