Ok, I almost have the Heroin skateboard deck set up. 

Today I put some Indy 159s with 54mm Bones STF 99a wheels on it. Because of the wheelie/spin clearance issues I mentioned in Friday’s podcast, I put 1/4” of risers under each truck. So that is a lot of clearance. I’m using Daddies Boardshop “built-in” style bearings, which are really good. Love ‘em. 

This board has a 14” wheelbase, which is 1/4” shorter than my regular popsicle board. I took it out for a quick skate to test it out, and here are my findings.

- It feels great. The wider middle section (9”) makes it feel really stable and give you some options for turning leverage that you just don’t get with straight rails. 

- 9” is pretty wide for a 14” wheelbase, even though it is more like 8.5 over the trucks.  It is VERY responsive.

- I didn’t want to scrape the tail up today. The diamond-shaped tail/nose means I will have to shape some custom skids for it, and I am doing that next. Once the skids are on it, I’ll put some Lil Jawn rails on it as well. 

So far I am super happy with this deck. I realized today that it is very much like a custom deck I had Lew Ross make me a few years ago when he was making his Fickle brand. A symmetrical deck, wider in the middle. That board had blunt ends rather than diamonds, and it was narrower overall allowing the use of Indy 149s, and had a longer wheelbase (14.75”), but the idea was the same. Wide middle platform, narrower over the trucks to allow stability AND responsive trucks.

Tomorrow I’ll make reshape some tail skids to fit this board, and it’ll be ready to take to Tucson. I’m looking forward to it. If if works out as well as I expect, when I get home I’m ordering at least two more of these, maybe more.