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.