The Longboard Blog

Yeah, I know what you are asking yourself. Are the Orangatangs the wheels or the 2 silly guys behind them? So I guess the answer is a little bit of both. The Orangatang Wheels have been selling just as soon as they arrived, so we decided to increase the stock. They are now available in Purple and in the same 70mm and 75mm sizes. The Purple Orangatangs are 83a durometer, so they will be slightly faster and easier to use for sliding. As for the 2 in the background, they are both in stock and ready to ship as well [the one on the left would like to be shipped to Long Beach].

We just added a bunch of much anticipated speedboards to the site this week. The first batch is from Kebbek, including for the first time, a Bamboo Bassi and Bamboo Revenger. The Ian Comishin has been reworked in Bamboo and also sports the name J.F. Boily as well. The new Switchback looks to be true to it’s name, and is a fully symmetrical board, and is using a 2 tone bamboo veneer.

Rayne Speedboards do not stay on the shelves very long, and I would predict the same for the new Nemesis. After receiving a Nemesis prototype last winter, I have been wanting to share this amazing board with our customers. The Nemesis has 6 layers of a darkened bamboo core and fiberglass on both sides. We were only able to get 20 in this shipment, so grab one soon. We also received a new Avenger. The new Avenger is clad with new graphics and a stiff bamboo structure skinned with fiberglass.

These are the first 2 stickers from our limited production sticker program. When you place an order, you will receive one sticker, which happens to be the Speedboarder Sticker currently. When most of one design sells, we will retire it, and move to a new design. We will try to keep enough of the retired stickers on hand to sell on the sticker section of our site.

Many customers have mentioned that they need to sell their old longboards before purchasing a new one, so we decided to let users take advantage of our large viewer base and launched The Longboard Trader. The site works very similar to Craigslist, in that users are contacted by an anonymous email form, and then the transaction is negotiated between the lister and buyer. The Longboard Store often receives over 20,000 visitors per day, so there’s a very good chance of selling  longboard related items on the trader site. Best of all, this service is completely free. The Longboard Trader.

Dear fellow longboarders…[by the way, this is our version of the state of the union address]. The state of longboarding is very strong. Despite fears of a recession in the US economy and high fuel costs, citizens are still reveling in America’s new past-time, longboarding. Not to mention that longboards run on a couple slices of pizza and a cold bear [hmm, gives me an idea for a new study]. We have seen near 4 times the traffic on our website over this time last year, and we receive emails from new longboard companies every week. The bounty of longboarding products is growing. Until next time, happy traveling.

Snow has taken over the landscape here in Bend. Even so, we have visions of longboards dancing in our heads, since we ship a bunch of product to the southern hemisphere during the winter season. But now that the holidays are behind us, we can commence preparations for the spring season. So away we go, to the Surf Expo show [rhyme intended]. Every January, Florida is home to one of the largest surf and skate shows. We walk and talk the seemingly endless forest of manufactures, searching for the latest and greatest in longboard related products.

Update: The show is now over, and we enjoyed meeting with a bunch of our current suppliers, and some new. I will keep you updated as some of the new products begin to roll in.

I had an exclusive interview with Jon, one of our longboard builders. Like a wild west gunslinger, Jon can handle a wrench and Bosch driver with blistering speed. Hear what this real life longboard builder had to say.

Interviewer: So Jon…How many board can you build an hour?
Jon: Oh, about 10 an hour…and at least 1 more than Scott.

Interviewer: Is it true that you bring a sack lunch to work everyday?
Jon: Yeah, my mom makes a mad buffalo wing.

Interviewer: Thanks Jon…any last words?
Jon: Uh yeah…Bennett Alligators rule.

So you’ve ordered a longboard from The Longboard Store to give to a very special someone at Christmas. To your surprise, the UPS driver hands you a 47″x 11″x 6″ box, and you need a place to hide it.

First of all, there are 2 large logos on the box, and they are located in the center of each large panel. You can gift wrap the entire box, but to save trees, you may want to just wrap a band of gift wrap around the center of the box to cover the logos. Tape well, as they may be able to slide the wrap to the side to reveal a logo.

Second, there will be a packing slip inside of a plastic envelope on the side of the box. This can be removed. Please note that there are stickers in the envelope; 1 tls sticker, 1 system sticker, and a wise owl sticker if you purchased a complete.

Third, let’s face it. They will know it’s a longboard when they see the box under the tree. So, the best option is to wait until 2am to pull the box from the cleaning closet, place it under the tree, sprinkle some cookie crumbs on the box [you eat the cookie], and look surprise in 2 hours.

We try to keep the live support on as much as possible, but there are times when we are busy packing orders, and the chat is put on standby. Many of our customers are also knowledgeable about choosing longboards and other related questions, so we have added a live chat window to the right column of the blog. Come and spend some time talking with others and ask questions.

We just received word that the much anticipated Tracker Fastracks shipped on Wednesday, so we should see them on Friday. Photos will be taken and added to the site the moment we cut open the box. The 7″ hangers are set at a 50 degree angle, and use a much larger then standard bushing. Having a larger diameter bushing should create a very smooth turn and positive center springback. The backside of the hanger has ample ribbing and plenty of rib surface, thus increasing strength dramatically.