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 :)