Awesome Decks - Five Mile Scarecrow

My second ever longboard had to be something special and extravagant (just as my bass guitars, tell me if you want to see them). Also, I wanted to have a top-mounted deck as I was sick of the beginners-friendly feeling of the NinetySixty BooBam. And I aimed for a update on the graphic as well, you understand once you've seen the BooBam. Then I saw Scarecrow.

Top-mounted - check.

Extravagant - Look at this concave and the nose and tail, CHECK.

Nice graphic - Love the colors and the motive, check.

I added Paris trucks in red and matched the wheels and the bearings as well - but I am now looking for a better exchange bearing because the old ones really suck. Although I messed it up a little by having to much of a stress on the style, I really love how it feels on the street. As I have to go downhill pretty much everywhere I go, I really appreciate how the pockets lock your feet in and you can easily keep a little swing to your driving. But I don't really reach any top speeds, although it is actually going down a hill - the rough ground and the fact that it's still in Germany's rather flat northern area don't make for a fast track. Also, the W-concave really keep the weight down and gives just the right flex for me. You might have some issues at first getting along with the bulge, especially under your front-foot toes, but it becomes really important in judging the optimal position of your feet once you've found it. And the price of $160 makes it a really nice deal for a very special board.

Season 1 Recap

My beginning in blogging was a product of a warm and sunny summer morning. I sat down on the balcony and just wrote for some hours and in the end I got the ten first posts finished. But of course there were some tweaks because of the order and stuff. After that headstart there where several evenings I spent on the balcony bringing up concepts for series and the blog itself. My girlfriend got annoyed when I asked her over and over again if this or that would work out but she got her payback.

I tried to get three post a week done but it only worked out for two weeks or so until I set back to two posts and that still works out perfectly. Also I tried to fit the series in the schedule without missing all the latest news I wanted to cover and now ended up with actually two monthly series and a lot of more or less instant content.

It was great to get out once a week, shooting pictures for the Board and Bike Spots. In general I fell in love with photography and even bought my first own camera. And Hamburg is a great city to get started with photography: modern and classic, urban and landscape.

That is my recap of my first six months of blogging with now finally many more to come.


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Board Vibes - Season 2

It's been a long time, eh?

But today I'm back with new motivation, topics and a huge load of news. Of course there were other reasons besides procrastination  for me to stop writing. But those deserve an extra post. Also, there are two more winter themed posts in queue and then, finally, I am personally done with this season.

Following up on Saturday, there will be a roundup of "Season 1" of Board Vibes. I'll just briefly go over the highlights and developments made in those six months. Also there are two spots - one for the board, one for bike - that I had planned since early fall last year that might finally get live.

That's all updated so far, so see you on Saturday.


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Awesome Decks - UNIKORN Lorcan / Moostaste

I found the Moostaste in my Pinterest feed one day and was confused at first - many decks before tried to be arty as hell, but this one really got me. The UNIKORN Moostaste (on the right) is one of those boards that are supposed to hang on the wall and decorate your living room. It was actually released in 2012 already and now, it is not in production anymore.

So I headed to their website for a little research and found out that the artwork was designed by uberkraaft, a really awesome artist. Also I found the new board by UNIKORN - the Lorcan (which you see below).

The Lorcan is shorter and the kick makes it really useful for tricks and the griptape has a really performance oriented look. But UNIKORN from Montreal always works in cooperation with artists from all over the world so this has a artwork just as beautiful as the Moostaste. In this case it is the work of the Brazilian artist Victor Beuren. His thoughts on the deck:

“This deck is all about having fun, about the enjoyment you get from riding it. It’s about the wind on your face, the feeling that you are actually flying across town the kind of feeling that we all hold dear. The design brings toy planes, parachutes, wings and a pilot to help carry your imagination in flying with you.”

The Lorcan is available for $140 CAD deck only or a hundred dollars more for the complete board with Bennett Vector trucks and Seismic Rippler wheels

















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In Pictures - Longboarding Together

My fourth post ever was about why it is so great to get together with people when longboaring. This here is a little follow up of pictures I found on Pinterest that really express the message I had in that post.

Each of these pictures tells a story of friends getting out together and searching for the thrill and fun of longboarding. Of course they all need a long road ahead - feeling the freedom and stuff. So beside that cliche and the fact that none of them was a real situation, I really like how they look and have different styles. One is dark and full of tension, another one showing the party going on on the road and one spreading pure summer and very happy and adventurous vibes.

However, I just wanted to show you these few pictures to stay motivated for longboarding - summer isn't even that far away! I'm already planning for new adventures and I might also buy a new board. But I will surely update you about anything exciting as it happens. Protect your spots and keep exploring!


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Cold Days Longboarding Outfit

Of course there are many longboarders that only ride in the summer because of the trend and the style. But if you are like me and the longboard is your major way of transportation you might know the struggle of iced hands and cold air inside your jacket. I found myself some ways to fight the cold so that I can stay on the board not only on the glaciers.

Softshell jacket. One of the major problems is that the warmed up air inside your jacked gets pushed out by the cold air because of wind and your own movements. First step to counteract that is to buy a wind proof softshell jacket. You might want to find one with a little strip of fabric behind the zipper - I often felt the cold sneaking through that cracks.

Flexible gloves. When choosing your gloves you might want to go for the thinner ones. There is nothing worse for me than loosing the grip on my fingers, so I always use my winter biking-gloves for longboarding as well. They have the right balance of keeping your fingers warm and usable. If you have a bad day and it's too cold for your fingers, just get the blood into your hands by closing and opening your fists repeatedly.

Oversize and layers. I generally like to wear larger cloths when I'm on the board - in the summer they provide good air circulation but when it's cold they have another effect. Your shirts make your jacket tighter around the waist because of the excess cloth. Also you get the possibility of working out warm wind proof joints at your hands and feet. Layering up shirts and jackets also helps with that.

Beanie and scarf. There is one thing I love about the cold season: Hiding my face behind a fluffy and warm scarf. I pull it up tightly over my nose so that the warm air I'm breathing out flow all around my cheeks and over my eyes - all the condensing water gets caught in your eyelashes but that's totally worth it. Even better is to have a beanie on your head as well so there is nothing more than your eyes exposed to the cold and your ears are protected by two layers of fabric.

So do you have your own ways to tackle the cold or do you prefer public transport as soon as it gets colder?


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Winter Season - Cleaning Your Bearings

First of all, there are two reasons that there came no post on Wednesday. It was the day after my birthday, so I didn't really have the time to sit down and write. But also I was busy with preparations for this upcoming mini series: Winter Season! In this case "mini" doesn't mean in short time because I'm going to stretch it out until maybe February - not sure yet - but there won't be many posts of the series. It will be all about getting your board ready for spring, starting with cleaning your bearings. I personally do it every three or four months but it might be different for you because of different products and the difference in use. Actually you could do that every other week as it is so easy.

To begin with, get your wheels off the board - I use a 13mm socket on a ratchet. Be sure to collect all the speed rings as it's quite easy to loose one or two of them. Sometimes, the inner speed rings stick to the truck because they get pressed together pretty hard - just use the tip of are small screwdriver to get them loosened and pull them off the truck with your fingers.

Then get the bearings out of the wheels with that same screwdriver: Get it halfway into the core, push the spacer aside and leverage it out from all sides. You could actually do it without moving the screwdriver around but I would surely get it in my eye some way.

 You should now have eight speed rings, eight bearings, four spacers and for lock nuts. As I said before, these small parts get lost so easily.



The next step is to get the covering off the bearings by simply pushing the tip of your screwdriver in between the covering and the bearing's inner ring. Then gently pull it up - it might stick a little if it is very dirty. They also stick to your screwdriver if it has a magnetic tip as the inside of the covering is made of metal.

Repeat that for both sides of each bearing. Some like to  keep one covering on, but I personally don't think they get really clean that way.

Prepare a empty can of vitamin supplements by getting the resin out of the cap. Just cut out the paper-like covering in the middle. Then put the parts that you want to get cleaned - I usually clean all of the other parts as well, but separated from the bearings -  inside there, add a drop of dish detergent and fill it up with water. But leave some space for the fluid and the parts to move inside the can. Shake the can with the cap on for a minute or two, wash it out with some fresh water and repeat the cleaning two or three times. By the way - I advise you, not to hit any animals that are interested in what you're doing. Dry all the parts properly with paper towels and a hair dryer on low temperature.

Then use your speed lube - I used some left-overs from our latest car servicing - to get the bearings working again. Don't use too much as that slows the bearings but. Then simply put the covering back on, assemble the wheels and get them onto the trucks again. That's it. You might need some time when doing it for the first time but once you know how to get it done, it's a task of maybe half an hour.

Do you have any shortcuts or tips? And how often do you think is it necessary?


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Stay On The Board

So, you might know that winter is not my favorite season for longboarding. My fingers got cold even with 25+°C sometimes, as they don't really have any task and just hang in the wind most of the time. But now - late November - it is really painful sometimes. Also the cold air gets up your sleeves, the street tends to never really get dry and it gets dark way too soon. Many longboarders search for an alternative and most of them end up snowboarding. I personally did it the other way round: I just couldn't wait one year to get onto the snowboard again and didn't want to go for indoor winter sports. Here are some of my experiences about transitioning from longboarding to snowboarding and vice versa.

Rear foot steering. I personally pretty much kick out my rear foot when I'm turning on a snowboard - just like sliding on a longboard. At the same time, you will most likely miss the sliding all the times you're in the city without slopes.

Locking in your feet. My girlfriend didn't trust the longboard at first because she was used to being strapped to the board. But as I told her, there is nothing to worry about. My feet did never just slide of the board - neither while carving nor pushing.

Atmosphere. Of course, the atmosphere is totally different. On a longboard you can go on for hundreds of miles without ever visiting the same place twice. On the snowboard you are pretty much limited to the mountains you're around and you will have to stop after a trail of maybe 10 miles, if you're lucky.

Does anyone of you have other experiences with these differences or did you notice anything else?


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Awesome Decks - Landyachtz Chinook

For today, I found a really nice downhill and freeride board: The Chinook. This is one of the examples that show how Landyachtz does not only guarantee great artworks but also awesome shapes.

With its 9-ply Canadian maple it has basically no flex unless you really try to bend it. In the overall length of 40" there are two wheelbase options: 31.25" and 32.25". The W-bowl concave locks your feet in at the right spot and makes it hard to slip off. The drop gives you the possibility to get your foot close to the wheels to gain some extra control over the +/-10° wedged trucks. Although this might seem a little drastic when you look at it, the Chinook is meant to be a less aggressive version of the Evo - still a monster - to match the more modern trucks.

I just love everything about the artwork: How the lion's head is symmetrical, how all of it consists of these striped triangles and this awesome glow of the eyes. Well, not everything - I would love to have another option to the main colors. Maybe a red or a darker blue would work out really well. But I guess there won't be any other color setting as the deck isn't in production anymore. If you love it for the shape and don't really care about the artwork, you can still buy the Landyachtz Evo for $140 deck only or $240 to get it equipped with Bear Grizzly 840 181mm trucks, Hawgs KM FSU 70mm 80A wheels and System ABEC 5 bearings.

Awesome Decks - Bustin Sportster Pro

Today I want to show you one of the awesome longboard decks I found on Pinterest. When choosing a deck for your new board you can't focus only on the stats,  because no matter how good the board is - it still has to look nice.

So, this here is a nice 37,5" deck by Bustin: The Sportster Pro. With it's typical drop-through / wheel cutout design it is pretty much an all rounder for freeride, cruising and downhill. With the Thermo Carbon and maple hybrid Bustin tried to reach the right stiffness and elasticity balance that they all want. Every brand does it pretty much the same way - but they call it different every time.


But take a look at this gorgeous texture in grey - it still sounds awful. I can't decide whether it looks more like really luxury wood or like brushed metal. However, I love this shade. You shouldn't look too close at the lion though - to me the face looks a little too abstract. All the fur looks fine, especially the "majestic" chin, I think. But there is one thing that really annoys me: Why did they try to give the drawing a graffiti look at the bottom? The rest of the deck is all clean and noble except those eight stripes dripping down there. Still, there are other graphics available at the Bustin store for $179, if you like the shape.


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Now On Pinterest

Great news! Board Vibes is now on Pinterest, a awesome way to collect all kinds of awesome ideas, inspiration and products you love on a several virtual pin boards. For the beginning I created three collections for you:

 -- Board Ideas.  A collection of  mostly DIY ideas all about your longboard. Wall mounts, cookies, shelves. But this is still the smallest pin board.

-- Awesome Decks. While going through all kinds of longboards, I found some really awesome decks I want to show you. Mostly these are Landyachtz and Arbor boards with some pretty awesome photo paints.

-- Board Vibes. Well, that's what it's all about, right? Although this is partly a collection of hot girls on boards - or girls that are hot because they're on boards - I tried to capture this thing I just call Board Vibes as good as possible. But it is a fact that on something like Pinterest girls are more popular than cool guys, isn't it?

Visit Board Vibes's profile on Pinterest.

I added the "Pin It" button to the blog so you can pin the Board Vibes posts and pictures to your profile. Just hover your mouse over the picture you want to pin and the button will appear in the top left corner.

Just come back there every now and then to see what's new out there. You can also leave your ideas, pins and discoveries for me and maybe I'll add them to the boards.


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Fall Longboarding

The first of October - that's when the fall feels really kick in.

Basically, all the time from the melting of the last snow to the first storm of fall is great for longboarding - and of course any other sport on small wheels. Because once the wind blew through the first brown leaves it takes no time until the whole ground is covered in them. That wouldn't be that much of a problem - leaves make the ground slippery, especially when they lay there throughout the last rain, but you wouldn't normally fall from that - if there weren't so many chestnuts and acorns in between them. I was lucky so far, but if you hit one with your wheels, you stop right where you're at - unless you were so fast that you fly and roll on the ground for some feet.


























However, what I actually want to tell you is that the longboard and bike spot series will probably be paused until spring. There might be some possibilities to get one or two of them online if the weather isn't too bad, but not on a regular basis. Therefor I have Blogs to Read and One Day in Hamburg as the winter series. But I will save up some spots and blogs by releasing each series every four weeks and some more random posts in between.

Well, nothing else to say today. See you on                             Saturday.

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Hamburg Longboard Spots - Hamburg HafenCity

So this week, I went for a tour through the youngest district of Hamburg: the HafenCity. So pretty much the HarbourCity, doesn't sound that nice, does it? While being the youngest district it is also the most discussed one. Billions of Euros wasted for building the Elbphilharmonie from 2007 probably until 2017. The controversy on the modern architecture destroying the flair of the district.

Within a hundred meters there is a change from the left picture - the old look of the district - to the right one with the new buildings. Each of the styles is beautiful in its own way but it wasn't the best idea to put them right besides each other.

                                                                         


The HafenCity is on the top list of Hamburg's most expensive districts. With a wide offer of high class shops and designer stores there come the matching apartments. For example the penthouse of the Marco Polo Tower - as seen on the picture below - right at the riverside with an awesome view over the whole harbor and the city. At least that's what I guess as I've never had the opportunity to get up there. Also it is located right next to the Unilever headquarters and the Cruise Center where many cruise ships start their journey.

Still I can't decide what I like better - old or new architecture. Let me know about your opinion on this controversy. And as always: Protect your spots and keep exploring.

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Hamburg Longboard Spots - Dove Elbe

So this week it pulled me out of the city once again, but not quite that far. Actually it was both, board and bike as my girlfriend was with me, but I was on the board so this counts as a board spot, I guess.

So we started right at at the east end of the marked path. Medium quality ground, some cars and a nice view. And if you take your time to look around instead of racing along you find these things that make you wonder about the story behind it. Like this little wooden boat there. I mean, when was the last time that you saw a boat completely made of wood out on the water? It must have been the for some years or maybe even decades.

And then, of course, there are just beautiful views of the river and nature. And you are mad because you have a 18-55mm lens only. But on the other hand, I like this shot of the river in the front at the cows at the riverside just chilling there.

Maybe I should explain: We were at the Dove Elbe, a arm of the Elbe of about 14 km length. At the place I live the Elbe is about three times as far away. This makes the Dove Elbe a good place if you want to chill out at the riverside.

We then finally arrived at the Hamburg Olympic Center of rowing that recently was the location for the rowing world cup. But I like it a lot more when everything is calm and there is a small boat driving by every now and then. Also, most people driving by are so nice and greeting each other - this is traffic how I like it.

That's it for today. As allways, keep exploring and protect your spots

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Hamburg Longboard Spots - Slalom and Speed

Today's spot is a lot shorter but I guess you could say it's a double-spot. It consists of two runs: One is a bit longer and keeps you on a continuous but shallow slope. The other one is just a short downhill track of about 100 meters. I actually had to mark the downhill bit by hand as it is no official way.

So we took some empty glass bottles from home with us to put them up as pylons. Some might say that was a little risky because the bottles might brake when I go around them to close and blah. Well, one did brake but only at the top so nothing too bad. People have done dumber things than that and still there are enough of them alive to go on with dumb shit. So let's go.


You actually drop in with quite some speed to get along the flat bit in the middle. Also there is a little crack just 50 meters after the start but that isn't any real problem. We didn't use all the space we had because we were to lazy to get so many bottles although we actually placed the crate on top of one of the boards. And as there were cars coming it would've been way too much work to get so many bottles out of the way and back into place afterwards. It took quite some time to figure out a setup for the pylons that isn't too hard but not boring either. Once we got it right there were cars trying to get along that street.

Actually we decided that the second built was enough and shortly got over to the downhill bit. Unfortunately we didn't get any good shots of that because of shadow and the wrong lens and stuff. Not my best work.

However, Wednesday I will give you some information on my camera and Saturday we're going to visit a place that you  might know from the morning bike ride. 'Till then, keep exploring and save your spots.

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Hamburg Longboard Spots - Beating the Train

Welcome to the first episode of Hamburg Longboard Spots. Today I'll present to you a nice ride that will bring you directly to the city if you pursue it long enough. But this time I limited it to one third of the total length for this post as the amount of photos is already too damn high. Still I will add all worthy pics to an upcoming site that will include all the photos from all the posts plus some extra shots. So, let's get started!

Starting off at the Allermöhe train station we go west following the train tracks. As on this side of the train tracks there's no city but the countryside we get into a huge cloud of dust from a field machine right next to us. Not good for our lungs and not good for the camera either.Actually we got no possibility to race a train -- doesn't even matter as at least three other trains would have passed us on the way -- so we took our time to enjoy the ride (song of the week by Krewella) instead of rushing through.

As the camera I use still isn't my own I left it inside the bag for a long part of the first third of the ride because it seemed quite dangerous to me to carry it around my neck and in my hand while I was on the board. Also most of what I saw wasn't that awesome for photos. But I knew about some good possibilities to take a good shot.

For example there was this bridge leading us to the other side of a little river flowing along the fields. Well, hardly flowing. That's also the reason for the disgusting smell in some areas of the track.

For some reason there has to begin a dike right where the bridge is so the path has a bump of one and a half meters right before the bridge. The dike goes on to the left of it but only five meters to the right this wouldn't have been a problem. But this way you actually have to get off your board. What a shame! At least in the direction we were going as the bridge was very board-unfriendly. The other way round the bump was actually a nice help to get onto the board with at least some speed. 

The next problem was the tarmac at some parts of the track. Some small cracks are fine but you don't want to be forced to practice jumping because of them.

So we made it to the first train station and took a break preparing for the next part that generally looks better and also made a lot more fun what resulted in more photos.

As most horses were in their boxes already we had a hard time searching for one. But only for you I got a shot of a real beauty. Well, I found it right next to the path. Wasn't that hard to get.

Actually there was again a obstacle, a standard red and white bar. But my girlfriend had a nice solution. Just sit down on your board and roll on. As I was concentrated on taking the photos I didn't even bother trying it.

Some hundreds of meters further there was a handcrafted bench placed on the side of the road. Nothing you'd want to have standing in your living room but still it inspired us to shoot some photos.

I can't really describe it but in general I like places where you see man-made structures perfectly blending in to its natural surroundings. Or also if it didn't blend in so well in the beginning abandoned buildings that become one with the nature can be beautiful in their very own way.

But the best about the photos left and below is the contrast of my board, the red and black scarecrow, to the wooden bench and the green grass and trees. Also my girlfriend made a good job especially on the last one with the diagonal line of the plants on the ground, the rather decent focus on the bench and the relation of me to my board.

But then we we almost at the prison. Obviously I couldn't take many pictures of it as the guards don't really like that.

After passing the prison we approached the bridge that lead us over the motorway. Also nice for pictures and riding down on the other side. There, the motorway actually went through a tunnel underneath a freight yard with those huge cranes on rails moving containers from trucks to trains and the other way round. Unfortunately we didn't see more than the tops of the cranes moving from one place to another as there was a huge wall.

That's it for today. We didn't go on to the spot marked on the map as we didn't want to just ride along that boring straight road. But if you want to go home by train you should go there as the train station of Billwerder-Moorfleet is right next to it.

I hope you like this new series, tell me if you actually finished reading in the comments and also tell me what you'd like to be changed. Next Saturday we kick off the bike spots with a nice off-road spot. Until then, keep exploring and save your spots.