Hi team!
looking for some comparison, or observations on all/some/any of these boards:

Carver carverskateboards.com/

Smooth star smoothstar.com.au/

obfive www.obfiveskateboards.com.au/product/fantasy-island

Hot Buttered Slide hotbuttered.com/pages/hb-skateboards [scroll down]

Sector 9 Sidewinder www.sector9.com/shop/sidewinder-series

surfskate surfskate.com/

Also if you come across any other similar surf style skate boards I'd be interested too.

Finally if you have one for sale, PM me.
cheers!

I'm too new to this to comment much, but my Hamboards are filling expectations so far

yes, but can you pump your hamboard?

I love the look of the hamboard, and cruising is what I'm after, but i can't get my current cruiser to pump so looking at either a new cruiser or one of these surf skates to complement my longboard...

I ride flatland and mild hills.

Can I pump my Hamboard - no, can barely skate at the moment.
But several, including the Hop are rated for pump, including the Hop.
hamboards.com/pages/which-hamboard-is-right-for-me

the ham board fish does look appealing... the cost does not.
what was shipping on your board?

When I bought, they did not have shipping to Australia on the web site.
Pete Hamborg personally handled my order, but shipping (almost) exceeded the cost of the board.
We defrayed the cost by ordering 3 boards, reducing per board shipping, but it was still significant.
I just went through the website to checkout, and a bamboo Fish would cost $800 and a bit landed.
That is a lot for a skateboard.
Get JoffaDan's family to bring it in, would be about half price - there is no duty or GST payable.
UPS extorted us to get the boards in - after $300 US shipping at Pete's end (not bad for $US 1150 of boards at about 35kg total weight) it cost me, not exactly but trying to remember, $145 Airline fee (we took it out of the plane and put it on the tarmac), $130 terminal fee (we picked it up off the tarmac and put it in a shed), and $145 Customs brokerage (we emailed a supplied manifest to customs and they cleared it without looking at the boxes) Not sure why this was different to buying Cds or Camera bits from the US that I do regularly, which arrive door to door in frighteningly quick times. If I had not rung UPS after tracking had the boards at Essendon for a week and a half, and asked maybe could they deliver them, they would have charged $48 a day storage because we had not appointed a customs broker.
Hopefully the shipping is now simplified, but it is still a significant cost.
I think it was worth it.
So does Drew.
And his two sons Max and Rocco.
These things are huge fun.

My thoughts are that a smaller surf skate boards like your list can be pumped - but it's more of a slower, freestyle type pump, takes a lot of energy, and a lot of space left to right (can't do it well on a narrow footpath), in return you get a decent carving pump, but not that fast. It's like a 1st gear pump. Nice for cruising to the shops or for short distances, nice feeling.

If you want a longer distance or higher speed pump, get a pump board not a surf style carver. I had a triton with don't trip poppies.

Good to see you are still out there Kiteboy.
Really enjoyed your scam thread.
I'll be happy with any pump. Or any carve for that matter.

I have the SmoothStar and the Sector 9 sidewinder. Neither pumps anywhere near as well as proper pump board. Pump boards also carve better than both the Sector 9 and SmoothStar.

You do two types of pumps - a wiggly one and a curvy one.

Like kite boy says, it's 1st gear versus fifth. I found wheel bite a real issue in the SmoothStar too.

My pump board is a Subsonic Gbomb Illuminati with Don't Trip Poppies. I can maintain 20kmh no worries. Top speed about 30. You won't get anywhere near that on the other boards.

Is there anywhere to get them from in AUS?

Iv got a Carver great board supper easy to pump, i think mine is around 36inches

ok my take on it....why people are suggesting pump boards makes no sense when the op is after a surf/sk8 set up.

the carver and smoothstar are great but so limited. Try pushing off on them to get speed. yep its crap.

Go for a old retro reissue shaped board. Santa cruz and powell are still bringing them out. Throw on a set of indies or whatever brand you fancy,have them super loose. Some nice abec new skool wheels and your set.

try doing tic tacs without putting the front wheels down all the way. i forget who told me that one

or my other favourite are the original trucks on a 36 inch board. super surfy,can still push around like a standard truck set up. Only downfall is that the risers are super high and makes pushing around seem strange if you have been skating other boards

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chrispy said..
ok my take on it....why people are suggesting pump boards makes no sense when the op is after a surf/sk8 set up.

the carver and smoothstar are great but so limited. Try pushing off on them to get speed. yep its crap.

Go for a old retro reissue shaped board. Santa cruz and powell are still bringing them out. Throw on a set of indies or whatever brand you fancy,have them super loose. Some nice abec new skool wheels and your set.

try doing tic tacs without putting the front wheels down all the way. i forget who told me that one

or my other favourite are the original trucks on a 36 inch board. super surfy,can still push around like a standard truck set up. Only downfall is that the risers are super high and makes pushing around seem strange if you have been skating other boards

Chrispy, setting yourself up to be king of the dorks here.
Having basically never ridden anything, I love the Originals on the 6'6".
Friends who skated as kids find them way too loose, tell me to tighten them.
I like the carve if that's what you call it, and the ability to do a tight turn if needed.
Strained Achilles in pushing foot from overuse keeping me off it at the moment.
And good weather to be in the water.

And I have the 3'9" board I could swap the Originals to.
That might happen soon......

Nozza I tried 852 Bear Grizzly's (standard bushing type trucks) on my 6'6 the other day and I couldn't turn it! I think the large boards really depend on the extra angle the originals provide to manoeuvre efficiently.

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chrispy said...
ok my take on it....why people are suggesting pump boards makes no sense when the op is after a surf/sk8 set up.

the carver and smoothstar are great but so limited. Try pushing off on them to get speed. yep its crap.

Go for a old retro reissue shaped board. Santa cruz and powell are still bringing them out. Throw on a set of indies or whatever brand you fancy,have them super loose. Some nice abec new skool wheels and your set.

try doing tic tacs without putting the front wheels down all the way. i forget who told me that one

or my other favourite are the original trucks on a 36 inch board. super surfy,can still push around like a standard truck set up. Only downfall is that the risers are super high and makes pushing around seem strange if you have been skating other boards

I've got two of the boards he is looking at. The SmoothStar turns nothing like a surf board. My pump board is way carvier. Taking it to a Bunnings carpark or supermarket carpark and just doing carve after is super fun.

The gbomb has adjustable brackets to change the performance parameters of the trucks so you can really dial it in. I can adjust the rear kingpin angle and deaden the rear truck more and I get more speed out of it, but I have found the spot where I enjoy the carvability.

The Sector 9 SideWinder is fun for carving down hills but nothing like the gbomb for fun in the flats because a carve washes speed off, whereas doing long amplitude carves in the gbomb GENERATES speed so it's constant carving. The accelerating wiggle is, of course, nothing like a surf feel.

And he is after a pumpable board.

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barbarian said...
yes, but can you pump your hamboard?

I love the look of the hamboard, and cruising is what I'm after, but i can't get my current cruiser to pump so looking at either a new cruiser or one of these surf skates to complement my longboard...

I ride flatland and mild hills.

To be fair, the Sector 9 downhill is a lot of fun.

And I paid $50 for my SmoothStar brand new. They aren't worth the $270 I have seen for them.

Hi, Barbarian,

I know it's been a while but did you settle on anything in the surfskate style? I've ridden a lot of different designs and ended up making my own which is awesome. Carves awesome with rail to rail feel, pumps strong and can sustain 15kph for a good distance. As surfskate is not a LDP (long distance pumping board) but a compromise, it has the feel of surfing with strong bottom turns and still able to give good snappy turns when you want. The wiggle technique is not a lot different to when you are trying top cover closing out sections and you do short hard pumps to try to beat them. On the Surfskater I made it accelerates incredibly with these short pumps (almost like a wiggle) from which you can then draw larger smoother arcs and carving turns.

Would be interested to hear what you ended up with and how you like it?

Thanks.

H2O