I came here in hopes that some of you guys and girls with big cruisers could help me out. I am looking to get my brother a birthday cruiser somewhere between 9.5-10.5. He just had his first baby with his wife so I think this is his way of preserving the child in him. He wants an old style feel to it, where the tail is up and the nose is flat. He has been asking for a while. I ride street on an 8.3 popsicle deck so cruisers are not my area of expertise. My questions for this thread are:
-Are there any brands in particular that you enjoy riding?
-My brother is looking at Santa Cruz and Powell Peralta decks, how are their cruisers?
-Should I be looking at larger sized skateboard trucks from indy and ace or should I be looking at long board trucks for a cruiser like this?
-A lot of people are saying OJ Plain Jane 54mm are the way to go for a cruiser set up; is there any competing wheels that you guys enjoy a lot?
Thank you in advance for any input. Hopefully I can make him happy for his bday.
P.S. For reference, we were looking at this deck
https://skateparkoftampa.com/spot/p.aspx?ID=84691&CID=1
Is this an ok cruiser deck?
The Santa Cruz and Powell has a nice feel to them and would be good choices if you think he will like the graphics and overall vibe.
You should definitely go with bigger sized regular trucks like Indy or Ace, it feels heavier enough already because of the size and longboard trucks would probably make it super fuckin heavy and hard to do anything else than rolling and turning on.
As far as wheels go, in my experience the wheels make a huge difference in the overall feel along with truck size since the deck is so wide. Will he do a lot of tricks or mostly "use it as a longboard" i.e. just roll around?
With a 9.5-10.5 deck, 54mm will be a little small, but it works if he wants to do a lot of tricks. I have a 9.5 old school shape board with Ace 44 and Ricta clouds 54mm that feels great and you can pretty much skate it like a regular 8.5 board with the exception of flip tricks being harder, but I had 56mm clouds before and they felt great too. Maybe go with 56-58mm plain janes? I'd definitely recommend the Ricta clouds along with the plain janes, although it does take away a little from that purist old school feel.
If I were you I'd try to figure out his main objective with the setup. If he wants to actually skate it and be able to do tricks, I'd go Indy 149/159 or Ace 44/55 with Plain janes/Cloud 56-58mm and risers. If he wants it to have a real old school vibe and mainly look cool, I'd go the wider option trucks or even one up and vintage looking 60mm wheels like Kryptonics or something similar.