Went skating yesterday with a friend who hasn't been skating for almost 15 years.
I just started back skating in October '21, so I'm still relearning everything.
Since I picked up skateboarding again, it's in my head that the bigger the bigger the board the better.
So I ride a AH 8.5 with Indy 149 trucks. While not even close to landing anything, I'm already thinking about going to 8.75, just to have more landing space and to feel more " safe and secure" regarding that extra width to land on.
But I took my friends old element board yesterday, I think it's a 7.75 and it's ridiculously short, and it was like the deck was glued to my shoes. Proper Ollies up and over stuff, without hardly making an effort. The board did exactly what I wanted.
This got in my head, and now I'm thinking instead of going up in deck size, I need to size down.
Maybe I got brainwashed into thinking that everyone at least skates an 8.25 -8.5 deck...
Can't afford to buy myself a whole new setup right now, but might look out to score a deck somewhere that's 8" .
I wonder if the 149 trucks will compensate for the loss of deck width when looking at stability...
Honestly, I think the whole "landing space" thing is all in people's heads.
I'm 6'4 with size 12 feet and I've never had an issue landing on my deck.
It's funny though, I get the exact opposite mind games. I get uncomfortable with wide decks when I
don't want to land on it, like when you're bailing out of a trick and just want the board to get the hell away from you, it's harder to get away from a 8.5!