Vandem Longboard Shop News

Once upon a time, if you wanted a longboard, your only choice was a pintail.

Things have changed considerably these days, but the pintail is still a great choice for a cruiser or all-round longboard. With sexy curves, sleek lines and a long wheelbase, they give a mellow ride that carves great and looks good doing it.

We have quite a few pintails amongst all the other longboards in our shop, and with prices ranging from £50 up to nearly £500, it's easy to get lost. So we thought we'd put together this little rundown of everything we have to give you...

How much is a longboard?

The cheapest complete longboards in our shop start at under £50 - but if you called us with the challenge of building you the most expensive custom possible, you could end up spending upwards of £400.

Why the huge difference?

A question we are often asked is: "How can you possibly spend that much on a longboard when £50 will do the job?"

We've taken three different price points of drop-through boards off the shelf to try to explain where your money goes.

The three longboards we selected are also all basically aimed at the same user - they're cruising/pumping/pushing/commuting setups. They're all...

We've just taken delivery some more Hackbrett decks!

We now have:

Das Schnelle downhill/Freeride deck. This is a super-fun DH board with a kicktail, some real nice 3D concave, and loads of other features like flat truck seats and CNC details. The 2018 version is a little bit narrower than last year's which makes the deck a bit more nimble and the rails a bit easier to get your feet over.

The Krokodil symetrical freeride/slide deck - basically two Schnelle noses stuck together to create a perfect shorter twintip slide setup

The Balance Pintail in Walnut - one of the sexiest looking...

Loaded's Tarab is the latest in a long line of dancing decks from one of the best longboard brands in the business.

Loaded have done a lot to further longboard dancing over the years, coming up with the Longboard Larry inspired Loaded "Dancer", then refining it to the "Bhangra" some years later.

Dancing has evolved hugely in this timeframe, starting out with a focus on footwork and basic flips back in the early 2000's - now longboard dancing has a baffling array of its own ollie, manual and flip combos for you to learn.

Loaded have learnt a lot about...

The "new" Santa Cruz boards are worth a special look.

The Cruz Missile II concave was developed in the eighties to hit vert and transition. We like both of those things, so we were stoked to see Santa Cruz bringing it back in their latest line of reissues!

There's a lot going on with these boards. Combining rocker, a spoon nose, and a two stage tail, this concave feels amazing and will change the way you think about your skateboard.

With a deep concave for your front foot, and a mellower section for your back foot, we think that...

We're now stocking the 2nd generation Orangatang Freeride wheels!

Click here to check them out.

Left to right is the Keanu 66mm, the Kilmer 69mm, and the Cage 73mm.

All these wheels feature a big core, stoneground running surface, rounded edges and narrow-ish contact patch, which gives an easy slide from new. (Check out our wheel guide for more info on all that...)

The Cage is pretty big for a longboard wheel these days, so watch out for wheelbite. On a drop-through or cutaway board it'll be a real nice cruising wheel with a bit more...

Vandem Longboard Shop has a new home!

We must be crazy moving this close to Christmas... but we've done it, and you can now visit us in our new premises at:

Arch 4, Berkeley Court Business Park
Bristol BS5 0BX

Click here for detailed directions by longboard, car or train.

We're still settling in, with a lot to do... there's more decks, trucks and wheels arriving over the next few days, we've still got to finish decking things out...

But we already have the essentials (ie a whole load of longboard stuff to choose from... and...