Which Carver Skateboard?

i have the same question excecpt i also must learn to Ollie. Not sure if the Venice model with its 36'' deck will be too big.

 

Get the Taylor Knox pro model.

If you want to ollie..... get a traditional freestyle skateboard

 

They are all good, just depends on how big or small you want it to be. The bigger boards are just for cruising but the Knox as Erock says is pretty amazing, really quick turns. I have the facetime, it's awesome. You'll love whichever one you end up getting.

 

Yep.

I forgot to elaborate about the ollie thing: The c7 front truck is heavy, like twice as heavy as a standard truck. Plus you want to ride it with some risers so you can really lay it on a rail without having serious wheel bite, so the geometry and weight is working against you for an ollie. The Ft. Knox comes standard with 3 risers, 1/4 inch each. I'm about to order four more to play around with raising the height a little more. It looks like Taylor has 4-5 risers on his in their videos.

 

I have a Resin 31 and a Facetime 38. I'll use the 38 for long workouts following my wife on her bike. The longer length is much closer to a natural surfing stance and really works out your legs more to pump it. However, if I want to have fun practicing hacks and cutbacks in an empty parking lot the 31 is quicker, more maneuverable, and a blast. So it kinda depends on what you want. That's not to say you can't do cutbacks and hacks on the 38 or vise versa. Those trucks are amazing and allow the turning mechanics of surfing almost perfectly. But generally I would say if you want a trainer for your legs, get a longer length to mimic your surfing stance. If you want to practice turns, snaps and cutbacks, get the shorter length. Or buy both like I did because they are so damn fun.

 

I have the 29" swallow and it is very much like surfing with pumping and turns. Where I live there are no sidewalks so I pump down the street and use driveways as the face of the wave to imitate snaps. You can slide out the tail to replicate it and it really helped with surfing especially since it gets flat for awhile at a time. You literally can pump uphill with this board if you had to, its pretty awesome.

 

i have the taylor knox & that thing has been a good send these past 2 months i had to spend out of the water w/ a neck injury (just got back in the water the other day, but that's another story)...i also have an old sector 9 longboard that i plan to retrofit w/ carver trucks to do like gallery said...up to the beach to check the surf, etc...the knox is more for going to a parking lot or something & practice turns & hacks & such...whatever you get, you'll definitely be stoked on it!

 

Got the Monsta last summer and love it. Has definitely made a difference in my surfing, and have been at it for a long time. Don't know that you can really go wrong with any model.

 

I have the monsta carver. It has definitely helped me improve on linking turns and planning ahead on the wave. The weight distribution seems to mimic the turning of a surfboard pretty well. My only complaint is the pumping really doesn't reflect well on surfboard pumping imo. As of now I pump down the frontside line by unweighting and pressing on my toes a little and then weighting and pressing down on my heels a little. This is very similar to how I pump when skating bowls. Do people really pump down the line just by wiggling their hips back and forth? I am still fairly new to surfing and my shortest board is a 6'6 so maybe it will be different on a shorter less floaty board.

 

31 will most definitely be too short for your surfing stance at 6'3". I'm 5'9" and the 38 fits my stance. The 31 will be more playful, but if you want to maintain your surfing stance you will need to go 38 or possibly longer.

 

My primary board is a 5'8 quad fish in the water..i just recently got the carver resin (31") and it is awesome. I noticed a difference in my surfing immediately when I was out for the first time after using the skate board. I am used to riding drop through long boards with conventional trucks, and it was weird to get used to the carver, but its all i ride now. When i ride the carver I have my back foot right where the kick tail starts to rise up and my front foot is generally on top of the front wheels to give an idea of stance... i am 6'0 tall for the record.

 

My first Carver was a LOLA (36" deck, 20 1/2" wheelbase). It was fun for carving down small hills or on banks, but it was a bit of an effort for me to pump it on the flats. I'm 5'11" and 180 lbs. Then I got the Fraktal ( (33" deck, 16" wheelbase) and that's perfect. It pumps effortlessly on flat ground and I can do really tight radius turns on it. It feels like a thruster the way it accelerates out of turns when I put pressure on my back foot. I think wheelbase relative to your height and weight is probably the key to getting the performance you want out of one of these boards. The longer wheelbase of the LOLA wasn't quite right for me, but my friend who is 6'2 and 220 lbs could pump it easily. I agree that these are a great training tool and super fun, a lifesaver for an East Coast surfer. Good luck and enjoy!

 

i got a chance to ride the TK carver this weekend and all i gotta say is wow!! so much fun. i skated all throughout high school and early college until i blew out my ankles over and over again and was out of the water more than i was in because of it. so i gave it up. now im 32, and i jump on that thing this weekend and im ready to start skating again. should be a bit easier on the ankles not doing flip tricks and just riding it for surfing. so anyone in the south jersey area have a used one they want to sell. $200+ brand new is a bit steep right now. but anyway, those things are sick.

 

I have two Carvers: the Venice (36") and the Flowmaster (42"). I have also ridden a friend's Monsta (31"). Strangely, I love riding the Flowmaster in pools, it just seems a lot less squirrelly than the shorter models and more like surfing (to me, anyway). Though lots of people think I'm crazy riding one that long.

If you are used to double-kick boards I think the Venice is a good choice, it has a shorter wheelbase than you'd think. The 31" models are too short for my tastes.

 

GrantLee, my stance is about the same on both boards (probably a little wider on the fish) I dont really have a wide stance to begin with though. I think a 34" will be okay for you, these are fun little boards that will help you become more fluent in using your rear leg to pump through sections and develop power out of turns. The wheels they come with are not to bad either, they slide pretty easily when you want them to... fun boards man...

 

Which truck would everyone recomend? The C7 or the CX?

I'm a new surfer (skated a ton when I was younger, but not recently) and was thinking of either the 34" Greenroom or the 36" Lola. Being new to surfing, I'm only riding long boards.
Any recommendations?

 

I'd go with the C7, it's the original and closer to surfing. I'm a fairly new / lousy surfer and it's helped me a lot - at least with the 10% of surfing that happens after you catch the wave and stand up. The CX is probably closer to a traditional skateboard but that's not why you ride a Carver.