Carver CX Trucks Review

Reviews

The first encounter with the Carver CX set

The first time I tried Carver Trucks was one day at the skatepark when a guy came

complete carver C7 board
A complete board with a C7 set – Picture from carverskateboards.com

with a ‘Da Monsta’ board equipped with C7

trucks. I tried his board and had a lot of fun with it, I could make really sharp turns and it felt so smooth and surfy ! But when the guy told me he bough his complete board for about 320€ I though I would never be able to ride one.

Back home I made some research and browsed forums such as silverfishlongboarding.com trying to find a cheaper alternative way to surf the concrete like an everlasting wave. I heard about the Vector Bennett truck (which I will review it soon) and about the Carver CX which is a little cheaper than the C7 but also was considered as more adapted for ‘pool’ ridding.

Finally I found a shop which sold the CX set for around 100€ and decided I would buy it as it looked like it was really some great trucks.

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The Physics of a Skateboard Trick: Why my Ollies are Garbage ?

Tricks

Ollie video analysis

Today I spend a good time trying to achieve my main objective: pop a decent ollie, preferably while ridding. I shot some videos with my camera so that I could analyse them at home.

I used Tracker to track and model the trajectory of my front and read wheels and my front and back feet, here are the results :

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I have got new wheels !

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losenka Penny style cruiser wheels
Nice grip but look how wide it is.

As I stated in previous posts, in my neighborhood the asphalt is really rough and like to use really soft wheels. Until now I was using cruiser wheels that worked well but where too big (60mm) and of an inadequate shape. Plus they are quite heavy, which doesn’t help with my ollies.

 

So i looked for wheels that were at the same time soft, small enough and preferably cheap. I know Bones makes some pretty nice old school wheels for rough terrain wisely called Rough Rider but I couldn’t find them at a good price. But I tried something different, I found wheels originally made for quad rollers that were only 58mm big and with a soft durometer (78a). As they were pretty cheap (around 15€ a set) I bought them, I dont risk much.

 

 

 

As you can see on the picture bellow, they look more like regular skateboard wheels than the Penny style wheels I used until now.

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I think I need a new deck !

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When I pressed this deck from maple veneer I had some problem with cross layers drinking a lot of glue and then swelling. I was scared that it would delaminate and I realized when I cut the deck that it did in some spots.

So I put some glue were it had delaminated and pressed it again, and it looked fixed for a while. But

Ouch.
Ouch.

with the heat and the usual abuse that a skateboard deck has to go trough some more delimitation showed up. I was not worried munch and continued using it. But last time I went skating, I landed hard with my foot on the nose while practicing ollies and I heard a crack…

I think I’m going to buy a deck instead of building it this time, industrial deck are lighter because they can apply more pressure than I do and so use less glue. But I still have board building projects like a LDP board and an old school pool deck.

 

 

 

Progress on ollies

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Today I was supposed to go to the skatepark with a friend, unfortunately it was raining this morning so I didn’t.

But this afternoon, as the rain had stopped, I decided to go the parking near my house and practice my ollies. I had setup my board for pool/snakerun ridding so it was quite high for ollies (at least for a noob like me). Anyway it went well, I have managed to get a few low speed ollies, I guess watching Aaron Kyro videos helped me.

surf rodz TKP and Losenka wheels
Surf Rodz TKP trucks

This is  the setup I used :

  • Diy deck 8.25″
  • Surf Rodz TKP
  • Losenka wheels (I dont usually use them on pool skating, too soft.)
  • Bones Red
  • Khiro hard risers

I know I might sound cheap, using Losenka wheels but even though they are cheap, they are soft enough to use on rough asphalt (78a), really grippy and fast.

Cruiser wheels like that may no be the best wheels for street skating but where I live the asphalt is really rough.

I can’t ollie while ridding, why ?

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As you may know, my main problem at the moment is getting my ollie to work while I’m actually moving. I have been able to pop decent height ollies, but only stationary. Every time I try to ollie while moving, even at really low speed, I seem to only be able to do “popless” ollies where the tail doesn’t even hit the ground but the rear wheels still lift just a little. Or I do pop the tail, but my front foot doesn’t slide and I do a rocket ollie and usually fall.

Why is it happening ? I guess there are several reasons :

  • Fear, I’m scared to fall and so I don’t commit completely
  • Foot position, my front foot is more near the front of the deck when I’m ridding than stationary, for balance purpose.
  • Poor technique, I have noticed on some videos that I dont slide the side of my shoe but more the bottom.

How I can solve it ?

Grow some balls and commit ? Yeah, but I need to be sure I’m doing it the right way to feel confident. But I definitely need to practice my ollie more.

So maybe I should practice ollies stationary until I’m sure I have a good technique and then try it rolling ?

If you have or had the same struggle, feel free to comment so I know I’m not alone.