Why freestyle?
As many might say, growing up with tapes of Rodney Mullen was my introduction to ‘freestyle’, though I grew up with his later work so my idea of freestyle was skewed for a long time and it wasn’t until much more recently that I stumbled across Ikkei Nagao’s Instagram (@ikkei.nagao). I loved Nagao’s style and tech, but I noticed he rode a tiny board with skid plates…why? And that’s when I fell down the rabbit hole. I had to try it.
Is there a particular video (or two or three) of Nagao that sticks out for you?
The clip I found him from was a dolphin triple flip on flat. But any other clip of him flowing through a skatepark is outstanding. His ability to…take those freestyle elements and apply them to various environments is something so appealing to me.
What tricks are you trying to learn currently? What are the end goals?
Currently trying to learn more traditional freestyle with the end goal of being a more diverse skater. Freestyle opens up a whole new world of tricks to experiment with.
You ended up making your own freestyle board. Can you tell us a bit about the board and the process?
Sure. So I was originally planning to just buy one, but, after realising I’d be paying upwards of 300 dollars for a board and undercarriage, I started looking at my pile of old, cracked and chipped decks.
The first rendition was a single kick. I took a street board with a long wheelbase and cut it just before the nose kicked up, redrilled just the front truck holes so the wheelbase sat at 12.3″ and then filled the pre-existing holes with fibreglass-reinforced filler. Then I cut a very rough outline just based on what I’d seen in shops with classic reissues.
I then went about sourcing the next non-budget friendly element of the build, the wheels. For those, I settled for a set of Impala 58mm 86a rollerskate wheels.
Lastly I found some Bullet 120 trucks on clearance for 30 dollars and threw it all together with leftover hardware from my spares box.
The first board opened my eyes to some design flaws, and I also realised I didn’t like the way single kicks felt, especially while riding the board backwards.
I broke out the jigsaw once more and tried my hand at cutting a double-kick board. I applied the same method for filling holes and redrilled all of the holes this time. The shape is loosely based off the Huntington Spoon Nose which weirdly lends itself well to the double kicks. Rail cuts were introduced and the undercarriage was carried over.
The core of one of the Impala wheels tore out while doing flip into rail, so local freestyle legend Josh Dunstone donated a set of real freestyle wheels.
While the concave and kicks can be a touch more aggressive when cut from a street deck, they gives a close enough feel to the ‘real thing’ to stop me questioning my board while learning.
How do rollerskate wheels work with a skateboard setup?
They work fine with skateboard bearings as the bearing cavities and the axle sizes are the same. The only caveat is that they typically have a larger diameter and are softer which may be a positive for some. Before I switched these out they were fantastic for bombing down to the shops over any terrain. The trade off? Stickier footwork and boxier-feeling flip tricks.
The width is notable too. The roller wheels I used were approximately 32mm wide, whereas the Momentum freestyle wheels I am currently riding are about 38mm. As they’re both basically sideset, the width is taken from the outer edge. In plain English, you’ll need to use trucks closer to the actual width of your deck as the [roller] wheels won’t protrude past the nuts as much.
Did you end up using a bearing spacer too? I heard that the rollerskate ones are smaller.
Correct! 8mm x 10mm skateboard spacers will not work with rollerskate wheels. Instead 8mm x 8mm spacers are required.
I did try spacers, but the sound of my board was so foreign that I couldn’t get used to it. To this day I don’t run spacers!
You made your own skid plates as well, is that right?
Yes sure did! I cut them from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) chopping boards on a scroll saw, though you could likely do it by hand with a coping saw just as easily.
How have your non-freestyle skate mates responded to this new direction?
Occasionally someone will turn up their nose at the idea of it, but overall skaters are really intrigued and excited to try it out.
Strangely, I experienced the most resistance from the online freestyle community who would tell me things like ‘[the board is] going to feel wrong’ or ‘it’s super weird’.
Like any skate community, the freestyle community has a gatekeeper mentality at times. Do you think it does freestyle a disservice? Or do we need to protect ourselves from being lumped with every random flatground trick out there?
I think like you said, any community has its own vocal minority, especially online. However rolling with the Melbourne Freestyle Skaters has shown the general community is extremely welcoming and supportive of any background of skating. I hope it stays this way.
Regarding the second half of the question, I honestly don’t feel qualified to answer as I’m not a freestyle purist. But the blurred lines of technical skating and freestyle can be a great bridge/introduction into more traditional freestyle for those who cut their teeth street skating.
Music is a big part of freestyle. Do you skate to music (and if you do, what is your music of choice for a line)?
I don’t exclusively skate to music, but it definitely helps with getting in the zone and setting the tone. Depending on what I’m skating that day will depend on the tunes! For flowy lines and freestyle I tend to listen to rap and R&B, but with more aggressive styles of skating like stairs and gaps, I’ll listen to something more sporadic and hype like metalcore.
Ok, last one. What song will you never be caught skating to?
One song you won’t catch me listening to in general is ‘Raindance’ by Dave and Tems, simply because they play it 5 times a day MINIMUM at work. 😭
Connect: Viro Purcell hails from Melbourne’s outer-eastern suburbs. When he’s not skating/thinking about skateboarding, he enjoys working on and modifying cars. Follow him on Instagram (@viro.purcell).