What Is The Worst Deck You Ever Skated?

Castpolymer

Worst could mean nearly anything. Shape, quality, graphics, etc. I would have to go with an original full sized Hosoi vert board that a kid in my hometown was using as a street board.Add in a set of 80's Gullwings, 85A Kryptos and that deck could be used to pound fence posts in. I almost felt sorry for him when we were all trying to learn to ollie. He had no chance. Second worst would have to be any Powell Peralta Bonite deck. XT meant " extra heavy " and " extra easy to de - lam." I have said it once and I will say it again, how did George Powell, a Stanford engineer, ever let those P.O.S. decks ever get thru the test phase?

Chris

Gator ramp deck, I can't for the life of me remember why I even owned it, but I only skated it for a few weeks. Pointy nose, horrible shape, flexed, just a shitty deck.

Castpolymer

Gator's board shape sucked and he was a total douche. Met him and some of the other Vision guys at a demo back in the day. That dude needed another board for his ego to ride shotgun.

brigade_bill

for me it is any board not made in the u.s.

cother2

I would have to say the varflex board my dad got me from target. Heavy, yet fragile.

myren

Worst board I ever had was a New School, DORK  board. From way back in the mid 90's. I set it up did one (1) nollie on it, on flat ground,  and the board layers split from the nose half way down the deck! What a hunk of crap that thing was for all 5 seconds it was skated. Blah...

Castpolymer

Unfortunately, like every industry, quality control and raw materials make all the difference. Just the glue alone would probably drive me insane as a manufacturer. The number of variables that would affect strength and mechanical bond are staggering. Then you have to go into EPA / California regs in the U.S. for types of glue allowed to be used. My QC guy would be highly paid and be the most inflexible person in my factory.

cwalker3

What's the science/physics behind boards that have 'heavy' front geometry?  Like some boards snap up quick when you put pressure on the tail, some it takes a forceful shift of weight?

Because I hate when boards are heavy to lift like that.  And every Flip P2 boards I've tried has been like that.  So Flip P2's.

slippery

Easy. Begins and ends with golden dragon

Chris

I always felt that "technology" is overrated when it comes to decks. 7 plies of quality maple, quality glue, pressed and shaped works fine without bonite, kevlar, or anything else companies try to sandwich in there.

Johnophean

CWALKER3 - try a shorter wheelbase. I like 14.25" and under for this reason alone.

Bigger than a 14.5" will start to get heavy up front. Back when street got big and skating where everything was popped and got technical, the wheelbases got smaller and the were average was 13.75"-14.25" on 9" + boards from 91 and on. When decks got slimmer down to 7.5" and stuff like that the wheelbases were pretty much still around that of what they were when a year before we were riding 9"x32" 14"WB decks, only maybe sometimes they were even a little shorter around 13.5". These days it's hard to find 8.5" deck with a shorter 14" wheelbase and under 32" length, and a good nose and tail rocker shape/concave mold. Some companies do it right, and some go longer WB, because alot of people are skating more parks/tranny. 14.38" is pretty standard on the DLX end up until about 8.5". The K15 shape is a LONG wheelbase mold concave, and sucks for wheelbases under 15". The nose and tail rockers are in the wrong places when it's shorter than that. An 8.5" K12 deck would be nicer. But we are getting something like that soon anyways, "wink wink - shhhhh! Anyways...

Yeah, it's science. The longer the board, and or aka wheelbase, the heavier the front end will be to raise from the tilting the back down.  Think of see saw if one side was 10ft long and one side was 55ft long...which side would be harder keep up?

: )

Johnophean

Worst board I ever had was maybe a Consolidated I got from mail order in around 94. I skated a few Consolidated decks back in the early 90's. You'd send a check or money order for $31.99 +$5 shipping and wrote "1 wood deck please", and they'd send you whatever they had. You couldn't even pick the size, they just sent you whatever. When I think about that today I still laugh. Beer City was like that too. At least Skates on Haight sent me condoms though randomly. I lost my virginity using a Skates on Haight sent condom. True story. Thanx SOH! Beats the hell out of what some companies send these days as "bonus treats", like stickers noone wants w/ a shop across the country nobody has ever heard of's logo or some random last seasons DVS shoe package stickers they were gunna throw away anyways, and who the fuck wants Footprint Insoles stickers when they've ordered wheels? 

Anyways, yeah the Consolidated deck - 

The tail was steep and pointy and the nose was flat and round. I tried riding it the other way around for a week but the shape was just "off" and everything felt horrible. 

In the end I gave it to my bass player, he hated it too. : P

Never got another Consolidated deck again, or any deck I couldn't see first, or know the size for that matter!

Castpolymer

Skate condoms. Nice.

Johnophean

I think it was a Lifestyles or some brand not made anymore. Was a white plastic package and had purple writing...yes, I remember it. How could I not? : )

SK8ER

Johnophean,

Please give details on this 8.5 K12 deck.

Johnophean

Nothing yet to say, but stay tuned SK8ER.

WaaayEast

Worst deck I ever skated award would have to go a an early World Industries deck I got, must have been around 1990.  It was the one with a street scene and it had a bunch of stickers, of ho's, pimps, cops, dog's pissing, etc.  Was doing a slappy, fucked up and the board went rolling towards a wall, but not even that fast, hit it and a huge chunk of the top ply came off.  It was just one of those early World decks that could not take a beating.

cwalker3

Thanks for the education JOHNOPHEAN!