Dang that sucks, especially if it was that broken in. Someone lifted my park board a while back, I just found it snapped in my friends basement. He found it in a trash can, someone used it then stomped it.
You ain't kiddin. Finally switched up to an 8.5 and some 149's, and now that I'm used to em, it's hard to resist mini-swoops on my approach to the ledge. Don't really know bout the powerslides though ... I mean, you can't really slide rubbery cruiser wheels. Unless you just want to stop. Popping it knee high, yes, a difficult trick. Winging it around on the ground, not so much. You basically get into position and do a fakie kickturn, lift your feet, and it just happens. The regular old kickflip ... that's another story. Sometimes I still lose proper ones, for months on end.