It is hard to get information about when new boards will be available from Loaded.
There is a good reason, they are always out skating, testing, and eating chocolate bars. Loaded take their time to prototype, test and revise, to get a product right. We spend our hard earned cash on a Loaded Board, so they want to make sure you love every minute from when you first step on it. The result is a slap in the face with a fish, something you’ll never forget, a ride to waken the senses.
Adam Colton, this week in the Loaded Newsletter, outlined a roadmap for new products. There were no release dates, vague on details, but a tantalizing taste of what is to come. Start saving, here are the boards that are in the Loaded pipeline.
The three boards he talked about this week were: Tan Tien, Dancer version 2 and a speedboard.
Tan Tien
The Tan Tien will be available soon, as it has been in prototype the longest. Release date is unofficially March 2010.
This is not a replacement for the Dervish longboard but best described as a mini Dervish. 38 or 39 inch in length, a shorter wheelbase, which should all make it more maneuverable, easier to slide, better to commute. Nose and tail will be more functional making tricks a bit easier.
What we do know is there will be different flex patterns and it has now gone into production.
Dancer v2
There have been rumours of a new Dancer longboard in the works. This week Adam confirmed the first prototype has arrived for him to start testing. There is very little detail to go on, more information will be released in the next few months. I would expect a slightly shorter deck, and moon rocks in the grip.
Freeride/Downhill
Do not get too excited on this one. It will be a long time coming. Still fun to speculate. Keen viewers of Loaded videos would have noticed a few mystery boards being skated. Maybe there have been speedboard prototypes out and about for a while? All we know is that Loaded have said they are going to pursue a deck for the downhill and freeride market. Makes sense, they have some of the fastest skaters on the planet in their combined Loaded/Orangatang teams.
Official word is: Drawings have been completed and preliminary design is in motion.
Reality is 2011.
Loaded and Orangatang have been playing with Hi Def pro camera’s and the results are really starting to show. Enjoy this one, then go out and freeride.
October 16, 2009 - 12:38 pm in the category "Loaded Boards"
I’m on holidays this week, though most people would say my life is one big long holiday.
The kids are out of school, so I’ve packed them up and headed north to where it is hot.
As you can see (photo below) there is always room for a longboard. The Loaded Ceviche fits perfectly in a standard travel suitcase, makes an excellent luggage divider. Dont let the wife/mum/dad/brother/sister tell you there is no room for your board. You will be kicking yourself when you get to your destination and find a road with perfect hot mix surface or a boardwalk aching to be skated.
Tip of the hat to Bernie, who found a new housing estate at Palm Cove on his last visit. Oceanbreeze behind novatel resort is a new estate that has not sold. Perfect hot mix, no traffic and a minute to the ocean to cool off after a skate. So if you get up here to Palm Cove, check it out. They have also put in the roads for the new Village resort, a lot of fun to be had there as well.
Thanks to the GFC, there seems to be a lot of new estates waiting to be discovered and skated!
It is the last race of the year for the ASRA Conehead Cup 2009. Giant Slalom in the Blue Mountains at the Pumpstation.
Pumpstation is a locals only area, if you are planning to come out for the day, you’ll need to know an ASRA member to get the directions. The address is not posted on the internet.
ASRA calls the race Giant Slalom, but it is GS Australian style. Which means the giant part is extreme speed. The cones are places in a mixture of tight, hybrid and Giant styles. Most of the skaters will be on Hybrid boards because the course has a tight start and finish with a few bruising offsets. The middle part of the course is classic Giant Slalom, with widely spaced cones on a big fast curve of the track.
We have been working on the trophies in the Hopshop all week. This year they are special. Best of all we have found a use for all Jackson’s coned Orangatangs.
Jackson Shapiera has just sent in his race report. Here it is….
So far, things are going pretty well over here in Europe, after over 30 solid hours of consecutive plane, train and bus rides I finally got to Peyragudes late on the Tuesday night. It was a pretty chilly night but i got settled in my room with a few beers and was ready to roll straight up the next morning.
Took so many runs with the Loaded boys and Scoot, following their lead and learning things along the way, and it really paid off. Riding with that crew was seriously stepping it up to the next level, some of the things I was seeing them do was just insane, but to be keeping up with them down the track was a real boost of confidence in myself to race this track.
When qualifying heats came around on the 2nd day, the jet-lag caught up to me and I was burnt out, my first run was a real leg burner so I was surprised to be sitting in 6th position, and the next run was even worse, so to qualify at 9th position was a pretty good, and I was stoked considering my performance in the qualify runs. The next day practice was canceled due to rain, so I got a nice sleep in and chilled out for most of the day, then Yatesy and I went hitch-hiking into the next valley to skate some of the local hills and keep the legs in check. The scenery there was amazing, we skated one road that was 15k’s of constant downhill, and found a nice set of 3 hairpins to practice speed checks on for the race.
The next day was race day, we got a long sleep in as they needed to run Inline, Buttboard, Skullboard and Street Luge before the standup, which was really handy to give the legs one more rest.
My main goal for the day was to make it to round 3, and anything else after that was a bonus. Round 1 and 2 are usually pretty easy but if you make a mistake or crash your day is over and you end up with a pretty average result. Getting to round 3 puts you in the higher section of the bracket and you end your day with a smile, so for me to advance past this round and get a shot for the finals was a big stoke for me.
In round 3, I was up against Mischo Erban and Christof Batt, both extremely talented and fast riders. I pushed out in front and held the lead into the first big right hand hairpin, where I was a little too fast and scrubbed a bit too much speed while taking the corner and watched Mischo blow past me. Luckily I have a strong push and had enough distance from Christof to push myself into a decent spot and hang in Mischo’s draft. For the rest of the course I could feel Christof slowly closing the gap through the rest of the course but I didnt give him any room in any of the corners and held my lines well to secure the 2nd position and advance into the semi finals.
The next round (the semi finals) is the round that sorts out the top 8 for the day. If you advance here, you go to the finals, if you come 3rd or 4th you move down to the consolation final and battle it out for 5th to 8th place. I had Mischo Erban, Martin Seigrist and Jo Jo Martinez in this round, all extremely fast and well experienced racers. So once again I pushed out first and took the lead, and held it as long as I could. Coming into the big right hand hairpin I was still holding the lead but the other riders were close in behind me, so I had to push it a little bit harder, and unfortunately couldn’t pull it off and slid out into the hay, and watched them all pass me by. That put me into the consolation finals.
The consolation final consisted of James Kelly (USA), Jo Jo Martinez (France), Sebastian Hertler (Germany) and myself, and it was a very nerve racking start line. I was up against some of the fastest guys on the hill, and at the same time I was so stoked to be there racing with the best in the world. James pushed off hard and I followed behind him, but unfortunately he fumbled in the first right hand sweeper and went down, taking us all out. As we all got up and scrambled for our boards I realised my board was no where to be seen (later i found it in a ditch down the road) and everyone else powered off and battled for the win. Jo Jo took the consolation final and was awarded 5th place, with James Kelly in 6th, Sebastian in 7th and myself in 8th.
In the finals, it was Louis Piloni (USA) Mischo Erban (Canada) Erik Lumberg (Sweden) and Martin Seigrist (Switzerland) battling it out for the podium finish. All of these riders had been skating hard all day and dominating each of their heats, and also bringing a wide variety of riding styles to the race course. In the end, it turned out Louis had the most dominating way of tackling the hill, with massive long slides into corners with no footbreaks, he left the competition in the dust. Erik crossed the line next to take 2nd and Martin took 3rd and Mischo crashed in one of the corners and ended up with 4th.
It was a big win for Louis, his first win in any downhill race and also his style of riding opened up so many eyes to what was capable on a longboard.
The morning after the race we packed up (with massive hangovers) and started out journey to Ancey for the next race, the Graveyard Call. We will be touring the country side and hitting as many epic hills as we can find along the way, and hope to keep our skills up and learn new ones along the way.
Here is a taste of Peyragudes from various POV cameras. Check out all the riding styles and lack of footbraking. Speed checks and power slides through corners are setting the fastest riders apart from everyone else!!!
May 28, 2009 - 12:21 pm in the category "Loaded Boards"
This is the most common question we get asked regarding Loaded Dervish longboards. The information listed here applied to the whole Loaded range of longboards. A disclaimer, we have copied this information off the Loaded blog and reproduced it here, big thanks to Adam and Louis for the original blog post.
If you weigh 70kg to 85kg you could skate either a Flex 1 or Flex 2. What flex do I choose?
Choosing your flex will depend on your riding style. Choose Flex 2 if you want a comfortable flowy ride. Choose Flex 1 if you are going to do more aggressive tricks and want a more responsive ride.
Flex 2
Flex 2 is a softer flex and will suit a more mellow style of riding and carving. It will feel playful and comfortable. While it will not bottom out while riding or carving, you still can bottom the board out with a forceful downward surge. If you use the board mainly for commuting, a softer flex will be an added comfort. You can still slide aggressively on a softer flex but a stiffer one is more suitable. You can use a softer flex to really carve into some dance moves. You can still perform big spins and old skool kickflips but you run the risk of bottoming out. You can take a soft flex up to speed but a stiffer flex will be more stable.
Flex1
Flex 1 is a stiffer flex and will suite a more aggressive carving, sliding, and pumping style when you are constantly slamming your weight down onto the board. It will be easier to perform shovits and flip tricks along with boneless airs and aggressive sliding. The added stiffness will add stability at speed and in the bowl when you are generating speed off a wall.
Hope that helps choose your flex type. If you know what you want, you can buy one now buy clicking on teh links below
We have been notified by Loaded Boards there is a core problem with a small batch of orangatang wheels.
They have recently determined that a small percentage of the cores (produced by a third party vendor) used in these batches are not up to the Loaded quality control standards and may run the risk of shearing the bearing seat (blowing out the core and possibly causing the wheel to separate from the truck while in motion), creating a safety hazard to the user.
We have been working with Loaded and the Australian distributor to identify what wheels maybe affected in Australia. It only applies to 10 sets of InHeat purple 75mm 83a wheels. These wheels arrived in the country on 13/3/09. If you bought any purple InHeats before this date, your wheels are ok. To be sure, check with the skateshop that supplied the wheels, to make sure they were supplied via the Australian distributor. If you bought your wheels directly from Loaded, please read their notice to see if your wheels fall into the dates of the recall.
Hopkin Racing has only sold two sets of InHeat wheels that need to be recalled. Those customers will be notified directly by our company.
Good news is the new freeride wheels will be here next week. And new graphic dervish decks. Get set of a BIG Loaded May, looks like winter is going to get a whole lot better!
hop
April 25, 2009 - 8:29 am in the category "Loaded Boards"
We are are blog posting this year Loaded Challenge Series, which Loaded admit will be hard, they are stepping up the tricks this year. For all those new to longboarding, tricks or the Challenge Series, we are posting up all the old challenges. If Series 4 is too hard, try these tricks first. Even if you have no intention of doing the tricks, the videos are a good watch. Enjoy. hop.
This is the first series in the Loaded Boards Challenge Series.
Remember, if you are going to try these tricks, you must wear a helmet.
Trick is Nose Manual
Trick is Moving Old School Kick Flip
Trick is Moving Pirouette
Trick is 360 Body Varial
Trick is Cross Step, Cross Step, Shovit
Trick is Stand Up Frontside Powerslide
Trick is 180 Varial Hippy Jump
Trick is Push Everyway Possible
Trick is Kerb Pop
Trick is Coffin Carve
April 22, 2009 - 3:51 pm in the category "Loaded Boards"
Loaded Boards are one of our favourite brands. I have always enjoyed the Challenge series, so we have decide to post on the blog this year’s series – Number Four.
So come on Aussies, lets see you get some of these tricks down this year. Anyone can participate in the challenge, it does not matter what board you ride. Rules of the challenge are here
This year’s challenge is hard, if you are going to practice these tricks, you must wear a helmet.
It is what everyone has been asking us this week, when are the new Dervishes arriving? Did you know Loaded have changed the Dervish graphic? Apparently aliens are messing with Adam’s head and the Loaded graphics?
Yes, yes, yes, it is all true.
Loaded have changed the Dervish graphic. Aliens are to blame. Dervishes are landing in Australia next week!
Last chance to buy a Dervish with the old graphic, before it is gone forever. I figure there are about 10 boards left. We will be shipping new graphic Dervishes from next week. Please specify if you want the old graphic.
Manufacturers
