What’s up dudes and Dudettes!
Since I am new to this forum and new to the "scene" of fingerboarding I figured it would be fun to share my purchase experience, and how I came to find Red Wolf. Also, most importantly the feel and the board response. Here's the rundown about how I came to know about red wolf, and what triggered me to buy.
So a friend of mine knew Charlie Buzzard personally. She would see these clips of videos I would post and thought it would be a good idea to introduce me to him via instagram. I saw the kind of shit he was doing and it immediately got me hyped, then I noticed what kind of deck he was riding and doing a really great job at promoting his brand and his sponsor. (Gnarwood and Red Wolf). I hit him up and asked him a couple of general related questions and he was super cool and responsive, so I started to follow Red Wolf. Within minutes I thought damn, this is a sick company thats somewhat local to me(across state lines VA to NC) so that helped peak my interest even more. He(red wolf guy, sorry I cant recall his name) has a stacked team(him and charlie?) of really good riders and his decks are pretty as hell. His graphic's are DOPE. Most of all the shapes look super mellow and the ply's look clean. So this was yet, another attraction to me.
A couple week's later I caved and decided to buy the "hoverboard" deck. Was a huge fan of back to the future, so it spoke to me. Upon ordering this, I was like, "well I have these extra joycults that I picked up recently so I'll set the radiators up with a nice fresh set of wide BRT’s." Sounds perfect right? I couldnt imagine the setup looking any more buttery personally, and was getting stoked thinking about it and anticipating its arrival.
So after the order, the guy at Red Wolf sent me a text to confirm my address which I really appreciated. I then got a couple order updates via e-mail(standard of course). But, what was cool is that it came within a week of me ordering it. Sometimes shit takes time, given that it was a custom and he was probably was busy filling other orders. Plus, on top of all that has a real life outside(we all do right??) of instagram and fingerboarding I was pretty impressed by the delivery.
So it’s friday, it arrives at my work and Im too busy to open it so I say fuck it and ill wait till i get off work. I get home, walk to my local ghetto mart and scoop a six pack. Open the package up and notice some really nice design’d promo materials. Plus, Stickers! I like stickers. I get this thing out and the packaging surrounding the deck is nice, like most any other smaller fingerboard company I’ve seen. I get the grip out and start to cut it. Set the trucks and wheels up and BOOM. I have this beautiful complete setup now.
First opening trick : kickflip, landed and rolled away clean. But I noticed one thing, no pop! So I tapped the deck against the granite countertop I fingerboard on and it sounded hollow and just kind of cheap which was weird so I just kept skating it thinking I was tripping. I was then like “well let check this berlinwood out and maybe I just suck and need to re evaluate myself.” Noticeable difference here between the two. SIDE NOTE here — I could of just bought another berlinwood but I wanted to support small business and a company that I recently discovered. So I kept sessioning and noticed one more thing, the grip sucked. Didn’t feel grippy and just felt like I could get underneath the board the way I wanted to. I had an extra sheet of riptape so I removed the tape he sent and put the rip tape on. Instantly felt different so I was hyped and continued to session. I sessioned until my fingertips turned black, so for about 4-5 hours at least. As I kept doing my usual lines, I just couldn’t get over the fact that I couldn’t find the “sweet pop” spot. It felt way harder to pop tricks, to land tricks and just catch them the way I usually do. A friend of mine came over and had a similar experience with red wolf boards. He brought a bunch of other decks over just to try since he knew I didn’t have much exposure to whats out in the fingerboard marketplace. BUT, they felt different, they felt like that had POP.
Upon first setup and first skate I am not a fan, all in all. However, I am going to try and adjust, and give this thing a shot. Should anything change Ill be sure to sneak in an update on board feel and break in time. Let me just say as I end this, that this is not meant as a negative review but to help anyone out there to hopefully gain some knowledge and leverage this as if they are considering to purchase one of these decks. See below for for the photo’s of the complete set up. Thanks for reading!
