Been skating some Orbs Apparatons 53mm 99a (the orange and black split ones) after winning them in a giveaway. Haven’t seen too many people skating these so here’s my experience. I will be using F4s as a comparison since that what I’ve been skating for the last year.
- the shape is like a slightly more rounded radial slim
- not as smooth of a ride as F4s but still enjoyable
- a little grippier than F4s in concrete parks, slick on waxed ledges
- a lot grippier than F4s in the streets
- quick rebound in parks, not as fast as F4 but still good
- more sluggish in the streets than F4s
- haven’t flatspotted them yet and I do quite a bit of powersliding
- they cone kind of quickly, and have some slight flaking
- the color is cool
- they’re cheaper than F4s (they’re like 26 USD)
I haven’t tried them on metal, asphalt, or skate-lite yet so I might make an update.
I would definitely skate these again based on my experience so far. They’re distributed with Welcome, and I don’t know anything about the manufacturers so if anyone has info on that please share. I don’t think they’re better than F4s but absolutely a viable alternative. They also have a Specter shape similar to a conical full that I think I’m gonna try next.