polyboards

The grand prize pack consists of:

x1 set of 73mm AHMYO Prana wheels ($54.95 value),

x1 set of Hondar Rainbow hardware ($17.95 value),

x1 set of 62mm Polyboards Enso wheels ($28.95 value),

x1 set of Bam bam spark pucks ($26.95 value),

Sticker pack containing stickers from AHMYO, Bam bam, and of course our beloved Doge and Wormhole stickers!

** THE OFFICIAL ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY RULES **

To enter:

- All orders made on polyboardsshop.com $20 USD and above, after any discount codes, will automatically be entered to win from July 1st 12:00AM PST  to July 15th 11:59PM PST.

- One single entry per individual order. Multiple qualifying orders (above $20 after discount codes) from the same person will be counted.

- The winner will be chosen at random and a maximum of 3 days and 3 contact attempts will be allotted for the winner to claim their prize. We will contact the winner via their email address used to place the order and/or instagram name if left in the comments section of their order.

- Prizes will be shipped out the next business day after receiving confirmation from the winner.

This giveaway is only available within the USA. We sincerely apologize and urge you to support your local skater-run shop.

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The Location

The event takes place at a run in Santa Maria known as Tepe, a beautifully curvy and insanely surfy road full of chicanes and a few tight drift corners. Overall pretty smooth pavement, with the occasional pothole and crack. In the picture above, the top of the run is the red circle, with the end being at the bottom of the pic. Lots and lots of back-and-forth turns and super-swoopy hairpins <3

The town of Santa Maria is small, but definitely no Goldendale. Supermarkets are abundant enough and there’s a couple really dank Hawaiian BBQ restaurants that we went to after skating the hill (which is a 15 minute drive away) 

The Camping

For accommodations for the weekend, you had two options: camp on the property of Fred Lange (which is massive) in a hammock or tent, or stay in a hotel in Santa Maria. I went with the obvious choice ;) Most of the trees you’ll want for hammocking are up on top of a hill that leads down into a little creek. Most of the trees are placed a little far away, but I found a couple that were the perfect distance for my setup. For tents, there were numerous flat spots around the property where people set up, there were definitely more tents than hammocks. I would recommend it if you drive to the event so you can bring all your gear.

Here’s the view of the entrance to the property where everyone parked their cars from my hammock:

^ Photo by Brad Miller (@riptidesports)

The Experience

Ah yes, the best part of any event, and half the reason you paid $140 (the other reason is because your friends did). The vibes were very strong with this event, homies from as far as Canada made it out to the event. What’s even better than having all your friends around? Having FREE TACOS with them between runs of course! The tacos came from Taqueria Guzman Santa Maria and every skater got 3 free on the first day (Saturday) and 2 on the last day (Sunday) with free condiments. Additional tacos and drinks/snacks could be purchased with cash only. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of anything taco-related due to being too busy eating tacos. Next year for sure though :p

In addition to the free tacos, there was also 5lbs of ground coffee provided by Northbound Coffee Roasters and another bag from Handlebar Coffee Roasters! EVEN MORE, there was a free keg at the end of the event provided by Telegraph Brewing!

^ Photo by Mason Shin (@masonshin1)

To get to the top of the hill, Penske trucks were used instead of UHauls. Would I prefer one over the other? Not really, the big plus to the Penskes is that because they’re taller, more air flows through the inside of the cargo area and it didn’t get too bad in there. The height made getting on/off them a little harder, but not by much.

Something that Kevin Reimer (event coordinator) implemented with this freeride is the class system for starting runs. “A” class was for people with leathers and race wheels, “B” class was for people with normal clothes and race wheels, and “C” class was for people with freeride wheels. You could choose whichever class you wanted to go in, I personally dropped in around mid-late “B” class. I think this system should be at more freerides, I feel like it got the runs in more efficiently.

Over the course of the weekend, there were a couple races in addition to the normal freeride runs. One of them was a chinese downhill race on hard wheels only, sponsored by Powell-Peralta which varied in duro from 85a to 97a.

^ Photo by Andrew Medeiros (@andrew_obg)

The other race was a ticket-challenge style race, in which everyone who wanted to compete was given 5 tickets. To obtain more tickets, you had to challenge someone or a group of people for a negotiated number of tickets. The kicker is that whoever you challenged, gets to make the rules for your race. The wildest one that I heard was happening was definitely Ryka Mohammadian and Andrew Medeiros’s bluntslide-only race.

Whoever held the most tickets had to wear this baggy, golden jacket which puts the leader at a immediate aerodynamic disadvantage, and made them a target for challengers. If you lost all of your tickets, you could buy back into the game for $1 per ticket.

The longest holder of the jacket was Brandon DesJarlais, but ended up getting taken by Noah Fischer on the last run of the event, who won the race, jacket, and $500 in cash!

^ Photo by Austin Pedroni (@austin.pedroni)

Overall, this event was one of the best I’ve been to in my 3+ years of skating downhill, and I am totally set on attending next year’s Central Coast Up’n’Down, which is going to be THREE days instead of two (March 30 - April 1)! Catch us there next year! #TEPEANDTACOS Thank you Kevin Reimer, Skate Warehouse, and all the staff for helping put on the sickest event of the year!

For those wondering what the run looks like, here’s a 360 experience filmed by Gabriel Shin of team riders Grace Wong and Rachel Bagels!

***GIVEAWAY RULES AND INSTRUCTIONS***

This giveaway will have a two winners which the first winner drawn will receive:

One set of AHMYO wheels currently in stock at polyboardsshop.com of their choice.

The second winner drawn will receive:

One set of Venom HITP (Hard in the Paint) series wheels currently in stock at polyboardsshop.com of their choice.

Entry is only accepted on Instagram via these requirements:

You repost the image for the contest (available here),

Tag in your post @polyboards AND three friends

Use the hashtag “#polyboards3k” in your post.

ONE ENTRY PER PERSON, MULTIPLE/SPAM ENTRIES ARE DISQUALIFIED.

The winner will be randomly chosen and announced January 18th, 2017  on Instagram. We will tag the winner and allow three days (72 hours) for the winner to claim their prize before choosing another winner. The prize will be shipped the next business day after receiving confirmation from the winner.

The Akasha is the largest wheel in the AHMYO lineup at 76mm with a large, vented core that you may have seen on other wheels, such as the Orangatang Kegel, giving the Akasha a high top speed and excellent acceleration. What really sets these apart from most every other downhill wheel on the market is their “inset” bearing placement. What this means is the outer lip is actually shorter than the inside lips, like flipping an offset wheel so the graphic faces inside. With this inset bearing placement, slightly rounded outer lips, and sharp, square inner lips, you can have a wide contact patch without your wheels sticking out so much, and you can better control how you want your wheels to behave. If you want to hit a drifty run with fresh Akashas, having the graphic (rounded lips) face outwards will be your jive. If you want maximum grip from your freshies, having the graphic face inwards (square lips outwards) will give you the best results.

The Prana and Merkaba are like two halves of the same coin, one is designed for grip, and the other for drifts. Both feature a wide, centerset core for maximum control and good acceleration, and also so they’ll wear down predictably. Perfect for a trip into the mountains or down your local chunder canyon.

The Vibez are the newest wheel in the lineup, designed purely for freeride. Featuring a sideset core, stoneground finish, and ever-so-slightly translucent urethane, they’ll be sure to leave lines and feel great.

All of these are available right now at Polyboards, get your set today!

These pucks (and gloves) have been seen this past race season on the hands of top racers like Emily Pross, Riley Irvine, and Justin Rolo. Bam bam pucks lean on the more small n’ stout side of pucks measuring in with a 3.14″ diameter and a .63″ thickness. Unlike most other pucks, Bam bam pucks aren’t made of UHMW urethane, they’re made with a high-density plastic, resulting in an icier feeling slide and good durability.

***GIVEAWAY RULES AND INSTRUCTIONS***

This giveaway will have a single winner who will receive:

A set of Bambam Leather gloves,

and a set of Bambam Spark pucks.

Entry is only accepted on Instagram via these requirements:

You repost the image for the contest (available here),

Tag in your post AND follow both @bambampucks and @polyboards on instagram,

Use the hashtag “#bambampolyboards” in your post.

ONE ENTRY PER PERSON, MULTIPLE/SPAM ENTRIES ARE DISQUALIFIED.

The winner will be randomly chosen and announced December 18th, 2016 (right before Christmas!) on Instagram. We will tag the winner and allow three days (72 hours) for the winner to claim their prize before choosing another winner. The prize will be shipped the next business day after receiving confirmation from the winner.

This giveaway is only available within the USA. We sincerely apologize and urge you to support your local skater-run shop.

First, I’m moving to Camas, Washington, which is just north of Portland Oregon, by the end of this month. This will hopefully mean more content here, and a bright future for the shop.

For you, this means a few things:

Because the shop (polyboardsshop.com) will be moving with me, sales tax will no longer be charged to CA residents (hooray!). Unfortunately, residents of Washington who order online will be charged the appropriate tax. If you visit our shop however (see below), we will not charge you sales tax.

If you are local to WA or OR, the shop will be opening a physical location for us to both ship out of and have a showroom for customers. We will also be able to offer more services as a physical location (more details soon).

The shop and blog, as a result of the physical location thing, will become more intertwined. I promise not to make the blog (polyboards.com) another outlet for advertising the shop, but updates on what we’ve just got in stock, or videos, reviews, and other media will be posted to keep you all updated.

Some of the defining features of original Loaded boards, the “Carving Systems” were a healthy amount of camber, ample cutouts to reduce wheelbite, and the classy drop-through mounting holes that extend towards the center of the board to alleviate tension in the neck.

All these features make an updated comeback with the Icarus to stand up to the rigors of modern-day skating. The prominent wheel flares are a welcome feature, feeling similar to the Tesseract.

These flares are achieved through separate, molded bamboo pieces or “biscuits” as they’re described on the official Loaded Boards website. By having these “biscuits” separate from the core, combined with the extended drop-through mounting cutout hole, they create a balance between the stiffness of the biscuits and the thin neck of the core of the board. This makes it possible to have both dramatic concave curvatures, and a strong, yet flexible board.

Now to talk about how the Icarus feels. Mine was set up as Loaded recommends you do; 180mm 50° Paris trucks and 80a Orangatang Kegels, 85a Orangatang Nipple bushings, a cup washer roadside and a flat washer boardside.

I found that for the best experience, super loose trucks (barely engaging the bushings), and grippy wheels were the way to go. I’m not going to tell you how to ride your board, but pushing and then pumping into the board’s flex really feel energetic and alive. Grippy wheels are a must for the flex to push back on in the apex of your carves and pumps.

The flares are definitely hard not to notice, but I found are somewhat strange to use. I found myself using the front flare with the ball of my foot to carve toeside, and my back foot didn’t use the back flares at all. I stand at around 5.6′ and the flares are placed just over shoulder-width apart, so having both of my feet on each flare with such a wide stance felt weird when pumping. The Icarus is fully symmetrical, so I suppose you don’t have to utilize the back the same way you do the front.

While the flares a a prominent feature, the standing platform is not particularly crowded, and you can definitely fit some cross-stepping and board walking on it.

Looking at this little graphic here, we get a clear picture of how the concave profile of the Icarus looks. The concave in the middle of the board stiffens the center point of the board (the apex of the flex) in order to give a more consistent flex pattern across the deck as a whole. If you’re into fast, aggressive pumping and surf-style skating, the concave in the center of the board is great for your back foot to get more leverage out of the front trucks.

Pressed into the bottom cork veneer is a ridged, feather-like pattern that gives the board an “organic” feel to the touch and provides a bit of texture when early-grabbing or just simply holding in your hands.

The graphic, artistically speaking, says to me “flight” and makes me think about macaws with the light red/yellow/blue colors, but the lines and griptape pattern gives an “abrasive” and rocky feeling, kind of like looking at the Grand Canyon or maybe even those turquoise/purple Jazz paper cups.

My complaints and gripes are few with the Icarus, but I must mention them. The kicks are very small and slightly angled. While I had the trucks mounted through the drop-though mounting, the kicks were awkward to use for tricks, but were fine for getting the board up and out of the way when commuting.

 Top mounted however, the kicks worked great with good leverage and usability.

So should you buy an Icarus? The $215 price tag is a difficult to justify, but also keep in mind that if you’re a go-getting slayer of hills, this board may not be marketed to you and your budget. If you skate to and from school, work, Pokemon GO-ing, the Icarus is a great high-end option for maximum durability, comfort, and fun while you’re at it. Also know that this board is best enjoyed with loose trucks, not trying to tell you how to have fun on your board, but a lot of the fun lies in pushing fast, then carving and pumping, riding the twitch and feeling the rebound of the board.

Full-res album

Additional pictures:

“I’m <age> years old and have been riding for <time>, can I be sponsored by you guys?”

As someone who is entering the longboarding scene (specifically the freeride department), you typically got into it by seeing those Motion boardshop review videos of Sam and Jackson busting huge slides and you thought to yourself “I want to get sponsored by them!”. You then made it your mission to learn how to stand up slide, frontside and backside, and then got your friend to film you for a “sponsor-me” video. That’s how it generally goes.

The word “sponsor”, and “sponsorship” is tossed around way too lightly in my opinion in the longboard community. Look at a major sports, like golf or basketball, a sponsorship from Nike or Gatorade is a huge deal, the athlete signs a contract with the company that approached them and this keeps them in the partnership with that company. Why am I mentioning this? Ask yourself, what do huge companies have to gain from sponsoring an athlete? 

When it comes down to it, a sponsored athlete is a marketing tool. They are the top of their team, their name is well-known among those who don’t even follow the sport that closely. For a brand, having their name associated with a top-dog athlete is huge in a marketing standpoint. Everyone aspires to be like that athlete, so what ever product they recommend, of course those who follow will concede. Think how riders like Max Ballesteros and Adam Persson have their own pro model wheels. Are they fast? Apparently Max wins races on his wheels, so yes.

In longboarding, the word “sponsored” I believe is appropriate when referring to a racer, such as Patrick Switzer, Jimmy Riha, or Rachel Bruskoff, their sponsors support their racing career and in return, the riders tag their sponsors in their instagram posts, wear their patches on their leathers, and hold their boards high on the podium. Advertising is a huge part of a company’s success, and riders are a very large part of it.

“So how do I get sponsored?”

Did you really start longboarding to get famous like that? Or maybe it was for the free gear that you couldn’t afford otherwise. The point here is that if you skate to get “sponsored”, don’t. Stop swearing out companies in instagram DMs because they refused you. Stop trying to get free gear like this, it’s not going to work, and makes you look really kooky.

The truth with trying to get someone to acknowledge you, is that there are so many variables that all have to fall into place that while I wouldn’t say it isn’t worth trying, it definitely isn’t worth anyone’s time if you skate just to get sponsored. If you quit skating after hearing “no” from your favorite board company, alright, that means skating isn’t for you.

On the other hand, maybe you’re really persistent, or want to help grow the community. You don’t have to be sponsored to do that. Hosting a small slidejam on your local hill can be as simple as getting a few friends on a hill with some used gear to give away for things like longest slide, or steeziest trick. If you can pull your community together, you make yourself that much more of someone who is truly doing good in the scene. 

In the end, it’s not about how badly you want it, how long your slides are, or how fast you can go, it’s how big of an impact you can have on the scene at large. I think a lot of people who ask don’t realize that it’s a two-way street, you don’t just get to walk away with free wheels or a board and say “yeah I’ll rep hard”, it’s a relationship that companies (and riders) have to think hard about and “choose” wisely. For companies, it’s an investment in the rider to have them ride for the brand. How selfish is it for someone to just expect free stuff from someone with little in return?

If you’re approaching your twenties and choose to pursue your longboarding career over school, that’s a huge gamble you’re making on something you may have just gotten into. Longboarding as a sport isn’t big enough to support even a top racer’s living expenses, and will likely not grow to that size in the next 15-ish years. Winning races won’t even cover the expense to travel for them.

Why am I even writing about this? Why tell you this information? I personally feel that there are way too many people doing things in our scene for all the wrong reasons, and not skating for the original purpose of skating- to have fun. I don’t want this writeup to be discouraging or mean, that’s the last thing I want, but I want people to understand how this bit of our community works.