Category: longboarding

In 2013 or so I bought this board, the Bustin Boards “Boombox”. Don’t bother looking. Discontinued long ago. It is a unique board. The mid section is dropped slightly and has some rocker. It has concave. It has a nose and tail, enough to go down a curb without feeling like you’re going to kill yourself. It is a thick, heavy board. I wish I’d gotten the lighter version with some fiberglass in it, but I didn’t. At any rate, heavy as it is, it is great board.

It’s hard for me to believe It’s been 7 years since I got it. Time is passing way too quickly.

The trucks were sent to me by Michael Bream, who then owned Randal trucks. They were a breast cancer fundraiser/awareness special edition of the great Randal-II 180mm truck. Michael just sent them to me, and I appreciated it. Now I appreciate those pink trucks even more. A lot more.

As noted in a previous post, I’ve got the bug to get my longboard flow going, which is why I’m posting this stuff.

Here are a couple of videos. First one is from 2014. I was just out riding around the public library building. The first part is at my normal freestyle spot, which is really too small to ride a 42″ board, but I did it anyway. I was just getting a feel for the setup, which had different wheels at the time. The second scene is in the parking lot out beside the library, which is a better spot. You can go fast, turn, carve, and not run out of space. I had a good time that evening, and will do so again.

I’ve got a lot of ideas for new lines appropriate to this and other longboards.

The second video is from 2013. Some test shots. Riding around the library, and carving a brick bank along the sidewalk on one side of the building.

And finally, a video I made toward the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Looking at it, I had already let myself get quite fat from staying too sedentary, eating cinnamon rolls, and drinking root beer. Comfort food.  I’ve lost the fat now, and am back to fighting weight.  I enjoyed the rolls and root beer a lot.

Oh, here’s another I made, just talking about this board.

I took this image, or rather a friend took at, at my now ruined mellow hill skating spot, I think in 2014. The Camera was a Canon PowerShot ELPH 300HS. I really like this little camera. It has a great burst mode as well.

Yet another G-Turn video capture…

Comet Pagan

Originally uploaded by bibliosk8er

Took the new downhill board out for some mild hills today, over in the Canyon Creek neighborhood. Skated a run I’ve done many times and it was fun. Then scouted out a new run — about a quarter mile long — maybe a bit longer.

Got a nice adrenalin rush at the bottom, where it hits a 90 degree intersection. Pavement in this area is concrete, and the intersections can be pretty choppy, so a 90% turn isn’t child’s play for a downhill novice. Anyway, I found the line and blasted through catching a little sideways drift on the Retro Freerides. Probably not going all that fast — I’d say about 20 or 25 tops. But still, was fun. Wore helmet and slider gloves.

Can’t wait to get this board on some nice smooth asphalt and a longer hill.

Well, I haven’t been skating much at all lately. The last time I skated much was October 2008, when I went out to California for a conference.  Various family issues, fear of re-injuring my knee, and crappy winter weather have all conspired to keep me off the board. I really don’t like indoor skating.

However, I am going to try getting back on the board this week. The weather has been nice, the knee is feeling good, and I miss my skateboarding friends a lot.

I’m also considering seriously weeding my longboard collection down to only the boards I really like to ride a lot, which would be about 3 boards. My Comet Voodoo downhill board, LibTech longboard, and my 40″ Comet (plus the backups of this deck). I might also keep the Fibreflex Funshape. The rest I’m thinking about selling. I don’t see a lot of purpose in having multiple hill-carving boards when I live in such a flat area. Kind of a shame, because there are so many new developments with downhill boards.

But who knows? Maybe I’ll just get more longboards and THEN whittle the collection down. I don’t have a lot of “vices”, so maybe a garage full of longboards and bikes isn’t such a bad thing.

I would like to find a good all-around longboard that’s in good shape. The 40″ Comet is good all-around, but it is falling apart. I’m thinking that one of the Skull Skate’s decks might be a good choice. I’ve been looking at the Flowmaster and the Casket, although the Casket is a bit longer. I think they’d both be good for general street skating, parks, etc. I’ve been looking at the Gravity 45″ Spoon Nose  for several years now, and I may order one as a “long” longboard. It has a nice 28″ wheelbase, which I came to enjoy on my 2nd longboard years ago.

The only thing that is a bummer about all these boards is that you can’t really use all the killer new large-diameter wheels on them. You need too many risers, and end up riding way off the ground. For these kinds of boards, I like to go no higher than a 65mm or 66mm wheel.

Anyway, we’ll see. Maybe I’ll sell some current stuff to finance new stuff.

Last week a video I put on Youtube was blocked because I had about 1 minute of a Led Zeppelin song on it. I’m not going to discuss the whole issue of copyright, fair use, etc, here. I understand that Youtube is trying to make money and have a viable business model. It seems kind of pathetic, since my 1 minute video is nothing compared to the entire TV show episodes that are posted there.

Anyway, I’ll be hosting my own videos, on my own server, in Quicktime format, in the future.

In the meantime, here’s that little video (at least until my dispute is resolved against me!).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfmtOaIa7ZY]

Had a nice chance to finally test out my downhill/parking garage board yesterday. After meeting some friends at the Allen, Texas, skatepark Saturday morning, I joined them for a garage session in Dallas. I set this board up last year, but have just never gotten around to really riding it.

The construction of Comet boards keeps them nice and light, with a little bit of flex – not bouncy at all — to soak up some road vibration. The spoon concave gives you a little spot behind the front truck that is a lowered pocket — creates an incredibly stable, locked-in feel.

I set this board up with Randal-II 150mm trucks, with the rear hanger flipped for added stability. One thin riser under each truck. 66mm, 80a Retro ZigZags from Milehighskates.com. A real surprise has been the great, fast, an inexpensive Speedy Lunatic bearings. And of course some good bearing spacers. Unfortunately you can’t get the Comet Voodoo deck anymore, but the Comet Crystal Chalice is very similar.

So I was riding with my friend Blake, another longboarder, and several guys on shortboards with hard wheels. The shortboard guys were doing a lot of sliding. This wasn’t a high bust-factor garage, but if you are planning to go ninja-style in a garage, leave the hard wheels behind. Man, they are a lot louder than the softies.

Check this out. Amazing skating and video work. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWEljqjPenk&rel=1]

This is such a beautiful, stylish little skate film. This is the kind of video I want to produce.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRbTdBDXzNQ&rel=1]