Carver quiver (Or other surf trainers)

Dude- I'm looking for a Log. I'm not trying to do crazy cutbacks and slides- I'm just trying to chill on my way downtown or the grocery store. You still think 42" is way too big? I just want as little effort as possible in my commute which is long and very flat with sh*ty pavement.

 

Oh you're looking for transport. Okkkkk. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I cover mad ground real easily on the 34". Can only imagine it gets better with wider wheelbases although they don't get much wider than on the Green Room. It's wheelbase, not board length you're looking for projection from bro.

 

Just ordered. Thank brahsifs

 

You ordered the Green Room?

 

I slide the tail on my 42" no prob. Don't sell yourself short.

 

Yes- I got the green room.

I couldn't decide between a 42" , 38" and a 31.25" so I kinda went in the middle, based on your input. If I really enjoy it I'll probably end up getting another. I'm really just looking to surf down the road - I only longboard in the water so I was looking for something similar to how I surf. the Greenroom sounded like a good starting point.

I ordered direct from Carver so I'm thinking I'll see it in a week as I'm on the east coast.

 

Sic choice bro. You'll be stoked. Green Room isn't in 34" anymore though? Mine was purchased in January and is.

 

Look familiar?




Meet the Yvolution EXY 'SHARKER'. "The Next Level of Wheeled Excitement."

Once every scoot-boy and carve-ninny wannabe gets a cheap EXY Sharker, they will flood your precious pave with a deluge of reckless Carving! Err... Sharking.

The masses will stop seeing the Carver crew as some 'cool' land surfers. Your precious street cred will evaporate overnight! Carver crew, behold your demise!

 

EXY SHARC***

Seriously bro, you're dying to get on a Carver. Fiending. Absolutely frothing. We can all tell bro. It's ok. I've got 5. I'll do you a solid and send one your way.

 

Why don't you send one my way?

 

Because I'm not your parents and they already give you anything you ask for.

 

I have dismissed the carver hype for a long time. Looked too gimmicky to me, but finally curiosity got the better of me and over the past 2 days I read this entire thread, and checked the majority of the links.

I've never been a skater. Always had a skateboard or two, and still do, but I was never "into it" as a stand alone hobby/sport whatever you classify it as. I've enjoyed using them as an occasional way to entertain myself and get the "feel" of surfing when I can't make time to surf, or where having a flat spell etc... More recently, I use them to tag along with my kids as they are learning/practicing to ride their bicycles.

So, after looking through this thread, I'm intrigued, but not completely convinced. I have a longboard I've had for probably a decade, and an old early 90's Powell something or other I've had much longer. I can ride either one of these around on flat ground by basically just tic tacking, and it seems pretty similar to what the carver is doing. Granted I am lifting the front of the board with each little turn, but it basically mimics the motion I use on a wave, and gives the same basic sensation.

Anyway, here's the thing I find off; 26 pages, 7 months, lots of people saying how awesome they are but there's almost no user videos. From what I see mrcoop is the only one posting vids and he used to skate competitively at some point in the past.

It would be helpful to see some real footage of what you guys are doing. Everyone has a smartphone, you can set it down, record and post so easily (unlike with surfing) so it almost seems suspect to me that there isn't more out there. All these vivid descriptions of hours spent "carving" all these different cities and terrains for hours, I just want to see if it really looks as cool as the descriptions sound, or ...and I mean really mean no disrespect here...if it's more just wiggling around awkwardly.

Don't get me wrong, if it's all a bunch of wiggling, but your having fun and it's good surf training, more power to you, but I'd like to gauge whether it's really anything different than what I can and do perform with he piece of crap longboard that resides in the trunk of my car.

So how about it, anyone willing to post some footage of themselves??

If I sound like a dik, my apologies. I am genuinely interested, but footage is way more convincing than written descriptions. You know what they say, "Seeing is believing"

 

Go on youtube

 

How would that help. I have no idea of the background experience of the people I'm watching.

I'm interested in seeing regular surfers riding one. Specifically, those describing how awesome they are on this thread. Mrcoop posted a couple vids, which I thought was cool and helpful, but he definitely has a skate background.

You got one right? It's dope, bombing hills, carving curb to curb right? Let's see that $hit. It sounds awesome, but written descriptions are subjective. A vid isn't

Would be helpful to see if it's really worth plunking down $250 on one of these.

 

Bro. You don't often find non-surfers stoked on a Carver. The whole point is that it's a "surf trainer". Although it has unbelievable stoke value to any current skater, the draw is that it's the closest thing to surfing aside from surfing itself.

Not often will you find a Carver film that doesn't have surfing footage as well, or surfboards in the background. At least the professional vids on Carver's site and others. Dis tread is long bro. It was started and continued by countless bros stoked on them. You're asking to be spoonfed. If you don't find enough justification from the undefeated testimony of so many SI cats that you trust to ask medical/marital/professional advice from, maybe you're the oddball that isn't capable of being stoked on a Carver.

Notice how there's not exactly any mixed reviews on dis tread or any other tread? Unanimous bro. No contest. And the emphasis that bros positively review their Carver experience with is even further proof. These boards are something else. You're asking for footage from all of us but be thankful we are doing you the solid in the first place of going into such written detail of our stoke. If you aren't convinced then that's up to you bro. I got stoked on mine today, tonight, yesterday. I will tomorrow too.

 

Regarding the wiggling - to get the full surf effect of the Carver, you need to be on the right asphalt/concrete wave at speed. That's no different from the ocean. Speed is everything to surfing and so is a quality wave. At the onset of my Carver riding, I went a few months without kick pushing on the Carver for two reasons: 1) I didn't have the skate background that would give me the habit of doing so on a board; 2) There's a sense of pride in creating your own speed from scratch on the Carver as well as your continued will to do so, and it can border on stubbornness.

These days, if I'm needing speed at all, I'm kick pushing hard a couple times then pumping hard off that momentum to get up to speed. If I'm on any significant incline, I'm kick pushing up that incline or hill then riding down in with the help of gravity so I can have the benefit of solid speed. It's common for me to climb that hill right after and repeat for dozens of reps. In my early days I the Carver, I was climbing hills even on the PCH in Laguna with pure pumping, but it was not at all at speed because I'm pumping uphill and it's amazing enough that's possible at any speed. With a well-lubed and clean C7 and good bearings and wheels this is plenty possible. However, it looks no more aesthetic or correct than the Honeyton Hop if a surfer were to do it for a minute straight. So, I do see your concern.

That all being said, when rode properly at the right speed and on the right surface, the Carver allows the rider to both maneuver as smoothly as they would on a great wave while at adequate speed, and also look nearly as stylish in doing so. I haven't seen recent film of myself but I know for a fact that my style and aesthetics blow away those from months prior. My compression/extension is far superior (rather than bending forward), as are my arm movements and positioning, as well as my back knee leaning in towards my lead knee coupled with pushing off back foot instep (rather than stiffer knee and weighted on flat foot).

I've got some pretty cool footage from last winter out west and the spring out here. I'm doing serious hacks on the reg and dope maneuvers all around. Then again, both my surfing and Carver riding has come so damn far in recent months, I'm almost reluctant to show anyone my prior footage anymore because I know how much better I look now, and better because of proper mechanics.

More or less, I feel my prior riding looked like kookery compared to what I'm doing now, which I'm sure that I'll think the same of months from now. I bet most everyone felt the same of their own surf or skate progression. I can feel more each day that I'm flowing better and surfing on concrete and asphalt better. You can bet it's transferred to the wave also. I tic-tac more now than I ever have, but it's a combo of tic-tac'ing and compressing/extending and transferring weight from back to front foot.

I get what you're asking, and visual footage would be fully dependent on the skill of the surfer/Carver rider depicted in the film, as well as quality of riding surface they're on. You should see what you need to in the films on the Carver site. Those dudes have damn good mechanics and are hardly just wiggling. The Carver will let a good surfer get better, and it will also let you wiggle if that's all you do. Rider input is key and the Carver is just as responsive as a surfboard most times. Watch those vids and just get on one bro. All the others that did got real stoked. On the EC, it's just what the doc ordered in between swells.

 

So I take it thats a no for you then?

Ive watched the videos on the website, and they are helpful to a degree, but they are fluff marketing clips. I especially like the one where they come home to a pool full of bikini clad chics after a carver session then proceed to jump off the roof into the pool with their boards and ride them underwater. I would rather see what a regular average joe can do on one of these.

Clearly you and others on here are practicing and really analyzing what your doing on these things. It seems only natural you would video yourself since a) its so easy to, b) you can analyze your technique to perfect/correct it, c) you can check your progression.

It seems logical to do so. Mrcoop did right away and for me his posts and videos are very informative, infinitely more so then if he just posted a description without the video. Just surprised no one else has and it would be helpful to "proving" the carver, thats all. Maybe im just slow to drink cool aid, but in many ways it still resembles a regular board with loose trucks to me.

 

The newer trucks are more like a board with loser trucks in. My opinion but...the older trcuks...they're a lot different...I'll Mia a vid and post my kookiness later. As well...if you have a skate background already...just buy the trucks and give it a whirl. Don't like it...well ,em...

 

Thanks I was actually just in the process of posting that question to anyone with a skate background. You beat me to it.

If I take the plunge, I'll likely go all in on a green room. I looked at the truck package, and it was steep enough so I would just add a bit more $ and go all the way. If I found someone unloading a front truck at a discount, thats a different story, but seems unlikely. My longboard was a $20 bro deal, and it was too long for my taste so I cut some off the front and moved the front truck back. Length and wheelbase feels about righht, but the deck is nothing special.

If I replaced it, I could probably cut it into at least a couple handplanes too

I must say, the one Carver video that did impress me was the one with their history/production process. Not sure how old it was, and if it still holds true, but I was really impressed that the trucks are built here. Not just assembled, but they were casting the truck bodies in a CA facility. In the age of cheap chinese manufacturing, that's impressive to me. It has to eat into their margins in a big way, but makes the relatively high cost understandable to me. Worlds better for their quality control.

The thing I noticed from mrcoops video, well 2 things. In his second vid, he was pumping up way more speed than I think I could on a regular board, but some of teh side to side looks way faster and "shallower" (not sure thats the right word) than a surfing pump. On the flip side, when he mentioned skiing moguls, that shallow quick side to side style made complete sense.

 

Dude. I'm all about anonymity. Would love to film myself shredding my local parking lot but no There are more then adequate videos online.

I Have a carver (34" Greenroom with C7s). Its fun as s**t. Def feels different then a skateboard or a longboard, way more like surfing. Its surprisingly fun in a small parking lot. You can literally spend hours going in circles. I get bored much faster with a normal skateboard. I even use it to get around town.

If I didn't have a decent job I probably would have hit up ebay or craigslist for a deal on a used one.

This is what you can do in a small square and have fun.
http://vimeo.com/71038339

you think its cool aid but I dont care bro. I'm having fun. If you think its the same as a deck with loose trucks then use a deck with loose trucks. As long as youre having fun its cool. Right?

The Carver videos are def a bit fluffy. I'm old enough to be the guys Dad and in some cases Grandfather. But so? I'm having a blast. People always trying to rain on others parades.