Southampton Street Sports

Sign up is now open!

2011-09-05T23:05:00.001+01:00

http://www.hiow-airambulance.org.uk/post.cfm/isle-of-wight-skate-2011#eventRegistration

Don't forget to sign up!
Looking to be a great event, lots of fun with mates!

It's time to get donating!

2011-09-05T14:09:00.000+01:00

Hey guys! So the finishing touches to the isle of Wight charity skate are being sorted as we speak! So go bother your parents, go badger your mates and go plead with relatives because its just time to get giving again! All you have to do is head over to the just giving page or the widget on the side of our blog to donate!

Also sign up will be open very very soon, we're just putting the finishing touches to the project!

How does your longboard work?

2011-08-30T18:53:00.000+01:00

In light of our "what makes a good distance set up" we thought we'd post some information we've found helpful over time with our own set up choices.
Obviously nothing counts like first hand experience but if you're lost and need some help, these may prove very helpful indeed.

Truck Explanation:
Some of the physics behind trucks without being overly OTT:
http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/forum/longboard-skateboarding-trucks/206084-hi-kids-im-truck.html
Credit to SteveC

Wheel Explanation:
Again the fundamentals of how your wheels work and what makes slide wheels slidey and others grippy!
http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/forum/longboard-skateboarding-wheels-bearings/207028-hi-kids-im-wheel.html
Credit SteveC

Bushing Explanation:
http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/forum/longboard-skateboarding-trucks/211090-hi-kids-im-bushing.html
Credit SteveC

Also some help from venom bushings themselves, while this caters for the venom shapes and thane it's somewhat applicable to other bushings too.
Starter

Hope you find this helpful!

What makes a good distance setup?

2011-08-29T21:27:00.003+01:00

So we've been asked this a few times and there are a few generic answers which we shall do our best to explain. If you haven't already had a look at skate further or long trecks on skate decks then you probably should. These are the long distance elite and are full of really helpful advice and awesome vids and merch!

Your riding/pushing style will determine ultimately what works best for you but as a general rule of thumb, lower boards are more comfortable for long trips. [This is enormously disproved by Matt Elver!]

The Deck
longboard larry pushers and Rayne demonseed are both very popular long distance boards. While both are considerably weighty providing poor acceleration, they both keep that speed from then on, proving very effective on long flat straights.
Drop Throughs are again very popular; as mentioned in the trucks section below you can also experiment with drop up risers to get you really low! Often shorter and more nimble a drop through can make a great all rounder; a long distance pusher you can live with.
Top mounts are generally well avoided as the extra distance to the ground can be really felt in the thighs, however if topmounts are your thing and you enjoy pushing it around, it may be the best thing for you!

The Trucks
This is more of a preference than the board as most RKP style trucks will do fine, however when considering the length of most long distance boards, most people tend towards 50* randals, Holeys or similar.
Depending on how interested you are, you may want to play with drop up risers on your drop through board. These essentially move your board even lower to the ground making it easier to push; however too much drop and you may experience hanger bite.
The alternative is to use indie style trucks. While these are very low, they aren't particularly turny and thus are not widely used as long distance trucks, however if you already love them, use them!

Wheels
There are two things to bear in mind when choosing a long distance wheel. Size and durometer:
Size: A large wheel will again accelerate slowly but keep its speed high once it's there. Seismic Speed vents and Abec 11 fly wheels are both widely used to great effect. Somewhat relatively untested, but in my opinion may be an excellent long distance wheel, are the 81mm Sector 9 Race formula's.
I would not recommend anything smaller than a 72mm Wheel for long distance! Anything smaller loses speed very quickly. [Already have a set of 72mm Cults? Perfect! Unless you're very serious I wouldn't invest in expensive alternatives]

Durometer: Hard wheels travel faster over smooth surfaces but are hard on the knees on the rough stuff & quite slow!
Soft wheels in contrast are slower on smooth surfaces but more comfortable and faster on rough roads. [Hint UK roads aren't perfect!]
If you have the time/money to experiment with wheel duro's before your trip it's well worth a go.

However; the most important part of a good distance set up is you! It's always a good idea to assess your fitness and do some test skates before embarking on anything with a deadline. Be realistic and you should have a really good skate!

Safety gear & clothing:
Somewhat overlooked in most skates but distance skating is different. Can you really skate 30miles with a heavy helmet without vents? And heavy leather slide gloves? Probably not. It's certainly worth looking into getting a lightweight vented helmet to stop you sweating so much and some cheaper breathable gloves [The more you sweat, the more water you've got to carry/replace]. If you've got an old set of torn up gloves maybe cut the fingers off to give some more air and some versatility.
In a distance skate you hope never to have to need your helmets and gloves but if you forsake all other protective gear we recommend you have these as the BARE essentials. You never know when a car's going to come tearing round a blind country road corner and cause problems.
For more longboarding related safety see longboard sessions!

Skate safe, skate hard & have fun!

Although I did the trip last year on a dangerous decks criminal prototype, Original S10 trucks and smashed green cults. So what the hell do I know?

Introductions & Explanations

2011-07-29T17:09:00.000+01:00

Hello XSS & Visitors!

This has been a long time coming but I am exceptionally pleased to announce Skate Round the Island 2!
As of yet sign up is not open but an online system will be up and running around the 8th of August, the dates of the trip will be the 23rd to the 25th of September so keep these dates free in your diaries!

If you're interested on how it all worked last year please look at our previous posts as we kept a pretty up to date blog diary of the event and months around it.

Thanks
Skate love
Dan

P.S I'd like to say a Big thank you to our first sponsors Newtons Shred!

Hello! and events :)

2010-10-01T15:44:00.000+01:00

Welcome to all the new members! I hope the lads didn't smell too bad at the stand ;).

But seriously, glad you decided to join up. Hopefully you guys'll do a read of this blog every now and again and we'll try to stick relevant and cool stuff up here, including pics and such.

In the meantime, read on and have fun!

Sunday Taster Session

Everyone is welcome, from complete beginners to crazy pros.
Outside Stag's head on campus at 2pm. (in the pub if its raining, and we'll chat and beverage and have fun!)
Bring boards or helmets if you have them. If not don't worry we will provide stuff! Let us know beforehand and you'll get dibs on the newer kit :)
We suggest either bog standard outdoor trainers or skate shoes. Boots and heels don't work well!
we'll then go grab some munch after the session, and head down to the Shooting Star pub (clicky for map! it used to be Kolebka if you tried using streetview) for a debrief bevvy and maybe some skate videos. Feel free to meet us there later.

Wednesday Taster Session

See above, but it's on wednesday. And I won't be there cos I'll be in Bulgaria!

Everyone's really friendly, so feel free to chat to any of the crew at any time :)

PEACE OUT

Timmy and the XSS crew
(you didn't see me at the bunfight, cos I was working!)

Back from the Island!

2010-09-21T17:32:00.000+01:00

We have returned from our epic charity adventure!
So far we are over half way towards our fundraising target, which is brilliant as we still have some cash to add to the Justgiving page. So here's a summary of the weekend:

On friday, we all met up at the ferry terminal with our tents, bags, boards etc... bright and early (about 11am)

And then it was all aboard the ferry, and the race to get to Ryde pier in time for a photoshoot began!
straight off the ferry there was what seemed like a neverending uphill stretch of road followed by several others, everyone getting lost and separated and the van hire company claiming they'd never heard of us. A slightly rocky start to the weekend, but all was fine and dandy when the support team arrived victorious at Ryde in a slightly less than ideal condition van... We got some photos for the papers and the team went on it's way to the next destination...

lost!

The campsite for the night was quite a way away, up some insanely steep country roads, and then along the seafront for a few relaxed miles. After stopping to skate the hairpin by the seafront which every town on the island seems to have, we found the campsite (which had it's own roads) and pitched our tents in some strange places...

Josh in a tent on a van

Tent in a tent

After the tent shenanigans, we went and ate in the pub and got a surprisingly early night... The next day we went for breakfast, and more route planning ahead of the longest distance of the weekend.

Louise, Tim and Matt at breakfast

We set off from the first campsite aiming to reach the needles by the end of the day, we started by climbing up another great big hill... this one was followed by a brilliant stretch of downhill with some nice corners thrown in that we were all far too busy skating really fast down to take photos of...

We eventually reached the next town we planned to stop at, which was ventnor. We knew ventnor had some ridiculous hills, but they still surprised us on the way in and out of the town... Our favorite was this:

Monaco

Sadly, at this point, my camera decided to run out of memory. There's more footage and pictures of the event to come soon...

We left Ventnor towards a place called Freshwater, and along the way skated up and down some amazing roads, some of which were up to 2 miles of downhill... stopped for lunch in a tiny sleepy village and battled onwards to freshwater, where we all went in the sea!

We stayed at a small campsite on the side of a hill near Freshwater, where we were greeted with a sign saying:

"To the skateboarding firefighters, please pitch your tents anywhere you like"

Enthused by our new skill of fighting fire, we pitched our tents and went to the pub. We decided that it would be a good idea to go back to the campsite and order a takeaway, which went terribly, but it was all OK because we had a few jerry cans full of cider.

On the third and final day of our trip, we set off for Cowes again. We had to get back in time to drop the hire van off so somewhere along the line in a place called Yarmouth we fuelled up with a huge breakfast, which set us going along the final stretch of the journey (up and down some more huge hills) and along the seafront at the end to get a victory ice-cream.

I'd like to say a great big thank you to everyone who got involved, to the skaters: Tim, Tom, Pete, Moe, Josh, Sam, Matt, Dan, Danny, and of course to the support team Louise and Charley.
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight air ambulance fundraising team have been really supportive of us, and I hope we have a chance to do more for them in the future.
Also big thanks to you if you donated towards the charity, you all made it worthwhile.

Jon

Mega Collection Outside WestQuay Friday the 7th

2010-09-07T12:47:00.000+01:00

Hello once again!
To help us raise money and awareness for Hampshire and isle of white Air Ambulance as well as awareness for our forthcoming skate, the crue will be outside WestQuay all day raising money. If you want to swing by and say hello that'd be great. Or if you'd like to help for an hour or so and stand outside with one of our T-Shirts and a collection tin we'd be ecstatic!

Some of our sponsors for the event will be making an appearance as well:
Reskue Skate shop Southampton who'll hopefully have a rep down there on friday. Their shops just round the corner.

A rep from Hampshire and Isle of Wight air ambulance will be there to answer any and all of your questions about the ambulance service.

Export To Reality will be there for a bit as well!

See you on friday!

View Larger Map

Draft Route for the Isle of Wight Charity Skate

2010-08-28T15:40:00.000+01:00

With a bit of help from two huge OS maps glued together, we have a route for the trip next month!! This google maps version isn't a perfect rendition, but it's close! Check it out and have a peek at the places we'll be visiting! and yes we're skating out onto Ryde Pier! 65.9 Miles in total over three days!

View Isle of Wight Charity Skate 2010 in a larger map if you really really want to

Planning the IoW Charity Skate (2010)

2010-08-27T12:28:00.000+01:00

We've almost confirmed the route, done a lot of messing around, and are ready to start promoting!

Route is around 100km, Starting from East Cowes, stopping overnight in Shanklin on the Friday, and near the Needles on the Saturday, arriving in West Cowes Sunday afternoon to catch the chain ferry back to the start point.

Get to the justgiving page and get sponsoring! The air ambulance runs 2-3 missions a day - the money we raise will be invaluable to the charity, and to the lives it saves.

Peace, love, helicopters and skating,
Also, here's an album of us trying out our teeshirts and then planning the route.
Timmy

Upcoming Isle of Wight Trip

2010-08-21T22:41:00.000+01:00

We're currently in the process of planning a trip to the Isle of Wight to raise money for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance. The trip will be from the 17th-19th of September, and you're welcome to join us if you want! We'll be getting a ferry from Southampton to Cowes, then skating around the coast of the island. The trip is roughly 60 miles of pushing around the island, stopping off on the way at the towns we come across. We'll probably be camping as there are many campsites on the island.

More details on the route and fund-raising coming soon!

To give money towards the great cause, we have a Justgiving page, and we also have a Facebook page for the event.

Wheel Geekery

2010-08-18T10:07:00.000+01:00

An all encompassing guide to what makes one set of wheels different to another. WARNING: It's geeky.

Click for a bigger version!
Nabbed from Skate House Media over in the states.

Jon

A Sunday Afternoon In Andover

2010-08-16T13:44:00.000+01:00

So the crew who weren't elsewhere (Moe, Timmy, Si and Dan) jumped in Dan's car, grabbed some of our gatorade stash and headed for the andover hills to hang out with Brian, Dave and Nathaniel in their local hillz.

The following videos (uploaded soon) chart the fastest and longest hills hit. I'll stick some maps up later aswell

The 45+mph (we reckon) hill with some sweet speed from Nathaniel (red+black, black helmet) Dan Shinnie
(white Helmet) and Timmy (on the boom).

This video has some silly audioswap jazz cos all you can hear is a white noise from the car. Enjoy a super long hill with carving and cars!

Peace love and urethane!
Timmy, writing in third person some more...

Goodwood Roller Marathon 2010

2010-08-11T16:18:00.000+01:00

Three of our members completed the marathon on Sunday, and we all achieved great times!
It was my first year at the event and it was brilliant! although extremely hectic.
We'll certainly be back next year too!

Matt Elver from Plymouth, (who also recently skateboarded 1000 miles in 21 days) took the top spot of the longboarders there. He managed to beat his previous world record by flying round in 1:43:18

a close second and third were Chris Vallender and Alexandre Bangnoi from France!

XSS times:
Jon Steel 2:07:18
Tim Peters 2:08:53
Moe Neve 2:14:58

A massive thanks to all who participated in the event or helped to organise it.

Skate Further!

Jon

"Longboarding is cool" - Cosmo, 2010

2010-08-11T13:51:00.000+01:00

So yeah! Cosmopolitan ran this pic in their latest issue. Looks like she's wearing Sector 9 race formula wheels as well! We'll post some real crap up here soon enough. In the meantime, chill and relax and stuff.

Timmy