When it comes to riding, each of us has our own personal view on what works. The truth is that skaters are truly spoiled for choice. There are an unlimited number of ways that you can set up your ride. We had a chance to ask some of your favorite riders what they rode and why it worked for them.
Emily Pross
I’m going top-mounted this year and switching over to the Original Skateboards Baffle 37. I have mounted the Ronin Pro-Lite Billets with a 45 degree base plate in the front and a 30 degree in the back, complete with RipTide bushings. My Rad Advantages keep me ripping and gripping through corners. To top it all off, I have some RDVX and a PSD footstop to keep me even more locked on to my board.
Liam Morgan
I designed my board to be simple yet functional. It is not a crazy over-engineered mold like a lot of other boards out there today. It has micro-drops and a nice tub concave to lock you in. If you’re doing it right, that’s all you need. I keep it set up with 10” 44 Calibers, Blood Orange wedge bushings, and rotate between any of the duros and sizes of my pro-model Blood Orange wheel line up. I’m stoked on the way it rides!
James Kelly
I designed my board to be fun and simple. At the end of the day I wanted it to be a skateboard, not a Nascar-esque hill bomber. I’m stoked on how it shaped out! My board features a tub concave that binds your feet for downhill and free-riding, a mellow rocker, and a micro-drop to lock in your slides. The micro-drop is subtle, so no top mount agility is sacrificed. Two more things to mention about my board would be the fully functional kick tail, and the four leaf clover that makes you go 10% faster. I set mine up with Caliber Precisions or Caliber II’s, Blood Orange barrel or wedges, and my Rider Approved Design pro-model wheels.
Micaela Wilson
I ride the Loaded Truncated Tesseract because it has the perfect W-concave to keep me locked in while I’m blasting toesides. The awesome wheel wells make it so there’s never any chance for wheelbite and I always know where I am on the board. I like to freeride on the yellow 86a Oranagatang Keanus because they slide for days and almost never wear down. If it’s a bit hotter out, I like the purple 83a Keanus to keep from icing out too easily. I ride 44 degree Caliber trucks for their stability and predictability when going fast and sliding big.
Joe McLaren
My slalom racing setup is a super grippy speed machine. It’s my pro model by Sk8Kings. The deck has a new lightweight carbon fiber/wood composite construction for snappy drive. I ride Radikal cnc precision trucks with Venom bushings and Sk8Kings Turbo aluminum core wheels with Oust Moc 9 bearings. This setup allows me to grip and rip and accelerate out of every turn.
Billy “Bones” Meiners
The Osteon from Landyachtz has a micro-drop in the front that helps me know that my foot is exactly where I want it to be. It also has a slight w-concave in the back and rocker throughout the board. Add a small kicktail at the end and I’ve got a fully functional downhill skateboard.
I choose to ride the Bear Precisions because I feel they are some of the best trucks on the market. After doing racing for many years I’ve grown to love split angle. When it comes to bearings I really like the convenience of the Bear Spaceballs. Anybody that has been at a race changing wheels every run knows the struggle of dropping a bearing spacer or loosing a speed ring. Now that is something I don’t gotta worry about. For griptape, I prefer the coarse Gangster Grip. It keeps my feet in place and doesn’t melt away in the rain.
My bushings are simple: Venom Barrels in the Standard formula. The icing on the cake for my DH setup is the Bombsquad Brass Knuckle footstop. In combination with the micro-drop on the front of my board, I know exactly where my foot is and have incredibly good leverage for turns.
Pedro Puccetti Frangulis
I am from Sao Paulo, Barzil and currently ranked 17th in the IDF Open Skateboard Rankings. I have a quiver mentality and test out everything I ride. I know what works and I am not afraid to set up my kit outside the box. I’ve chosen the Invasion Series Black Death 36.0 – this one of my favorites for IDF races. I also ride 175mm Liquid CNC trucks with a 50/30 split. Biltin Bearings and Abec 11 75mm Reflex BigZig in 83A on the front and 80A on the back.
Nick Divonna
My setup is a DB Longboards Stalker II with the shortest wheelbase for the most grip, Atlas Trucks and 77a Cloudride Freerides, which are fun wheels for any type of riding and leave the most thane out of any wheel.
Patrick Switzer
With over eight years racing, I’ve had the opportunity to tune and perfect my racing style and find what equipment complements it. Designing my pro-model board the “Fortune” with Rayne is a major part of matching creative ideas to tangible results. The Orangatang Kegel’s are snappy in transition from grip to slide, making them an ideal race wheel for minimum controlled braking. I use Zealous Bearings and Ronin Trucks, which have a superb ability to maximize grip, and be lively yet stable at the highest of speeds.