Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Anything but Traditional -- Surf-Rodz Traditional Kingpin Trucks (TKP) Review -- by Matt Fagan

I’ve been riding Surf-Rodz TKPs for over a year now and have thoroughly enjoyed them. I’ve spent those many months trying them on a variety of boards with a variety of bushing shapes and durometers and they have been the single hardest truck to get dialed in that I’ve owned. This isn’t due to anything wrong; they are just very sensitive to different mountings, wedging, wheelbases, and bushings. This means they could be adapted to a variety of preferences and riding styles. It also means that you probably won’t get them set up perfect on your first try. I’m here to help point you in the right direction in tweaking them to perfection.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Choppin' Hills -- Jati Chop Suey Review

Everyone knows the bigger names in the industry: Landy, Comet, Loaded, Rayne, Original, Bustin, ect… But not everyone has heard of one of my favorite companies Jati. Jati Boards is a smaller operation working out the Southeast and really putting out some great work. Most of their original decks were strictly focused on downhill (and crushing it) but more recently they have been making some great skate-anything decks.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Riptides on the Road - the Canon and the Magnum - Riptide Bushing Review Part 3

I hope that you all caught the earlier portions of the Riptide Bushing Review (Part 1 and Part 2) and are excited for Part 3, which is all about the Paris Truck Co. specific bushing shapes; the Canon and Magnum. Remember, if you aren’t totally familiar with bushings in general check out Part 1 of the series before coming to this review. It might seem weird to a lot of people (especially those newer to the sport) that Riptide offers such a specific bushing shape.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Riptides on the Road - the Barrel and Cone -- Riptide Bushing Review Part Two

Today is part two of an on-going segment about Riptide bushings. Now that everyone has a basic knowledge about bushings (if you don’t then see part 1) we can get into how Riptide bushings actually perform on the road and in your trucks. However, because Riptide offers so many shapes in two unique formulas we aren't going to cover all their offerings in one post. Instead, today we will focus on the most common shapes; the barrel and cone.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Introduction to Bushings with Riptide -- Part 1

Hello my friends!

Welcome to another addition to our product review library. This is a very special post in that it is part of a series of information on Riptide Bushings. In recent history Riptide has established itself as a force to be reckoned with in the longboard bushing market. The question on everyone's lips is whether Riptide is riding the hype train or if there is truth to the claims of superior bushings. However, before we start to get into an in-depth analysis of Riptide Bushings let's talk about what a bushing actually is.

I have said it before and I will say it again, bushings are the most effective way to completely change how your setup rides. Through a proper bushing setup you can  make a board super duper carvey or stable as a table according to your liking. However, as much as I hate to admit it, there is a huge number of skaters out there who are completely ignorant to the benefits of tuning your setup and how large of a role bushings play in that process.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

the Big D**K -- Bustin YoFace BGDK Review

Hello Skateboarders!
It's been a while since Longboard-Life has published a review, but we are back and in full swing, so get ready for a bunch of new content!
Today we will be talking about one of the newer additions to the Bustin Boards lineup the YoFace BGDK. The BGDK was built to skate little bit of everything but to specifically excel in freeride and downhill. Although I happen to know that this deck has been in the works for a long time Bustin's new shred stick is joining a market flooded with other topmount, double kick boards. Which means that the questions on everyone's lips all have to do with performance.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

A Higher Caliber -- Caliber Truck Guide and Review

Hey Longboard Fans!!!
I know it, you know it, your best friend knows it... Pretty much anyone who drops thane knows that Caliber Trucks are the go-to choice for many longboarders. Caliber hit the market a while back and has since pretty much taken it by storm. It has been my experience that any group of longboarders is likely to have at least as many people riding Calibers as there are who aren't. When you consider how many different brands and styles of trucks there are out there I would count that as a win for Caliber. However, this leads me to ask the question; are Calibers really as awesome as people say or are they riding the hype train?

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Next Dimension -- Loaded Tesseract Review

Hello There Students of Shred,
If you are a geek like me then you have definitely heard the word "Tesseract" at some point in your life. A Tesseract is an eight sided cube that exists in the fourth dimension. To visualize it, think of how a square turns into a cube when it goes from 2D to 3D, now imagine a cube turning into a Tesseract as it goes from 3D to 4D (ok, you probably can't imagine that, but I don't that know anyone really can). That's basically a Tesseract in a nutshell. Or alternatively, and just as geeky,  the Tesseract is the blue magical cube in the Avengers movie. 

Here in the real world of only 3 visual dimensions another Tesseract has emerged from woodwork; the Loaded Tesseract. This version of the Tesseract was essentially designed to be a quiver killer. Loaded's website says that the Tesseract is ready to thrash everything; mountains, slides, ollies, manuals, you name it. While a lot of longboarders have simply called it a smaller version of the fabled Chubby Unicorn. To help clarify what the Tesseract really is Loaded was nice enough to send me one of these extra dimensional boards so that I could give you some of my earthly thoughts on this deck.  

Friday, July 5, 2013

Bloody Good Grip -- Blood Orange Griptape Review

Hey Errybody,

Welcome to our first ever review of griptape! Today we will be looking at Blood Orange grip which is a relatively new addition to the griptape market. In a world of die-hard Viscous fans producing another grip that specializes in freeride/downhill was a ballsy move. However, it certainly appears that Blood Orange has added more than a few skaters to its ranks.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Sweet Sweet Sweetness -- Omen Sugar Review

Hello There Fan of Skatedom,
It's no secret that topmounts are the trend in freeride and downhill these days. Ask any bro out there, if you want to hit super big standies then you better be riding a topmount, haha. Which has translated into a flood of topmounts hitting the market. In this sea of new decks it is hard for a board to really stand out from the crowd. Omen, however, has found some sort of secret sauce and has been banging out popular boards lately, probably the most popular of which is the Omen Sugar.