Decks Decks Decks

I don't think I blogged about how my Almost Mullen Uber deck cracked at the nose about 30 days into use. I'd been skating about 5x a week and not for more than an hour at a time. Plus I myself am uberlight, and I don't skate uberhard (OK, enough "uber"s).

Anyway, after a couple of weeks I noticed the deck lost a significant amount of pop. I'm not being whiny, but my ollies were terrible unless I aimed and precisely snapped the tail at just the right position and angle.

After practicing (switch-stance) ollie to manual off a little platform (no more than 12 inches) the nose just cracked and was suddenly useless. So I sent the deck back to Almost, and voila! They sent me a brand new one about 7 days later. I was concerned they wouldn't because I hadn't sent in the little warranty card, but I did send a check to cover shipping to make their decision less painful.

Well, because I hadn't really expected them to replace it on that technicality, I had immediately ordered a deck from Black Hole Boards as a replacement. But the shipment was delayed, and as the summer days sped past I found myself itching to skate. Our local shop was having a sale on decks that week, so on an impulse I picked up a Vallely Element deck for under 30 bucks with grippy. I mounted it up, thinking I would skate it for a couple months and have the extra BHB Element in case I needed it.

Surprise, surpise, the Vallely deck lasted all through the autumn, and though the BHB Element came, and the replacement Mullen came I saw no reason to change out.

So, yeah, I have 2 brand spankin' new decks to dig into when the snow thaws. If it ever does. It feels really weird to have more decks than I need; in fact, it feels a bit constrictive, as I don't have the anticipation or excitement of choosing a new one when the current wears out.

Oh well, at least I'll be well-stocked and free from deck expenditures for 2008.