When my spooky was stolen I inherited a beaten, chopped and de-lammed Switchback from Alex with the instruction to skate it into the ground and that I did! After snapping one end off coming short on an early grab I re-drilled it and added a sick tail. It turns out that wasn’t a great idea as I pulled the bolts through the chewed up remains of ply. As I was determinedly abusing this crippled old board I was all the time falling in love with it’s concave. When it finally earned it’s right to a retirement hanging on my bedroom wall it was unceremoniously thrown onto a BBQ when we ran out of coal. Thankfully a crazy Polish dude lent me his girlfriend’s kilima (bro’s before hoes!).
So the kilima got me from A to B but all the while I was skating less as I was yearning for some deeper concave and a shorter wheelbase. After finally saving enough pennies I pushed my way over to Newton’s HQ and got myself the beautiful board you see above.
I instantly felt back at home on that deep HP ‘cave and the slight camber had me popping off every little bump on the street. All this gaiety ended briefly as I met the ground with a crash, turning the tight corner onto my street. I looked back for the offending article that must have thrown itself in front of my wheel but found nothing. However, I did find the tell-tale kiss of wheel bite in one of the wheel wells.
I overcame the wheel bite by using a riser and the longest wheelbase, however I knew it was there, waiting for me to forget and get thrown arse over tit getting carried away with a silly standy. I couldn't really get the lean I wanted on a topmout so I swapped it in for the very similar (but drop-through) Hairpin.
WOW! My first impression of this board was very positive; the same sweet concave but not the slightest risk of wheel bite. I felt like superman pushing this low rider (almost a whole inch lower than the previous set-up) home and blitzed the corner into my street with the back wheels skipping across the tarmac to keep up with the front truck. This board wants to drift, all the time, the long wheelbase and drop-through mounting see to that. Kebbek’s thinking has created a shape that will fit almost any truck and wheel combo with no wheel bite.
As my combo was not nearly at risk of wheelbite my eyes were drawn to the giraffe like neck and I imagined where the truck could be to reduce the wheelbase. With the help of Dangerous Decks, a router soon took care of the job and now the wheelbase is <30″. This has stiffened up the board and made it a bit more nimble; after all, there’s no hairpins in London, just plenty of dog mines and suicidal brats!
Whether you're after a long drifty drop-through that makes stand-ups child play, or a top-mount with some flair, both of these colour stain models are reduced by £25 to make room for the 2012s. Another new arrival from Quebec are their new wheels and with Kebbek's reputation for quality gear I can't wait to try them out!
Click these links for each board/wheel: Switchback, Hairpin, Libres, Magnets.
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