LUSH LONGBOARDS, Bristol, England- 100% MADE IN UK Lush started in the year 2000, with Chris building a few long skate decks for buddies in his damp basement. A small website was thrown together, and it wasn't long before more folk wanted longboards. Soon the demand for Lush boards outgrew the capabilities of one shaper ... enter Jimbo - who worked for a summer to help fill the kitchen with sawdust and the wheely bin with offcuts. It wasn't long before other housemates, sawdust in EVERYTHING and the need for timber storage that didn't clash with the sofa meant that the business had to move out.
We rented a small unit in deepest darkest industrial Sheffield for £50 a week with no windows, dodgy security guards, cut'n'shut auto repair centres either side ... ah it was beautiful. We last a year there before needing more space, at which point we packed the whole lot into vans and headed off to Hoyland Rd. After 2 further years of expansion again the industrial unit was rammed to the roof...
At the start of March 2006 we started a move down to Bristol. New season, new boards, new staff and new unit. As Hank regularly says, "change is a way of life" ... Matt and Andy joined us as UK Sales Manager and Warehouse Manager respectively, the range of boards has expanded again to include the new Makonga and Mako, with properly updated Bahari and Kilima.
The Boards have evolved over the years, developed on the streets, parks and hills of Sheffield and the epic runs of the Derbyshire Peak District, to encompass every style of riding from street to pure downhill speed.
- The maple concave Globe series runs from 33" to 41" - perfect for the style based street, sliding, bowl and park rider.
- The carve series includes models for cruising, carving and slashing your way around the black-top, headed by the flagship Kisiwa - the longboard of all longboards. 28" to 58".
- The composite series mixes traditional wood cores with high tech carbon and glassfibre construction to give superb flex and longevity in lightweight and ultra strong decks.
- The Spooky sits by itself in a world of it's own - a board designed purely for riding at balls-out speed. Fast, stable and designed with the race-winning dropped deck format.
Every board we produce at every price point is fitted with the very best harware we can squeeze in for the cost.
The Staff here all ride and are fully involved in the world of board sports. We've been riding all forms of skateboards for years, and are insistent that every single item that leaves the factory is something that we would be happy using ourselves. When we're not skating we're either out BMXing, mountain biking, surfing, kite surfing or climbing.
The Business is run on a mixture of (more) sawdust, stoke, blood and a fair bit of random spice. Living where we do, in an old industry town yet close to some of the most beautiful countryside the country has to offer, we see the conflict between city and nature all the time. Our boards are built with low-odour water-based adhesives and lacquers, we recycle wherever we can and are keen to support others that do the same.
INFO PRODUCT:
Skateboard Wheels are made from the petrochemical called Urethane. It's an awesome material which is bouncy, grippy, and comes in all sorts of cool colours. Back inthe day they used to be made from rubber, UHWMPE plastics (like sliding pucks), clay or even metal - thankfully things have moved on since then?
1. Wheel shapes
The profile of a wheel (as you look at it from the front or back) affects the way a wheel rides way more than most people realise. The three things to consider are Diameter, Contact Patch and Edges.
The diameter or size of a wheel is pretty important. In conventional wisdom larger = faster and smaller = quicker acceleration. This is because smaller wheels have less inertia to overcome to get spinning and larger wheels have a higher road speed for the same rotational speed. This makes larger wheels faster as friction losses from your bearings increase with rotational speed so there is less drag from your bearings etc at any given road speed. There is, however, more to it for us longboarders?
The main difference you will notice between bigger and smaller wheels is that you can roll much faster over rough surfaces when you are on bigger wheels, and a few mm can make all the difference. This has to do with the radius of curvature of the outside of the wheel compared to the obstacles you are trying to roll over (rough surfaces looks like thousands of little rocks to something as small as a skate wheel) The more gentle the curve the larger stuff you can handle. This sort of stuff is not a concern to shortboarders who tend to stick to perfectly smooth skate parks and paved areas etc. Wheels go up to 99mm using regular urethane, but there are issues of wheelbite with low decks and turny trucks.
The contact patch is the width of the wheel that contacts the ground when you're riding. The wider the contact patch the more grip and less progressive the slide, but the less likely you are to get flatspots. Narrow wheels are looser and slidier, but wear down faster and flatspot easier as there is the same weight over a smaller area of wheel - so more pressure on the urethane.
The edges of the wheel affect how it slides sideways across the road and how much grip it has. There are three kinds of edges:
Square edge
A square or sharp edge profile wheel tends to be quite unprogressive and very grippy. They're best for slalom and fast carving, where you need as much grip as you can get. They have so much grip becuase the square "lips" of the wheel and distort over bumps in the road surface.
Bevelled edge
Halfway between radiussed and square edges is a bevelled edge - where the wheel is machined at an angle to the rest of the wheel. It's not as grippy as a square edge, but less progessive than a radiussed edge.
Radiussed edge
A radiussed edge is what you need for sliding and hard carving. As the wheel is shaped with a nice circular edge it travels across the road sideways much better than a square or bevelled wheel, but it also lets go a bit earlier and more progressively. This makes it easy to loose speed by drifting the board sideways or sliding at slower speeds, but not so good if you need loads of grip. A bigger radius will last longer as the wheel gets worn down, and will be less grippy than a smaller radius. (PIC) Some wheels have radiussed edges on the outside only, working on the principle that any large obstacle or dent in the road surface you are likely to hit will be coming from the outside edge of your board.
2. Cores Most quality wheels out there have a plastic core that the bearings sit in. The core spreads the heat through the wheel and stops the bearings (which get super hot at speed) melting the Urethane. It is VERY BAD when this happens - melting (or "puking") a wheel can be very dangerous! Exposed cores work better for heat dispensation than internal cores.
The core also helps to maintain the cirular integrity of the wheel, which helps to prevent flatspots. A wheel with a big core is more likely to stay spinning when sliding sideways, so it'll stay round for much longer than a coreless wheel. Cored wheels are also faster on smooth surfaces, as there is less urethane to compress and rob you of your speed - but this means that large-cored soft wheels can be quite slow over rougher surfaces.
3. Urethane rebound, durometer ratings, grip and speed over different surfaces
Skate wheels have come a long way since the steel or clay wheels of the past. Anyone who has ridden both these and modern urethane wheels will vouch for the increased speed, better grip and overall improved ride quality of urethane wheels. This is mainly down to the ability of urethane wheels to rebound, ie return to their original shape quickly after being distorted. Modern urethane is signifcantly "higher rebound" than older urethane - you can test the rebound or a wheel by dropping it on the floor and seeing how high it bounces.
This quality is used to minimise the rolling resistance of the wheel. When you put your weight on the board, the wheels compress slightly at the leading edge as the wheel rolls on to the road, and then as the wheel roll on the back edge rebounds pushing against the road and returning the energy used to compress the wheel in to forward momentum. If your wheels were too soft they would not rebound fast enough and this energy would be lost, if they were too hard the road surface distorts slightly and tarmac rebounds very slowly, again wasting the energy. The theory is something has got to give somewhere so you might as well try to minimise the energy losses. Longboard wheels tend to be around 78-80 durometer (higher numbers = harder wheels) whereas shortboard wheels are often around 99-101. This is because shortboards are used on very hard, smooth surfaces where harder wheels are faster.
All this is also tied in with how much grip a wheel has over different surfaces. Generally speaking, the rougher the surface, the less grip you have. On a rough surface a hard wheel will be much less grippy than a soft wheel, as the soft wheel will compress over all the tiny bumbs in the road surface whereas a hard wheel won't. However, on a really smooth surface (like a concrete skatepark), hard wheels will actually have more grip than soft wheels - but when they slide it'll be a sudden snap and they'll go forever, whereas soft wheels will be much more progressive.
3.Flatspots
The dreaded flatspot happens when you slide a wheel sideways, it stops spinning and one area of it starts to wear down faster than the rest of the wheel. You know when you've got one because you'll come out of a slide and your board will make a noise like a motorbike. They slow you down and can chuck you off if they get too bad! You can avoid them by not holding your board fully sideways in a slide (powerslides and laybacks are notorious for flatspots), and rotating and swapping your wheels over sometimes helps.
4. Wheelbite
This is where the wheels hit the deck. It can be very bad as the wheel can stop, throwing you off the nose. Wheel wells help a fair bit, but you can also solve it by switching to smaller wheels, putting risers on or tightening your trucks.
5. Progressive Grip and why it's good
A wheel is progessive if it looses grip gradually. A non-progressive wheel will grip for ages, then let go into a slide suddenly. Progressive wheels tend to be more predictable over a variety of surfaces, as they're always sliding sideways a little bit, whereas unprogessive wheels are usually a bit grippier. Which you prefer is up to you - if you want sheer grip go for unprogressive wheels, but if you want to carve, drift or slide your speed off at all your better off going for something that lets yu slide predictably.
Sliding equipment help and ideas
The recent developments in downhill and power slides have led to some crazy freestyle moves ... for sliding videos and sliding tips visit the other sections of the Lush website. Here's a short guide to buying kit for sliding.
Slide gloves
Slide gloves are the most important piece of kit when learning to slide, and crucial for many advanced moves too. You'll need some kind of sliding surface on your hands to get the weight off your wheels to allow them to slide. Your options are:
Make your own
If you're building your own then plastic chopping board (kitchen board) combined with gardening or welding gloves is most people's favourite choice. Cut the chopping board up with a jigsaw into finger and palm pieces and melt them onto the glove using a gas hob or a camping stove. You hold each piece in the flame until it's just about on fire and the surface of the board goes all guey, then stick it on the glove and hold it there until the melted chopping board fuses with the glove surface. Using a fork, sharp knife or bbq skewer to hold the pieces is a good idea, as the board conducts heat quite easily and gets very, very hot!
WARNING: melting chopping board and other slide puck substances creates evil gnarly fumes - do it outside or with lots of windows and doors open! And ask your mum first before destroying her favourite kitchen equipment yeah?
Now in their third incarnation, the Lush slide gloves are designed to take you from your first slides all the way up, they are light, comfy and safe, with replaceable finger and palm pieces. The palm pucks are made from stupidly hard, mega slidey polycrabonate - a step or two up from chopping board! These things, in our opinion, are streets ahead of gardening gloves. But that's up to you to decide...
Wheels for sliding
It is possible to slide on any skate wheel if you push it hard enough, but you'll find it much easier to learn on harder wheels, above 85a durometer. A harder wheel has less grip so will slide out sooner. The shape of the wheel also makes a difference - generally a radiusses (rounded) wheel will slide without catching. Sometimes squarer wheels will judder and catch on rougher roads. Softer wheels need more energy to slide and grip back again, making technical spins much harder.
A larger wheel will allow you to travel faster on the approach to a slide, but also bear in mind that although a big wheel has a faster top speed, a smaller wheel will accellerate faster in between slides, so you don't want them too big. It's hard to find large, high durometer wheels. There are 73mm 94a wheels available, these are good for larger boards and high speed sliding, but not great for technical rotation slides as they are too heavy to flick around fast. They also take a lot longer to slow down and speed up again during a rotation slide.
Side note - during a pendulum or layback slide, your wheels will actually come to a complete stop, start rotatiing in the other direction, then stop again before spinning up in the original direction. A smaller wheel will do this much more easily than a large wheel. Watch your wheels during the slide - it looks cool. If you let them stop spinning for too long, you're going to get flatspots for sure!
What's the ideal durometer?
This depends on what you want to be doing. A really hard wheel around 99a will be great for technical spin slides, but you'll struggle to hold a line on a corner during a high speed bend. You'll also find it harder to snap the board back into rolling after a big spin - 99a or 100a are often difficult to control for this reason!
A softer wheel (80-90a) will be fast on rough roads, and will allow you to slide to keep your speed down or come to a stop. Somewhere in the middle is a good all round slide wheel, fast and grippy on smoother roads and high speed corners, good in the skatepark and good for technical spin slides. We reckon that 97a is pretty sweet.
If you get centre-set wheels then you can rotate them when they start to wear unevenly.
What about flat spots?
Flat spots are created on wheels when they travel sideways without rotating for a while. The best way to avoid flatspots are to make sure your board is always rotating or facing downhill throughout the slide. Some wheels go for ever without flat spots and some seem to die real early. The quality of the urethane is important, as is the size of the core and how well it is bonded with the rest of the wheel. A large core will help prevent the wheel from deforming and sitting in one position.
Read also: All About Wheels
We all run Lush Cannonballs - designed specifically for sliding from the best Urethane on the planet with a big fat core, 97a duro and a radiussed shape. We spent months and months getting these this good...
Decks for sliding
Again, you can slide anything if you push it hard enough. A longer board is more stable at speed and gives a more progressive slide (it won't spin out too fast) - so is usually better for learning to slide. Something up to about 42 inches long is good to get going with. A shorter board will allow you to throw down the more advanced moves more easily as it will rotate faster and is lighter. It depends what sort of sliding you want to be doing.
Board length is dependent on your height - longer boards for taller folk ... many slides need you to get down pretty low, crouched over your deck and if your feet are too close together you'll struggle. Try to decide what kind of riding you want to do and go for the appropriate deck length. If you want to get into stand up rotation power slides and start mixing street tricks in with your silding, then you'll find it easier on a short deck, 33-35 inches long. Something around 35-42 inches is a standard at the moment, and you can have a lot of fun drifting fast corners with a laid back, streched out style on a 40-50 inch pintail.
Wheelbase is an essential dimesion for sliding. A short wheelbased deck (15-18inches) will spin fast but be less stable and almost too repsonsive at speed and through long drifts. A longer wheelbase deck (22 inches and above) will spin and respond slower, but will be a lot more stable in a drift and riding at speed.
Concave is one feature that is really handy on a slide deck - it gives you much more grip than a flat deck. Make sure you have grip tape all the way down each rail - that's where it matters most.
A kick tail and kick nose are pretty handy for tail slides and nose slides, and make stand up slides easier too. Not so important for high speed drifting slides, but if you're buying a deck for sliding then get one that won't prevent you from learning more tricks in the future.
Deck width is more about personal taste. Some people like it really wide, but don't get a deck too wide as you'll have a heavy board that will be harder to rotate than a light one. Your foot moves around a fair amount on the board during the slide as half your weight is on your hands, so it's nice to know that you'll remain in contact with it. A regular longboard width of 8.5 to 9.5 inches is about right.
When you you start getting it wired you'll be able to do standup and spinning moves on a 58 inch board and mellow, smooth drifts on a shorter 33 inch board, but go for something in the middle while you're learning. 35 to 42 inches long is just about right for beginners.
Good sliding decks from the Lush range are the Globe Series (the 35, 38 and 41 are most popular), the Mako Slide, and if you're brave - start chucking a Kisiwa around!
Trucks for sliding
Unlike with carving, there's no real demand for slide specific trucks. Some say that low trucks are better than high trucks as it means you can get on and off the board more easily. Go with whatever you like riding normally. Wider trucks will be more stable and help prevent your board flipping over. When your trucks and wheels are set up on the board the total width should be about the same as the sides of the deck.
Other
Bearing spacers are dead handy for keeping your wheels spinning when there's a stack of side load on them. Make sure they are the right size for your wheel! Sliding kills bearings as well - some people pack their bearings with heavy grease to keep them running longer.
Pads and helmet. You're gonna come off - pads will keep your blood inside your skin and a helmet will keep you alive. Kneepads especially are good - try melting or epoxying some pucks to the outside side of your kneepads lets you do tricks like cap slides.
Remember - reading about what board is best on the internet isn't going to make you a good slider. You can slide anything. Go out, try it and have fun!
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