- Hey friends, Steve here
to review the WoodDetail surfskate from Barcelona.
So WoodDetail offers five different models right now.
I bought the 33" Lobos model.
So I've had an interesting experience with this surfskate.
When I very first took it out of the box
and then took it for just a really quick little run
at first, I was like,
"Wow, this is a really great surfskate."
But then the more I've ridden it
the more disappointed that I've become in this thing.
So let me explain.
First of all, let me start with the price because we need
to understand that context in everything that we're saying.
So I paid 289 euros for this,
which the current conversion rate
that means it was like $342 US for me.
And that puts this thing comparable to a YOW
or a Smoothstar as a top-of-the-line,
among the most expensive surfskates.
And so that means that going into it,
I'm obviously going to have very high expectations
of how this performs.
So when I took this out of the box,
the very first thing that I noticed was
how much I immediately loved the deck.
So when I opened this,
I had just come off of my deck review and I opened this up
and I was like, this is about ideal.
This is pretty much these surfskate deck
that I would design.
It's 10 1/4 inches wide at the widest part right here,
the little less down here,
but still have a lot of width on this back to work with.
It does have what I believe to be the ideal concave
for a surfskate.
I honestly don't think that you get, at least for me,
that's pretty much just perfect in every way,
except for one really big detail on this particular deck.
And that is that it has just a 16 1/2 inch wheelbase,
which means this is very narrow.
So when you compare this to,
I got a couple of here that are comparable in size,
this is a 33" slide, and this is the Carver Greenroom,
this is technically 33 3/4 inches long.
So it's a little bit longer,
but even still it's about in the same range,
but you can just visually see the big difference
there is in the wheelbase of this WoodDetail compared
to other boards of similar size.
So as far as how that translates into the ride,
it means a couple of things.
First and foremost, it means that this thing is very tippy.
If I ride too far on this back kicktail and my weight is
too far back, I will very easily do manuals on this thing,
the front will pop up and it just makes it pretty squirrely.
And then the second thing is,
is that it makes for a far less efficient pump.
I get far less forward propulsion out of this
than I do with other decks that have a wider wheelbase.
Now, the one advantage that I can see to that is
that it does make for higher maneuverability
if you are a different style of rider than me.
And I'll get to that a little bit later.
If you look at their website,
you'll see they have another 33" model,
which is the Muriwai.
And if you look at the specs,
this one has like the ideal specs for me.
It's the same length and width as this Lobos,
but it has an adjustable wheelbase
of between 17 1/4 inches and 18 inches.
And that right there is the ideal deck specs for me
at my height, 6'2", and my style of riding.
However, there's one problem with this deck.
If you read the fine print,
you'll see that it has a smooth concave.
Now having experienced this,
which is what they call a medium concave,
I would not want to go less than that concave.
And so what that means for me is on this one,
it's all of the right deck specs, except for the wheelbase.
And then on the Muriwai,
it's all of the right deck specs except for the concave.
So as far as the decks go,
it's kind of a situation where it's so close
and yet so far away from me.
And then when you look at their other models on the website,
first of all,
none of them are going to work for me except
for the 33" models because of my height,
but then aside from the Lobos and the Muriwai,
you're going to see three other models
that have that tapered kicktail with the fish tail.
And if you've watched any of my other deck reviews,
you know my feelings about that,
I just always for pumping and maneuvers,
I'm going to approve for more of a kicktail to work with
for that back foot.
So the bottom line with the decks is you don't have a lot
of variety to work with.
Now, I'm not saying that these specs won't work for you.
I'm just explaining that for me,
none of the deck specs are quite right for me,
but I do think that they have a lot going for them
and that with just a few minor tweaks
these decks could be phenomenal.
Now let's talk about the truck.
When you look at this truck up close,
you'll see that visually, the design is most similar
to the YOW S5.
So this is the YOW S5 on the YOW Malibu here,
and you can see how similar those designs are.
One big difference that you can just see visually.
I'm actually going to take these apart
so we can compare the inner workings of these.
But one big difference immediately that you'll see is
that the S5 has more of an angle coming down right here.
And then you can see on this WoodDetail that angle,
there's a little bit of an angle, but not nearly as much.
Now, the effect that that has on the ride is
that the S5 has way more lean than the WoodDetail.
And personally, I much prefer that deeper lean of the S5.
So we can just look at how these move and compare them.
You'll see that the WoodDetail really just kind of moves
side to side.
And this S5, you can see visually just from the bottom,
this way, how it's going to have a lot more lean
because the angle creates that lean.
I also want you to notice that this WoodDetail spring
is way tighter than the S5.
So you can visually see that, here's the WoodDetail.
And so now let me take these apart
and compare the inner workings of them.
(music)
Okay, so the first thing I wanted to do
was take off these hangers and show you point out something.
And that is that these WoodDetail axles are narrower
than typical surfskate trucks.
It's not a huge difference visually,
but it actually makes a pretty big difference in the ride.
So you can see, this is a YOW right here.
This came off of that S5.
Here's compared to a Carver C7.
So what that means is the narrower axles mean
less efficiency with a pump.
So that's the first thing they'll be aware of
when you're looking at this truck system.
Now let's go ahead and get into the inner workings.
(music)
Okay, so here we have our WoodDetail and our S5.
As you can see, it's very similar
in terms of the mechanics of it.
And even the parts of it. It's pretty similar.
You've got the spring in here with two sets
of your bearings here, same thing on there.
Now look at some differences here.
First of all, compare these springs.
Very different on the springs.
This is taller, and this is a much looser spring
as I just showed you visually.
And you just don't get as much range of motion
out of this WoodDetail spring and it's also harder to pump.
The S5 is looser,
and I much prefer this looser spring of the S5.
And I showed you that angle when it was on.
And now you can see the differences
in that angle right here.
And as I said, this angle right there,
the way that this is higher,
this comes up higher right here
and this is that taller spring.
And so that's just going to mean way less lean
on that WoodDetail.
So what this means is that the WoodDetail truck
has far less range of motion than either a YOW S5
or a YOW Meraki or a SmoothStar
or a Carver C7.
In fact, in terms of the range of motion,
I would compare this most to a Carver CX,
which is a bushing-based system,
but it's just because of the size and the tightness
of this spring and the fact that you get very,
very little lean out of this truck.
All right, now let's talk about the wheels.
These WoodDetail wheels are 65 millimeters in diameter
and 88 durometer, and they're also fairly narrow.
So I've got some Carver Roundhouse Ecothanes
and some YOW Cinetics here,
which in my opinion are pretty much kind of the gold
standard of what you want out of a surfskate wheel.
And so you can see how these are smaller.
They're also narrower.
And these are a lot harder.
This 88 durometer versus this 78A on this Roundhouse,
and Cinetics are also 78A,
but even softer than the Roundhouse
and you can see that difference,
which makes for a lot more grip.
And these wheels are also stoneground, you can see.
Which means that these wheels are fairly slidey.
So these wheels are good for what they are,
but they just don't perform like a surfskate wheel.
I don't like them nearly as much because I want more grip
and less slide, and these are less grip, more slide.
And also when they're smaller wheels,
it means you don't get as good of a top speed on them.
So you don't go very fast on this surfskate.
Okay, so we've talked about a lot of individual aspects
of this board from the deck to the truck, to the wheels.
Now let me put it all together and give you kind
of a more complete picture of how this surfskate rides.
So you've got the narrow wheelbase
combined with the small wheels, combined with the truck
that works well, but because of that lack of that angle,
does not have very much lean.
So really all you get is just kind
of more side to side action on that spring.
And you put all of these aspects together.
And what this means is that how this WoodDetail rides is
that it is very, first of all, very inefficient.
And what I mean by that is you have to put
a lot of effort into this thing to pump
to get very much output out of it at all.
So it's a lot of input with very little output.
You get very little forward propulsion on this,
and it's interesting.
It's ironic because it's actually very easy to pump
on the one hand,
but you're pumping really fast and really easily.
And it's really not doing much.
It's really not going forward a lot.
And with that narrow wheelbase it means
that it'll pop up on you a lot,
but also the way that the truck is designed
because of that tight spring,
which limits your range of motion
and the lack of the lean on that truck.
What that means is when you pump really aggressively,
really all it does is just kind of lift those front wheels
up instead of pushing you deep into that curve.
So even though the truck looks great, looks very functional,
it's very high quality.
You would think that this would compare to a YOW
or a SmoothStar, but it doesn't at all.
It doesn't compare to the YOW S5 at all.
It doesn't compare it to the YOW Meraki.
It doesn't compare to the SmoothStar.
It doesn't compare it to the Carver C7.
As I said, the closest comparison I can make
to the way that this truck rides is to the Carver CX.
And when you compare this board
to any of my other completes, the one I would compare it to
the most interestingly enough is this Mindless.
And this Mindless has a the CX clone truck
and the decks are somewhat similar.
This one's 31", so it's shorter
but they ride very, very similar.
So I don't really know what category even
to put this WoodDetail in.
It's most certainly absolutely not a street cruiser. Why?
Because it doesn't go fast.
You have to put a lot of effort into it.
You're constantly pumping the thing to keep moving.
You don't keep a lot of forward momentum.
The wheels are smaller and harder
so you're limited to the terrain that you can ride in.
Now as a non-surfer,
I'm not qualified to make any commentary
on whether or not this is a surf trainer,
but all I can do is compare it to what people say
are the best surf trainers.
And I think surfers, you can correct me,
but what I hear over and over again,
I think your top surf trainers are going to
be the SmoothStar, the SwellTech, the Carver C7
and then the YOW Meraki and the YOW S5.
And this WoodDetail does not compare at all
to any of those, it's much tighter.
So you don't get nearly the range of motion
as you do on any of those.
And also because of the way the truck is designed,
you get very, very little rail-to-rail lean.
The truck really is just a side-to-side,
lateral sway motion.
If I were to call this thing anything,
I would call it basically like a pumpable skateboard.
But it's just not my style
and I don't really know what to use it for.
Now, as far as that skateboarding style,
there's one guy who's very qualified
to review it on those merits.
And that is Mark the Landlocked Surfer out of Ottawa, Canada.
And in fact, after this review,
I am mailing this WoodDetail to Mark
who's going to do his own review of it.
And he has way more skills than I,
he has a very wide variety of skills.
He can ride boards in parks. He can ride like a skateboard.
He can do ollies and nollies on surfskates,
all kinds of stuff.
And so I'm excited to see what Mark has to say
about this board, but as far as I'm concerned,
it's not a street cruiser, it's not a surf trainer.
Therefore I don't know what category to put it in,
whether or not it rides like a skateboard remains
to be seen, we'll see what Mark says about it.
So all in all,
I don't know who I would recommend this board to
and for what purpose.
The way it's designed,
it's going to function way better for smaller riders
and maybe even kids.
Honestly, if I had to put it in one category,
it would be a beginning rider for kids,
or at least for smaller riders.
It's not something that you're going
to be riding long distances on.
It's not something that you're going
to be training surf maneuvers on.
If that's what you're looking for, then 100%,
you're going to want to go with the SmoothStar,
a YOW or a Carver C7.
I mean, of course I'm not a surfer.
All I can do is ride these other ones
and listen to what surfers have to say.
And all I can tell you is that this WoodDetail truck
does not ride like any of those trucks at all.
I also think it's way overpriced for what it is.
As I said, it's priced in that YOW and SmoothStar range
and I wouldn't put this up against the YOW
or SmoothStar at all, in terms of how it rides.
I think that everything is built very well.
I think it's all very high quality.
I personally just don't like this ride.
Maybe you will. I don't know.
And I also very much look forward to see
what Mark in Canada has to say about it.
So to finish up, let's take this thing out for a spin
so you can kind of get a visual of how this thing rides.
(music)