Quivers

George McClellan, aka GBMII

A good friend of mine (and fellow old school skater) Joe Lehm has a saying “quiver counts”.  I think that the right board for the right environment can make the skating experience much more fun.  This wasn’t as critical a philosophy until I moved to Albuquerque and had a wide variety of terrain to choose from.  I spend most of my time in pools, ditches, and ramps but still frequent parks and downhill.  I have a bunch of boards to choose from, but I keep 6 or 7 tuned up and ready to skate.  

Black Label/Red Kross, Steve Olson Stinger model, 9.5”x32”, 18” wheelbase, Indy 166s with soft (yellow) Doh Doh bushings, green Conspiracy 97a x 60mm wheels, Bones ceramics and Schmitt Stixx rails.  My primary pool, ramp and park board.  I redrilled the front truck mounting holes to give me a little more wheelbase and less nose.  Great stick, light and strong with good concave. 

Dreggs, Supertanker model, 56 x 10.25, Randall IIs 180mm with grade 8 kingpins, Krypto Classics 70mm greens with ABEC 7 bearings.  My primary ditch board.  THE ditch board for the Bear and other monsters.  It’s 15 ply laminate with pretty good flex.  This is a great combination for big wall cruising or hauling butt down a long ditch.  The Randalls are ESSENTIAL to making this board work.  They really make a difference in turning and stability at 25 mph plus.  This setup also works well for downhill and street cruising, but has a little too much flex for a serious race board.  I’ve hopped on this stick in the Los Altos combi pool and got double truck grinds through the corners of the square.  

Bulldog Skates, Shogo Kubo model, 34 x 10, 21 inch wheelbase! 3” nose and 6” tail, Indys with Alva 99a x 60 mm wheels, Schmitt rails.  This stick has a real old school feel to it.  The tail is wide and pretty squared-off, the concave is mild and the nose is flat.  It is a blast to ride, especially on big walls.  It is a great board for airs (long wheelbase = lotsa balance) but it takes forever to swing that nose around on frontside rock and rolls.  

Black Label, 34 x 10, semi-popsicle. Indys and soft (I don’t know how soft, Schmitt gave them to me about 2 years ago) 63mm “Bloodclot” wheels.  This is my “Beer Run” deck.  The big/soft wheels make it easy to ride in just about any terrain, and half inch risers allow me to run the trucks loose without wheel bite.  It’s great for mini-ditch trick and parking block sessions, and I’ve even run cones with this.  

Deathbox, Brad Bowman Model, 32 x 9.25, original shoebox shape, Indys and Generic 98a x 58mm wheels, Schmitt rails, 17.5” wheelbase.  The shape of this stick is like the old Tony Hawk “pict-o-gram” board with a square nose and tail.  I got it cheap from a guy who was giving up skating.  The first time I saw it I thought it was pretty goofy, but Bowman swears that they sold all of ‘em.  (He changed the shape for the next model however).  Plus you gotta love the classic BB logo remake.  The board has a pretty serious concave and everyone that rides it says the same thing, your feet stick like glue to this board (maybe it’s got those magnets in it like those boards that Gelfand used to ride. Oh no wait, that was his shoes!).  It is very comfortable and I’d probably ride it more if the nose wasn’t so long.  I think it will be a great stick to ride in a big full-pipe (soon). 

Schmitt Stixx, Chris Miller model, 31.5 x 10, Tracker Superlights and G-bones.  My real “old school” stick.  I got this from Paul when I was living in Spain in the late ‘80s.  I rode it until the Kona Jam in ‘02.  I break it out for “old school” sessions every now and then, but mostly it sits in a box under my bed.  First board I ever owned with a nose kick.  

Conspiracy Skateboards, Custom Cutaway model, 41 x 9.75”, Indys with 70mm White Krypto Classics, 32” wheelbase.  Tim Mott made a few of these from the wood they got when they tore town the Vans Denver skatepark.  It’s like 3/4” Birch laminate so it is pretty stiff.  I use it as a mid-length ditch board (Indian School and Ventura style ditches) or as a downhill bomber.  The white Kryptos are a little hard in the ditches but feel real nice on some smooth blacktop.  It’s a pretty good downhill board too but needs some Randalls to be used at high speeds.  

Salomon XScream 9, 195cm, Salomon 900S bindings set to 10.  Serious all-mountain cruisers.  Kind of a mid-fat shape, without too much “shovel”on the nose.  They are wide enough to work well in powder and maneuverable enough to take into the trees.  And they absolutely hall ass on the groomers.   These boards are big and fast.  You can’t even buy skis this long anymore.  But as the saying goes “small skis – small unit”.  

Sims, Superlight, 26.5 x 7 ¾”, ACS 580s, original Sims Competition wheels (unsure of durometer and size).  I found this board cheap on EBay, it was a sentimental purchase, the Superlights used to be the shizzzz.  I can carve grind in Palmers egg with it.  I’m gonna learn how to ride it like Craig D Walrus rides that little banana board in the Lake Mary pool. 

Powell Peralta, Steve Caballero Mechanical Dragon mini, 30.5 x 9.5, short wheelbase, Schmitt rails. Vintage stick in great shape.  Solid with no cracks, warping or delam.  Not set up right now, but I use this as my tight transition pool board.  Good nose and tail kick keep me from grinding the nose and tail in the shallow ends.  Great for the Beech Bowl or the Royale shallow end. 

Chuck Hults Deckcrafters, Jim McCall template, 27 x 7.5.  I’ve had this board for a year now and am still trying to find some Tracker fulltracks to set it up with (sorry – they are not made of gold, and I am not paying $75 a set…).  I’ve got a set of Powell-Peralta Primo Deanos waiting.  

Bozi Longboards, Custom, 40 x 10” mild concave, Randall Trucks, 78a ABEC 11 Gumballs.  This board is the Stealth bomber of downhill boards.  An absolute screamer. 

Pool draining kit.  Flo-Tec pump, silent running, 350 gallons per hour, with a weighted, filtered intake that is flat and will continue to pump down to about a half an inch of “water” (sometimes sludge).  100 foot three-wire extension cord, with a couple of 2-prong adapters just in case (some old houses don’t have three-prong outlets).  2 five gallon buckets, a couple of Big Gulp cups, a big sponge, a nasty beach towel, a roll of duct tape and two Motorola walkie talkies.  Refreshments by Tecate.