All Terrain Bamboo

I feel guilty about yesterday. It was a holiday, and the buses weren’t running. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for, practically the reason why I bought the Evolve Bamboo series with the all terrain tires. Because if I have to skate all the way to work and back, it really is the only choice. Especially with the nastiness of construction that I have to skate through.

But I checked the weather report, remembered that on holidays I can park in the garage for free, and took my car instead. It didn’t rain.

So when I got home and saw the sun still in the sky, what did I do? I reached for that All terrain bamboo series, of course. Joyride time!

For yesterday’s ride, I did a little more off roading than usual. I took the grassy footpaths that couldn’t even be attempted with normal skateboard wheels. The board handled great. About the only thing I didn’t want to ride over, were big tree roots. I guess its worth saying that skating over grassy, sandy areas isn’t nearly as fun as skating on asphalt. But the board did get me through it.

The area with the shortcut where the road isn’t quite connected? The Bamboo series with the all terrain tires went right over it. No issues, where normally I’d have to walk a board with regular skateboard wheels over.

Once again, I can’t help but feel such a difference in how you skate depending on what wheels you use. With regular wheels, you’re dodging cracks in the sidewalk. You’re avoiding rocks and branches. Half the fun of skateboarding was learning how to avoid those obstacles. Learning how to swerve around them and look cool doing it.

The all terrain wheels take that away. And in a small way, it makes skateing less fun, because suddenly you don’t have all those obstacles. But in another way, it makes it more fun. Because now you can carve to your heart’s content, and it’s all about style.

The other thing is the surface. The all terrain wheels make the bumpy surface skate like a dream. When I ride a board with orthodox wheels on my commute, there is a one block stretch of sidewalk that’s perfect. That I ride down smooth as a summer wave. The rest of the ride, I’m working around the conditions. The all terrain wheels make every surface smooth as a summer wave.

I have to compare this point in electric skateboards to the early stages of the automobile. At first, it was a horseless carriage. They added a motor to a carriage, and got around just fine. It took years before someone realized that carriage wheels worked, but not as good as an inflated tire. Even after tires, it took longer for the designers to arrive at the modern tire we know today.

Similarly, electric skateboards have started life using what they inherited from orthodox skateboards. They added a motor to the regular wheels. I think its safe to say that at this point in time, we’ve already made wheels and tires in every shape we could want. It’s just a matter of time before we ditch the usual wheels, for the more modern wheels that are better.

The all terrain wheels let you skate with the impunity that you would ride a bicycle. And that’s a great thing that our sport needs if it’s going to attract a new generation of longboarders. If you want to have a carving session that’s all fun, no obstacles, grab a board with all terrain tires. You won’t regret it.