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New Setup

So by now you should be aware that I am an old dude who is relearning to skate again after a 17 year hiatus, but what you may not know is that I’m about to turn 44…. Argh… Yeah…. Fuck that sucks... but I digress... So, with my impending birthday coming up that is putting me closer to my death than to my youth my lovely girlfriend decided to buy me a Powell Peralta Flight deck for my Bday as I have been talking about this deck ever since I discovered that they existed and have been dreaming about building the lightest set-up ever. And I think I got dam close. 

The deck is a “BISS Leaf Grasshopper, with a 249 shape, 8.5. Per Powell it is Thinner than a 7-ply “it’s as thin as your phone”. It is strong, “more than twice as strong in tail break tests”.  Its longer lasting, “The epoxy infused, fiber reinforced structure is extremely resistant to breaking”. And it has “everlasting pop and higher ollies because of the greater rebound and snap” of the fiberglass structure.


Yeh, yeh, I can hear what you’re thinking. Why the hell does an old dude who still sucks need a deck with such technology? Well… because I can, and my girlfriend is sweet and generous. (And she sure didn’t tell me to write that part ether. )

As for the trucks this decision was a bit harder. After a ton of research, it came down to two different manufactures, Independent and Tensor. I have been riding Indies since I started skating again with my first new set-up, specifically Independent Stage 11 Forged Hollows 144’s. And I really like these trucks, they are super light, “10% lighter than stage 11’s” and grind great but as I was going for the lightest set-up ever, I could go even lighter than those. So, I started looking at the Independent Stage 11 Forged Titanium 144’s which are “15% lighter than stage 11’s” and the Tensor’s Maglights 5.75’s who says they are “30% lighter than every other truck out there”. I researched both of these a bunch, between everything I could find online and talking to the people at Cal Skate (my favorite shop in Portland) everyone loves the Indies, and the Tensors seem to get mixed responses. It actually came down to COVID-19 to be honest. I could not find ether of these at any shops or online anywhere, so once I got an alert from Independent that they had the Titanium 144’s I jumped on them. I actually want to try the Tensor Maglights if they ever get their supply chain back in order, but I am pretty pleased with the Titanium 144’s. Oh and one note on the Trucks, I ended up switching the bushings from the Indie stock ones to Bones Hard, Hardcore bushings, the only thing that I noticed is I’m getting some weird Pops or squeaks with them in the Titanium’s that I didn’t get with them in my hollows but I haven’t really broken in the trucks yet so who knows.

The wheels on this setup are Bones, clears, red, SPF, 84b (which is actually 104a, SUPER HARD) 56mm by 32mm with a P5 shape. I happened to buy these wheels a few years ago on a whim but never used them and I guess they are discontinued now but I really like these wheels on smooth concrete or wood parks but once you get them on any rough surface they are two hard, and they tend to be very slick if you hit some wet spots or on dusty wood. ( I actually slid out real hard the other day with these when I hit some condensation in a bowl the other day and fucked up my knee pretty bad so I might switch them out for my SS G-slides *see next setup*) The bearings I’m riding on this setup are Bones Reds Big Balls, I was riding hard lucks but the covers kept popping off and some of the bearings seemed to be slower than others, so I just switched them out. I figured might as well go full Powell Peralta with my fancy light board.

And just for fun here is my progression of setups since I stated skating again. First you have my first deck from when I stopped skating some 17 years ago, it’s a StreetMachine shop deck from my old favorite shop back in San Diego, it’s a 8.0, with Mercury 5.5 (8.0 axle) with spitfire wheels with generic bearings. When I stated pushing around on this deck again it just felt heavy and slow with no pop left in it, It is over 17 years old but most likely it was more in my head as it never got to much use as I got it on the down curve of my younger skate career.

The second setup is about 4 months old and I really love this setup, The Deck is an 8.5, Cal Skates 40th anniversary addition Jesse Reno’s first deck, (full disclosure I actually just bought a new one of these for when I completely wear out the tail on this current setup) it has Independent Stage 11 Forged Hollows 144’s and Powell Peralta, SS, G-Slides, Red, 85a, 56mm by 38mm with Bronson G2s. (I actually love these G-Slides a lot, they are kind of my favorites as they are good in the park and good on the streets or good for just bombing around ). This setup is what I have been relearning on the past four months and has done me really well, I plan on riding it still as my all-around and rough concrete board and leave the Flight setup for park.



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