pavedwave longboarding

Moddos · Joined: 06 May 2009 Posts: 14 Location: Europe

Greetings,

I apologize in advance for the mental distress I must have caused by bringing up the idea of defiling a Mermaid by adding skyhooks -- at least to me it feels very wrong for reasons I can't quite put my finger on.

Nevertheless, has anyone here ever tried adding skyhooks to a LDP board? For the Mermaid, I was thinking of adding one at the nose only.

Does it work well with pumping, i.e., is it also good as a footstop (I've never tried skyhooks, so I don't know how they feel)?
Would skyhooks allow me to lift my front truck onto sidewalks that are just a bit too high to drive onto?
I don't plan to do any jumping on/off sidewalks, this would only be for cases where the sidewalk 'ramp' is still too high to roll onto.

I currently mainly use my Mermaid in the city; the main thing that interrupts my flow are all the sidewalk ramps I cross. Many are low enough to not be a problem (if I drive over them at an angle, anyway), but there are also many that are 1-2cm too high..
The main problem is the front wedging which brings the kingpin closer to the floor. Even without that problem, I'd still often have to pick my board up and put it on the sidewalk (using 75mm wheels). I'm starting to learn which areas/junctions to avoid, but it'd be nice to be able to keep going all the way.

Cheers,
Markus

wafflesole · Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 82

I tried something similar with my dropped Dervish, just for getting it off the road and onto the pavement (sidewalk)

it works ok, just ok. When you have tired legs it is more of a hinderence.

http://www.skatefurther.com/forum...t=192&hilit=lifting+mechanism

nat

pavedwave · Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 1120 Location: seattle wa usa

I've got a set of unmounted hooks we tried out many years ago. It was fun for a while and I'd say if you have a lot of curbs to jump almost every day, it might be worth it. They definitely give you a locked-in feel, but they do get in the way if you like to move around.

I still think they might be really nice on a board specifically set up for something like a Cyber Mile where the distance is super short and little to no movement on the board expected.

I hope to catch Chaputs ear on this topic again some time, since he did mention thinking that skyhooks should be ruled out on slalom boards. I wasn't sure if he was coming at that from an "unfair advantage" versus just a safety angle.

egret · Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 84

Safety is an issue I'm seeing. I don't like footstops even out of fear of tripping over them when I need to bail.