- Hey surfskating friends,
Steve here with Surfskate Love
And I am holding in my hands
a Decathlon Oxelo Longboard Bird Carve540.
Now I don't have the slightest clue
why this thing has 15 names.
We're going to call it the Carve 540
for our uses.
So I've had a lot of people ask me about this board
and it's taken me about six months
to finally get my hands on one.
As you know, everything's been out of stock.
And I think a lot of people wonder
about this one
because it is by far
the cheapest complete surfskate on the market.
It's $129 USD.
And to my knowledge,
the next cheapest one up
is the Flow at $159 that you can get on Amazon.
So the big question is, is it worth $129?
Because right out of the gate
let's just state the obvious, it's $129.
So it's going to be
one of those cases where you get what you pay for.
But is it worth $129,
to start on the Carve540
versus starting with a better surfskate to begin with
that might cost you a little bit more?
So let me see if I can answer that question for you.
And the honest truth is that this one
is fairly straightforward
and I'll tell you why.
So every time I get a new board
I do what I call the "island test."
And by which I mean, I unbox it
and I just do a little ride
around my apartment island,
just to kind of get the feel for it.
And within two seconds
I knew immediately
what was wrong with the Carve540.
So let me show you what that is.
I'm going to jump on here.
We'll try to demonstrate this.
Right out of the gate.
Immediately when you start carving,
here's the bottom line
I'm hitting a hard stop.
So this truck has a very limited range of motion.
I can pump it and I can carve it,
just like you can any surfskate truck.
It's hard getting started.
Let me show you what's wrong with this truck.
Okay. So here's the deal.
The Carve 540 truck is to the Carver CX,
what the Flow truck is to the Slide.
Now here's what I mean by that.
If you've watched some of my other review videos
you have seen me compare
the Flow truck with the Slide.
If you look at this up close,
they have a very similar design.
The Flow is smaller.
This is version one of the Slide truck.
This is version three of the Slide truck.
And if you look at this Flow truck up close,
you're going to see
this has this hard stop to it like that.
Whereas the Slide version three fixed that issue.
I have a much wider range of motion
without that hard stop.
And so when you look at this Carve540 truck,
you see the exact same dynamic.
What you're going to see is
it's got a truck similar to the Carver CX.
So just compare these trucks for a second.
You can see how it is a very similar design.
It's a reverse kingpin at an angle
that makes for that wider range of motion
and the pumping ability.
But there's one problem with the Carve540.
That is that you've got a hard stop,
just like the Flow,
which you do not have on the Carver CX.
So when you look at this up close
and you'll have to kind of see it from the bottom here
you can see how this piece right here
the way it's designed,
which is different than the Carver CX,
that's what's hitting right there.
Now I will say that the difference
between the Carve540 and the CX
is not as bad as the Flow to the Slide.
The Flow is a much worse design
and in my opinion
way harder to pump and operate
than this design.
So it's not like it's a complete deal-breaker
but that's just going to be the very first thing
that you notice about this.
Is just the limited range of motion
and that hard stop.
And that hard stop means that when you pump
it means you can't pump super aggressively.
Cause when you hit that, you're going to get tossed.
So you have to keep your pump
within that particular range of motion.
And you're limited to that.
Now, when we look at all the other aspects
of this deck,
first of all, just the deck itself.
I do not like this deck at all.
As you can see,
there is really not any concave to it at all.
You do have just a little bit of a tail rocker here
and you've got this little pad here.
Personally, I do not like these pads,
SwellTech has them also.
I don't like this design.
That's just a personal preference thing
but I find that my foot slips a lot on this.
And I also don't like how I don't have
a wide area back here.
I always prefer a bigger, wider kick tail
for me to be resting on and moving around on.
You'll also notice that this is that very course grip tape.
It's not fine grip tape, which means
that your feet slide around and it's just flat.
There's no real place to rest on.
There's no real home on this board.
You're just kind of like skating a flat board.
And as far as the quality of the board goes,
well I mean, listen,
it's 129 bucks.
So how quality can it be?
I am not really going to ride this board ever again
after doing this review.
So I can't speak to the longevity of it.
But if I had to guess, I'd say that you're not
going to get a whole lot of life out of this board.
And you're probably going to see
a lot of things coming apart on it.
As far as the wheels go,
they're okay.
I don't love them.
They are 65 millimeters in diameter and 78A durometer.
Which is a pretty typical surfskate truck.
But they're also stoneground
which means that they are less grippy
than you're going to get from most surfskate wheels.
And you'll also see that it's rounded,
which means that they're made for sliding.
And I imagine that they would slide pretty easily too
because this 78A durometer is a pretty hard formula.
You can see,
I'm not really getting much flex out of this at all.
So these wheels are okay I guess
but they're absolutely not my preferred surf skate wheels.
And they do not perform nearly as well
as what you're going to get out
of say a Carver Ecothane or even a Yow Cinetic.
And also just to test this board,
I've ridden it in a lot of different environments
but I also took it to a bowl over the last few weeks.
I have been practicing bowl riding.
And as you can tell, I am not great at a bowl at all
but I can ride it a little bit, enough
to know how a board's going to respond.
And so what you're going to see here is me practicing
on a Carver Greenroom
and then compared to the Carve540.
So the Carve540, I can ride it in a bowl
but number one,
the deck is horrible to ride in a bowl
because it's so flat.
There's just no real pockets
on either your front foot or your back foot
to rest in.
And then obviously,
the limited range of motion on the truck
is going to affect those turns as well.
So yeah, you can see,
you could ride this in a bowl,
but in my opinion
better surfskates are way better for riding in a bowl,
and I will never ride this one in a bowl again.
Overall, do I recommend this board to anyone?
Here's my take on it.
Is it cheap?
Yes. $129 to get into a complete surfskate.
That sounds great.
But my suspicion for anybody,
I don't care what level you're at
including beginners who have never ridden anything before,
here's what's going to happen.
You're going to get into this board.
You're going to take it to its limitations
and max it out
what you can do on it.
And then eventually you're going to want to upgrade
and get something better anyway.
In which case I'm going to say,
well then you probably just wasted your $129.
And if budget is that much of an issue
I'm going to say don't spend $129 on the Carve540,
spend 79 bucks on the Waterborne surf adapter
where you're going to get a better truck
with a wider range of motion.
And you can use a way better deck on it,
way better wheels.
You can configure your own
way better set up for 79 bucks
with what you have laying around
then what you're going to get out of this Carve540.
So that's my take on the Carve540.
Is it a surfskate?
Does it pump, does it carve?
Yes, but it has one major design flaw
that just for me completely kills the deal
which is the hard stop on the truck.
And then everything else about it
just as not fun to ride.
I think you're 129 bucks is way better spent
going towards a Carver or a Slide.
So I'm going to say if budget is an issue,
save your pennies
and wait until you can get something better
than the Carve540.