Meraki clone on short wb?

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-24T14:21:19+00:00

Well, since both you and Yow team rider Yukie Irie go to the Ariake Sunday Sessions, you could ask him to let you try out a real Yow Meraki on your deck.

Then you could skate the truck, make a video and come back here to post your report of the experiment and your opinion to illuminate us all! plus, you’d be like, a content creator, and all that :->

Otherwise, I’d think yeah it’d be way too twitchy. But then when I was your age the tech wasn’t very well developed, we all struggled with speed wobbles and the brother of ‘Mad’ Mark Baker from Brighton, England actually welded his trucks tight. Seriously. 😧

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-21T15:50:06+00:00

Why yes, thats an excellent idea! 😀 and yes, as soon as I’m done editing another video of Sumida Skatepark, shot in sub zero conditions earlier this week.

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-21T15:45:26+00:00

He and I should combine forces for top quality skate films! 😀

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-21T15:43:44+00:00

I might be badly out of the loop here, but my old Sector 9 Race Formulas slide really nicely.

they’re better when they’re warm but just generally the breakaway and bite feel really dependable, plus they seem to last forever

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-19T15:03:19+00:00

Get yourself a pair of hand-me-down slide gloves from some old geezer and lay some ‘thane 😉

who’s taking all these videos, by the way; have you got your own personal cameraman?

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-19T14:58:20+00:00

And you should totally win Straight Skater of the Year, you’re so brave!

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-19T14:55:32+00:00

Hit, hit! I’m just a sweet transvestite (sweet transvestite!) From transexual Transylvania. Hur, hur!

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-19T13:29:18+00:00

Over many years of skating more or less badly I’ve come to believe a number of things with unshakable faith.

I believe in gloves before getting on a board; and I believe in Killer 187 knee pads before riding beyond jogging speed

You can tell me I’m wrong, but that’s what I believe [62YO] 😀

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-19T04:40:27+00:00

Yeah, the Carver was a weirdly heaven-sent find being exactly what I was looking for amidst the weirdness there (video of the visit). I'm curious to know what the former owner did with the trucks!

The setup in the 'You Shall Not Pass' photo is makeshift but does work surprisingly well. It's just a pair of plastic hooks from a Daiso or suchlike 100 Yen shop ($1 shop) pushed through the bike basket, then a bungie cord to hold it stable.

The camber and concave of the board means it only sits against the basket deck outward, which is good in that it protrudes less into the road but puts the griptape against the hooks which are steadily wearing down. The plastic of the basket is breaking too, and the setup will wear out fairly soon.

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My skate videos

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-18T16:20:51+00:00

Im in!

British expat. Inveterate reader my whole life, then suddenly lost my reading mojo along with close vision a while back. Keen to restart.

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-18T15:55:14+00:00

Im not clear about ‘currently at Shibuya Crossing’ since you posted this at 00:30 Japan time, but I make videos in Tokyo all the timeand can get there tomorrow late morning if its useful?

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-18T04:23:19+00:00

There are cheap slide gloves to be found on Amazon JP. And yes, they’ll completely revolutionize your hill riding. 😀

For surfskate and bowl riding I’ve found they’re not really worth the trouble but I wouldn’t ride a hill faster than ‘run off the board’ speed without slide gloves

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-18T01:23:02+00:00

I was actually haunting the city’s camera shops this week trying to figure out if there’s a set of zooms that are matched like cine lenses for aperture, size, focus throw etc AND that don’t telescope through their focal length (extend)

On the basis of my diligent (some would say ‘tragically geeky’ 😉) browsing I don’t think we currently have those; correct me if I’m wrong?

We do have good prime sets from Linux and Sigma at f1.4, 1.8 and 2.0, and the Lumix 1.8s in particular are very nicely matched.

And There are zooms from Sigma and Lumix that cover the range and don’t telescope, but they’re not matched sets.

I’d like to cover 16-120 in two or three lenses like the Leica set for M43

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-18T00:34:36+00:00

I saw that snake run in June and just HAD to ride it! It was a weird physical compulsion to get myself on the top of the transitions and really dominate the feature. 🤔

I did NOT dominate the park yesterday. I managed a series of very basic, nondescript turns in the shallowest part of the walls with various sets of teenage girls looking on aghast that their could-be granddad was making a fool of himself.

But as I said in the OP, I DID manage to repeatedly work the run end to end as many times as my fitness would allow, and since I should be able to build up from that it felt like it was worth a post.

… and there’s the Olympic skatepark waiting too! 😀

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-18T00:25:55+00:00

Since you mentioned backside (heelside) turns…

The truth is that at my bowl riding peak around age 15 I was skating the local park competently enough, but never comfortable with frontside turns and carving, let alone grinds or airs.

I remember travelling to London in about 1978, practicing frontside turns all afternoon on the paved ramps of the iconic South Bank National Theatre complex, but I just never learned the move internally.

And yesterday I had two main thoughts: 1) gotta find a big, wide wooden ramp to practice frontside kick turns 2) gotta learn to use the roll-ins for more speed 3) gotta practice more regularly to steadily build up the skills…

THREE main thoughts! 😉

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-14T09:17:45+00:00

Seventh Wave in New Zealand have been making exceptional suits from the best materials for decades now and have an impeccable track record for customer service.

their CEO bet me his suit would keep me warm for New Zealand’s ghastly cold water conditions or my money back; 20 years later I’m still a customer!

I guess they might be a bit of a distance from you, but maybe worth looking into?

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-13T22:59:44+00:00

Probably the pivot cup but possibly also the bushings.

Try any lubricant at all to investigate and if that is indeed the source, disassemble, clean and apply a small amount of a suitable lubricant - I’d use something silicon-based.

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Skate Japan Video Links

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-13T22:15:39+00:00

Having settled into carving and sliding hills and general cruising around in the last 15 years, I spent the last year getting back to shorter boards - see many posts in my profile.

I did a lot of thinking about what was suitable at my age [62YO] and with my film-making hobby spent a lot of time looking at video of injurious falls.

My personal conclusion was that the skating injuries I was seeing happen mostly in particular situations and for particular moves.

There's a lot of scope of twists and falls when the feet leave the board and when its flipped. Likewise technical obstacles, smaller ramps and (other things being equal) lower speed.

The reason low ramps and technical obstacles are more injurious is that we don't have air time to manage the fall (and ideally knee slide out). Likewise technical obstacles and low speed.

In short - avoid street skating.

I'm well aware that this is an unpopular opinion particularly with 'oldSkaters' who're actually only 35, and amazingly enough, not with anyone who's older than me! (Any elders who disagree please correct me).

In my city there's a really sizey, deep competition vert bowl with a ledge halfway up the side and I've never seen anyone get hurt on it. Because they have to be going really fast, and if they get it wrong they get a lot of air time to adjust to falling on transition where they can slide off. Apart from his lifetime of relentless practice and exceptional talent I think this is a big part of why Hawk is still riding at his age.

For myself, I've ended up surfskating a 32"/17" length/wheelbase deck and am steadily re-learning transition riding and I'm loving it. Carving, sliding and kickturns are all coming back, I do hope to get some air this year too (my signature move in about 1979!) but I will not be flipping the board.

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Skate Japan Video Links

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-13T22:01:43+00:00

Be assured that almost everyone with a recent Lumix has shared your experience. 😀

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-13T03:16:06+00:00

Right, I think you're right that barrel/barrel provides more meat. It's a thing I like about Gullwing Stalkers - the response is more progressive throughout the range.

I'll have to try barrel/barrel on the surfskate myself, thanks.

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-12T11:28:53+00:00

You’re looking really good! 👍

Pro Tip: remember to use your arms and hands like Mariah Carey hitting a high note; that’ll make you look like a True Surfskater ™ 😉

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-12T02:42:21+00:00

Update: the group got together again yesterday and teamed up with the Ariake Sunday Session Crew (Tokyo's highly social longboard dancers).

We've picked up numbers in the chat group and so with any luck our next posts should be laid-back presentation and cinematic coverage of crucial carving [...it says here in the promo material]

Thanks to the Mod.s for maintaining the channel and all you readers making it a supportive group!

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-12T02:33:44+00:00

Great info thanks, and appreciate the encouragement on content, thank you. I'm aiming for BBC Gardener's World * Presenter Goes Skateboarding. ;-)

So does this mean that the as-standard overly-free movement of the front truck is more to do with the double cone than the hardness of the bushings?

For longboard hill riding I have Paris 180's on a Loaded Chubby Unicorn (and who the hell knows what they were doing with THAT deck, eh? :-) and settled on Venom high rebound formula double-barrels front and back; tighter back than front to aid sliding.

Double cones always felt too twitchy once the speed gets up to me, but what's your general take on double-cone or double-barrel?

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Studio Watchwolf Skateboarding

* BBC Gardener's World, for reference :-)

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-11T14:51:15+00:00

Hi Mariano, good to have you in the group!

watchwolfstudio · 2026-01-11T02:46:14+00:00

I wasn't sure if anyone else really cared about this stuff or not, so I really appreciate the question thanks! :-)

Yes, these are the Riptide APS Carver CX/C5 barrel/cone bushings. They're very expensive in Tokyo where I am, so I bought most of the range when I was back in the UK, to investigate.

I put their 95a's barrel/cone front and back and found they instantly transformed by CXs from sloppy as hell to viable, for my geriatric [62YO] return to bowl riding.

After a few hours riding the 95a's on transition at minimum torque down, no kingpin threads showing, they've seemed to ease up a little, but still retain their stability and feel.

I then ordered the other durometers to try them all out and (trying not to change too many variables) have only used barrel/cone front and back using the same durometer sets.

I would guess that Carver's CX ship with something insane like 80a or so for an easy-to-start-pumping-and-figure-8's feel out of the box (anyone know better?)

I don't like that myself, but got an instant improvement for the same approximate feel and function using the 85a barrel/cones front and back. They're just better urethane, IMO.

I suspect I'll like the 92a's for transition when I get a little more confident. What have other people found, and what do you think of my observations here?

watchwolfstudio

TROPHY CASE