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Old School
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The Old School section probably sums JUSRF up as a company. For us it represents style and alos a no boundaries approach to skating, don't let anyone (including us) tell you what you should or shouldn't be riding.
Once agian, old school is not a strict definition and works more as a useful placeholder for certain types of kit.
If you aren't sure what it's all about, grab a DVD like 'dog town and z-boys' or some of the classic Bones Brigade (particularly Furture Primitive for me), or Skull Skates art of going sideways. They all clearly show the evolution of skating and it's clear how much is still carried through today.
At the end of the day, each to their own, for those who remember there's no question for the rest, it could just be the revelation you have been looking for in you skating.
We try to keep stock genuine 70's and 80's decks (still brand new!) although the availability is declining as you would expcect, but fortunately many of the established companies are re-issuing classics and producing great hybrid decks. Look for Skull Skates, Alva, Dogtown, Z-Flex and many others.
We wil ltry and cover (briefly) the main types of kit you will be looking at. There are loads of websites out there if you need more info, but this will get you started.
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70's to 80's gear
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Summed up by the Dogtown DVD, look for narrower boards and trucks with snappy turning to carve smooth lines, the style was influenced directly from surfing.........read more
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80's to 90's gear
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As the riders sought out different terrain, new styles of riding appeared, particularly influenced by pool and ramp skating, really this was probably the birth of extreme sport as we know it, the characters, the moves...... the decks became wider and later developed concaves.........read more
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Re-issues & Hybrids
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The Dog Town DVD has inspired many skaters and led to a whole load of re-issued and hybrid equipment........read more
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70's to 80's
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Typically the decks will be fairly narrow and flat through the main section with a kicktail, often the construction was solid wood with a block tail glued on and then shaped, there are also some shaped ply decks, having said that there were also a few all polypropylene decks around, we have had some thru the shop recently. Why would you want one, you can ask half the kids in our village, they love them, they make great small transport boards, they tend to be very carvy, forgiving wheel softnesses and you can still ride them in mellow bowls. They do tend to be a bit narrow so not good if you have big feet.
Wheels are generally aligned with the edge of the board and so the trucks tend to be very narrow and had fairly upright kingpins. A typical truck of the day was the ACS 651 which you can still get made from the original casting. I well remember the Gullwing trucks (i never could afford them) but they are still made today check out http://www.gullwingtrucks.com/sl2002.htm and also helped to inspire the geometry on newer slalom trucks. We sometimes have some original 70's trucks in the shop and they are great because they also have the original rubber bushings, which i really like the response of. You can mount any narrow truck to this style of board but make sure you have a nice responsive bushing.
The wheels were generally softer urethane compounds and many riders still talk about Red Kryptonics with a sense of awe. These wheels had a conical edge and combined with the soft compound meant they always felt smoth though turns and over various surfaces. Many of the wheels of the time developed huge conical edges and massive width, completely disproportianate to the narrow trucks they were mounted on. Wheels are hard to come by from this era and they also change their hardness over time, we generally mount up a new set like the ABEC 11 Retro Bertz which both look good and perform well. Also look at the smaller 3DM wheels.
We sometimes have a few original 70's decks in the shop some oak, some hardwood laminates and some ply, we often make them up with Indy 101, ACS 651 or RAM trucks (the latter are original with rubber bushings), wheels are generally newer style as it's increasingly hard to find original old items.
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80's to 90's
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Kryptonics moved thru blue to green and then lime green getting progressively harder and matching the change in skateboard style. There are loads of collector web sites out there with thousands of wheels from the period. The scene became huge and yet inexplicably almost completely died out overnight....
Decks got wider and were now constructed from laminates to allow the developing shapes which appeared. A typical deck from the period will be kind of fish shaped with a wide round nose, slightly narrower waist and sometimes a huge kicktail..........some were flat through the nose, others developed concaves as the precursor to today's shapes. Tracker SixTracks, Indy 166's were typical trucks and are still available today. Also new school companies like Grind King make trucks for 9" decks. Some of the wider decks will need a 10" truck, as with most set-ups the edge of the wheels should align with the edge of the deck, so need to look at deck, truck and wheel offset as a combination.
Another nuance of the time was rail and tail savers basically bits of plastic that screwed onto the tail and sides for sliding (and not damaging your deck). These can still be obtained for the authentic build. Rails are cool anyway, make some of those coping tricks a bit steadier on a concaved deck, plus save your graphics.
You can still get original decks and sometimes trucks from this period and you don't always need to pay huge sums on Ebay (unless you want a particular classic). Original wheels are very hard to come by though. We build a fair number of these with Tracker and Indy Trucks and usually wheels as described in the re-issue section.
You can expect a board that although heavier than today's decks will be stable underfoot, be fun on ramps and bowls and will almost certainly outlast most of today's decks.
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Re-issues, Hybrids, New Old school?
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There is a growing amount of equipment coming through in this space and rightly so, the gear inspires a style of skating that definitely has a place alongside today's ollie led riding style
There are companies that just never stopped making boards the same way, one of these is Skull Skates out of Vancouver, they still make all black decks with stunning white graphics in a variety of shapes from pool pigs (flat, wide nose, good sizee kick tail) to concaved kick tail/ nose hybrids etc. I like a lot of things about Skull Skates, their design flair (check out the dead guy's deck), their FU approach to change, and something that you don't see much in today's mass produced decks - rock hard construction, one of the few decks we make up where the countersunk bolts don't naturally sink into the surface as you tighten them.
Other re-issues come from companies such as Alva, Dog Town, Madrid, Z skateboards (Z-Flex Jay Adams), Bulldog (Shogo Kubo) and many others. Generally the shapes are a hybrid of wider sections (usually about 9") and kictails with concaves. Generally the concave will be much less than today's boards and sometimes is nearly flat. These board always feel good underfoot.
Trucks are generally around 8.5 to 9" wide to fit this style of deck. Most popular are Tracker Sixtracks, Independent 166's and more recently Grind King have a Jay Adams model which works really well.
Most wheels have a double curved profile to avoid hang-ups and will usually be 60 or 65mm. Good examples are the ABEC11 No Skoolz, Bulldogs, Kryptonics Hawaiis etc. Durometer is down to the rider but you can get everything from grippy 74A thru to slidy 94A and above.
When you put together a complete, you will inevitably need higher risers than on most contempary boards to avoid wheelbite (but then you are planning to turn this board, right??). Typically between 1/8th and 1/2 inch will be required.
One growing area for this deck style is for sliding. The deck platform seems to about right. Typical sliding set-ups might have carvier trucks such as Randals and some hard radiused wheels. Strap on some slide gloves and you're all set.
As always, any questions please feel free to get in touch. |
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