Street surfing ,sounds kind of 60 s 70 s type of stuff .I kind of reckon Carve boards have that one wrapped up. Slightly unconventional hybrid type of board. The only stick in town worth doing that on.I seriously don’t think I would be using conventional boards if they had have been around in 1973. Still havn’t got one yet but one is on the must have list, good shit.
Street surfing
Hello guest,
Since you brought up the topic, here goes. I have been a skater for
35 years although I had a brief absence between 1981 and 2006 when I
got the bug again. I now have a year under my belt and like to
skate all sorts of styles. Skate parks have definately attracted my
attention however my history predates skate parks and resides firmly
in street skating albeit on shit equipment.
These days I do a lot of street surfing/carving as it is a great way
to get around particularly with todays petrol prices. It is also a
great fun way to skate and the equipment is far more accessible (to
me anyway) than it was back in the 70s. I also sell skateboards and I’d like to make my self interested bias
known upfront.
Here’s a list of things I can do on a Hybrid Street surfer/cruiser/
park board:
- Tic Tac
- Wheelie
- 360 * 4 and counting
- TailSkid/Brake
- Manoeuvre in tight spaces
- Step up curbs
- Lift the front wheels over large cracks and driveways without
stopping - Ollie (well sometimes. Mostly it’s the old style pop up the
nose, jump and hope for the best that I did in the 70s. Does
anybody know what I’m talking about?) - Nose wheelie
- Monster walk
- Drop in
- KICKTURN
- Ride a bowl
- Grind frontside or backside
- Interchange parts easily with all of my other setups
Holy crap, I didn’t realise I could do all that on my cruiser!
In short I reckon conventional setups like the one shown below still
have it all over the radical modern designs which all have great
strong points but lack versatility. I have experimented with a lot
of different stuff but the classic concepts work best.
The board shown below probably needs a bit more thought regards
colourway (and grip and risers) but is essentially the same setup
that I now ride (in fact I had to steal my wheels for this mock up).
The main components are 70s Flashback wheels 70mm, available in
duros 72-90, tall Fury trucks 120mm hanger, Hardcore 9 inch deck 15
.5in WB.
I also reckon this kind of hybrid relates well to the general
skateboarding market, whether it be newschool, old school or don’t
have a clue school. I think they are more accessible than
longboards or other specialist equipment.
Sorry guest, I reckon Carveboards and the like may have their cute
and unique amusement factor but they fall short in so many areas
that there are much better options available. Nevertheless, thank
you very much for starting up a topic that has been much ignored.
It is one of the less glamorous but still very enjoyable aspects of
skateboarding that does not get the kind of attention and bandwidth
it deserves.
See you on the street, at the park, or on the boardwalk.
Hambo.Your talking about hybrids and street surfing.Number one Surfing is the mother of all board sports.Number two . hybrids are generally unconventional in nature and carve boards are.
Question: have you ridden carve boards?
Question.do you surf or have you surfed?
For a board to be ridden on terra firma and come close to the feeling of surfing I havn’t found any thing as good as a carve board yet.
Whilst I am no Slater or Hawk I have done both sufing and skating and the essence of what you are talking about is street surfing.
That would be trying to emulate the feeling you get from surfing but on the street. Try carve boards.
By the way I have been around since clay wheels so I can speak from athority who gives a rats arse about 360 s and gutter jumping I think we have all been there and done that .Your mate Wedge is currently the best in the country at 360s.
Hambo I hope that I didn’t sound too abrupt but my first impression riding a carve board was WOW this is what is what I was looking for in the early 70s. To surf without waves was what we all wanted to do.
We took the home made skate type route , you know the roller skate equiptment nailed or screwed to some surfboard shaped type plank.
Yep I’ve ridden a Carveboard and yep I have surfed. It’s just my opinion, I prefer conventional skateboards and think that Carveboards have limitations. Perhaps I was a little harsh in my rebuttal. I think I would probably enjoy a ride in a steep hilly location where you could chuck it into the carves a lot more vigorously however there are no decent hills for miles around here. Horses for courses I spose.
I don’t think I’ll ever get excited about a Pumgo though. Pump and go, just like surfing on land they reckon. 
Hey Guest!
Its about time you gave yourself a proper login, cause right now it looks like you’re the new marketing manager of carveboard, or their latest PR Hack.
Agree Skating in 73, we had little choice for equipment, and a carveboard or any of Hambo’s setups would have been godsends, but as to this topic, and who is right and who is wrong…who knows…who cares…just skate.
From your first post… "Still havn’t got one yet but one is on the must have list, good shit. " Come on down to Newport and have a roll with Hambo, and I am and sure that he will be delighted to let you try out his setups, then visit the ROF, cause I think that they might still have a demo carveboard…before you part with the readies.
Visit Newport on the evening of 20th, you can also try a board that I have that I am told rides a little bit like a single fin mini mal, and its roots are 1970, right down to the solid oak deck. We can also have a cold drink and a chin wag about skating in 73…and if you really want to go back in time, I will even let you have a go on my webcraft!
The greatest restriction on modern street decks tends to be the static development of wheels and trucks. A carveboard has a great feel about it but its performance is mainly related to the wheels and trucks, the addition of more usable wheels and trucks can make a street board do most of these things. Its only the flex in a carveboard that gives it an enhanced surf feel. Carveboards are great if you can stay on the road and the terrain permits drawn out runs but they weigh a lot and there always bumping into people on the peak hour train or bus. In saying that modern street decks are completely restricted by speed and road surface they go up and down real well but don’t channel the energy out very far. If you’ve got a shitty road surface or concrete foot path there slow as shit. With the proper experimentation of wheels and trucks a hybrid street deck can do the lot.
I ride a half dozen carveboards and as many street decks and have attempted to build a line of decks that blends some of these characteristics into a deck that I can ride down a hill, cover some kms ride in a sk8 park and still carry on the bus, and its possible!!! you just gotta stretch your wheelbase a bit further widen the trucks a fraction and soften the wheels… all on your regular street deck and you can do the lot. And as the last dude said Guest you seem a little too jolly about carveboards so expose yourself sk8 creature 
…In addition to that, if Guest you are a hack from Smoothstar or Carver or some other highly unconventional surfstyle carver board/truck company trying to emulate slashing turns and the like then my opinion is this:
I’ve been surfing and skating for 20 years and while I agree surfing will always be number one the idea of real street surfing has grown old for me. I grew up on the central coast and didn’t get the addition of gutters until the mid 90’s so it was great fun rolling my local street and ripping up 20 driveways on the way down, but this was always more back foot skating.
The problem with emulating surfing on the street is that its simply too slow, the fun in surfing is the unpredictability of the wave, working all the different sections with an opportunistic style. This kind of defeats the purpose of skating when there is no waves as it becomes an emulation of two foot surf. Street surfing has difficulty achieving this as most driveways are the same and street decent is rarely unpredictable. While modern street skating is a little dull and their equipment remains static a least they have remained true to the opportunistic attitude of surfing.
To get near the true feeling of surfing you need more speed and more GGGs, the more speed and Gs you get the further away from street surfing you go. I sk8 when there’s no surf to continue the rush and have some fun. However to do this one needs to treat carving and street surfing as its own beast and let it develop. When I carve it tends to be on bigger hills with bigger and harder turns, my old style of street surfing which was more fun and novelty at first has grown old and boring. This is rarely achievable on the new style of carve boards that replicate small slow surf styles.
I skate these days more then I surf but will always view myself as a surfer first and foremost. I’ve tried all the new types of surf style carveboards and trucks and they all seem to try emulate something there not. Doing the motions of surfing does not always replicate the fun. Its better to skate with a surfing style and use this to enhance your skating, as a surfer will always take a better line than a skater no matter what board your on.
While surfing to me will always be the purist sport, the days are gone when we lay claim to all other board sports. While snowboarding, skateboarding, wakeboarding, were all inspired by surfing the equipment and skills they use have taken these sports to such great individual levels. The key is to emulate the feeling of surfing and not the action.
I think its time to let the kids leave the home and us old surfers can be thankful that we can come along for the ride.
Looks like you, and the guest (edited “NOT” Xlerb) are sharing the joy of still digging the sk8 after all these years, and lets face…aren’t we all!
Davo please show us your line of decks also, cause as we know its soooo hard to stop at just one!
Guest here again.You guys didn’t have to bite like that.if I were fishing I would have a boat load by now.Time to chill dudes .
I am not connected with carve boards in any way.
Glad to hear your opinions and yeah nothing can truly emulate surfing.I am sure your sticks work well but each to their own as long as your skating its cool.
Slalom racing seems to be catching on these days.The Sydney dudes have it happening and now I hear its happening here in Melbs as well.
Not going to post here again under guest.Just feeling the water so to speak.You guys are cool and I will have a drink or two with you guys in the near future.I may even reveal my self.
…I second that call. Anything under say 17"WB just doesn’t feel comfortable for me anyway. Love being able to have that nice wide open stance so you can shift your weight round in a turn or deep carve without tipping over your centre of gravity.
I recently got a double kick longboard and at 38" x 10" x 19.5" WB its a dream to cruise round on. I’m more of kickless longboard rider however after getting this one its a nice to have a kicktail to thrash a sharp turn on (ollies never were my thing).
Variety certainly is the spice of life, but I find it hard to satisfy all the aspects of boardriding on 4 wheels in 1 board.
Guest has got to be Braden or his site administrator because I can’t figure out who else has got the rights to start up the whole new subsection "Street surfing/Carving (hybrid boards).
Looking forward to meeting you in a non skate park location fellow carving fans. Oh, and the beer. Better make it the MCG hotel then.
Guest II 
Stop being such a big girl’s blowse…come on…reveal yourself now!
Yes Ive got a carve board and a surf stick and for thos who dont know there are some great hills on the south side of Brisbane one of them is 1.3 kms long with drive ways and have just found a fee parks that are stix`s friendly at Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast and Coloundra and Noosaville on the sunny coast .
Hedge dips and the verge bounce is where its at! As my skateboarding ability overtook my surfing I always wished that I could pull the moves in the water that felt so awesome on the driveways.As time went on I found I could.As time went on I found I wished I still could. Anyway Its all still just as much fun as its always been. I’m still compelled to stare at that driveway at Sandon Point,the first place that I left the earth.
As a surfer and skater since the early 70’s and now living a fair drive away from any parks, I now find myself cruising hills and as the thread says street surfing.
All the comments above are interesting and everyone has their own opinion as to equipment…but as Wentzle Ruml says " its all about STYLE"
Surfers who skate tend to have more FLOW in my opinion and dont draw better lines than skaters…just different lines. Surfers who have only surfed thrusters also tend to have less flow than those who grew up surfing single and twin fins.
Surfing has become more about destroying the wave rather than harnessing its flow, a bit like modern twig flipping street skating, it’s all about tricks. One trick then next trick, unlike the old street skating in the early bones brigade vids where all the trick flowed into each other
All the board sports (surfing, skating, snowboarding) are different and they will never be able to be replicated by onother board sport.
Do and ride what feels good for you…but most importantly do it with STYLE and a good Bert is so stylish
Thats what a good forum will do bring a variety of opinions to the medium. Not sure that I agree with everything, but who cares just bring it on.
Hey all, enjoyed reading the lively debate on equipment and styles. Good to see that different perspectives are still alive and being robustly debated and the world is resisting the spread of beige. Great also to hear that there are still some age 30+ rippers out there that wont bow to societies convention that suggests that as you get older you put the toys away. I have never been a skater but have surfed some 20+ years. I recently bought a Carveboard to feed the beast while Huey is busy doing things other than creating rideable swell. While there are plenty of carveable streets in my area, there are no places locally that I am aware of that have the gradient and smooth surface that I am looking for. Add cars to the mix and it starts to get a little depressing. Question: Does anyone know of any clubs or groups of carveboard enthusiasts that get together regularly in Sydney??? If so, please let me know cause Id love to meet some fellow Carvers that already know where the good stuff is. Keep up the discussion, its great for greenhorns like myself to pick out the bits and pieces that make sense to us.
I’m not too sure of any groups of carveboarders that get together in Sydney (unfortunately) but … try getting in contact with Karim from Kman Skate School at Fox Studios - 0293009174. Karim carves and may be able to help (or go for a carve). Keep an eye on the “Coneheads” monthly slalom threads, and “Son of a Ditch” threads - the SOS crew regularly get together.
Some carvefriendly skateparks - Dulwich Hill, Moorebank, Maroubra, Leumeah (near Cambelltown) also checkout www.skateboard.com.au for other parks near you.
Keep an eye on our website www.carveboardsports.com.au (we’re in process of adding info to it) and also this website as we’re trying to let as many carveboards know about this forum.
Carve On!
Thanks a bunch Carvechic, you rock. I live nth west of sydney and there are a few new residential developments out this way which shouldnt have houses on yet and should be realitively free of cars. I am going to go for a drive on the weekend to try to find a newly paved hill that has some distance. Thanks again for the info and I will keep an eye on the site. Tell Dave thanks a heap for brining the board down to Aloha in Manly just before Xmas.