hemp skateboards

[Jorge]

i saw on the idiot box one time (aka, television), a skateboard made
entirely out of hemp. it seemed pretty solid, and the guy was riding it
around. i'm interested in this, because i know skateboards play a part
in cutting down trees, and we need all the trees we can have. can anyone
lead me to somebody who sells hemp skateboards?

[Peter de Vroomen]

Post by Jorge
i saw on the idiot box one time (aka, television), a skateboard made
entirely out of hemp. it seemed pretty solid, and the guy was riding it
around. i'm interested in this, because i know skateboards play a part
in cutting down trees, and we need all the trees we can have. can anyone
lead me to somebody who sells hemp skateboards?

Heh, never thought about it, but hemp fibres are probably long and thick
enough to make a good rigid board, provided the glue to hold it all together
doesn't make the deck too heavy.

Ok, either you are dumb, lazy or are trying to get us to talk about these
skateboards and get some free advertising. I found this company within 5
seconds after I typed 'hemp skateboard' in Google's search box.
http://www.harvestboards.com/

PeterV

[Peter de Vroomen]

Post by Peter de Vroomen
http://www.harvestboards.com/

Oops, copied the wrong link, it should have been: http://www.shiva-tech.com/

I can't find anything about hemp on their website though, but in the
description for metabots they write this: "shivatech has hemp skateboard
decks featuring sergie ventura, sandro dias & jeff williams."

Halfway this page is another reference to Shivatech and hemp skateboards:
http://www.slapmagazine.com/new_site/news/6_28.shtml. Search the page for
Shivatech. Here's a quote:

"Satori wheels is going to start distributing a board company from Italy
called Shivatech who is making a line of hemp boards. No, the board is not
like a small burlap sack, it's a normal board but it's got two half-plys of
hemp fabric between the layers making the board lighter and poppier. Pro
models will be from Italian pros Daniel Cardone and Mateo Storelli, with
some American pros coming soon. Please, nobody try to smoke these things."

If you click a link on the Shivatech website, it goes to a subdirectory
labeled 'redesignit' (i.e. http://www.shiva-tech.com/redesignit/boards.htm)
Looks like they were forced to redesign their site and remove all the
references to hemp.

PeterV

[adventuretoday]

it's looks like anything they stick in a skateboard these days makes it
"lighter" and "poppier"

[Peter de Vroomen]

Post by adventuretoday
it's looks like anything they stick in a skateboard these days makes it
"lighter" and "poppier"

I stuck a hole in my skateboard, now it's also lighter and poppier. But
every time I try to corner, my deck snaps :(.

:+)

You have a shop, don't you? You could weigh some of the decks you have, try
to find a definitive answer. However, how you'd objectively measure 'pop'
still eludes me. Probably need some ollie-simulation device.

PeterV

[AlexL]

Post by Peter de Vroomen
You have a shop, don't you? You could weigh some of the decks you
have, try to find a definitive answer. However, how you'd objectively
measure 'pop' still eludes me. Probably need some ollie-simulation
device.

What kind of board did Danny Wainwright use in his record breaking ollie?
Probably a Powell one... anyway, I'd like to hear what he has to say about
"pop"...

AlexL

[Lee Johnson]

Post by Peter de Vroomen
You have a shop, don't you? You could weigh some of the decks you have, try
to find a definitive answer. However, how you'd objectively measure 'pop'
still eludes me. Probably need some ollie-simulation device.

Yeah, interesting question. Of course, you could easily objectify it if you
had a device to do it. I guess you wouldn't have to do a real ollie, you
could just measure angular displacement due to force applied to the tail. I
guess there would be a few dependent variables affecting the 'pop' - the
length of the tail, angle of the tail, wheelbase, length of the board (would
affect the distance you could drag your front foot, assuming it starts in
the same position each time) width of the board (energy lost due to volume
of air displaced), mass of the board (a = f/m), stiffness (would affect
energy lost in distortion of the board), and probably some more that I've
neglected to think of. Then there are the independent variables - truck
mass, wheel width / truck depth (would affect distance of tail from floor),
width of riser pads, looseness of trucks (would affect time of contact of
tail with floor, distance of tail from floor, and energy could be lost as
displacement of trucks), grip tape, shoes, etc...

Hell, there are a shit load of things that could affect 'pop'. I guess the
main one is technique - I'm sure Wainwright could pull a mega ollie on a
cheapo allsports deck. I think the most important factor is the person.

LJ

--
Lee A Johnson. Ghibli DVD Comparisons:
http://www.btinternet.com/~lawrencium2/

[Kevin Turnbull]

--->and probably some other variables I've neglected to think of<---
How about gravity?

Post by Lee Johnson

Post by Peter de Vroomen
You have a shop, don't you? You could weigh some of the decks you have,

try

Post by Peter de Vroomen
to find a definitive answer. However, how you'd objectively measure 'pop'
still eludes me. Probably need some ollie-simulation device.

Yeah, interesting question. Of course, you could easily objectify it if you
had a device to do it. I guess you wouldn't have to do a real ollie, you
could just measure angular displacement due to force applied to the tail. I
guess there would be a few dependent variables affecting the 'pop' - the
length of the tail, angle of the tail, wheelbase, length of the board (would
affect the distance you could drag your front foot, assuming it starts in
the same position each time) width of the board (energy lost due to volume
of air displaced), mass of the board (a = f/m), stiffness (would affect
energy lost in distortion of the board), and probably some more that I've
neglected to think of. Then there are the independent variables - truck
mass, wheel width / truck depth (would affect distance of tail from floor),
width of riser pads, looseness of trucks (would affect time of contact of
tail with floor, distance of tail from floor, and energy could be lost as
displacement of trucks), grip tape, shoes, etc...
Hell, there are a shit load of things that could affect 'pop'. I guess the
main one is technique - I'm sure Wainwright could pull a mega ollie on a
cheapo allsports deck. I think the most important factor is the person.
LJ
--
http://www.btinternet.com/~lawrencium2/

[Antti S. Brax]

Post by Kevin Turnbull
--->and probably some other variables I've neglected to think of<---
How about gravity?

Gravity is a constant.

[Peter de Vroomen]

Post by Antti S. Brax

Post by Kevin Turnbull
--->and probably some other variables I've neglected to think of<---
How about gravity?

Gravity is a constant.

Ah, so you dare defy my teachers, who learned me that the Earth is not round
but squashed, so the gravity is lower at the poles than at the mediwhatever
('Evenaar' in Dutch)!?!?!!!!!!??!!!

PeterV

[AlexL]

Post by Peter de Vroomen

Post by Antti S. Brax
Gravity is a constant.

Ah, so you dare defy my teachers, who learned me that the Earth is
not round but squashed, so the gravity is lower at the poles than at
the mediwhatever ('Evenaar' in Dutch)!?!?!!!!!!??!!!

The word you are looking for is Equator, PeterV.

AlexL

PS and some would argue that you were "taught" rather than "learned" ;)

[Antti S. Brax]

Post by Lee Johnson
Yeah, interesting question. Of course, you could easily objectify it if you
had a device to do it. I guess you wouldn't have to do a real ollie, you
could just measure angular displacement due to force applied to the tail. I
guess there would be a few dependent variables affecting the 'pop' - the
length of the tail, angle of the tail, wheelbase, length of the board (would
affect the distance you could drag your front foot, assuming it starts in
the same position each time) width of the board (energy lost due to volume
of air displaced), mass of the board (a = f/m), stiffness (would affect
energy lost in distortion of the board), and probably some more that I've
neglected to think of.

You're getting confused. :-) Remember that we're only measuring
the pop here. Pop is the property of the deck which makes it
jump off the ground. Scraping the tail happens long after pop
has done it's job.

Post by Lee Johnson
Then there are the independent variables - truck
mass, wheel width / truck depth (would affect distance of tail from floor),
width of riser pads, looseness of trucks (would affect time of contact of
tail with floor, distance of tail from floor, and energy could be lost as
displacement of trucks), grip tape, shoes, etc...

We can ignore these because changing the deck does not affect
them. I'm sure a competent person could calculate the optimum
truck axle position for ollies. If Dan Gesmer was a flippy
skater I'm sure he would have done it already. :-)


But whoever it was that claimed pop to be a myth is wrong. You
may come any time over to my place and check how much pop my
flexy Super Cruiser longboard has. If there is no such thing
as pop you should be able to get that board up in the air in no
time.

What I know from experience is that only stiff decks have pop.
Also if two decks are equally stiff the one that weighs less
has more pop. I haven't tested this but it would make sense
that between two equally stiff and heavy decks the one that
has more of it's weight distributed to the nose and tail should
have more pop on the tail (the nose gains upwards momentum when
the tail is kicked).

[Lee Johnson]

Post by Lee Johnson
guess there would be a few dependent variables affecting the 'pop' - the
length of the tail, angle of the tail, wheelbase, length of the board (would
affect the distance you could drag your front foot, assuming it starts in
the same position each time)

You're getting confused. :-) Scraping the tail happens long after pop
has done it's job.

Scraping of the foot you mean? Granted it does not have a directly affect on
the pop, but it does affect the common measurement of pop, i.e. ollie
height. Those mini boards have loads of pop because they weigh so little,
but it's incredibly hard to do a high ollie on them because you have no room
to move your front foot.

I can only think of two ways to measure pop - Ollie height, and the volume
of the sound of the pop.

Post by Lee Johnson
Then there are the independent variables - truck

We can ignore these because changing the deck does not affect

Exactly, they're independent variables ; ) I'm just saying that getting a
super poppy deck on account of it increasing you ollie height would be
somewhat negated by having loose trucks, small wheels, naff grip tape, slick
shoes, etc... Why go for a super poppy deck when you can easily (and
cheaply) change the independent variables? When I was skating my Gonz'
napkin' deck I was having ollie problems, so I removed the rails, put on
some lighter wheels and tightened up my back truck a bit - problem solved.

LJ

--
Lee A Johnson. Ghibli DVD Comparisons:
http://www.btinternet.com/~lawrencium2/

[Peter de Vroomen]

Post by Antti S. Brax
What I know from experience is that only stiff decks have pop.
Also if two decks are equally stiff the one that weighs less
has more pop. I haven't tested this but it would make sense
that between two equally stiff and heavy decks the one that
has more of it's weight distributed to the nose and tail should
have more pop on the tail (the nose gains upwards momentum when
the tail is kicked).

My intuition tells me that there is some sweet spot between stiffness,
weight and length of the deck. So, a stiff but light deck might actually
have less pop than a more heavy deck that's just stiff enough and has
exactly the right length. The energy travels from the back of the deck
towards the front and back, the stiffness affects how much energy the deck
stores, the weight affects how easily the energy travels through the deck
(the amount of energy that is lost), the length determines the time between
the energy travelling from the tail to the nose and back. The weight
probably also affects the speed of the travelling energy.

There's a lot more to it than just stiffness (somehow that seems to count
for more things than skateboards :+)).

PeterV

[herman]

drop a bowling ball on the tail of various decks, which pops higher?

Post by Peter de Vroomen

Post by adventuretoday
it's looks like anything they stick in a skateboard these days makes it
"lighter" and "poppier"

I stuck a hole in my skateboard, now it's also lighter and poppier. But
every time I try to corner, my deck snaps :(.
:+)
You have a shop, don't you? You could weigh some of the decks you have, try
to find a definitive answer. However, how you'd objectively measure 'pop'
still eludes me. Probably need some ollie-simulation device.
PeterV

[Jason Rood]

pop is an urban myth. i hate to burst all these fantastic bubbles, but like
he said, its all in the human standing on the "poppy" board. every time i
see one of those "this shits got pop" ads, i want to go and kill someone in
the ad room....

Post by herman
drop a bowling ball on the tail of various decks, which pops higher?

Post by Peter de Vroomen

Post by adventuretoday
it's looks like anything they stick in a skateboard these days makes it
"lighter" and "poppier"

I stuck a hole in my skateboard, now it's also lighter and poppier. But
every time I try to corner, my deck snaps :(.
:+)
You have a shop, don't you? You could weigh some of the decks you have,

try

Post by Peter de Vroomen
to find a definitive answer. However, how you'd objectively measure 'pop'
still eludes me. Probably need some ollie-simulation device.
PeterV

[Peter de Vroomen]

Post by Jason Rood
pop is an urban myth. i hate to burst all these fantastic bubbles, but like
he said, its all in the human standing on the "poppy" board. every time i
see one of those "this shits got pop" ads, i want to go and kill someone in
the ad room....

I had an encounter with the other urban myth yesterday: the ABEC one. I have
been wanting to buy a second set of bearings for a few months now. I have
two sets of bearings, which I frequently exchange to clean them. One set is
a set of Bones Reds, the other is a set of 8 noname 'ABEC5' bearings. Of the
set of noname bearings, 3 are now fscked, so time to throw the remaining
good ones in the spares box.

So I went to the skateshop to get a fresh pack of Bones Reds bearings, but
they didn't have them. So I asked 'what do you have then'. Answer: 'What
ABEC rating do you want?'. I said: 'Is there a difference then?', actually
meaning to say that ABEC doesn't really matter, certainly not for simple
street skating. The answer: 'The higher the ABEC, the faster your board will
go. I used ABEC3 bearings once and when I dropped in, I could feel that my
board wasn't as fast as with the ABEC7 bearings I normally use'.

ARG, it's the shops that keep up the myth! And this is a shop run by
skateboarders. Oh well, maybe I look too much like a non-skateboarder :).

I also said: I want bearings with easily removable shields so I can clean
them easily (like the Bones bearings). I also didn't want bearings with
metal shields because somehow they allways seem to get dented. The
shop-owner then showed me some bearings that had to cost me 50 euro!

This post is starting to look a bit like spam for Bones bearings, but of all
the bearings I have seen, the Bones bearings (at least the Reds) simply seem
to be the best buy. Bones know what they are talking about, and everything
they claim is true (that is: they don't claim any false things :)).

I settled buying a set of cheap bearings with metal unremovable shields for
15 euro, rated 'ABEC3'. I hope they have a bit of quality and I can get the
shields off to be able to clean them. But if not, I didn't loose too much
money on them. At least they came complete with spacers and speed washers.

PeterV

[Jorge]

i've found that bearings last longer and perform better if you don't clean them
at all. just ride em!

[steveee]

Post by Jorge
i've found that bearings last longer and perform better if you don't clean them
at all. just ride em!

I find that if you spin them fast with your hand it speeds them up, but
don't kleen them!


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I own HempSkateBoard.com and plan on bringing skateboards to the market here in the future.