I like all sorts of skateboards. Long ones, short ones, old ones, weird ones. Anything, really. Unfortunately, however, I'm not all that good at this activity. I mean, I can push my self along pretty alright, carve down a hill in the dark, or negotiate the shit-show that is Alki on a sunny summer day, but I can't kick-flip the fucking thing, or skate a bowl, or slide down something steep. When I was younger, maybe middle school, I was all about skateboarding. World Industries, Independent, all of that. I had decks and trucks and shoes and Jenco jeans with big silly pockets and stickers - so many stickers - but I couldn't skate. At least not the way I wanted to.
I've always been interested in it's origins, though. Skateboarding that is. Old school shit. Tony Alva. Roller skate stuff. I think I've seen
Dogtown and Z-Boys a dozen times. So when Shawn told me he was going to start selling some 70's style skateboards on Stoke Harvester - molded plastic planks with big polyurethane wheels - I was all over it.
It's called the
Punked City Cruiser and it's made by Yocaher Skateboards, a company that's been in business since 1975. It's plastic, with a patterned top, kick tail, aluminium trucks and 60mm wheels. It's 22.5 inches long and roughly six inches wide. As I pushed up and down Alki, my maiden voyage aboard this bitchin 70's skatecraft, I noticed one thing - how smooth she sails. Maybe it's them big rubber wheels. Or maybe it's that plastic deck that doesn't send a shock wave back to your bones. I don't know. It was all kinds of fun, though. And for $80, it's a damn good deal.
This review originally appeared on Stoke Harvester's blog.
