Skateboarding was born out of surfing, in an attempt to replicate the feeling of inertia created by flowy carves and tight turns on a surfboard. As early as the 1940s, wooden boxes, or boards, with roller skate wheels attached to the bottom could be considered the first skateboards. Skating, as we would recognise today though, really grew in the early 1950s—when surfers in California wanted something to do when the waves were flat.
Since then, skateboarding has evolved into a sport in it’s own right—with sub disciplines, such as street and vert, further adding to the culture. Still, to this day however, surfing influences skate-culture and visa versa. For this reason it’s only natural that the act of riding a skateboard has undergone a few tweaks and twists over the years in an effort to get a little closer to actually riding a wave.
Simply cruise your longboard down the boardwalk on a Sunday afternoon and it’d be hard not to throw those hips out, feet together. Or jump on a Penny board and fight the urge to carve the thing like you’re high lining a steep-faced wave.
The RipStick was considered by many to be a step closer to real sidewalk surfing—but it’s two part, one pivot design still left some room for improvement. Razor’s newest board, the RipSurf or ‘RipStick 2’ seeks to fill this gap and takes another step closer to successfully mimicking true surfing out of water. It even looks like a surfboard, traction pad, rocker, stringer, fin boxes and all. “You can cut and carve like you do on a surf board” said the Ali Kermani, the board’s designer. “We moved the wheels closer together so that as you lift up the front, the back traces. Like a surfboard, to turn you just ‘drop a rail’.”
So, do you think that the Razor RipSurf is true sidewalk surfing? Kermani’s demo video certainly looks promising. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Via The Inertia
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