I have recently buy a yow and I’ll was using a carver before and I have noticed that the way the yow trucks turn makes you adjust your position for many tricks that you usually make on the carver I think carver boards are cool but they don’t give you the right technique, in my opinion yow responds more like a real surf short board, you have to use more back foot than in other boards and that applied to the surf on water gives you a really better technique, nice video
I just did my first ever carve grind (unintentionally) on my Yow Pipe and it just felt pretty amazing. Then I remembered watching this video a few months ago and came back to better understand how to move forward from here. Your videos are really detailed in the explanations and keep up the great contents :)
Yewww! I think everyone's first is unintentional and then it makes you realize "Hey that was fun, and I am still here, lets try it again on purpose!". Keep your weight over your back leg and you'll be fine. I have it down pretty well now but when I get too aggressive I still fly over the front on occassion!
Thanks for doing these videos, man. I have a Yow board on the way (my first ever surfskate) and you had me questioning my decision after your last video. Thanks for taking the time to refine and setting the record straight. I’m a 45 yr old surfer and hoping surfskate will be a better fit for me at the park/bowl vs riding a popsicle board.
Great content! I got my new meraki trucks a week ago after watching your review. I’ve had them to the skate park twice so far. They are so much fun. I’m still working on carving in the bowl and haven’t made it up to the coping yet. I just got back into skating with my kids last month after a 30 year break. Good times!
That was my story last year (17 year break instead of 30 though). It is a fun journey and surfskating is much more friendly on aging bones and joints (until you start watching my tutorial videos anyway).
A couple of days ago I broke my arm with an open wound after my Yow Meraki hanged on a coping. Spent NY holidays in a hospital, onwards there's the second surgery operation and months of rehabilitation. Stay safe, guys, and don't neglect protective gear. Reflectory knee slide technique is also a good idea.
Thanks for another great review! I want to share that I got a massive improvement in my bowl skating when I put harder wheels on the giraffe. I could not get the exact same size, but similar. 97A wheels are a lot louder and make scary noises at times when losing grip. But magic starts to happen when I ungratiously climb into a bowl and start pumping around to build speed.
I haven't tried anything that hard yet but I am keeping an eye out! I don't think I need any extra speed, but I am finding it hard to do snaps and vert-berts on the concrete with the stock wheels.
@@MarktheLandlockedSurfer Try the Alva Conical 59mm, 88A they are the best park wheels for surfskating I have experienced. They just look you in on concrete. They are fast as a 97a-104a wheel without the noise and unpredictable slide, vibration teeth 🦷 rattling thing. That in my opinion just kills the Surfskate feeling using anything above 84a-88a (my opinion the sweet spot for concrete) The Carver park wheel is also very good but still feels like plastic. Seismic Cry babies 😭 is also not bad if you like coming down the wall bird sliding and they just looks the part aesthetically. Alva I think knows a thing or two about surfing in bowls and pools. But I understand the hard wheels thing because it works too. It’s like sex some like it soft and some like it hard, it all comes down to the feel.
Delighted to see you're making it work :) I've had my new yow to the skatepark a few times and it's really fun. I do notice that it starts to wobble and get squirrely at hicher speed, is that an issue with the meraki or bushings, or is it me? I am not quite up to the same speed I was on a normal street board. I also tried out a pump track and got some fantastic lines in. I even carved a u-turn in the middle of the track which was really something. Again with a few wobbles as I got up to speed though.
Just like a snowboard, this happens when you try to go go straight ahead. Keeping your base flat at speed on a snowboard is a great way to catch an edge and go flying because it is enjoying the lack of friction until it gets a jarring dose of it, so the key is to keep the board slightly on edge even when going straight. Similar with surfskates. As long as you are putting a little pressure on your toe or heel, you are keeping the front truck from wobbling around unpredictably.
@@MarktheLandlockedSurfer now that you mention it, I don't think I wobbled much on the sides of the bowls .. mostly after going straight down a ramp and across the flat. And a tiny bit in the pump track but that could easy have been straights, too. Will try to maintain a gentle carve next time. Despite living in sweden, I've only been snowboarding twice. But I totally know what you mean :) Are other surf skate trucks wobbly at high speed on a straight, too?
@@dash9655 my instinct is usually to carve on them unless I am charging for speed to get up a huge wall, but usually when I have done that it has been on C5 or C7 trucks that have less lean.
I am going to hold off answering for for now. I have been experimenting a lot with different setups and I have new ones coming to test out... As an all around Skatepark board, C5s still have an edge, but others are starting to make decent ground in bowl performance. By the end of the summer, I'll be testing out Wooddetail, Swelltech, and Smoothstar boards too. Stay tuned!
Great videos Mark! Got my yow with merakis a week ago and just like dash was commenting below, the front truck feels wobbly at times. Just wondering if you have tightened the front truck a little? Also, have you tried riding switch with your yow? With that front truck it's really difficult or am I just novice. Any tips?
I used them stock out of the box without any adjustment so far. I think initially in the bowl I did feel that bit of wobblieness but I don’t even notice it anymore, and I think always keeping a touch of pressure toeside or heelside helps. When you say “switch” I just want to confirm if you mean switch (feet opposite) or fakie (normal foot stance but board going backwards)? I’ve tried both but my gut says you mean fakie.
@@MarktheLandlockedSurfer Thanks. Yes, indeed, I mean fakie. I was trying to go up and down in a straight line without a turn in a ramp and it felt like a crazy balancing exercise 😀.
Yep, with practice you can learn to do it for long periods (I went down a full hill for over a minute on mine) but it is super squirrelly and not easy to maintain speed. I managed to land a half-cab (fakie backside 180 air) and the toughest part was getting enough speed trying to push into it going fakie rather than the trick itself!
Hi Mark, looking back and now owning a smoothstar and a curfboard. Would you've had to make the same adjustments for those boards (because of their loose trucks?)
The Curfboard doesn’t bottom out which is why I find it the best one for grinds in the bowl. The same adjustment is needed for the smoothstar, but I find it is a bit more forgiving than the YOW before it launches you.
How do you go to a 50-50 from this? All the tutorials are with regular board and doing a kickturn onto the coping. I rarely make kickturns with loose surfskate trucks.
For standup 50-50s you have to approach almost like you are trying a fly out, but with just enough speed to get over the lip. Similar approach angle and everything as a carve grind but imagine yourself trying to get out of the bowl. You can see a lot of them that I have done in my curfboard review video on here. Good luck!
Hey Mark, could you share with us your protective gear(Gloves/KneePads/Helmet)? I'm starting out without any skateboard experience and my wrists are getting pretty banged up.
It is nothing special to be honest. Most of the wrist, elbow, knee pads are free acquisitions or stuff that is like 20 years old that we still had from our youth, salvaged from parents’ basements. You will notice they are often uncoordinated! The helmet is just the cheapest one that was available on Amazon. Some day I wouldn’t mind getting the Andy Anderson helmet though. Definitely worth wearing for both safety and confidence so you can push yourself to be your best with less hesitation.
Hey Mark great video as always! I was told you may want to know about the kingpin fix for the C5 and CX trucks our local shop owner came up with. Just posted the vid on our channel today, check it out!
I have recently buy a yow and I’ll was using a carver before and I have noticed that the way the yow trucks turn makes you adjust your position for many tricks that you usually make on the carver I think carver boards are cool but they don’t give you the right technique, in my opinion yow responds more like a real surf short board, you have to use more back foot than in other boards and that applied to the surf on water gives you a really better technique, nice video
I never made that connection - Really good observation
I just did my first ever carve grind (unintentionally) on my Yow Pipe and it just felt pretty amazing. Then I remembered watching this video a few months ago and came back to better understand how to move forward from here. Your videos are really detailed in the explanations and keep up the great contents :)
Yewww! I think everyone's first is unintentional and then it makes you realize "Hey that was fun, and I am still here, lets try it again on purpose!". Keep your weight over your back leg and you'll be fine. I have it down pretty well now but when I get too aggressive I still fly over the front on occassion!
Thanks for doing these videos, man. I have a Yow board on the way (my first ever surfskate) and you had me questioning my decision after your last video. Thanks for taking the time to refine and setting the record straight. I’m a 45 yr old surfer and hoping surfskate will be a better fit for me at the park/bowl vs riding a popsicle board.
Great content! I got my new meraki trucks a week ago after watching your review. I’ve had them to the skate park twice so far. They are so much fun. I’m still working on carving in the bowl and haven’t made it up to the coping yet. I just got back into skating with my kids last month after a 30 year break. Good times!
That was my story last year (17 year break instead of 30 though). It is a fun journey and surfskating is much more friendly on aging bones and joints (until you start watching my tutorial videos anyway).
A couple of days ago I broke my arm with an open wound after my Yow Meraki hanged on a coping. Spent NY holidays in a hospital, onwards there's the second surgery operation and months of rehabilitation. Stay safe, guys, and don't neglect protective gear. Reflectory knee slide technique is also a good idea.
Ouch, so sorry to hear that. Hoping for a swift rehab and recovery.
@@MarktheLandlockedSurferThank you, Mark!
Thanks Mark. I’m going to put it in to a practice as soon as I’m back from holiday.
Thanks for another great review!
I want to share that I got a massive improvement in my bowl skating when I put harder wheels on the giraffe. I could not get the exact same size, but similar.
97A wheels are a lot louder and make scary noises at times when losing grip.
But magic starts to happen when I ungratiously climb into a bowl and start pumping around to build speed.
I haven't tried anything that hard yet but I am keeping an eye out! I don't think I need any extra speed, but I am finding it hard to do snaps and vert-berts on the concrete with the stock wheels.
@@MarktheLandlockedSurfer Try the Alva Conical 59mm, 88A they are the best park wheels for surfskating I have experienced. They just look you in on concrete. They are fast as a 97a-104a wheel without the noise and unpredictable slide, vibration teeth 🦷 rattling thing. That in my opinion just kills the Surfskate feeling using anything above 84a-88a (my opinion the sweet spot for concrete) The Carver park wheel is also very good but still feels like plastic. Seismic Cry babies 😭 is also not bad if you like coming down the wall bird sliding and they just looks the part aesthetically. Alva I think knows a thing or two about surfing in bowls and pools. But I understand the hard wheels thing because it works too. It’s like sex some like it soft and some like it hard, it all comes down to the feel.
I’m using a set of precision Surf Rodz 159mm Grind trucks on a YOW S4 adapter, just Perfect no problem grinding on stuff.
Perfect content. Thanks for the great vids.
Thanks for watching!
Really interesting! Thank you man 🙏🏾
Delighted to see you're making it work :) I've had my new yow to the skatepark a few times and it's really fun. I do notice that it starts to wobble and get squirrely at hicher speed, is that an issue with the meraki or bushings, or is it me? I am not quite up to the same speed I was on a normal street board. I also tried out a pump track and got some fantastic lines in. I even carved a u-turn in the middle of the track which was really something. Again with a few wobbles as I got up to speed though.
Just like a snowboard, this happens when you try to go go straight ahead. Keeping your base flat at speed on a snowboard is a great way to catch an edge and go flying because it is enjoying the lack of friction until it gets a jarring dose of it, so the key is to keep the board slightly on edge even when going straight. Similar with surfskates. As long as you are putting a little pressure on your toe or heel, you are keeping the front truck from wobbling around unpredictably.
@@MarktheLandlockedSurfer now that you mention it, I don't think I wobbled much on the sides of the bowls .. mostly after going straight down a ramp and across the flat. And a tiny bit in the pump track but that could easy have been straights, too. Will try to maintain a gentle carve next time. Despite living in sweden, I've only been snowboarding twice. But I totally know what you mean :) Are other surf skate trucks wobbly at high speed on a straight, too?
@@dash9655 my instinct is usually to carve on them unless I am charging for speed to get up a huge wall, but usually when I have done that it has been on C5 or C7 trucks that have less lean.
@@MarktheLandlockedSurfer Gotta keep it on rail...like a surfboard!
Thanks for going the length! Heads off for making it work. So in the end the C5 setup will remain your goto pool board?
I am going to hold off answering for for now. I have been experimenting a lot with different setups and I have new ones coming to test out... As an all around Skatepark board, C5s still have an edge, but others are starting to make decent ground in bowl performance. By the end of the summer, I'll be testing out Wooddetail, Swelltech, and Smoothstar boards too. Stay tuned!
awesome vid - where is this in Ottawa ? Near Algonquin College?
Yeah the concrete skatepark is the one across from Algonquin. The miniramp unfortunately no longer exists.
Great videos Mark! Got my yow with merakis a week ago and just like dash was commenting below, the front truck feels wobbly at times. Just wondering if you have tightened the front truck a little?
Also, have you tried riding switch with your yow? With that front truck it's really difficult or am I just novice. Any tips?
I used them stock out of the box without any adjustment so far. I think initially in the bowl I did feel that bit of wobblieness but I don’t even notice it anymore, and I think always keeping a touch of pressure toeside or heelside helps. When you say “switch” I just want to confirm if you mean switch (feet opposite) or fakie (normal foot stance but board going backwards)? I’ve tried both but my gut says you mean fakie.
@@MarktheLandlockedSurfer Thanks. Yes, indeed, I mean fakie. I was trying to go up and down in a straight line without a turn in a ramp and it felt like a crazy balancing exercise 😀.
Yep, with practice you can learn to do it for long periods (I went down a full hill for over a minute on mine) but it is super squirrelly and not easy to maintain speed. I managed to land a half-cab (fakie backside 180 air) and the toughest part was getting enough speed trying to push into it going fakie rather than the trick itself!
Hi Mark, looking back and now owning a smoothstar and a curfboard. Would you've had to make the same adjustments for those boards (because of their loose trucks?)
The Curfboard doesn’t bottom out which is why I find it the best one for grinds in the bowl. The same adjustment is needed for the smoothstar, but I find it is a bit more forgiving than the YOW before it launches you.
How do you go to a 50-50 from this? All the tutorials are with regular board and doing a kickturn onto the coping. I rarely make kickturns with loose surfskate trucks.
For standup 50-50s you have to approach almost like you are trying a fly out, but with just enough speed to get over the lip. Similar approach angle and everything as a carve grind but imagine yourself trying to get out of the bowl. You can see a lot of them that I have done in my curfboard review video on here. Good luck!
Hey Mark, could you share with us your protective gear(Gloves/KneePads/Helmet)? I'm starting out without any skateboard experience and my wrists are getting pretty banged up.
It is nothing special to be honest. Most of the wrist, elbow, knee pads are free acquisitions or stuff that is like 20 years old that we still had from our youth, salvaged from parents’ basements. You will notice they are often uncoordinated! The helmet is just the cheapest one that was available on Amazon. Some day I wouldn’t mind getting the Andy Anderson helmet though. Definitely worth wearing for both safety and confidence so you can push yourself to be your best with less hesitation.
Hell ya!!!
you can do it even on a smoothstar?
Definitely! I found the smoothstar less prone to fully stopping on carve grinds.
Bua a mi me tocan los tornillos 😢
Hey Mark great video as always! I was told you may want to know about the kingpin fix for the C5 and CX trucks our local shop owner came up with. Just posted the vid on our channel today, check it out!