I'm not just riding longboards anymore.
I stepped on a short board (a fickle board), and gave it a shot. Here is the weird thing. I've dropped in on other short boards and it always has felt so awkward like my feet are way too close together. For some reason, this time it didn't seem too bad.
I thought maybe it was just this Fickle deck. They make some seriously good boards in their Cincinnati, Ohio workspace. Seriously good wood.
But, that wasn't it. I picked up a Rufus deck shaped by my bro Chris from rufusskates.com and gave it a shot. His boards have a nice old school shape with a solid concave, a 15 inch wheelbase and very square tail. Paige in Little Rock presses the wood so you know it is good quality maple. Okay, it feels a little weird. It is so quick and responsive and my feet are way too close together. BUT! I liked it. It has been years since I stepped on a board that was under a 16 inch wheelbase. I've taken the "longboarding" off of the top of this website. Let's get rid of labels. Longboard or shortboard who cares. Let's skate.
That said, NO WAY am I switching to a shortboard for the 26.2. Longboard is the only call for that ride. On Monday, I did my longest ride to date, and crossed the 20 mile marker. Unfortunately, I decided to try out a trail I've never ridden before and it really slowed me down as I hit gravel and got behind some old folks with canes...finally, I just turned around. In fact, I feel like Shelby Farms is slowing me down as a whole. Once you get to the visitor's center and Patriot Lake there are too many stops and too many people to navigate around so I will probably cut Patriot Lake out of my daily ride. I do enjoy the section leading to the visitor's center so I'll keep that.
I think the biggest improvement in my skating for distance has been changing from Paris 180 trucks (sorry Paris) to Indy 139 trucks with hard bushings. The 139s are still stable (with bones hard hardcore bushings) and the super wide Phat Deanz wheels that I'm riding.
I first tried the set up with a straight up 1/4 inch riser, but today I tried out wedges. I may try de-wedging the back truck...not sure. I'd love to hear some input on that. I'm not pumping much, but I did do a little pumping today (may 2% of the ride).
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