Original Arbiter 36

Originals new Topmount Downhill/Freeride range is beginning to take form with the first deck released earlier this month.

At $99USD, its a very affordable deck and sturdy as hell compiled of 9 plys of Canadian Maple, as well as concave that will melt any skaters thane covered heart. If you're looking for a deck to bomb down the gnarliest of hills or freeriding down a local hill at any speed, this is a highly recommended board on my part!

The idea behind the deck was to keep it simple, which it appears Original, while still adding their own flair to it which they try to do to all of their Longboards. The tub concave was new to me, I had only ever skated on boards with rocker or W concave, never a tub concave deck and I didn't really know what to expect at all. From the images Original had shown us, the concave didn't look aggressive, and quite frankly extremely mellow which is exactly what I don't want in a deck.

Looks can be deceiving.

That mellow, boring tub concave burst to life once I started freeriding. It locked me in and held me there, even while I started learning toeside checks, the hard rail turned out ideal to stick you foot against and kick it out.Also as I am just learning toeside checks, as the image below shows, I'm using the side of the kick to kick the deck out which has helped me to get a feel for how much weight to apply.

 The cereal bowl kick in the above image looks really small, as if you would barely feel it but I found it super useful and like the concave, far bigger than it looks. Keeping to locked in for long stand ups and the option of a shorter wheelbase mean slide shuv' and variations couldn't be easier 

 In two weeks I have learnt Blunt slides using the Cereal bowl kick with the trucks mounted on the inner mounting brackets. Super stoked on this deck after loving Original work for the past few years and they have now answered my prayers with a topmount direction longboard which I can use for fast freeride and downhill.

Toesides on the Atbiter 36

The Arbiter like most directional topmounts work well for downhill when that's the style of deck you're more comfortable with using. (Other options being a Drop Down or symmetrical deck)

The concave is super comfortable to keep your feet in place when tucking and the Original Grip tape works a charm too so your back foot does slip back down a run. Its stable at speeds, although I have only taken it to around 75km/h, it held its own at that speed.

Arbiter 36 Raw run with Myself(Blue pred, Blue shorts) and Caleb Bradfield(White Charlie). 

The next board to be added to the new lineup will be the Maven, which I have summarised information Original has released right here: Maven 35 Information

-Adam

The Original Skateboards Maven

The new Top Mount board from Original and hot on the tail of the new Original Arbiter 36. The 'Maven 35' is a symmetrical Topmount Longboard with around an inch Diamond drop which is the drop on the Drop Apex 40 where the concave follows down/up each kick, meaning more grip, and acts the same way as a gas pedal.

 It will be a hybrid of the Drop Freeride and Drop Apex without the kicks. Diamond Drop, nice rocker concave and a wider platform like the Freerides.
This board will be more focused on Fast Freeride and Downhill, giving another option other than the Arbiter 36 for those who prefer a Drop Down deck.

It pops up in afew videos including these below:

At 2:34 it shows the two first riders on the maven and at 2:42, 2:56 and from 3:38 onwards.

Here is a video with Michael Law-smith bombing on the new board from Original.

The most recent Update on when it will be released was Yesterday on a Youtube video stating one or two weeks, which seems like it will finally be released after numerous setbacks with graphics and what not.

Bombsquad Pocket Ace

Right! So my newest edition to the seemingly endless string of boards I have owned is this Gem of a board.
I first got a look of the Pocket Ace around mark on Bombsquads Facebook page right {Here}.
When I saw it, I was shocked at Bombsquads amazing range of boards and how they keep making me come back for more, even though I own the Saltflat and the Dragula. I STILL WANTED MORE BOMBSQUAD! I know, I'm a whore, a Terrorist if you will ;)

The shape looked so nice and the fact it was nice and wide at the back meant my mutant feet would be perfectly locked into the concave.
It solved a lot of the problems I wanted fixed with the Saltflat. MORE Concave! MORE W! MORE Freeride/Downhill Hybridisation. After freeriding my Dragula for 2 months and using the Saltflat for Downhill I just had to try out the Pocket Ace!

My Pocket Ace w/ Kahalani 184mm and 72mm 83a Venom Cannibals.

The Concave on this thing is amazing! It keeps me perfectly locked in for freeride with my wide stance and large feet. I added some 3D concave to it, with a built up layer right after the last mounting brackets at the front and extra W concave right before the back mounting brackets. This gave a nice area for feeling my way around the board, knowing where my feet were at all times.
Now the Shape is SO SEXY!
Its like a Wolfshark and a Grease Shark had a love child. I love the added width of the back of the board, gives that extra weight at the back to control the board when doing big standup slides.

Now the board is relatively heavy, so you need that extra weight behind you to like this board as I do. There have been numerous Groms in my area who have sold or are selling their Pocket Ace after only a week or 2 of owning them because they dont have the weight behind them to kick it out. Myself weighing around 150/160 pounds or around 70/75kg, I find it nice to kick out.
I went from the Dragula to this for freeriding and going from a drop platform board, to a Top Mount board was the craziest feeling. I was able to kick the board around will little to no effort as my feet were right above the trucks, meaning more leverage when kicking out for standies.

The pointed nose may seem like a bad idea for a board(I know its used a lot, but looking at a structural sense where it can be smashed into a curb) but the deck seems to hold up very well. I have curbed this board afew times, the nose and the tail, and I have to say I'm impressed at how well it took the impact.
Next to no damage to the board, no delam, no chipping or even blunted ends. Just scuff marks on the Ends!

Now for some NEGATIVED to this design:
The GAS PEDALS.... Now I'm not sure what the idea of these were, but they do not work for me at all!
They are way to far forward to be functional in my opinion. I have tried Toeside Pre-drifting using the gas pedals and it just did not work, my legs are too long to have my legs in a comfortable place for a pre-drift. It just too far forward to be used effectively in my opinion. Needs to be pushed back onto the Fat tail of the deck.

The W is quite small when compared to other W concave boards, its hardly there really, while still keeping you relatively locked in. If it was a tad more aggressive, I would like the board even more than I do now!
I love this board and 90% of its elements so I am currently getting a Custom deck made Including micro drops with Symmetrical noses with the Fat end at both ends! Gonna be a hell of a beast!

So to conclude this rather lengthy Review, and if you dont want to read the whole thing, I guess ill sum this up as best I can. Beautiful concave for freeride while the gas pedals being relatively useless, amazing shape and weight for someone over 150 pounds or 70kg and very durable to hard impacts!

-Adam

75a Bustin Swifts

75a thane in a round lipped freeride mould wheel. OhEmGee!
Went from my 78a Swifts onto these after being frustrated at not landing the slides I wanted on the now Square Lipped, chattery swifts. These are awesome wheels! So smooth, much like the 78a swifts, but even smoother. They lasted me about 3 weeks, or about 8 skate sessions until I broke through to the core :D

These sex kitten of steeze thane and wear FAST! Tore through about 8mm in one session to the hills, which I can't complain about at all because of how these perform. They have an easy break in to a slide and once in travel wherever you want them to go. If you want them to slide shuv out of a massive, thane infested standy, they will be happy to oblige. These things were crazy, painting the road like there was no tomorrow and managed to keep them from flat spotting which is surprising seeing as they are such a soft duro.

Another key to making these wheels last as long as possible(To core them with nothing left on all wheels) is to rotate them or even flip them if they cone to badly. I think I mentioned in the 78a review that although they are side/offset wheels, they can be flipped without to much hassle if you dont mind a bit more noise from the wheels. But rotation is key. I rotated them after every session if I noticed that one wheel was smaller than another or a lip was ridging or forming, I would rotate them so that I could core my first set of wheels perfectly with even wear.

All in all these wheels ease into a slide nicely, slide like a dream and thane like wax allllllll over the road! I'm impressed with Bustin's Swift series of wheels and the urethane formula they have developed. While I am constantly told they are the same as Tunnel Krakatoa's, they feel nothing alike when freeriding them. Highly recommend you grab a set of these Thaning Mother Truckers, because they are pure bliss.

Rayne Amazon

Rayne amazon
38.5" long
10" wide
5/8in radial drop

     I came from a Rayne baby killer TM to this beauty. I'm very happy I did! I grew out of the baby killer as i was standing on the necks of the board. I thought about it, what were my only complaints about the baby killer? "I would like a longer deck, larger drop and having a drop through option would be nice" then I searched the internet for a couple minutes and found this, read its longer, wider, larger drop, but no w concave, but there's no need for it because the "mean cave" is ridiculous and holds you in amazingly. The 3 stage rocker plus the 5/8in radial drop plus the mean cave will lock your feet in and not let you move, slap some vicious, super coarse jessup, gator grip, anything like that and you can barely move your feet. Something else very unique is that is has different wheelbase options in a drop through board.  it also has rayne's "speed stiff" flex which is pretty much none (i'm 200lbs and can flex it a little) which stands for great control when doing dh, freeride, or anything else it is you like to do. I personally have mine set up with 45* surf rodz rkp trucks (set at 186mm), and abec 11 flashbacks. the only problem ive had is the surf rodz base plate is huge and doesn't fit when dropping them through on the outer mounting holes but fits fine on the inner ones. I am still not sure if i like it dropped through or top mounted yet but both are awesome! I haven't had any problems with cracking, chipping, chunking, or delam yet but I have no curbs in my neighbor hood so that helps a bunch. It is also very light because it is bamboo sandwiched between fiberglass. Another cool aspect about Rayne's boards are that there graphics are "tattooed" into the fiberglass so it takes some good hits to scratch the graphic. I cant say enough about this board and how sweet it has been. I will say that it is my favorite board in my quiver and cant stop riding it!

~Theo.

The Original DK Apex'

Alright so very little has been released on the subject as off yet apart from the fact that Original is making Double Kick versions of  both the Apex 34 and 37, the 37 having the concave options of the Apex 40. So far this is all that has been mentioned on Original Facebook page.
Original has answered many of their followers pleas in the past and this is no exception. First many wanted a DK board, which is longer, around 40-41 inches. After the Apex 40 was released the hype made people want more DK boards, so Original has answered, with DK versions of both Apex' to be released in the near future.

The original release of the Apex 34's this year were a limited stock version as many wanted the deck.
But as most of them have already been sold, and it is a primarily freestyle based boards, they will be re-enforcing it with carbon, as will the Apex 37.
So conclude this mess of a post, Original have DK, carbon versions of both the Apex 34 and Apex 37 in the works, with prices expected to be around the same as the current Carbon Apex 37.

Apex 34 Limited Stock Release

Current Carbon Apex 37

Original Speedboard

Speedboards-
Yes you heard correctly. As you may have heard Original is coming out with a series of speed boards this summer.

One is starting to appear in a few videos, it is a top mount with no drop, and is asymmetrical with what looks like a slight tweak in the nose and tail.

Taken from the BCcollective: Weekend in Cali and ridden by Brett Ciabattini
video shown here:

And again ridden here by Pro Team rider Petter Reinem 

Just thought I should add this in also, there are images of Scott Imbrie racing at Major Stok'em 4. Just follow the link provided and see what you can spot. If you're too lazy, here's one shot of him racing!

More updates to come as we get closer, so stay tuned in!

The Original Drop Apex 40

Drop Apex 40-

After the much anticipated release of the Apex 40 last year there began to be rumours of a Dropdown Apex 40 in prototyping. At the start of 2012 it was announced on Originals Facebook page that they were indeed making one. While time contraints have been hard to meet with the release, with the finishing touches being done, look for a early to mid July release.
Much like the Drop Freeride it has the same shape as its predecessor, the Apex 40, but with a 1 inch drop approximately. It has been named the Diamond Drop Apex which refers to the concave continuing up the drop as opposed to stopping at it making the drops look like diamonds.

Here are some video's of Original Team Riders at work with the Drop Apex 40:

The Original Drop Freeride

The Drop Freeride 41- 
This has been talked about for the past 4 months or so and will be the latest addition to the Original line-up within a month. There will be 2 sizes, a 41 and a 44 as opposed to the Original 38 and 41. The board will have the same shape, with double kicks and drop-through, but it will have about an inch drop to it.

If you would like a glimpse or more info on the board the following video will help you out thanks to Adam, Swanson from Longboard Talk {SUBSCIBE}:

New page- News from Original

Alright so there a lot of information that gets released by Original Skateboards on their Facebook page, but without watching it a lot you would miss a lot of the news on new boards in Productions, estimated release dates and what they have in store for us.

I have therefore made this page for exactly that, to put up news on new releases that Original mention that you may or may not have known about. 

So we will be posting information as it is released, so watch this blog for more info :)

Bustin Swift 78a

78a.
70mm.
40mm Contact Patch.
Stone Ground Finish.

So I can never find the perfect wheel for me, huh? I seem to always find a new wheel which is better than my previous ones and these are no exception. I traded these for my 84a Krakatoa's and I am so happy I did!




These are crazy, super amazing, jizz-tabulous wheels which may as well be called 'Blue Steeze'.
These things are the perfect balance of buttery and icey, I though I love buttery wheels and hated icey wheels, but because these are right between the two, I/m at a loss. They are so smooth, yet have an Icey quality. I guess you could say they are controllably Icey. Ive been riding these wheels for around a month, already ovalled one wheel which is expected after non stop freeriding for 2 weeks when on Break.

While these slide super smooth, they did wear rather quickly, Ive worn through about 10mm i suppose in under a month, coned and flatspotted them to death but are still ride-able. While they aren't strictly center set they are offset slightly, so you can still flip them around to de-cone them i guess which is a positive of this wheel.

In conclusion, these wheels are smooth, predictable, sexy and crazy nice for freeride and I give it 4/5 Jizz-tabulous slides.

-Adam.