Steve Palmer with Surfskate Love here, and in this video I'm going to save you a ton of time and
money by giving you a step-by-step process for choosing the perfect surfskate for you. I started
my website and channel because when I first got into surfskating and fell in love with it, I was
really surprised by three things: 1) how few people know about surfskating, 2)
how it's primarily focused on surf training specifically for surfers, and 3) how hard it is
to find good information to make the right decisions. And in my opinion it's that third
one that's holding surfskating back from fully exploding. People don't even know what a surfskate
is let alone how to choose one. And because I love surfskating so much, I set out to do something
about that. And the first thing I did was buy every surfskate I could get my hands on from
all across the world. I've been buying boards for months and all told to date I have spent over
four thousand dollars on surfskates. And in this video I'm gonna share my experience with you so
that you don't have to waste four grand dialing in on your perfect specs. If you go through this
process, you could get into the perfect surfskate for you for as little as $79 and no more than
$400. So as you can see, I've tried all the major brands and almost everything out there including
Smoothstar from Australia, YOW from Spain, Carver, Waterborne, Hamboards, the Curfboard from Germany,
the Mindless from the UK, and a whole lot more. And there's a handful out there that I haven't
been able to get my hands on yet, but I think I have a pretty good grasp of what's out there.
To cover all the details that I need to in this video, this is going to be a longer video. But Im
going to help you navigate it by using timestamps in the video description. So I'm going to start at
a high level and then you're going to dial in on where you should focus and then you can just use
the time stamps to get the relevant information for you. I don't sell boards, I don't represent
companies, I don't use affiliate links. My loyalty is to you, the surfskater out there trying to
make an expensive decision that you don't want to get wrong. Believe me, I've been through this
process. Okay so let's dive into this step-by-step process for choosing the perfect surfskate for you.
The first step is to choose which brand to buy based on your budget, your riding style
and purpose, and the experience you're looking for. And once you've chosen the right brand, then you
start zeroing in on your specific board specs for your height, weight, riding style, environment, and
purpose. I'm not going to go into a lot of details on specific brands in this video. If you want to
learn more about any of them I invite you to watch my other review videos. So here's the bottom line:
for reasons that you can learn about in my other review videos I'm going to right out
of the gate eliminate every other company except for five: SwellTech, Smoothstar, YOW, Carver, and the
Waterborne Surf Adapter. There are other systems out there that may be a better fit for some riders.
But I really think that those five brands are gonna be the best option for about 90% of riders
out there. So let me give you an overview of these then so you can hone in on the right brand for you.
But first let's talk budget: the Waterborne Surf Adapter is by far the cheapest way to get into
surfskating. T's just 79 bucks on Amazon. SwellTechs range from $199 to $245. Carvers cost between $240
and $260. And for Smoothstars and YOWs you'll pay anywhere from $300 to $400 depending on your
shipping options. So depending on your budget that might eliminate some options for you right there.
Now let's talk about each of these systems and who and what they're good for. SwellTech is by far
the most sensitive and hard to ride surfskate on the market. It's for one rider and one purpose
only: that's very advanced riders and advanced surf training only. Honestly, in my opinion, SwellTech
is for maybe three percent of the surfskating population. And for most people I would probably
recommend to start with a Smoothstar anyway. But if you're a very advanced surfer and you really
want a challenge, then use the time stamps to skip to my SwellTech section. Now Smoothstar and YOW.
These are what I call the Mercedes and BMW of surfskates. They're the best, smoothest, most
luxurious feeling surfskates on the market and they're very similar in terms of their
smoothness and range of motion. Aside from SwellTech, they have the widest range of motion.
In my opinion Smoothstar is smoother and glidier but it's built more for surf training specifically.
And I don't ride bowls but I would be willing to bet that most bowl riders would probably prefer Smoothstar over YOW.
Smoothstar decks have a much deeper concave and a sharper kicktail than YOW decks. I'm just a street cruiser and for that YOW is my favorite.
I love my Smoothstar for tight spaces and shorter distances but it's not great for long distance cruising So I'm going to bottom line
it and say, If you're looking for surf training specifically, go with Smoothstar. But if you're
really just looking for more of a street cruiser like I ride, then go with YOW. And you can click
on the timestamps in the video description below to skip to either section now. Now let's talk about
Carver. If you're not a surfer but you come from just a skateboarding or a longboarding background
and you want to get to get into surfskating, then hands down Carver's the brand that I'm
going to recommend you start with. And if that's you, go ahead and skip to the Carver timestamp
below. And that leaves us with the Waterborne Surf Adapter. The Waterborne is a great surfskate truck
and its range of motion and feel I would say is somewhat comparable to even Smoothstar and
YOW. And it's also the best truck for long distance pumping that I've tried. The Waterborne is perfect
for two people: first and foremost the person who's budget conscious and you don't really even know if
you want to invest into surfskating. Well you can just spend 79 bucks on the surf adapter and you're
into a surfskate. And the second person it works well for is the rider who loves to customize
and tinker and fine-tune your ride. And if that's you then click to the Waterborne timestamp below.
All right, so if you think SwellTech is your best fit, then let's go deeper into how to choose
the perfect SwellTech for you. SwellTech is actually fairly easy to choose because they
offer only seven models with five different lengths. I got their Austin Keen model because
it's 33 inches long and on any other deck 33 to 34 inches is my sweet spot for my height.
But on the SwellTech it's totally different. For my height, I should be in their longest one the
40 inch Premiere Blackout. So honestly, I would say that there's not a whole lot of difference in the
SwellTech models. The single biggest determining factor in the SwellTech is the right length for
your height. So really the only guidance I'm going to give you there is just really pay close attention
to their guidelines on their website and go on the longer end. If you're used to a 31-inch board
then you're gonna want probably their 36-inch model in the SwellTech. But again, follow
their sizing guidelines on their website. And that's pretty much all I'd say about SwellTech.
Now let's talk about choosing the right Smoothstar for you. If you've decided that Smoothstar
is the brand you're looking for, if you go to their website you'll see that they basically offer seven
different models. They have some variety within those models but it really is seven models ranging
anywhere from 26 inches for kids all the way up to this 35 and a half inch Manta Ray, which I got for
my height. So with Smoothstar, you're not gonna get really any variety as far as the deck goes.
Any deck you get on any model is going to be that deeper concave with the sharper kicktail
than any other deck you're going to find on the market. And the way that deck rides
really is a significant difference in a Smoothstar compared to any other brand out there. So
if you're not comfortable with a deep concave deck then right out of the gate you're probably
going to eliminate Smoothstar and go with the YOW. So with that said, there's really just two
variables when it comes to choosing your Smooth star and that's the deck length and the width of
the wheelbase. And Smoothstar makes it easy for you. Go to their website, they have a page called
"Choosing Your Smoothstar," and they give you really clear and specific sizing guidelines. And like the
SwellTech, I'm going to say really pay attention to those and trust them. And the way Smoothstar is
built, you're probably going to want a longer deck than your typical sweet spot length. In my case,
34 inches as I've said is the perfect length for me in any other deck. But on the Smoothstar
the Manta Ray is 35 and a half inches and that is the best fit for me. I was considering this
and the Felipe Toledo which is I think 34 inches. But I know from riding this for a fact that
anything shorter than this would be too short for me and wouldn't be the most comfortable ride. So
follow their sizing guidelines and err on the side of longer when it comes to Smoothstar.
And that's really about it when it comes to choosing your Smoothstar model because they don't
have variety in the decks they don't really have variety in the wheels or or any of those
other component parts. It really is just that deck length and that wheelbase based on your height.
Moving on to YOW. Again, YOW is for the person who wants the most luxurious, highest-end surfskate but
you're going to be more focused on street cruising than surf training. So let's help you choose the
right YOW model for you. In my experience, YOW and Carver are by far the hardest companies to choose
a model based on just what you see on the website because they don't give a lot of guidelines.
And furthermore, YOW does not give good product pictures. All they give you is pictures of the top
and the bottom of the board. But they don't give you any perspective pictures to show you what the
concave looks like. And that was one of the things that I was surprised about but when I got my YOWs
is how flat the decks are. Because you can't tell from the website what the concave or the kicktail
looks like at all. And on their product description pages, to describe the concaves they use three
descriptions: "performance," "medium," and "high," but if you're like me when I was buying my first YOW
and I didn't even have a lot of experience with board sports period. I have
no idea what any of those mean. So personally I really really wish YOW would do a better job
of giving better product pictures and really describing how each of them ride better. Because
it's pretty difficult to choose a YOW and I think that there's only a couple models that have
the high concave. So I think pretty much across the board if you get a YOW you can pretty much expect
very little concave to it. Even if it says it's a medium concave, relative to other concaves you've
experienced it's probably fairly low. Like the Smoothstar, the two biggest variables I think
when it comes to choosing a YOW are the deck length and the wheelbase. So I've gone through
three YOWs. I started on the 36-inch YOW Malibu because, having come from a longboarding background,
I wanted something that felt more comfortable to me. And that Malibu has a wheelbase of
22 and a half inches. So that YOW Malibu is my perfect long distance cruiser. I have put
so many miles on that thing. I can jump on that Malibu and I can cruise three hours through my
city. And it's probably the most comfortable ride that I have. So after experiencing the 36-inch
Malibu, then I wanted to try something shorter and I wanted something with a tighter wheelbase
to experience how much of a difference that would change the ride. After a lot of research, and again
I didn't really know because YOW doesn't help you very much, I settled on their 34-inch Padang Padang
model with an 18 and a half inch wheelbase. And my experience on that board was that the length is
good but the wheelbase, going from a 22 and a half inch wheelbase to a 18 and a half inch wheelbase,
that was what made the single biggest difference in this ride. It wasn't the deck
length. So that Padang Padang is a completely different ride. I has a way tighter turning
radius and it is way better designed for surf training specifically. Unfortunately,
that wheelbase is too short for my comfort. I'm a street cruiser and so 18 and a half is more of a
something for performance riding where you're doing really tight stuff in in tight spaces
and that's not my style. So I spent like 350 bucks on that Padang Padang model and it's okay for me but
it really is not my ideal. YOW offers a few models that are 34 inches and the big variable in them is
the wheel base. So after experiencing that Padang Padang with the 18 and a half inch wheelbase, then I
wanted one that was their same deck length but a longer wheelbase. So the next YOW I bought was the
Pukas Dark, which is 34.5 inches long. So pretty much the same length as the Padang Padang but
it has a 20 inch wheel base compared to the 18 and a half inch wheelbase of the Padang Padang. And
that makes a huge difference in the ride just an inch and a half wheelbase. The Pukas Dark is a way
better long distance street cruiser for me than the Padang Padang even though there's only a half
inch difference in the length. So unfortunately, I can't give you the exact specs of what your YOW
should be. There's a lot of variables that go into that and YOW doesn't give you the best information.
Obviously, the shorter the wheelbase the tighter the turning radius. So if your style is more like
me, the long distance cruiser, you just cruise around town, choose the right length for you
based on your height but then on that length look at the wheelbases of the models offered in those
lengths and go with the longest wheelbase that they have on that length. But if you are more of
a surf trainer and you want the tighter turning radius, then you're going to want to look for the
ones with the narrower wheelbase. And as I'm sure you know, YOW has three trucks now they have the S4
the S5 and the Meraki. I'm going to really just simplify that for you and say I think that the
Meraki is an improvement over the both the S4 and the S5 and so I'm going to just pretty much say,
and I think they all just come stock with the Meraki anymore anyway. So go with Meraki on the YOW.
Now let's talk about how to choose the right Carver for you. And in my experience
honestly Carver is probably the hardest company to choose a board from because they offer so many
models, I think it's something like 33 models, and those models all are very different. They all have
different specs, they have different board types and sizes, ways that they perform. And Carver gives
very little guidance and information on how to choose the right one for you. So the first thing
I'm going to tell you about Carver is, there is somebody out there, I don't know who it is,
somebody on Facebook sent me the link to a Google spreadsheet that somebody created that breaks down
every single Carver model gives you all of their specs and then tells you this ride is good for
this purpose. So if you go down to the video description, you're going to see a link to that
Google spreadsheet. And whoever it is that created that, thank you, thank you, thank you because that
is an invaluable resource to the surfskating community. And to speak to my experience, really the
thing that I would say with Carver is go through a big-picture process of elimination to just
eliminate the clutter of those 33 models. Basically start with your deck length. So in my case, like as
I've said, the first one i ever bought was the 777 because that was their longest model and I had
come from a very long longboard cruiser. But after that I bought the 33.75 inch Greenroom and for me
far and away the Greenroom is my Carver board. It is the perfect fit for me. The Greenroom is in my
top three favorite boards of all time and the deck on the Greenroom is my favorite deck of anything
that I've ever tried. But again, I didn't know that until i bought both the 777 and the Greenroom.
So in my case, because I'm 6'2" it was actually fairly easy for me to zero in on my Carver models
because I knew that I really was only looking at two options, and that was their two longest ones,
the 777 and the Greenroom. And so that immediately eliminated every other option for me. But where
Carver can get very problematic is if you're in that 31 to 32 inch range because they have
a bunch of different models in that range. They're all designed differently and are for different
purposes. So again, for that I'm going to direct you to the link to that Google spreadsheet that will
break that down for you. Another thing I'm going to suggest when it comes to choosing your first
Carver is to avoid the more, like what i would call specialty or novelty boards. Those are the boards
like the ones that have the colored tops, I would say to avoid those. They also have a couple models
for skateboarders the Bel Air and the Impala. I would also say to eliminate as beginner boards
their symmetrical boards like the Lost and the Black Beauty. So that's the best guidance
that I can give you on Carver is go big-picture, do your research and figure out your deck length. From
there, eliminate all the other options. And then from there look at their models at those lengths
and then zero in on the specs use that Google spreadsheet. And then from there it comes down
to choosing which trucks you want, either the CX or the C7. And I'm gonna just bottom line that for you:
If your riding style is sharp, tight, snappy, slidey, you do a lot of slides and things like that, then
go with the CX. But if you're like me, more of a street cruiser, you want it to feel more flowy,
more glidey, looser, wider range of motion and for more long distance cruising, then go with the C7.
Now let's talk a little bit about the Waterborne Surf Adapter. Now obviously you're not choosing a
deck you're just buying the adapter. But I did just want to give you some basic guidelines on
how to go about customizing your Waterborne to get a good surfskate ride. The honest truth is although
I really dig the performance of the Waterborne, the Waterborne is not my favorite because I am
not that customizer. I'm not good at it. I'm the kind of rider who really just wants somebody else
to do all that work and research for me and just hand me something and let me buy something off the
shelf and ride it. So there's going to be riders out there who are going to be way more qualified
to speak to how to optimize the Waterborne than me. The best that I can give you is general
guidelines. So the first thing I would say is, if you come from a skateboard or a longboard,
you're going to want to find a deck that is more aligned with surfskate specs than probably
what you're used to riding. If you're on a long longboard with a long wheelbase, I can promise
you that the Waterborne is not going to work great for that. There may be other riders who have other
preferences but I think probably most people would agree that 9.5 to 10 inches is a good
width for a surfskate, which is wider than most skateboards and longboards. From there you want
to get the right deck length. And I'm going to say avoid anything over 36 inches long at the very
longest. One of the biggest differences I found in this process is the wheeledbase. In my experience
the Waterborne does not like anything that's long and with a wide wheelbase. I've tried the
Waterborne on I think five or six different decks at this point. My favorite that I've tried out of all
of them is this Loaded Omakase. And you'll hear a lot of people talking about this online. A lot
of people use this on the Waterborne. Personally I like it, I don't love it. I think it rides
kind of like a tank, honestly. It's big, it's clunky, it's heavy, and I think that these holes should be
set back more. I think that that would make this Omakase ride better. So even though the Omakase
is really my ideal deck specs, it's 34 inches long by 10 inches wide, this just is not my
favorite ride. I wish I could be more help to you on the Waterborne. But there's lots of resources
out there and If you're getting into a Waterborne you probably are that customizer anyway so you're
right out of the gate gonna know more than me. And you're probably gonna just have fun
in that process. I don't have fun in the process because I'm like, "Oh there's another
combination that doesn't work. There's another one." That process not my thing. So I hope that was
helpful but you really got to just play with it and find your sweet spot. So there's your process
for choosing a surfskate. Now obviously there's going to be more nitty-gritty details that are
going to go into that process for you. I hope that i've given you a good general process
here to really at least get to that process where you've eliminated a bunch of big picture options
and now you can really fine-tune by getting into those details. If you want more details on
any of these specific boards or trucks or systems, then go to my other review videos where I go into
all those in great depth. So go through this process get your surfskate and go have a blast.