I remember buying 32mm wheels from CCS in the early 90s. I preferred a 42mm, and I accidently bought 45mm once and thought they were gigantic. Here are a few reasons we loved small wheels: First, speed didn't really matter as much. We weren't cruising. It was all about being super-technical. A 12 inch slide or grind was good enough, as long as you flip-tricked into it and rolled a few feet after it. Second, it was about differentiating ourselves from "old-school" skaters. This was at the dawn of "double kick-tail" boards (boards with as large a nose as a tail), which looked vastly different that previous skateboards. tiny wheels were very much part of that differentiation as well. Third, as you point out in the video, it made flip-tricks a lot easier. We were going relatively slow, staying relatively low, and flipping as fast as we could. Small wheels helped with that as well. Keep up the good work!
Jeff Hyson You nailed it man!! Do you remember the 29mm??...called "the bearing covers"...they were insanely small, but helped a lot with the flips, but as soon as you hit a rock (the size of a grain of rice), there you went flying out of your board...good times!!
I wouldn't ride those ultra lows on the actual streets of any town though. Cause sometimes you find good spots where you need way more speed, or you need a bit more move about in your motion. At a skatepark though ultra lows were king cause everythings pretty smooth. In the actual streets though I'd use an elemental deck, medium wheels, and risers. I mean I'd use risers anyway cause (wtf are you doing to your WOOD!).
Vans was the 1st shoe developed for skateboarding though and they make alot of shoes specifically for skating and that's why their sole has developed as it has.
I used to have those slip on mid top vans, they fuckin sucked for skating. I bruised my heel with those. We need to go back to the big puffy shoes, those things were good for skating.
Re. The first question, George Powell was a good example he never skated and was an engineer. He met Stacey Peralta and the rest is skateboarding history!
While it isn't a skateboarding example, it is the first thing that jumped into my mind when the topic was brought up. We all know and love Fender guitars and amps. Well, Leo Fender could not play guitar. He wasn't musical at all. But he came up with the concept of how to amplify music and build great guitars. He set the standard for the electric bass, guitar and amplification above 100 watts.
I remember back in 1993 or so and there was actually a 36mm wheel that was sold in a six pack (???) called "bearing covers". I don't remember the manufacturer. They marketed it as the smallest wheel you could buy. From my perspective as a dude who was 12-13 years old and trying to learn every pressure and late flip variation out there, they did lower the board so your tail engaged quicker and was easier to scoop, but were otherwise terrible for actually rolling around on east coast sidewalks and streets. It was also harder to ollie really high with such a short contact point. Your nose wasn't very high off the ground when the tail hit, so the leverage wasn't ideal. Tiny wheels made manual tricks harder, for sure. Smooth parks didn't really exist back then, so your tiny wheels would catch in every little bump and crack on a concrete pad or short ledge. I don't change wheels very often, but I don't think I've ever got a set that was over 54mm (aside from my first fishtail Natas board with OJ wheels that were probably 60mm in 1989). I tend to like 52-53mm plain white wheels that are at least 97d. ....I just watched your whole vid and you mentioned the 6 pack. They were actually 36, not 38mm. Normal kids like my friends and I wouldn't change wheels for a flatspot, so it seemed dumb until we realized that three of us could go in for two packs (well, our moms would since we were like 12-14) and all three of us would be the coolest guys with the tiniest wheels next week. Also, pretty much right after the first Plan B and New Deal videos, when shit started getting ultra tech, board shapes went full popsicle/football symmetrical with the same nose and tail and started getting crazy small. I remember seeing boards that were less than 7.5" for a very brief period. I think Rodney Mullen briefly had a board on Plan B that was like 28 x 7.25", basically a double kick, football shaped freestyle board, but it was only in like one CCS catalog.
I remember back in the early 90s small wheel era. Imo everything you said is right but there was another factor, at least from what I remember. Vert didn't really die from small wheels it died because of a few reasons. The marketing became ridiculous and trick progression all but died. When street took over, street skaters wanted to distance themselves as far as possible from the corny and corporate vert marketing to take skating back to the underground and to basically do the opposite of what vert was doing. Trick progression was also a big thing. It's just like now when you learn a new trick you start off slow and low then when you get it down you take it further. So late 80s/early 90s was all about setting the foundations and mid 90s to now is the result of that.
Dude I had a set of black spitfire wheels with the flames on the sides and I skated them down, well a buddy needed a spare set of wheels after I bought new ones so I gave my old wheels too him. Long story short, the wheels made their way around abunch of my friends in school because we lived kinda far from a skate shop and stuff. Well about 2 years later I ended up getting the wheels back and they were so small that they were barely thicker than my bones red bearings lol. I always thought they looked cool and kept them around but lost em when I went to college :(
It was definitely easier to ride on those boards with little wheels. I had skated from 87 until the early 90's and quit before they came into vogue. After a few years of not skating, I hopped on my friend's little wheeled board and was instantly able to do tricks I could never land before when I skated every day.
I feel like the gate keeping in skateboarding is very tiring. If someone is using shady business practices, ripping people off, or treating their team poorly that's one thing but "you're a bad person for selling boards and not being a skater" is childish
I remember the decks getting pretty small right around 94, that seems to be the year they figured out smaller decks flipped even better than just small wheels lol.. I had a bunch of New School boards around that time that were all 7.5, but I remember friends with Alien Workshop boards close to 7.0. I just got my first complete in 20 years or so and went with a 8.0 enjoi board with 56mm wheels and I love it
i remember we all rocked small wheels and blanks in the rocco era, everything was tech and the stuntman gap era wasn't in yet so speed wasn't a real issue. btw, all the "cool" skaters skated blanks, to us back then, showing up with a board with graphics was like coming to a spot today wearing yeezys and a supreme tee, hahaha! real shit
ENGELSKA Hey! I did most of my skateboarding from 1997 to 2004, and I was usually riding a board that was 7.625 wide. Some of my friends went on boards that were 7.5 and other went with 7.75. During this time I had at one time an ATM board which was 8.25 wide. It was tough as hell to flip and all my friends bullied me because of my "surfboard". I've heard that guys nowadays are going on as wide boards. why? Why now and not then around the turn of the millennium
i ride an 8.25 blank board eith 56mm oj wheels. i just love riding tranny mostly bowls and pools, i think the bigger board gives you more room to land on and are funner to push through the coping then a smaller board
yeah me too I rode a 7.5 and I had the tiny wheels only problem was hitting the little rocks right when your setting up for a trick haha now I joined the 8 + board band wagon but because I'm 240 lbs now and old.
i remember the moment I stepped onto my mates 8.125 or 8.5 whatever it was I was in love... man I didn't feel the weight or any added difficulty in flipping it just felt right... it felt so connected.
The little wheel thing was shocking. I quit skating in 89 and got back into it in 91 and everything was different. I bought a Santa Cruz Jason Jessie board and went home to mount my old school trucks and they didn't fit. I had some Powell 2 rat wheels and they were so huge it looked stupid. Even risers went from 1/2" to 2mm or no risers. Ended up getting new trucks and some 31mm Milk wheels. Rode sweet on smooth concrete and wooden mini ramps, terrible on the sidewalk or road. I loved those small wheels for doing tricks.
In the '90s you'd see guys carrying their boards between spots rather than skating there. I remember wheels as small as 33mm too. IIRC a skateboard bearing is 27mm in diameter.
I started skating in the tiny wheel era. Here in Atlantic Canada, they called them 'Easter Eggs', for some reason. hehe. Anyway, they were great for flip tricks but sucked for just cruising around. Even sidewalk cracks could get in the way. Here is an example of just how small some of these wheels were. My Mom decided to surprise me with a gift of new wheels for my board and got me a set of 42mm Spitfire wheels. This was probably around 95 or 96. When I first saw them and then put them on my board, they looked absolutely massive to me. I absolutely loved them once I got used to them. It is crazy to think back to a time when we were all riding wheels that were under 40mm. Upon reflection, it was a stupid trend.
I was 14-16 around the time of tiny wheels. They were definitely fashion. They sucked for street skating in the northeast and got a flatspot the second you locked into a noseslide. Going to a park, you were definitely part of the cool kids club if you had really, really small wheels, like less than 40mm. Around my area (connecticut) everyone at the Playground park had light faded baggy jeans and a tighter fit plain white t-shirt with either puma suede lows or adidas campus shoes in 1992-1993. I settled into 53mm and still skate those today. I prefer hard wheels for sliding that last 10 degrees out of 180 and fakie 360 tricks. As far as non-skater owned companies, it depends. Are they passionate about skating? In Connecticut we had an amazing local board company for a while in the late 90's called Animal Skates that was owned by a 20 year old guy that didn't skate, but loved skate culture and hung out with us all the time shooting photos and running a local zine. He was based in Vernon, and sold boards at a handful of shops around the Hartford area. At the time, a lot of skaters worked at or around the local mall complex in Manchester, and the Burr Corners parking lot was the meet up spot between 8 and 11 pm. There was a great manny pad there, a round railing chopped down about 18" tall as a flat bar, a long three stair for gap tricks and a 24 hour Dunkin Donuts. I learned smiths, feebles and crooked grinds on that bar. To me, Animal was totally part of my local scene. He was running the brand totally out of pocket and eventually ran dry when Pacific Sunwear started stocking boards and blank decks were being sold a dime a dozen online in the early 2000's. It was really an awesome scene back then in 1998-2001.
I had 32mm Daredevil wheels. Oh Lord! My best grinds were done on them. Flips were amazing with them. However, if you caught on a pebble or crack you were done. Now I ride big and wide (60x45mm) grinding is a bitch but rolling is perfect.
45mm was the best size for me. I had 38s and even 32s once, which was pretty silly. One other thing about tiny wheels is they were hard on bearings, having a little less absorbtion, and if you did anything big they sometimes didn't keep up with forward momentum on the landing.
I can vouch for the fact that going from a noseslide to a nosegrind was easier. I could basically do a slappy noseslide to nosegrind back to noseslide and back again about 5 times in one slide with 40mm wheels. once I went back to 50+mm I couldnt even go from a noseslide to nosegrind at all. I never heard the condom expression but I heard "bearing covers" a lot to refer to the 38mm and smaller (do to use) wheels.
Can you make videos or series on just famous spots? Like what we're best tricks at them, who skated them, are they dead or alive basically skate stopped
i ride tiny wheels because my old wheels broke so my brother gave me some old wheels, and i've heard people telling me i have tiny wheels about 1000 times and i have no explanation. sometimes i feel like a poser because i didn't wear them down, and people ask if i want their old wheels, but i've gotten used to them and i'm not sure if i'll be able to skate as well if i switch to bigger wheels or what kind of wheels are the best if i were to switch.
1st question: Schmitt Stix. Dude wasn't a skater but has done SO many things for the skate industry. Dude is right up there with Rodney Mullen in regards to his contribution to what skating is today.
Glad you made a video on this, for some reason tiny wheels fascinate me. I found some newer 49mm wheels and I wanted to buy them just to see what it was like, but this pretty much told me everything I wanted to know.
Only reason I remember small wheels was people would rock wheels until they split in half from ware. Only people that had anything near 40s new in my area were sponsored guys. Everyone else would get 45-52 because of cracks.
i started skating in 89 and the 90's small wheels era was when i at my peak. i just got back into skating after an almost 20 year hiatus. I've never skated wheels that were over 51mm and that feels big to me. Also back in the day bigger than an 8" board was looked at as being fairly wide.
i was skating when the little wheels were becoming more popular so I bought some... I could skate on them but they weren't fun to skate on... if your trucks were too tall or felt off sometimes you could get some smaller wheels to offset and you might find it can help. alot of people use to grind street with little fruityloops.
I started skating 56mm wheels and tried 47's because the dudes i skated with were using them. I went down my usual run through my neighborhood taking my lines and such. Usual speed. The crack i never had a problem with before with 56 stopped me to a dead stop! I went FLYING..... right on my face. Blood everywhere 15 stitches and a concussion, and never rode 47's again. I settled for 52's. I like speed and pop
I once traded my wheels with a guy who had some powell peralta wheels. They were really small and for some reason I felt I went faster with them then I did with mine. I dont remember what mine were but were more rubbery and had the threads on them which I remember thinking it looked like spaguetti on my wheels lol
better is still in business. im sponsored by them actually. i like 49mm smallest they offer. i like small wheels because they make my board lower with less wheelbite and lighter aswell. makes flip tricks easier i find. rough ground sucks with them tho haha
Ive been skating 39 mm wheels for a few months. I love them only a problem on extremely rough ground or on dirt since there's less space between the dirt and the bearings.
You should do a video about the physics of skateboarding tricks, the reason flip tricks look the way they do. For example, the reason the hardflip looks so weird and vertical as opposed to the varial kickflip is that its precession angular momentum vector acts to amplify the ollie torque. Whereas varial kickflips precess in the direction opposite the ollie torque, effectively leveling out in the horizontal plane.
I'd like to. But I need to finish physical therapy on my knee first, so I can record footage myself instead of trying to find closeups and different angles of tricks from other people.
Having a hard time getting to powerslides . What kind of wheel/wheel shape? We all know hard, but seems like the 80-90s wheels slid better on street? Or I'm just old as dirt. New Sub - like the calm thoughtful content!
What do you think is best skateboard trick ever pulled? What is the best videopart ever? Who's the most underrated skater? Did Frankie Hill invent "go big" in street?
Kickflip; personal opinion; personal opinion; you are the most underrated skater; Cooksie went big when he bombed dropped on top of a ladder. Sorry RadRat, I am just having fun answering questions. LOL
90s era was the best, small wheels came about because we didn't need bigger heavier bulky wheels so made them smaller. Before all other wheel were ramp wheels so it was street skating becoming street skating that's all
I lived and skated during the BPSW era. To me big noses and small wheels were for Blunt slides. Straight function. Nose slides and nose and tail blunt slides were the sh1t back then. And the baggy pants were to stay “loose” to do the new tricks that were out at the time. I had 39mm and 40’s. Santa Cruz Dots were the worst. Flat spots first day. My favorites were the green Powell Arnold Palmers. Those lasted the longest back then.
Funny how rock-hard 101a wheels remain the norm for street, while almost everyone who skates something other than buttery-smooth skate plazas would be far better off with a slightly softer wheel. I'm riding Ricta Clouds (86a I think) and they are simply amazing. They're not as soft as a filmer wheel, but that slightly softer polyurethane makes for a 100% smoother ride on less-than-perfect surfaces. Other companies make their own varieties of not-quite-so-hard street wheels, but they remain a niche item. Worth considering if you regularly skate on chunky ground, though.
I don't think you're right since every skater sponsored by bones rides street formula wheels which are for sure not as hard as 101a (idk what is the hardness exactly). 101a is skatepark standard not street imo.
Arno Theadorno specially for begginners to learn to ride around, i've seen people giving up on skate because of how annoying it is to skate their hard wheels. I'm still learning myself and ride 92a's , they are not that soft but enough to notice the difference, all i don't like about them is the bouncy feel they have when you land on them, idk about that , i might give hard wheels a try just for that. But they've definetly saved my life in terms of learning riding basics , much more comfortable than the hard ass wheels that came with my board.
Sleepndraw I would recommend you trying bones stf (i heard that some spitfires are great as well) which i mentioned earlier. When you ride them they feel not soft but kinda weirdly not brutal on your legs (i can do longer trips on them with ease) but when you land they don't bounce at all and feel as hard as 101a wheels. Also go for some wider shape because my friend got V3 I think and they aren't as good for rough surfaces as my V2.
erlik07 right , my softer wheels are also wider so they got more area into the ground , i guess that would also help. My board is also narrow so that and hard narrow wheels were a living hell. Maybe you're right and what i need are wide hard wheels , i'll give it a thought. Also, do shock pads work at all?
I just dug an almost 20 year old enjoi setup out of my basement. Has Spitfire 40mms on it. Looking at getting back on a board and while shopping for all new stuff I was surprised to find that tiny wheels seem to be gone entirely.
There was this old company I used to see ads for in thrasher mags, late 80s early 90s, called Naked...they sold blanks and uncut decks...ads were sick...I always thought that was a solid idea, just bare bones and raw
You should do a segment on where trick names came from...first mentions and evolution of naming and such. When was "bigspin" first used and how long did it take to become the normal name for a 360 shove it body varial.
Enzo Amaya what is? yeah the proper technical name is BS pop shove it but I'm talking about all shove it variations not a specific variation, Also in the past shove its weren't popped so when did it become more trendy to add the pop Rad Rat?
It definitely isn't a shuvit body varial at heart, though it looks that way these days. It's technically a shuvit late 180 (or revert, if you will, but I'd say reverts are in the opposite direction). IIRC people then started adding pop, then doing the full 3 shuv and moving their bodies at a different speed to the board so it did the full thing in the air.
You should do a podcast; love all the details and info in your videos, I watch like at least one a day; would be nice to listen to these subjects at work
hi dude your channel rules (i don't know if i wrote it right because i'm spanish) but i would like that you make a video talking about handcrafted skateboards
I was skating everything I could with some 50mm that I had worn down to 42mm. Every time I’d get new wheels, they’d flat spot and I’d end up putting the old ones back on. I think they were Plan B? Hard to say, but I know they weren’t from a dedicated wheel company. I tempted death doing crazy hill bombs with those beasts!
I'd love to check out my friends' boards, but I don't have any friends who skate. I don't know any skaters in my area tbh, I've seen one person skate in my entire town, and they were gone in 5 minutes. No skateparks either, they're in neighbouring towns and pretty rubbish (one's half-decent with concrete stuff, one's unskateable and is pretty much only safe for BMXs)
radrat here is my question: What is the history of backfoot flip tricks? i have seen them over the years, most recently braydon's berrics piece...lotta potential for innovation and NBDs...why are they not more popular and what's the history?
I'll have to cover that soon. It's tough because it's kind of like pressure flips... Nobody was doing them, then suddenly everyone was doing them. It's hard to track down where they actually came from. If I figure it out, I'll make a video for sure.
Interesting take on non-skater owned businesses. A lot of skateparks here were built through fundraising committees run by non-skaters, although most of them have some sort of connection to skateboarding or other wheeled sports. You can usually tell which ones had skater input and which were thrown together by the local council (mine being the latter 🤣)
What kind of wheels do you recommend for indoor skateparks with super slippery wooden ramps and polished floors? Do you think it's worth it to have two sets of wheels? One for indoor parks and the other for street/outdoor parks.
I think having 2 sets of wheels would be a great idea, some larger softer wheels for streets etc and some mid/small harder wheels for indoor parks would be ideal. For street I personally use a set of 56mm 92a conical spitfires for street, the conical shape offers some protection on the exposed axles and nut so they don't get so smashed up when they smack the ground. Tried using 101a Rictas and my legs felt like jelly after riding them for a short time on street :P
I was actually thinking of the opposite! I slide all over the place in indoor parks. I'll try to do a kick turn on a quarter pipe and end up power sliding down. XD It could be that I just haven't developed the balance and control yet.
Anthony Tran Ah in that case you may want to take a look into Bones spf (skatepark formula) wheels. too softer wheels in those situations can have some adverse effects as they need to be able to slide to a degree. softer grippy wheels could dig in to much and throw you off of tweak your ankles. Bones also do stf (skatetech formula) but i found these too hard for everyday street use. Good luck though I hope you find a setup that suits you skating :)
Love the videos rad rat. Just my quick observation, smaller wheels would probably give you more torque to do flip tricks since they have a significant weight reduction and thus affects the distribution of weight as the board spins - meaning, it’s easier to flip because it weighs less. The spin would probably be more even compared to bigger wheels as well since a heavier spinning mass would be harder to stop (“catch”), though it’s probably insignificant. But we don’t need to think about that, we just wanna skate! Nerdlife skatelife.
On the subject of people making brands in fields they're not involved in, Leo Fender (Fender Musical Instruments, Ernie Ball Music Man, G&L co-founder) was not a guitarist or bassist, yet designed some of the most important and iconic instruments and instrument accessories in modern music history. You don't need to be a part of something already to be massively influential in a positive way
i always thought it was strange that tiny wheels were popular, like i had a set of 50mm from force and they were impossible slow so i can't imagine what 38mm wheels would have been like
What is the history of skate bearings? Like in Chronological order? And is there a culture or any kind of code about skating your board backwards? (skating with the tail leading)
Good question about the bearings. That might have to be a full research video in the future because I don't know much about it off the top of my head. As for the boards, I don't think there was... I remember seeing trick tips in Transworld that would say stuff like 'start with your board backward, then ollie into the railslide'... and it just seemed almost like another stance.
I remember my legs would always go numb from vibration when I first started I never really had it happen again but that’s because I avoid bad roads. I have to walk like a mile every time I wanna skate and it’s over 100 degrees and humid af
Lol, I remember the 6 pack of wheels. . I can't remember the company though. However; I had bought a set of, "REAL'S" Real Small wheels before. (They might have been 37 or 38mm, or something crazy . And I think I rode them for 5 days on street and they were trashed. I remember Jordan Richter was in my hometown indoor skatepark for a demo, and after the demo and the park closed, we were skating and he gave me a set of his Blind wheels because the flatspot sound inside of the tiny park was driving him crazy. . Lol. . . Old times, I remember that song, "blacksheep" was popular then. . Jordan insisted on playing it over and over
Those Michigan leg shakes are real. Lil bit north of Ann arbor here was never able to put words on that phenomenon before thank you just found this channel. Subbed 4shore 🤙
I remember when I was longer, I used to joke with my friends, about how if I won the lottery, I would use that money to recreate LOVE Park. Thinking back on that, I feel it prompts an interesting question: should classic skate spots be recreated? Obviously it would be cool to have spots like EMB, LOVE, Hubba Hideout, Pier 7, etc. back in the state they originally were in and made legal to skate at, but I could also see the cons of it. These classic spots are considered classics because of all the history behind them, and by simply making the place all over again, you'd in turn wipe away a lot of the history that went down there. Also, it could be a situation like the LA Courthouse. It was very cool of Nike to help make the spot skateable again, but now the place is considered more of a skatepark instead of a real street spot, and, I feel, has lost its integrity because of it. Just a little thought I had. Maybe it'd be interesting enough for a video
I talk about that a bit in Ask Rad Rat #13. But it's phrased more like the best spots of all time, in their heyday, regardless of whether they're skatable anymore or not.
Hahaha! I remember one Thrasher editorial claiming "control" as the issue. Lightness and lowest wheel base possible. IIRC" ...for example, if you were just (riding bearing casings)/(one inch off of the ground), you would have the ultimate control (I think that the second one seems most likely, now that I think about it... the bearing casings thing seems like more of a bitter in-joke amongst the posse). They didn't mention that most of us had stopped going big and fast, and were content to skate around parking lots with 6 inch curbs like what Jake Phelps bitterly editorialized in late '93 as "...like sedated little mosquitoes...". Why the Chinese Cultural revolution? Why New Coke? Why Nuts and Gum (wait, that was a Simpsons episode... :) ) Perhaps in a day when Rocco swiped 95 percent of the market share from the likes of Powell, Vision, NHS, there was an advantage to gain from selling less material at the same cost. Control my ass...
It's simple 54mm x formula shape ruins my flat ground and all my flip tricks, i switch to classic shape 52mm run of the mill blind wheels and its perfect
Great vid, very informative! Personally, I don't even ride my 54mm Spitfires as much as I ride my 56mm Bones Rough Riders out here on the east coast. I've never ridden anything smaller, but I always thought they were a bit stupid looking.
Maybe it was also about street guys trying to do everything different than vert guys like you talked about in your video about mall grabs. I think disadventeges are too big to be compensated by just this 2 positives. There had to be something else.
Have you made any videos where you discuss your skateboarding career or story? If you have, what is the title of the video, and if you haven't you should definitely make a video about it... I think it'd be interesting.
thats the reason that bearrings is the most expensive and you must change all the time new bearings cause of the rough ground...and in europe the streets are gnarly as ashiiit... every 2 weeks one or 2 bearings are out.....greeattingss from greece....skate or die...
Rick Kosick. He's 300 pounds, doesn't skate, and is one of the biggest, (no pun intended) industry skateboard knowledgeable guy. What if he started a company?
Would any of you believe it if you were told that one of the most important figures in skateboarding history were a non skating family owned furniture business looking for a way to make extra income? from pressing to shaping innovations, it all really started there for modern skateboarding. Know your history kids.
I remember buying 32mm wheels from CCS in the early 90s. I preferred a 42mm, and I accidently bought 45mm once and thought they were gigantic. Here are a few reasons we loved small wheels:
First, speed didn't really matter as much. We weren't cruising. It was all about being super-technical. A 12 inch slide or grind was good enough, as long as you flip-tricked into it and rolled a few feet after it.
Second, it was about differentiating ourselves from "old-school" skaters. This was at the dawn of "double kick-tail" boards (boards with as large a nose as a tail), which looked vastly different that previous skateboards. tiny wheels were very much part of that differentiation as well.
Third, as you point out in the video, it made flip-tricks a lot easier. We were going relatively slow, staying relatively low, and flipping as fast as we could. Small wheels helped with that as well.
Keep up the good work!
Jeff Hyson u summed it up perfectly...we kept 1 board with 44 or 45s at all times to new learn flip tricks & spins on
Jeff Hyson You nailed it man!! Do you remember the 29mm??...called "the bearing covers"...they were insanely small, but helped a lot with the flips, but as soon as you hit a rock (the size of a grain of rice), there you went flying out of your board...good times!!
I wouldn't ride those ultra lows on the actual streets of any town though. Cause sometimes you find good spots where you need way more speed, or you need a bit more move about in your motion. At a skatepark though ultra lows were king cause everythings pretty smooth. In the actual streets though I'd use an elemental deck, medium wheels, and risers. I mean I'd use risers anyway cause (wtf are you doing to your WOOD!).
So true. Little wheels and BIG pants.
Double kicks were about 5 to 10 years before small wheel craze
3:07 "I grew up in a really rough area"
Love ya bro :D
Haha yeah I had to clarify that. The farm isn't really the 'roughest' place.
Surfaces* lol said uuuggh yeaaaaa
I remember that wheel company!! It's funny how many old school youtube things I am reminded of because of your videos 😅
Cole Brown, I’m glad you can sleep soundly now that you’ve corrected such a terrible act of human indignity.
Cole Brown i bet you like your own comments
Reflective Edge I wish that was a bad thing, ‘cause I’d spank
A great example of non-skater owned companies is Vans. A deck shoe made perfect for skateboarding without skateboarding even being considered.
Vans are the less durable shoes with Nike SB
5ERVIETSKY H101A not really the thing is a lot of the vans shoes are canvas but the pro skate ones that are made of suede are just as good
Vans was the 1st shoe developed for skateboarding though and they make alot of shoes specifically for skating and that's why their sole has developed as it has.
I used to have those slip on mid top vans, they fuckin sucked for skating. I bruised my heel with those. We need to go back to the big puffy shoes, those things were good for skating.
That Jacob guy your wrong vans were not the first a shoe called “Randy’s” were the first fact check next time you comment
“I grew up in a really rough are- like rough surfaces..” 😂
I ride 40mm Autobahns on a 9.0" football shape and I loooove it. Also the big ass clothes too.
Jadon D. wow i totally forgot about Autobahn lol. Thanks for reminding me. They were good wheels i thought.
Ha. Are you 45 like me? I’m kinda stuck in my era too.
Re. The first question, George Powell was a good example he never skated and was an engineer. He met Stacey Peralta and the rest is skateboarding history!
He started Powell before he met Stacy. George has done a lot for the sport, for sure.
While it isn't a skateboarding example, it is the first thing that jumped into my mind when the topic was brought up. We all know and love Fender guitars and amps. Well, Leo Fender could not play guitar. He wasn't musical at all. But he came up with the concept of how to amplify music and build great guitars. He set the standard for the electric bass, guitar and amplification above 100 watts.
@@6AM_YT .... Not a sport...
@@ronaldhickman9953 Once Nike started making skate shoes and skaters bought them, it became a sport.
I remember back in 1993 or so and there was actually a 36mm wheel that was sold in a six pack (???) called "bearing covers". I don't remember the manufacturer. They marketed it as the smallest wheel you could buy.
From my perspective as a dude who was 12-13 years old and trying to learn every pressure and late flip variation out there, they did lower the board so your tail engaged quicker and was easier to scoop, but were otherwise terrible for actually rolling around on east coast sidewalks and streets. It was also harder to ollie really high with such a short contact point. Your nose wasn't very high off the ground when the tail hit, so the leverage wasn't ideal.
Tiny wheels made manual tricks harder, for sure. Smooth parks didn't really exist back then, so your tiny wheels would catch in every little bump and crack on a concrete pad or short ledge.
I don't change wheels very often, but I don't think I've ever got a set that was over 54mm (aside from my first fishtail Natas board with OJ wheels that were probably 60mm in 1989). I tend to like 52-53mm plain white wheels that are at least 97d.
....I just watched your whole vid and you mentioned the 6 pack. They were actually 36, not 38mm. Normal kids like my friends and I wouldn't change wheels for a flatspot, so it seemed dumb until we realized that three of us could go in for two packs (well, our moms would since we were like 12-14) and all three of us would be the coolest guys with the tiniest wheels next week.
Also, pretty much right after the first Plan B and New Deal videos, when shit started getting ultra tech, board shapes went full popsicle/football symmetrical with the same nose and tail and started getting crazy small. I remember seeing boards that were less than 7.5" for a very brief period. I think Rodney Mullen briefly had a board on Plan B that was like 28 x 7.25", basically a double kick, football shaped freestyle board, but it was only in like one CCS catalog.
Like the story
Also sometimes skaters aren't good businessmen and non skaters are it just depends.
I remember back in the early 90s small wheel era. Imo everything you said is right but there was another factor, at least from what I remember. Vert didn't really die from small wheels it died because of a few reasons. The marketing became ridiculous and trick progression all but died. When street took over, street skaters wanted to distance themselves as far as possible from the corny and corporate vert marketing to take skating back to the underground and to basically do the opposite of what vert was doing. Trick progression was also a big thing. It's just like now when you learn a new trick you start off slow and low then when you get it down you take it further. So late 80s/early 90s was all about setting the foundations and mid 90s to now is the result of that.
Thanks for the comment! I appreciate the insight.
Well the plan to kill vert, with street, and take it back underground, backfired tough... It's an Olympic sport now....
@@dwaynowilli6822 .... It's not a sport and it does not belong in the Olympics most of these commenters have the wrong idea....
38mm channel one wheels 40" waist droors jeans on a 30" waist skater. I am still fond of those halcyon days
I just found a never worn pair of droors in my garage. Soo stoked. They fit perfectly in the waste but baggy as f. Can’t wait to rock them
I still ride my bones, they were 56s now they're 38s
Kaden Wortman mine were 51 and now 47 , they last really long
I had T bones back in the 80s that were 100mm. Lol
@@Frankybroadcast sure.
@@scolex8001 spitfire is the best
@@maybands6535 idk g still running my bones wheels 😂
Dude I had a set of black spitfire wheels with the flames on the sides and I skated them down, well a buddy needed a spare set of wheels after I bought new ones so I gave my old wheels too him. Long story short, the wheels made their way around abunch of my friends in school because we lived kinda far from a skate shop and stuff. Well about 2 years later I ended up getting the wheels back and they were so small that they were barely thicker than my bones red bearings lol. I always thought they looked cool and kept them around but lost em when I went to college :(
It was definitely easier to ride on those boards with little wheels. I had skated from 87 until the early 90's and quit before they came into vogue. After a few years of not skating, I hopped on my friend's little wheeled board and was instantly able to do tricks I could never land before when I skated every day.
...
And I can tell you why too...
@@ronaldhickman9953 Physics.
I miss gliding around at the speed of a steam roller
I feel like the gate keeping in skateboarding is very tiring. If someone is using shady business practices, ripping people off, or treating their team poorly that's one thing but "you're a bad person for selling boards and not being a skater" is childish
I love how ALL the people in those 90s clips were wearing parachute pants
They're just baggy jeans dude
I remember the decks getting pretty small right around 94, that seems to be the year they figured out smaller decks flipped even better than just small wheels lol.. I had a bunch of New School boards around that time that were all 7.5, but I remember friends with Alien Workshop boards close to 7.0. I just got my first complete in 20 years or so and went with a 8.0 enjoi board with 56mm wheels and I love it
i remember we all rocked small wheels and blanks in the rocco era, everything was tech and the stuntman gap era wasn't in yet so speed wasn't a real issue. btw, all the "cool" skaters skated blanks, to us back then, showing up with a board with graphics was like coming to a spot today wearing yeezys and a supreme tee, hahaha! real shit
flyvernon7 truth. my favorite setup I ever had was a blank with krux trucks and like 35mm wheels or something ridiculous
ENGELSKA
Hey! I did most of my skateboarding from 1997 to 2004, and I was usually riding a board that was 7.625 wide. Some of my friends went on boards that were 7.5 and other went with 7.75. During this time I had at one time an ATM board which was 8.25 wide. It was tough as hell to flip and all my friends bullied me because of my "surfboard". I've heard that guys nowadays are going on as wide boards. why? Why now and not then around the turn of the millennium
Good question - a few people have asked. I'm going to do some research and do a video about it in the future.
i ride an 8.25 blank board eith 56mm oj wheels. i just love riding tranny mostly bowls and pools, i think the bigger board gives you more room to land on and are funner to push through the coping then a smaller board
Björn Norberg start skating again.
yeah me too I rode a 7.5 and I had the tiny wheels only problem was hitting the little rocks right when your setting up for a trick haha now I joined the 8 + board band wagon but because I'm 240 lbs now and old.
i remember the moment I stepped onto my mates 8.125 or 8.5 whatever it was I was in love... man I didn't feel the weight or any added difficulty in flipping it just felt right... it felt so connected.
The little wheel thing was shocking. I quit skating in 89 and got back into it in 91 and everything was different. I bought a Santa Cruz Jason Jessie board and went home to mount my old school trucks and they didn't fit. I had some Powell 2 rat wheels and they were so huge it looked stupid. Even risers went from 1/2" to 2mm or no risers. Ended up getting new trucks and some 31mm Milk wheels. Rode sweet on smooth concrete and wooden mini ramps, terrible on the sidewalk or road. I loved those small wheels for doing tricks.
My flip tricks did improve when the tiny wheels came out, but they really sucked when you hit a crack or channel in the pavement.
Loose trucks and small wheels are the best combination
i think part of the small wheels was adapting regular size trucks to the thinner decks that were coming out.
In the '90s you'd see guys carrying their boards between spots rather than skating there. I remember wheels as small as 33mm too. IIRC a skateboard bearing is 27mm in diameter.
I started skating in the tiny wheel era. Here in Atlantic Canada, they called them 'Easter Eggs', for some reason. hehe. Anyway, they were great for flip tricks but sucked for just cruising around. Even sidewalk cracks could get in the way. Here is an example of just how small some of these wheels were. My Mom decided to surprise me with a gift of new wheels for my board and got me a set of 42mm Spitfire wheels. This was probably around 95 or 96. When I first saw them and then put them on my board, they looked absolutely massive to me. I absolutely loved them once I got used to them. It is crazy to think back to a time when we were all riding wheels that were under 40mm. Upon reflection, it was a stupid trend.
My preferred wheel size is 58mm i ride everything - street, bowl and vert
I was 14-16 around the time of tiny wheels. They were definitely fashion. They sucked for street skating in the northeast and got a flatspot the second you locked into a noseslide. Going to a park, you were definitely part of the cool kids club if you had really, really small wheels, like less than 40mm. Around my area (connecticut) everyone at the Playground park had light faded baggy jeans and a tighter fit plain white t-shirt with either puma suede lows or adidas campus shoes in 1992-1993.
I settled into 53mm and still skate those today. I prefer hard wheels for sliding that last 10 degrees out of 180 and fakie 360 tricks.
As far as non-skater owned companies, it depends. Are they passionate about skating? In Connecticut we had an amazing local board company for a while in the late 90's called Animal Skates that was owned by a 20 year old guy that didn't skate, but loved skate culture and hung out with us all the time shooting photos and running a local zine. He was based in Vernon, and sold boards at a handful of shops around the Hartford area. At the time, a lot of skaters worked at or around the local mall complex in Manchester, and the Burr Corners parking lot was the meet up spot between 8 and 11 pm. There was a great manny pad there, a round railing chopped down about 18" tall as a flat bar, a long three stair for gap tricks and a 24 hour Dunkin Donuts. I learned smiths, feebles and crooked grinds on that bar. To me, Animal was totally part of my local scene. He was running the brand totally out of pocket and eventually ran dry when Pacific Sunwear started stocking boards and blank decks were being sold a dime a dozen online in the early 2000's. It was really an awesome scene back then in 1998-2001.
I had 32mm Daredevil wheels. Oh Lord! My best grinds were done on them. Flips were amazing with them. However, if you caught on a pebble or crack you were done. Now I ride big and wide (60x45mm) grinding is a bitch but rolling is perfect.
... I was grinding on 60 and 61 mm wheels before the gimmick of small wheels ever started.....
45mm was the best size for me. I had 38s and even 32s once, which was pretty silly. One other thing about tiny wheels is they were hard on bearings, having a little less absorbtion, and if you did anything big they sometimes didn't keep up with forward momentum on the landing.
Can you link to where you can buy any of those online with intl. shipping?
I can vouch for the fact that going from a noseslide to a nosegrind was easier. I could basically do a slappy noseslide to nosegrind back to noseslide and back again about 5 times in one slide with 40mm wheels. once I went back to 50+mm I couldnt even go from a noseslide to nosegrind at all.
I never heard the condom expression but I heard "bearing covers" a lot to refer to the 38mm and smaller (do to use) wheels.
I'm riding 44mm 83b (103a) wheels from a company called boardy cakes and they're not bad. Remind me of the good old days
Can you make videos or series on just famous spots? Like what we're best tricks at them, who skated them, are they dead or alive basically skate stopped
Joshua Burke great idea!
Dude they have that already... Iconic skate spots before and after...
Hollywood steps! Wallenberg. EMB!
I found a German company called Penus that has 39mm wheels.
i ride tiny wheels because my old wheels broke so my brother gave me some old wheels, and i've heard people telling me i have tiny wheels about 1000 times and i have no explanation. sometimes i feel like a poser because i didn't wear them down, and people ask if i want their old wheels, but i've gotten used to them and i'm not sure if i'll be able to skate as well if i switch to bigger wheels or what kind of wheels are the best if i were to switch.
1st question: Schmitt Stix. Dude wasn't a skater but has done SO many things for the skate industry. Dude is right up there with Rodney Mullen in regards to his contribution to what skating is today.
Glad you made a video on this, for some reason tiny wheels fascinate me. I found some newer 49mm wheels and I wanted to buy them just to see what it was like, but this pretty much told me everything I wanted to know.
Only reason I remember small wheels was people would rock wheels until they split in half from ware.
Only people that had anything near 40s new in my area were sponsored guys. Everyone else would get 45-52 because of cracks.
i started skating in 89 and the 90's small wheels era was when i at my peak. i just got back into skating after an almost 20 year hiatus. I've never skated wheels that were over 51mm and that feels big to me. Also back in the day bigger than an 8" board was looked at as being fairly wide.
i was skating when the little wheels were becoming more popular so I bought some... I could skate on them but they weren't fun to skate on... if your trucks were too tall or felt off sometimes you could get some smaller wheels to offset and you might find it can help. alot of people use to grind street with little fruityloops.
I can’t stand threaded wheels. Last pair I got for vert I rode down on the road to get rid of the threading
I started skating 56mm wheels and tried 47's because the dudes i skated with were using them.
I went down my usual run through my neighborhood taking my lines and such. Usual speed.
The crack i never had a problem with before with 56 stopped me to a dead stop! I went FLYING..... right on my face. Blood everywhere
15 stitches and a concussion, and never rode 47's again.
I settled for 52's. I like speed and pop
I once traded my wheels with a guy who had some powell peralta wheels. They were really small and for some reason I felt I went faster with them then I did with mine. I dont remember what mine were but were more rubbery and had the threads on them which I remember thinking it looked like spaguetti on my wheels lol
better is still in business. im sponsored by them actually. i like 49mm smallest they offer. i like small wheels because they make my board lower with less wheelbite and lighter aswell. makes flip tricks easier i find. rough ground sucks with them tho haha
Ive been skating 39 mm wheels for a few months. I love them only a problem on extremely rough ground or on dirt since there's less space between the dirt and the bearings.
You should do a video about the physics of skateboarding tricks, the reason flip tricks look the way they do. For example, the reason the hardflip looks so weird and vertical as opposed to the varial kickflip is that its precession angular momentum vector acts to amplify the ollie torque. Whereas varial kickflips precess in the direction opposite the ollie torque, effectively leveling out in the horizontal plane.
I'd like to. But I need to finish physical therapy on my knee first, so I can record footage myself instead of trying to find closeups and different angles of tricks from other people.
Having a hard time getting to powerslides . What kind of wheel/wheel shape? We all know hard, but seems like the 80-90s wheels slid better on street? Or I'm just old as dirt. New Sub - like the calm thoughtful content!
What do you think is best skateboard trick ever pulled? What is the best videopart ever? Who's the most underrated skater? Did Frankie Hill invent "go big" in street?
Kickflip; personal opinion; personal opinion; you are the most underrated skater; Cooksie went big when he bombed dropped on top of a ladder.
Sorry RadRat, I am just having fun answering questions. LOL
Alright!
Good questions! I'll see what I can do
Same era was going to short snowboards. With a nose on both ends.
90s era was the best, small wheels came about because we didn't need bigger heavier bulky wheels so made them smaller. Before all other wheel were ramp wheels so it was street skating becoming street skating that's all
I lived and skated during the BPSW era. To me big noses and small wheels were for Blunt slides. Straight function. Nose slides and nose and tail blunt slides were the sh1t back then. And the baggy pants were to stay “loose” to do the new tricks that were out at the time.
I had 39mm and 40’s. Santa Cruz Dots were the worst. Flat spots first day. My favorites were the green Powell Arnold Palmers. Those lasted the longest back then.
Funny how rock-hard 101a wheels remain the norm for street, while almost everyone who skates something other than buttery-smooth skate plazas would be far better off with a slightly softer wheel. I'm riding Ricta Clouds (86a I think) and they are simply amazing. They're not as soft as a filmer wheel, but that slightly softer polyurethane makes for a 100% smoother ride on less-than-perfect surfaces. Other companies make their own varieties of not-quite-so-hard street wheels, but they remain a niche item. Worth considering if you regularly skate on chunky ground, though.
I don't think you're right since every skater sponsored by bones rides street formula wheels which are for sure not as hard as 101a (idk what is the hardness exactly). 101a is skatepark standard not street imo.
Arno Theadorno specially for begginners to learn to ride around, i've seen people giving up on skate because of how annoying it is to skate their hard wheels. I'm still learning myself and ride 92a's , they are not that soft but enough to notice the difference, all i don't like about them is the bouncy feel they have when you land on them, idk about that , i might give hard wheels a try just for that. But they've definetly saved my life in terms of learning riding basics , much more comfortable than the hard ass wheels that came with my board.
Sleepndraw I would recommend you trying bones stf (i heard that some spitfires are great as well) which i mentioned earlier. When you ride them they feel not soft but kinda weirdly not brutal on your legs (i can do longer trips on them with ease) but when you land they don't bounce at all and feel as hard as 101a wheels. Also go for some wider shape because my friend got V3 I think and they aren't as good for rough surfaces as my V2.
erlik07 right , my softer wheels are also wider so they got more area into the ground , i guess that would also help. My board is also narrow so that and hard narrow wheels were a living hell. Maybe you're right and what i need are wide hard wheels , i'll give it a thought. Also, do shock pads work at all?
101 a does not exist 100a means there is no penetration in the plastic
I have never heard the term bearing condom in my life but they were called bearing covers....
I believe that the smaller wheels were made to compensate for people no longer using riser pads. Getting wheel bite can lead to some serious injury.
I just dug an almost 20 year old enjoi setup out of my basement. Has Spitfire 40mms on it. Looking at getting back on a board and while shopping for all new stuff I was surprised to find that tiny wheels seem to be gone entirely.
There was this old company I used to see ads for in thrasher mags, late 80s early 90s, called Naked...they sold blanks and uncut decks...ads were sick...I always thought that was a solid idea, just bare bones and raw
Who cuts your hair?
Collin Noreen i do.
Collin Noreen i do.
Collin Noreen i do.
Collin Noreen i do
My name is Jeff.
You should do a segment on where trick names came from...first mentions and evolution of naming and such. When was "bigspin" first used and how long did it take to become the normal name for a 360 shove it body varial.
TRILLIN FLOSSIN Actually is a Backside Pop Shove-It I think
Enzo Amaya what is? yeah the proper technical name is BS pop shove it but I'm talking about all shove it variations not a specific variation, Also in the past shove its weren't popped so when did it become more trendy to add the pop Rad Rat?
TRILLIN FLOSSIN I meant BS 180 Pop but nevermind
It definitely isn't a shuvit body varial at heart, though it looks that way these days. It's technically a shuvit late 180 (or revert, if you will, but I'd say reverts are in the opposite direction). IIRC people then started adding pop, then doing the full 3 shuv and moving their bodies at a different speed to the board so it did the full thing in the air.
All shit Rad Rat should explore.
You should do a podcast; love all the details and info in your videos, I watch like at least one a day; would be nice to listen to these subjects at work
I know how you feel I live in Michigan and skating down hills doese shake mey legs quit a bit
hi dude your channel rules (i don't know if i wrote it right because i'm spanish) but i would like that you make a video talking about handcrafted skateboards
Thank you! That's a good video idea, but I don't know very much about that topic.
I was skating everything I could with some 50mm that I had worn down to 42mm. Every time I’d get new wheels, they’d flat spot and I’d end up putting the old ones back on. I think they were Plan B? Hard to say, but I know they weren’t from a dedicated wheel company.
I tempted death doing crazy hill bombs with those beasts!
I'd love to check out my friends' boards, but I don't have any friends who skate. I don't know any skaters in my area tbh, I've seen one person skate in my entire town, and they were gone in 5 minutes. No skateparks either, they're in neighbouring towns and pretty rubbish (one's half-decent with concrete stuff, one's unskateable and is pretty much only safe for BMXs)
radrat here is my question: What is the history of backfoot flip tricks? i have seen them over the years, most recently braydon's berrics piece...lotta potential for innovation and NBDs...why are they not more popular and what's the history?
I'll have to cover that soon. It's tough because it's kind of like pressure flips... Nobody was doing them, then suddenly everyone was doing them. It's hard to track down where they actually came from. If I figure it out, I'll make a video for sure.
Interesting take on non-skater owned businesses. A lot of skateparks here were built through fundraising committees run by non-skaters, although most of them have some sort of connection to skateboarding or other wheeled sports. You can usually tell which ones had skater input and which were thrown together by the local council (mine being the latter 🤣)
I had a set of UFO's that were 32mm back in the day
Lumptavious Shadows That's mad! That would only leave half a centimetre around the bearing.
The set didn't last long. Maybe a week. They were like $15 so it was ok to keep buying them to replace them
3 years later and the small wheels are actually coming back, more and more small wheel companies opening
What kind of wheels do you recommend for indoor skateparks with super slippery wooden ramps and polished floors? Do you think it's worth it to have two sets of wheels? One for indoor parks and the other for street/outdoor parks.
I think having 2 sets of wheels would be a great idea, some larger softer wheels for streets etc and some mid/small harder wheels for indoor parks would be ideal.
For street I personally use a set of 56mm 92a conical spitfires for street, the conical shape offers some protection on the exposed axles and nut so they don't get so smashed up when they smack the ground. Tried using 101a Rictas and my legs felt like jelly after riding them for a short time on street :P
I was actually thinking of the opposite! I slide all over the place in indoor parks. I'll try to do a kick turn on a quarter pipe and end up power sliding down. XD It could be that I just haven't developed the balance and control yet.
Anthony Tran Ah in that case you may want to take a look into Bones spf (skatepark formula) wheels. too softer wheels in those situations can have some adverse effects as they need to be able to slide to a degree. softer grippy wheels could dig in to much and throw you off of tweak your ankles. Bones also do stf (skatetech formula) but i found these too hard for everyday street use. Good luck though I hope you find a setup that suits you skating :)
Love the videos rad rat. Just my quick observation, smaller wheels would probably give you more torque to do flip tricks since they have a significant weight reduction and thus affects the distribution of weight as the board spins - meaning, it’s easier to flip because it weighs less. The spin would probably be more even compared to bigger wheels as well since a heavier spinning mass would be harder to stop (“catch”), though it’s probably insignificant. But we don’t need to think about that, we just wanna skate! Nerdlife skatelife.
I had a set of 34mm wheels back in the early 90's
On the subject of people making brands in fields they're not involved in, Leo Fender (Fender Musical Instruments, Ernie Ball Music Man, G&L co-founder) was not a guitarist or bassist, yet designed some of the most important and iconic instruments and instrument accessories in modern music history. You don't need to be a part of something already to be massively influential in a positive way
i always thought it was strange that tiny wheels were popular, like i had a set of 50mm from force and they were impossible slow so i can't imagine what 38mm wheels would have been like
Honestly I absolutely love small wheels. they help with my tres quite a bit.
I remember the picture you used as a thumbnail from Big Brother magazine, it transports me right back to the mid nineties!
What is the history of skate bearings? Like in Chronological order? And is there a culture or any kind of code about skating your board backwards? (skating with the tail leading)
Good question about the bearings. That might have to be a full research video in the future because I don't know much about it off the top of my head. As for the boards, I don't think there was... I remember seeing trick tips in Transworld that would say stuff like 'start with your board backward, then ollie into the railslide'... and it just seemed almost like another stance.
I remember my legs would always go numb from vibration when I first started I never really had it happen again but that’s because I avoid bad roads. I have to walk like a mile every time I wanna skate and it’s over 100 degrees and humid af
riding a 8.38 deck 45 mm wheels on some mag lights setup is super light right now 🪶
Lol, I remember the 6 pack of wheels. . I can't remember the company though.
However; I had bought a set of, "REAL'S" Real Small wheels before. (They might have been 37 or 38mm, or something crazy . And I think I rode them for 5 days on street and they were trashed. I remember Jordan Richter was in my hometown indoor skatepark for a demo, and after the demo and the park closed, we were skating and he gave me a set of his Blind wheels because the flatspot sound inside of the tiny park was driving him crazy. . Lol. . .
Old times, I remember that song, "blacksheep" was popular then. . Jordan insisted on playing it over and over
I am pretty sure Real sold the 6-Pack....it was a long time ago, so I could be wrong
What's your opinion on zumiez?
Eh, I've never bought anything there. I don't hate them though.
Best skate shop in America
@@claysoggyfries Ehehemm.. You mean Emerica?
The streets in Michigan are so good now but I remember back then the streets were to bumpy
Those Michigan leg shakes are real. Lil bit north of Ann arbor here was never able to put words on that phenomenon before thank you just found this channel. Subbed 4shore 🤙
I remember when I was longer, I used to joke with my friends, about how if I won the lottery, I would use that money to recreate LOVE Park. Thinking back on that, I feel it prompts an interesting question: should classic skate spots be recreated? Obviously it would be cool to have spots like EMB, LOVE, Hubba Hideout, Pier 7, etc. back in the state they originally were in and made legal to skate at, but I could also see the cons of it.
These classic spots are considered classics because of all the history behind them, and by simply making the place all over again, you'd in turn wipe away a lot of the history that went down there. Also, it could be a situation like the LA Courthouse. It was very cool of Nike to help make the spot skateable again, but now the place is considered more of a skatepark instead of a real street spot, and, I feel, has lost its integrity because of it.
Just a little thought I had. Maybe it'd be interesting enough for a video
I talk about that a bit in Ask Rad Rat #13. But it's phrased more like the best spots of all time, in their heyday, regardless of whether they're skatable anymore or not.
Hahaha! I remember one Thrasher editorial claiming "control" as the issue. Lightness and lowest wheel base possible. IIRC" ...for example, if you were just (riding bearing casings)/(one inch off of the ground), you would have the ultimate control (I think that the second one seems most likely, now that I think about it... the bearing casings thing seems like more of a bitter in-joke amongst the posse). They didn't mention that most of us had stopped going big and fast, and were content to skate around parking lots with 6 inch curbs like what Jake Phelps bitterly editorialized in late '93 as "...like sedated little mosquitoes...".
Why the Chinese Cultural revolution? Why New Coke? Why Nuts and Gum (wait, that was a Simpsons episode... :) ) Perhaps in a day when Rocco swiped 95 percent of the market share from the likes of Powell, Vision, NHS, there was an advantage to gain from selling less material at the same cost. Control my ass...
..... You are on the right track with those comments most of these people do not know what or why it happened.....
It's simple 54mm x formula shape ruins my flat ground and all my flip tricks, i switch to classic shape 52mm run of the mill blind wheels and its perfect
Great vid, very informative! Personally, I don't even ride my 54mm Spitfires as much as I ride my 56mm Bones Rough Riders out here on the east coast. I've never ridden anything smaller, but I always thought they were a bit stupid looking.
I could be wrong but I feel like Michigan (GR) kicked off the tiny wheel street only thing. I could name who but I’ll spare you
THE ROADS IN MY CITY ARE FUCIN 80 YEARS OLD AND TERRIBLY ROUGH
Maybe it was also about street guys trying to do everything different than vert guys like you talked about in your video about mall grabs. I think disadventeges are too big to be compensated by just this 2 positives. There had to be something else.
Have you made any videos where you discuss your skateboarding career or story? If you have, what is the title of the video, and if you haven't you should definitely make a video about it... I think it'd be interesting.
Also who do you think is better at skating Andy Shrock or Steve Berra?
5:10 Perus! Suomi mainittu torille! (skeittaamaa tietenki)
Onx perus joku merkki vai hä?
I really like tiny wheels! They're super fun and nobody makes them:(
Got a question, is slalom skateboarding still a thing? I bought a pair of slalom specific trucks and was wondering if people still slalom.
I don't know much about it, but I know there are events in the UK still
thats the reason that bearrings is the most expensive and you must change all the time new bearings cause of the rough ground...and in europe the streets are gnarly as ashiiit... every 2 weeks one or 2 bearings are out.....greeattingss from greece....skate or die...
Do you have a favorite hill-bombing part? Am I tripping or was it kind of a trend recently?
Rick Kosick. He's 300 pounds, doesn't skate, and is one of the biggest, (no pun intended) industry skateboard knowledgeable guy. What if he started a company?
Being a tech skater I always loved tiny wheels...still do
Did you used to make "how to" skate video's?
Would any of you believe it if you were told that one of the most important figures in skateboarding history were a non skating family owned furniture business looking for a way to make extra income? from pressing to shaping innovations, it all really started there for modern skateboarding. Know your history kids.
I hated tiny wheels but I still got suckered into a set.