Don't be a square, daddy-o

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I’ve been thinking about building a “square” shaped deck for a while, not sure why. Not “sharp right angles” square, but basically square.

I googled “square decks” and couldn’t find much, but did find pictures of this board:
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I live in the south pacific (New Zealand) so getting kits/materials for forming my own deck is pricey (freight mostly). The idea of getting some (maybe) marine-ply and some fibre-glass and making something flat like this is appealing. It would be very easy to 3d-print and enclosure for it, and cheap to make another one.

Also: I’m not riding down knarly hills, drifting around corners etc. I don’t need to be “locked into the board” (although knowing where my feet are is useful) so the lack of shape is not important. It’s basically a commuter (2km) 95% of the time.

Convince me that this is a bad idea…

I’m not young anymore so I kind of like the cave-man/back to basics aesthetic. :slight_smile:

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It’s flatter than post menopause Gwen Stefani my dude.

That will be like riding post menopause Gwen Stefani.

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You should try it, and let us know how it goes :smiley:

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It will need concave. No concave feels like absolute elephant shit on fire, with soupy human manure mixed in sprinkled with rotten broccoli and beer shits. Then flakes of dried cum, salted, pissed on, with dead ground up rotten rats. It’s bad.

Try it. I’m sure you will agree.

Square shape though, sounds cool.

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Man, that sounds slightly unappetizing.

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It would look really bad without that little spoiler

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I agree that I might not like the flatness… I would probably have to have some texture under my feet to get a feel from the board… even if it’s some 3d printed “shapes”.

From an engineering/engineer’s perspective (we are all engineers, right?) I like the idea of how fundamental and basic the form factor would be.

Also I’m cheap and I don’t have a proper workshop.

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I’m guessing you don’t mean “bad” in the good way :slight_smile:

I agree. I’d either try and form/bend in a spoiler, or at least screw one on like in the image.

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Think it would look way better with 97mm wheels, and front-truck much closer to the front of the board, which would be ~34" long (same as my Truncated Tesseract).

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The only way you had a skateboard when I was a kid was to take the metal wheels off those roller skates that latched onto your shoes and nail them to a board. I don’t recall them being all that awesome.

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Definitely not suggesting that a completely flat board would be better than the sculpted goodness of a NZ$300 board (~US$200).

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A flat board will be wayyy more flexible than the same deck with concave. Keep this in mind.

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Keep your eyes on TradeMe, for used longboards. You’ll easily find something that will work, instead of wasting time and material in that flat board that will ride like crap. Honestly, concave is mandatory!

There is PLENTY of skate gear available in NZ. for example I found a complete Evo last year for NZ$120
Just stay away from new cheap stuff, and get second hand decks from reputable brands and you’ll have something great in the end

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I’d be worried that deck is going to eat my shins / ankles or whatever if I bail

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FWIW I bought a Globe Geminon Evo 38 instead. Not too expensive and available in NZ. Thanks to @alexnz for the TradeMe suggestion (seems obvs now).

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Now I want to get some white Evolve Wheels :frowning: (currently have the black “white-wall” ones)

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Glad to hear that. I worry about buying decks that I don’t know the reputation of. Been burned before.

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That globe has a very appealing shape, nice choice

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Great to see you have the board finished! What tail light are you using? :heart_eyes:

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Who said it was finished? :laughing:

Neopixels (RGBW on the front, RGB on the back), 3D printed enclosures and controlling them with an ESP32 (arduino compat.).

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How’d you bend them into that shape though? Or are you using these strips that shine to the side? https://www.adafruit.com/product/3634

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