pavedwave longboarding

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

Back in December of 2006, when a ton of oak Vanguard "seconds" were being sold off as the bamboo lineup took over, I grabbed six of these at a humongous discount, with the plan to chop them into LDP's. I drew out the lines (two blunts, and three point-nose shapes) and John Stryker did a really nice cut job, then my bud Corey did an amazing paint job on one I kept. All the other decks found their way under friends' feets, some trades, one sold, the others gifts.

What was kind of funny was the reaction online, even though we kept the whole thing really low key, never made any "announcements", no hype, no jive. Just posted a few shots on the pavedwave "gear" page, and posted a pic of my yellow LDP once as a comment on Silverfish. Apparently at that time, cutting up a Loaded was equivalent to blasphemy, and I was summarily chided for my ruthlessness and disrespect to the venerable Vanguard. Nevermind the fact my first Vanguard stayed intact, the one I liked so much it went on a trip to Japan earlier that year.

The responses are understandable. After all, if you carefully designed and created a shape and the first thing someone does is whack into it with a saw, you want to know why / if their change was really necessary, or just some aesthetic thing. In the case of the Vanguard-->LDP morph, the change was purely functional. The Vanguard was originally designed with a long wheelbase around a symmetrical pair of Randal trucks, and IS an amazing carving machine. And the way the Adam's took that board and tweaked everyone's minds by pulling manuals and other tricks without a kicktail is what really took the longboarding "dancing" world by storm.

The experiment was in large part an attempt to see how the flex would work with a reduced wheelbase, to play with a rear foot position set further back, and putting more leverage over the front truck. The first issue was that it felt narrow, and soon after this, I modified the templates to Scott for the Subsonic Pulse, speccing less concave, more width, and less camber. I wanted to see Loaded make something like this, but I knew the turnaround and adoption of completely new decks would take a year or more, whereas Subsonic, being a smaller (and local) builder, would be able to act quickly and testing other tweaks and designs right away.

The reshaped Vanguard LDP, reminded me of the Un-Cola -- so it became the "Un-Loaded."

Six months later, a guy posted his version of a reshaped Loaded on a German forum, giving it the moniker "Re-Loaded." He did a nice job shaping and used a lot less grip tape on his version, keeping it very Loaded-brand-name friendly, unlike my fully gripped board.

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Fast forward another half year to April '08, and the whole Unloaded LDP-Vanguard design was once again brought to the surface, this time by our local bro "Camel" who created a Silverfish thread and posted links to these re-shapes, mentioning that the Dervish might be next on the chopping block.

http://www.silverfishlongboarding...p-deck-long-distance-pumping.html

...or would it have to be?

After all, modifying a Dervish would keep us constrained within the Dervish outline -- modifying a Dervish blank opens things way up!

The Silverfish thread rekindled the whole LDP dialogue with Don again, and after a few months of going back and forth on ideas, and another couple months of mysterious silence, something very cool, very raw, showed up on our doorsteps.

This is the proto Camel's testing

...but mine's still a bit too rough on the edges to post

Laughing

angelo_pb · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 11:49 am Post subject:

Were they 38" or 42"? What flex? How do they work?

It seems like chopping the head off a 38" would be kind of short. What is WB?

rodgon · Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 88

hahaha.!!!

loadeds getting in the game !!! maybe some more coverage and sponsorship for LDP runs will be easier to achieve!!!

yay!

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

angelo, the spec on the cut VG is 39" long, 30" WB. it started as a 42" flex 2 which makes it now a pretty stiff flex 1.

lots of playing and exploring at this stage. just keeping fingers crossed and pumpin silly.

Ian the Groove Worshipper · Joined: 03 Dec 2008 Posts: 79 Location: Largo, FL

I think this is awesome - Loaded making an LDP board will be a huge step toward this seeing this sport blow up. I feel the same way about LDP as I did about the UFC in the early 2000's...knowing that it was too awesome to be denied and only a matter of time before the masses realize. Every time I go riding, people give me looks of intrigue, and desire of wanting to pump a longboard. But where would they know about it? It is so underground. Being adopted by the popsicle skate mags would be a huge step. I could even see the street skate crowd evolving to incorporate pumping.

The idea of a bamboo LDP deck is attractive, due to the lightness and strength of bamboo, which could only be a benefit to long distance riding. I wonder if one day it will get to the point where LDPers will be as anal about saving grams as cyclists, with weight-saving as a primary sales pitch, and consumers paying hundreds, if not thousands for the lightest hardware, trucks, decks, and wheels.

As cool as this is to see JP's Oak Vanguard experiment develop, I'm far more curious to see how this would work with a chopped bamboo version.

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

Pureadrenalin · Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Posts: 35 Location: Honolulu,Hawaii

I was thinking of modding one of my dervish boards.Would it be a better idea to cut just the front or would I need to both ends?
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RiPPer · Joined: 13 Feb 2009 Posts: 53

So let me try to understand whats going on.....

Loaded sent you blanks that you cut to into the surfboard LDP shape for the protos you are testing?

So you are working with Loaded on designing a Loaded LDP board?

That's really awesome. I've been wondering when the larger makers would catch wind of the LDP movement and bring out LDP specific gear. I'd love to see more deck, wheel and truck manufacturers develop and market gear for this niche market.

northcoast · Joined: 09 Sep 2008 Posts: 64

hey pavedwave, can you shed a little light on the rumors i've heard about s9 and a few other companies and their kinda shady eco-friendly marketing about bamboo? i've heard that basically, the way that those companies use bamboo is more detrimental to the environment than regular ol' maple...due to the resins used, the harvesting and shipping methods from china, and a few other things.

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