Gravity Skateboards has added a new team rider – Kiefer Kroneker. This kid has a relaxed, confident style, like all of Gravity’s crew. He should totally fit in! These guys never seem to have a care in the world, which is how it should been when you are riding a skateboard.
Just some video I shot today. No music — prefer the sound of the actual ride. Keeping it real.
Kevin Kennedy, at Gravity Skateboards, sent me a message about his new board, the 43″ Drop Kick (which he designed!). As you’ve seen in some of their videos, Kevin (their sales manager) has a nice flowing style, and I’m sure this awesome board fits his riding perfectly.
I made a vow to not buy any new longboards this year (though I will replace wheels if needed). But if I were going to get a new board, this would be high on my list of boards to try.
After two months of brutally hot weather, it has finally cooled down in North Texas. So two nights ago I finally got back to the hill, on my beloved Gravity Kalai. It actually felt like it had been longer since I’d skated. I was surprised when I look here on TLB and realized it had only been two months. Weird.
Anyway, the wind was not exactly favorable, but also not too bad, so my friend Chris and I rolled the hill a few times, and man it felt good. I was relieved to see that I hadn’t lost the frontside check-slide skills I’d been working on back in July.
So I think its time to rotate the wheels on the Kalai. The Gravity Hi-Grades are holding up really well, but I like to rotate them diagonally every so often to even out the wear.
That’s all for now.
I have been taking a break from skating due to the insane heat wave we’ve been having here in Texas. It’s been hitting about 103 – 105 F every day for the last two months. Seriously, at 10pm it has often still been 100 outside.
All of this sucks, but it has given me time to do a few other things, like read and play my guitar a bit.
Hoping for less than 100 by tonight at 7pm. If so, I will be flowing down a hill.
There are a lot of good longboard trucks out there these days. I like Randals.
In 1999 there weren’t many longboard trucks available. When I first saw Randal Trucks back in 1999 I didn’t think much of them. I’d had various trucks of similar kingpin-under-the-axle type design in past years — Gullwing split axles and Variflex Connextion trucks come to mind. Neither one sucked, but frankly neither was great either.
Sometime in 1999 I took a trip to San Diego for a conference and had the good fortune to skate with Chris Sturhann, who at the time ran a site called nosewheelie.com. Chris took me to the public skatepark at Temecula, California. He mostly rode longboards, and I had a chance to inspect Randal-II 180s first hand and try them out.
My mind was instantly changed. The trucks tracked the ground much better than a standard truck design, and offered a much deeper turn, useful for boards in the 45″+ range. When I got home I ordered some, and have continued to ride Randal trucks ever since. I still have that first set. They’re a bit ground down for grinding them in ditches, but still in really good shape and totally rideable.
At some point a few years ago Randal was reported having some quality control issues. I’d never had any such problems, but I think the reports were probably accurate.
Then a few years ago Randal Trucks was purchased by Gravity Skateboards. Gravity, along with their creator, used modern computer modeling and prototyping techniques to re-work the R-II. They sent me this set (see below) of black limited edition trucks, and I was blown away by the quality improvements. Much better casting on the trucks. Better everything. Since then, they’ve improved the stock bushings, begun using higher quality grade-8 kingpins, and continued the high quality manufacturing.
I see a lot of threads on the web debating what trucks to get. Like I said, there are a lot of good trucks available. I have nothing bad to say about any of them.
But when in doubt, go with Randal.
Randals turn. If you skate parks, ditches, or street, Randals grind. They grind GREAT. The round hanger grinds perhaps better than any truck I’ve ever ridden.
Randals are made in the USA. They are owned by an American company – Gravity Skateboards. Why should this matter? Well, you know where they came from, and you know where to go if you have a problem. Randals are easy to modify if you want longer kingpings and bigger bushings. Real easy. For general riding and good grinding the stock setup rules.
They rip on hills, street, ditches, or parks.
When in doubt, or even when not in doubt, I say go with Randal.
My black Randal 180s, modded with extra thick bushings (I got these before Randal came up with their improved bushings).
Damn, our friend and Texas longboarding icon John Armstrong has been in Iraq almost a year now! I was just thinking today he should be home soon, but it looks like a couple more months yet.
John — be safe man!! I took some fun rides on the Mini-Carve tonight.
OK – here’s an older video of John skating with Gravity Skateboards Brad Edwards.
Board, I christen thee...Peace Dog.
Oh, peace is a dirty word
She used to be a painted bird, yeah
And war, she’s a whore
Don’t you know we love her more and more?
– the Cult
Gravity’s Shane Hidalgo. Cool video.
