Do These 10 Things Make A Difference In Skateboarding?

do these ten things really make a difference in your skateboarding so first off I can already hear the Furious fingers typing about how I'm wrong about each one of these things and that's fine but just remember that so much of a skateboard setup depends on personal preference and what you've gotten used to and these are mainly just my opinions so first up we have deck size so it is the size of your deck really matter or is it more of a personal preference thing well it depends on who you ask really some people will say that bigger decks are better because of the stability and wider area to land on while others will say small is better because of the faster flip and ability to get tech in my opinion you can pretty much get used to anything in skateboarding including your deck size when I first started skateboarding I wrote a 775 which by today's standards is pretty small I eventually went up to an 8 and now I've been skating an 8 and a half for the last couple years and honestly aside from having to get comfortable with the new size for a few days I feel as comfortable now on my eight-and-a-half as I get on my 775 there are the obvious facts that a wider board gives you more surface area to land on which maybe get better for those doing big gaps and a smaller board is technically easier to flip faster but other factors like building you're flicking muscles and your style of skating play just as big of a role there are plenty of pros who skate pretty wide decks and still get tech or others who skate pretty skinny decks and do big gaps which I think just shows that it's all in what you've gotten used to so up next we have deck brand so here it is the million dollar question does the board brand you skate really make a difference well cue the angry fanboys but in my honest opinion the answer is no at least within reason of course there's going to be a big difference between a Walmart board and a toy machine but I'm talking more about the difference between top level brands that's not to say there aren't differences between the brands deck shape concave what kind of wood is used and technology I'll make a difference and can vary between brands but in general these differences are up to personal preference and the overall quality between deck brands of big skate companies are pretty similar and of course you will hear anecdotes of people whose primitive decks snapped on the first day or someone who's 0 has lasted them years but really it comes down to the skater with that being said I always do suggest trying new brands to see works best for you just really do try to avoid the Walmart boards and number three we have wheel size wheel size is something that actually can't have a difference depending on your style of skating in general larger wheels are going to be good for cruising and skating parks while smaller wheels are good for Street skating and tech you'll see street skaters skating between 50 and 54 millimeters while park skaters will be a bit larger around 54 to 58 millimeters smaller wheels will be a bit slower but also lighter and easier to flip well bigger wheels will get you faster but also be a bit bulkier personally I skate fifty threes which I find to be the perfect size to cruise down the street but also flip my board quick enough depending on what you like to skate and what the conditions of the streets are around you you may want to size up or down accordingly and speaking of wheels up next we have wheel hardness wheel hardness and size are pretty similar when it comes to what type of skating you like to do just like with the wheel size harder wheels are good for street and tech skating while softer wheels are good for park and transition so in general you'll see street skaters with smaller harder wheels and park skaters with larger softer wheels harder wheels are easier to power slide and tend not to flat spot which makes them good for doing slides and tech tricks and software wheels are good for cruising over rough terrain and having better traction when skating or cornering this is why you see big soft wheels on cruisers and long boards and small hard wheels on Street boards up next we have tight verse loose trucks a big point of contention between skaters is whether you should skate your trucks tight or loose most people will tell you that loose trucks are better because it gives you more control better turning and in some cases better styling while others swear by tight trucks because of the added stability and less chance for wheel bite once again this comes down to personal preference and what you're comfortable with but in general I tend to agree with the looser truck people I usually keep my trucks exactly how they come when they're new which is a little in-between tight and loose and then I let them loosen up naturally over time the added control of your trucks reacting quickly while loose really makes you feel in tune with your board and in my opinion leads to being more comfortable and controlled on a board so trout bolt and see what you feel more comfortable with and to go along with our truck tightness we have bushing hardness so speaking of truck tightness choosing between hard and soft bushings can have an effect on how your truck's perform as well softer bushings will cause your trucks to turn easier and give some compression room when doing drops while harder bushings are stiffer and don't give as much wiggle room there are other factors that come into play like bushing shape and how tight you keep your truck's which combined with the bushings hardness and change the overall feel of your trucks you can get pretty complicated trying to find what mix you like and this is why I just avoid the whole mess and just stick with the bushings that come with the trucks I have tried some aftermarket bushings though and found that for someone like me who tends to just skate Street the difference was minimal or you could just be like day one and take your bushings out completely so well we're still on the subject of trucks let's talk about hayver slow trucks so what the heck are high and low trucks it's basically what it sounds like high trucks will generally be a little taller than low trucks which means your board sets a little higher or lower off the ground there are some obvious benefits that this can create depending on your skate styles higher trucks means better turning less wheel bite and the ability to use larger wheels while low truck's mean a lower center of gravity allowing you to flip the board faster and just get more tech in general the difference between height is pretty small though and for some skaters there won't be a huge discernible difference some say that you can get better pop on one or the other but this also comes down to your wheel size and wheelbase Aaron from radrat did a good video showing the discrepancies in high versus low trucks between truck companies which is an interesting watch that I recommend you check out I skated low trucks for years and recently switched to highs and don't notice much of a difference either the slightly better turning up next we have bearing ABEC when I was growing up skating everyone knew that the higher your bearings ABEC rating the faster you will go and the smoother your ride will be so an ABEC one bearing is crap compared to an ABEC 7 this led people to spending more money on higher ABEC bearings to get a faster smoother ride well it turns out we were all wrong because bearing a BEC has little to no bearing on your skating performance there's a lot of information about a BEC on the Internet and a quick TL DR will show you that when it comes to the needs of a skateboarder bearing a BEC makes such a little difference that most would never be able to tell what a BEC they're rolling on now there may be something to the build quality being better in a higher ABEC bearing which some say can make them last longer but in reality a bearing is lifespan and how long it stays rolling smoothly depends more on how well you take care of your bearings keeping your bearings clean and not rolling through oceans of mud we'll have much more of a difference than bearing a BEC by itself and number nine we have riser pads now I used to only skate with risers and I'm not really sure why but I remember always having them I think I heard that they help reduce pressure cracks and of course the little bit of added height could help get rid of wheel bindings from what I can tell the three main reasons to use risers are shock absorption wheel bite reduction and giving you more pop by increasing the distance between your deck and the ground I stopped using risers a few years ago and I gotta say I haven't noticed a single difference now this is just my personal experience and maybe someone like me who doesn't skate big gaps knee more will need them but I get the same amount of wheel bite as I ever did and I don't get pressure cracks without the risers and after switching to high trucks instead of the lows it gave me pretty much the same amount of extra height that risers would have if you ride bigger wheels risers can definitely help reduce wheel bite but if you're a casual street skater you probably won't eat them but different things work for different people so it doesn't hurt to try them out to see if they're right for you and lastly we have shoe size one of the most asked questions I get from beginners when they first start skating is does your shoe size matter it's a logical question and a parent why you would think that really big or really small feet may affect your skateboarding and maybe make the board harder to flip or make you need a bigger board and as someone who can't actively change the size of my feet at will I can only speak from what I've observed and I think the fact that you see little six-year-olds with tiny feet flipping their boards as well as bigger people with bigger feet skating just as well it shows you that your shoe size doesn't have too much of a huge effect on your skating of course if you have size three shoes it might be harder to skate a nine inch deck and vice versa but in general you should be able to learn to skate despite shoe size and for this one I'd say it's more about practicing and getting good at the actual physical part of your foot size limiting you so overall as you can see pretty much everything comes down to your personal preference changing deck size or shape or wheel hardness or truck tightness you can feel weird at first but just like with most things in life if you do it enough eventually it'll start to feel normal a lot of finding what works for you comes down to trial and error and there's not really a way to tell what will be perfect for you without trying so just go out and skate a friend's board or just go for it and buy a brand you've never tried before and see how you like it in the end you'll find that it's not so much about what you skate but rather how you skate it so just go out and have fun as always I'd like to thank my patreon pleasures for helping to keep this channel rolling and I'd like to thank you for watching and you can like and subscribe if you want [Music]

Channel: VLSkate

Views: 3,051,591

Rating: 4.9489384 out of 5

Keywords: skateboarding, skateboard, skate, skater, skating, sk8, vilas, left, vlskate, atm, click, bones, ipath, real, world, hardware, tricks, trick, kickflip, heelflip, poway, security, fight, braille, vs, hater, bail

Id: mVKt2VBy6Ew

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 16 2018