Retroman Rebuild
In 1999, Jim Gray (owner for many years of Acme, ABC Board Supply, Scarecrow, etc) sent me this board to ride. It is a 48″ Acme “Retroman” longboard. It was my 2nd longboard, and when it arrived I thought there was no way I could ride such a big board. Even with a kicktail, it just seemed to big to ride in ditches.
Me, on the Retroman, at one of the great contests at the C-Fan ditch, south of Austin.
However, I set it up with some Randal trucks and some 65mm wheels, and it ruled. I got really good at slinging this board around in ditches, and for the next 2 years I rode it everywhere. The thing is so well built, with a high quality laminate, it never broke, even with years of doing boneless ones. Finally, after many years, the tail wore down and I retired it while it was still ridable.
I’ve tried to find a similar board since then. I’ve come close. My 44″ Libtech is good, but man, I like the 48″ length. Sadly, no one makes a board this long, that is this good, anymore.
So I am repairing the tail. I taped a cardboard form around the tail, and I’m slowing building up layers of epoxy under the worn down razor-tail. When I ‘ve got it built up enough, I’ll fabricate a thin but replaceable tail skid, and the Retroman will be ready to ride again.
In the first pic, I’m playing around with some Ace trucks on it, but I’ll mostly like put 180mm Randal-IIs on it again. That setup works well. I’ll mostly likely use some 62mm Rainskates Mini-Tsus for wheels.
