Never Summer is an excellent snowboard company that entered the longboarding scene, utilizing their mastery of raw materials to start creating durable, efficient longboards for all different purposes. They have a roster of unique, useful shapes with all their respectively unique concaves. Through the years, Never Summer longboards have changed in shape and concave to adapt to the needs of the public, like a good company always should. This year, Never Summer gave us the new 2017 Superfreak to test out and write about, and we’ve got a lot of thoughts about it, and we wanted to share them with you!Continue reading →
2016 has been the year of fledgling companies going huge in the downhill longboarding scene. Unlike the majority of companies, these few companies made most of their revenue selling quality downhill/freeride longboards, with a few cruiser completes being sold on the side. First it was Moonshine MFG, and now it’s Zenit Longboards.
If you were on the website last year, you would have seen a completely different lineup compared to this year’s. Last year’s lineup was a small, minimalist series of 5 boards- but this year, Zenit turned it around and emerged with a huge release of decks which cover all there is to do with longboards, style-wise and discipline-wise.
But that isn’t to say that Zenit is like any other board company with a diverse lineup- they’re a little different. Upon stumbling onto their website, the first thing you’ll notice is that they have a peculiar surfskate lineup! These are extremely space-efficient, stylish cruiser/slasher hybrids with meaningful concave which unlike many other cruisers, can be utilized to do some more stylish, skill-based riding such as urban slashing and pool skating.
There are three of them- the Hibiscus, the Alaia, and the Choka. They all have more or less the same shape, with the main difference being in the length and width- most of the length differences come from the size and quantity of kicks. The Hibiscus has no nose kick, and Alaia has a small nose half-kick, and the Choka has two full kicktails. The widths increase from 9 inches with the Hibiscus to 10 inches with the Choka, with the Alaia being right in the middle with a 9.5. These small increments make finding a board that’s a good match for your shoe sizes an absolute jiffy. LNV recommends a 9.5 inch width for people with a size 9 men’s shoe size (US standard), so you can scale up or down depending on how big your feet are.
Hibiscus Bottom
Hibiscus Bottom Details
Hibiscus Profile
Hibiscus Construction
Alaia Bottom
Alaia Bottom Details
Alaia Profile
Alaia Construction
Choka Bottom
Choka Bottom Details
Choka Profile
Choka Construction
Some of the most hyped boards of Zenit’s 2017 lineup are the downhill/freeride boards. These were released to the team riders and local scenes in small numbers, gathering more and more positive feedback every time.
The Marble 40 is pressed in the CONFO mold, which is a microdrop-flare combination with a delicious amount of medium radial. This makes an awesome foot pocket right where the microdrops meet the flares, where you can really wedge your toes or heels in for toesides and heelsides. Aside from the concave, the 40 has double kicktails and a small amount of flex to help with a skater’s freestyle ability- it’s still stiff enough to do downhill and freeride on. Take the Loaded Tesseract for example with its slight dampening flex. The Marble 40 just does the same with its construction rather than a layer of cork on the bottom.
Marble 40 Bottom
Marble 40 Bottom Details
Marble 40 Profile
Marble 40 Construction
The Marble 38 is the same, except with just one kicktail, and complete rigidity opposed to the small amount of dampening flex that the 40. Same concave, same shape. The great thing about the 38 is also that each board is painted and “marbled” by hand at the factory. The artists at Zenit layer paint over a base and strafe it down the board to create a legitimate marble look and finish that’s durable and total eye candy to look at.
Marble 38 Bottom
Marble 38 Bottom Details
Marble 38 Profile
Marble 38 Construction
The Rocket V2 is, as it stands, the most recent iteration of the 2015-2015 Rocket V1 and Missile boards. It features a directional, gnarly concave with some of the greatest gaspedal-inspired concave you may ever see on a downhill longboard. Although the middle features almost no radial, the concave is high and persistently supportive wherever it matters. The small amount of rocker helps to support the feet on an otherwise laterally straight concave profile.
Graphics have traditionally been either flat colors or a heat/pressure transfer from a graphic sheet. And although this keeps creativity open and the possibility of different colors, shapes and designs virtually infinite, it definitely gets old knowing that there’s no real special technique going into the graphics on your boards.
Other companies have tried woodburning, embossing, and staining boards to show off their natural wood grain- but nobody’s ever tried opalescence as a visual concept on their boards (at least, as far as we at LNV are concerned). That is, until now, with the Kebbek 25th Anniversary boards! And it looks absolutely bumping. Each board is painstakingly painted with layers of metallic and opalescent paints to create a visually stunning opalescent effect on each of their boards.
Topmount Top
Shortcut
Kaslo
Isac Printz
Gritzner Side Profile
Gritzner
Emma Daigle Side
Emma Daigle Profile
Emma Daigle Drop View
Emma Daigle
Emma Daigle
Crafty Side
Crafty Wheel Well
Crafty Kicktail View
Crafty
Ben Dub
Kebbek has also brought back some throwbacks to their original line, including the Ben Dub Classic, Ian Comishin Classic, and Kalator Classic, each with their special board finishes.
Kalator Classic
Ben Dub Classic
Comishin Classic
Comishin Classic
Kebbek’s wallet-friendly economic construction and easy-going staff will make you feel at home again, for the 25th year, with their new 25th Anniversary Series boards.
Check them out at the link!
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Double-kick quiver-killers have been the fad of the decade. Having a board that can freeride, downhill, and also kick around and do some freestyle all in the same session is definitely one attractive prospect.
Through the years, many board companies have tried and tried to create their best interpretation of the quiver-killer. And Bustin Boards is not an exception- the Shrike has been a part of the Bustin arsenal for many years. However, this year, Bustin really knocked it out of the park by solving many common problems with their new Thermoglass construction. Thermoglass includes fiberglass topsheets coupled with urethane bumpers and kicktails. It’s the epitome of durable board technology.
With their new lightweight, fused fiberglass construction, the Shrike is newly advantaged for freestyle and dancing tricks- a lighter board means that airtime is increased and the setup is more responsive. When doing freeride and downhill, rider input is amplified.
The new 5-0 urethane bumpers are incredibly resilient and are able to take the worst of beatings- Will Royce is no saint to his boards and the shape and layout of the urethane bumpers focus on strength more than aesthetics. A truly utilitarian philosophy previously unseen in longboard production.
Bustin Shrike Topsheet
Thermoglass Construction
Bustin Shrike Custom Graphic
Bustin Shrike Complete
Bustin Shrike Concave
The new Bustin Thermoglass Shrike. Get it before it gets away!
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At LNV, we like and appreciate smaller board companies who are always innovating. Because they are smaller, small-time boardmakers have more wiggle room, being away from the prying eyes of critics and consumer bases. Instead, they have a clean slate to test their creations and work towards something unique that works.
Many starter companies however, begin producing boards without a strong base and footing in skateboarding and skateboard technologies. These companies never take off, as their constructions aren’t strong and they run into problems while operating the board. Shawn is an exception- a skateboarder for 7 years, Shawn at Voxel Boards knows how important it is to have a strong, tested construction and core before you can experiment with concaves and shapes.
We paired up with Shawn over the weekend and did a little interview with him to really get into the mind of a amateur-turning-professional boardmaker! Check it out below.
LNV: What prompted you to start making boards?
Voxel: The things that prompted me to make boards were all very personal. I had lots of experience growing up around tools, and I knew how to make things. I first wanted to make boards when I was about 14. It took me till I was 20 to realize “Okay, now I actually have the ways and means to do this. I’m not in school, my job sucks…Let’s do this.”
LNV: What do you think is your greatest selling point?
Voxel: I think our greatest selling point is that at our current size, doing limited releases and small batches let’s us improve quickly, and let’s us do weird and niche things that other companies can’t cater to. We have some really cool ideas for limited releases in the future, and the idea is to make sure that something stands out to you in every single one.
LNV: What sets you apart from other boardmakers in the industry?
Voxel: I think what really sets us apart is how we handle our graphics. We have more artists than we have board makers or business people in the company. So, when you go to order a board from our site, we prompt you with options for selecting your board. You’ll be able to choose “Custom Graphic” from those options, and actually work with our artists to commission something that goes onto your board. We also give people the option to upload their own image for use, but I haven’t seen anyone else approach it quite the way we have yet.
LNV: What are your plans for the future? Do you plan to upscale production?
Voxel: Well I recently got a job, and so far, it’s changed my life for the better. It’s also shifted my career to be more around woodworking, and craftsmanship. You’re going to see me trying a lot of new things within the coming months. Lots of unique materials and new construction. In terms of production, we currently only stock the 3310 on the site, so we’re going to be doing re-releases of a few of the old boards pretty soon. Lots of redesigns! I’m also going to be implementing a lot of changes to the manufacturing process, so we’re going to get higher quality, and hopefully try to get more recognition in the community.
LNV: What was your greatest inspiration for the 3310 and its shape?
Voxel: The inspiration for the 3310 came a lot from my desire to do better. I was on the like, 5th mould revision on another deck, and I knew that if I didn’t switch projects, I would get burnt out. I had a lot going on in the company at the time too, so I spent time sorting through that, and working on the new design. It took me a few days to design the mould, then I designed a shape. I spent a whole week just making the mould, and when I was done with it I slapped on the veneers a few layers at a time. Finally after two weeks, we had this giant, rectangular double-kick blank. It felt a lot like holding a certain, indestructible phone in my hands.
The Voxel 3310, as the name suggests, is one tank of a board. It’s been curbed, slapped, hopped and smashed, and yet the rails stay pristine as ever. The slightly square-ish, rounded off figure is utilitarian- maximizing the effective foot platform and increasing the amount of kicktail that has an effect on flip tricks.
The 3310 has a hefty tub concave which flattens out near the street-inspired kicktails for a high pop and ollie-able capability. The back comes with a minimalist, stylish wood-grain graphic with a stain to keep it clean and stickers an absolute possibility!
Voxel Boards 3310 Bottom
3310 Bottom Profile
3310 Griptape and concave
Pre-order on Voxelboards.com now!
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