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I'm in Oceanside, California.
I'm joined by Gabe Frager,
who is a very advanced rider, excellent surfer, surfskater,
and he really shines at cross-stepping.
And so I've asked Gabe to test ride
all of these surfskates to help us all understand
which of these surfskates are best for cross-steppings.
"Surfing's not even that hard."
- So Gabe, you've had a chance to try out all these.
Let's start with just the trucks themselves.
What were the standout ones for you
for cross-stepping specifically?
- I really liked the CX truck. It was really stable.
- Is that like your number one standout,
Carver CX for cross-stepping?
- That's what I'm gonna go to, yeah.
- How about like your top kind of two
to three standout ones that you liked?
- The Slide one is pretty fun.
For another one, if I was gonna use it,
probably not the seven, but I'll go at the YOW one
because it has a really nice surf feel.
It's still pretty stable, but it does have that little,
like backfire that the other trucks don't have.
- Which of these trucks would you absolutely not recommend
for cross stepping at all?
- Definitely the Waterborne and the SwellTech.
The Waterborne, you could almost use it.
I can't use this one either,
the Felipe Toledo, what is this?
- The Smoothstar Thruster. - [Gabe] The Smoothstar.
Yeah, I can't use that one either.
- Why? Why is this one a challenge
for you for cross-stepping?
- It's just focused, like pretty much for surf training.
And this is kind of, it's kind of set up
as like a thruster surfboard.
So it's nothing like a riding long board.
Or you could you could cross-step on it,
but it doesn't have the same feel.
- Which of these do you think best replicates
the actual feel of being in the water?
- I'm gonna have to go with the CX one,
just 'cause I can pump it,
I can make deep carves.
And at the same time, I still have the stability
of riding like a single fan
or even riding a thruster or a twin fan.
It's not like, if I was hopping on a YOW where I feel like,
I'm riding just the short board thruster
or I'm riding on like the Filipe Toledo board.
This is very versatile, the CX trucks are very versatile.
- Which of these do you think would be the most stable
and best for beginners who want to learn cross-stepping?
- I would go to CX.
And if you want this, the C7 could work too.
The reason why I didn't like it is
just this, how I hopped on it,
it didn't feel really adjusted.
So I gonna definitely have to adjust that truck.
- And that actually is something worth noting,
that the C7 is a lot more adjustable than others.
And that's something that we didn't really even play with.
That's probably something should go into in another video,
but something to take note of.
One thing I've been surprised about Gabe is
that you haven't mentioned anything about the Curfboard.
And Joey Daley and I both thought
that this was good for cross-stepping.
You as an excellent cross-stepper have not said anything
about the Curfboard, why?
- Well, when I first got on it, I was kind of fascinated.
And I was kind of going downhill
and I was able to get little carves and even cross-step.
It had stability to it.
But then when I got on a second time,
I didn't quite have the same experience
and not only the deck felt flat.
So when it felt flat, that's easy to cross-step
but then the deck have the little in groove,
but we're not talking about the deck.
We're talking about the trucks.
Honestly, the trucks just don't really feel
like surfing at all.
It's a different type of motion, different feel.
- Is it like too stable?
What is it that doesn't feel like surfing to you?
- It's just that,
like how all the other trucks have another incline,
these kind of just go back and forth.
They just kind of pivot in one direction.
So if you're thinking about it,
if you were like on a wave,
your surfboard doesn't go back and forth.
It's also gonna go to round the rail.
- [Interviewer] Gotcha. - I'm lacking that.
- So you're missing that dimension.
- You get a little bit of the feel with the back truck
and little bit of rail action, but not much.
- But does that not make it stable
and therefore good for beginners learning cross-stepping?
- Yeah. If you want,
but then if you end up staying on that board for a long time
and you switch to a regular or different surfskate,
like a Carver, you're gonna have to reteach yourself
how to surfskate again
'cause when you used to this equipment
you get on something else, so yeah.
- Which of these decks stood out to you most
for cross-stepping specifically?
- For cross-stepping anything,
but like a wider deck feels nice
and more of a mellow concave.
I don't need something with too aggressive concave.
So if you look at the Tyler Riddler board,
it's a pretty long deck.
- [Interviewer] So this is the Carver Tyler 777.
- 777.
- Of all these you've tried,
this is pretty much your favorite for cross-stepping.
Is it not?
- Yeah, and I used to like the new Slide skate one
that you brought out, I never skated that board today.
I do like this board a lot.
- And this Slide was a standout one for you as well.
What do you like about this for cross-Stepping?
- It's like I said, it's wide.
It has a little bit of length to it.
You have still a little bit of width in the tail,
so your foot's not like overhanging.
'Cause you want a little bit of stability
for the back foot, of course.
And the nose, it's nice and full.
You can get up on the nose,
hang five, hang 10 if you want.
You know, has a little swallow tail.
So it's like a surfboard.
Now I don't know if it's really functional
to have a swallow tail, but it sure does look nice.
- This one here is a new collaboration
between Hot Buttered Surf and Slide.
What do you think of this one for crossing-stepping
this one's a little bit narrower than
that other Slide Neme Pro?
Yeah, that's the only,
the only let down is a narrower in the tail,
but it keeps this style of, kinda like a surfboard.
But it having so much length.
There's plenty of room,
it's like a whole dance floor right here and it's cool too.
You have this little pin line,
kind of like a stringer on a surfboard.
- But between these two,
this new hot buttered one and the Neme Pro,
you would go with the Neme Pro, not this one?
- With tails like this, I had to go with that one, yeah.
- So it's like this back here is like, it's cute,
but it's not really functional.
- Yeah, I mean, if you're just doing just doing dancing
and maybe just cruising down the street
or down the strand or wherever you go,
this is kind of functional for nap.
But if you want it, this is a better deck
for dancing and carving.
- So talk to me about the SpiceSkate.
What was your take on this one for cross-stepping?
- It's pretty fun.
It has a lot of width.
You can still carve around, get a few cross-steps on it.
When you're cross stepping
and the truck like pivots too much on the side.
It's real easy just to step on the board
and almost just fall or catch yourself on the wheel.
- Gabe, you rode the Aquilo today for the first time
and you were kind of pleasantly surprised by that.
What was your take on this one for cross-stepping?
- It's definitely not something I'm gonna go to
as a cross-stepping board
- And why not?
- It just, it didn't have the same organic feel.
You know, maybe if I put these same trucks on a longer deck,
I might get a different result.
But it felt pretty tight on the carves.
- So this one might be a little bit misleading
just because of the length of the deck.
And we might wanna try this one on a longer deck
to get a full feel for the Aquilo for cross-stepping.
- Yeah, exactly.