The Longboard Blog

This is a copy from our 2008 holiday shopping guide:

The holiday season emails are beginning to arrive, and the most common question has been, “I want to get a longboard for my [girlfriend, husband, etc.], but I don’t know where to start”. I will do my best to provide you with a basic guide on choosing a longboard as a gift.

If the person you are shopping for is a longboard enthusiast, then it’s very likely that they may have dropped a hint on specific products or you may know the style of riding they prefer. For this guide, I will center my attention on longboards with universal capabilities, such as cruising with some speed and carving.

Longboard skateboards have become increasingly popular as a mode of transportation. People use longboards for commuting to the office, cruising to class on college campuses, and training for winter sports like snowboarding.

Length: Longboards between the length of 38″ and 47″ are preferred for longer distance riding. Longer boards tend to be more stable and track straight due to a larger turning radius. Longboards under 38″ have a shorter turning radius which make them good for shorter commutes and college campuses.

Materials: Longboards come in many different materials, such as wood, wood composites [blend of more than one material], and full composites [absence of wood]. Wood is the most familiar material, and offer a very light and stiff platform. Boards with a low amount of flex are good for cruising since a flexible board may rob you of energy from the up and down motion. Wood composite boards are usually thinner, stronger, and have added flexibility. The flexibility of these boards are great for carving, where the flex creates a spring action pumping in and out of turns. Full composite boards can be made of all fiberglass and even see-through plastics. These materials can enhance performance and visual appeal.

We will be launching The Skateboard Store very soon, and with that, we created a new Wise Owl Sticker and a new TSS Order Sticker.

We just received a shipment of the New Gullwing Stalker Trucks and they look very nice. They feature a patented Vibration Damping System built into the truck hanger that creates an incredibly smooth, quiet ride.<p>

Stalkers come with a 9.5″ hanger in Black Rubber or polished Silver. We’re frothing to skate these trucks, so pick up a set and tells us how they ride.

We added Rush bearings to the site a few weeks ago, and they have been tremendously popular. What is unique about Rush bearings, is that they are one of a growing number of companies adding an Abec9 version.

Like others, I was a little skeptical about an Abec9 rating showing up in the market. After doing some research, there is an Abec9 designation by the American Bearing Manufacturers Association. At this level of precision, the differences in speed between an Abec7 and Abec9 should be very small. The Rush Abec9 bearings are reasonably priced at $22, so they are a minor investment to see for yourself. Always remember to frequently clean and lube your bearings.

We have new TLS Stickers arriving this week. They are both images of mix tapes with “take me to thelongboardstore.com” on them. Our old school customers will appreciate these the most.

We received the new Rayne 39″ ISIS today. The ISIS was create by Rayne for Brianne Davies, the leading women’s longboarder in the world . She has dominated women’s speedboard racing three years in a row. Brianne has won 1st place in five different countries, was the 2008 IGSA World Champion and earned the title of Speed Boarder of the Year by Concrete Wave.

The ISIS is a combination of Brianne’s favourite boards and groundbreaking new features condensed into one ULTRA-MEGA-SUPER-SKATE-MACHINE!

We added Elevator Shock Risers to our site just a couple of weeks ago, and they have been selling out fast ever since. They are very high quality injection molded rubber risers that offer more colors to match custom completes. They come in 1/8″ and 1/2″ thick.

The paint on your car may have it, the lip gloss you may be wearing has it, and now the Bennett Wheels have it. The new Alligator 62mm wheels from Bennett are sparkling with tiny shimmering…something. All we know is, we really like them.

We’re branching out a little, and have added Mountainboards to the mix. These boards can be used on pavement, but are more at home when you take them to the dirt trails. Mountainboards use much wider trucks to accommodate the large diameter pneumatic tires. A few of the models include bindings to keep the board attached to your feet. The Mountainboards come either fully pre-assembled or partially assembled. One major difference when you purchase a Mountainboard from us, is that we will remove the board from the shipping box and tune it. Tuning involves making sure the hardware is tight, trucks are adjusted, and tires are inflated properly [tires may loose slight pressure during shipping].

We’ve always wanted to showcase some of the artwork that our customers have created for the popular TLS Basic Longboards, but thought we would begin receiving more examples if we added a free box of 24 crayons with every TLS Basic deck or complete sold. We are gathering up as many boxes that we can find to supply this promotion as long as possible.