Did you guess it?
Loaded Longboards - no brand has spent more time at the top of the Vandem list of most expensive products.
The past year or two they've had competition - the Hackbrett Wasser for example. Hard to argue against 130cm of handshaped joy like that.
Though currently out of stock (and production), there is a limited run coming in Spring 2025 - reply to this email if you'd like to be on the waiting list.
Then came the new wave of distance boards - with humungous wheels adding to the cost of the completes, Pantheon became the new king.
But now, Loaded have come out of left field with something completely new that blows the rest of them out of the water...
The Fathom and the Tangent now have a Surfskate Edition.
Yes, you read that right.
Bracket boards, running dropped-through Carver CX trucks.
Loaded are calling this a new category of skateboarding - a distance surfskate.
The classic problems of skating across town on a surfskate...
- Small (and frankly, quite bad) wheels
- Super high ride height, hard to push
- Sketchy and wobbly picking up any speed
- 80mm Orangatang Kegels roll like a dream
- Super low to the ground, easy to push
- Lower ride height and nice long wheelbase bring stability
And the classic issue with super low platforms? Not manoeuvrable, not playful... consider that resolved too.
And the price?
It's probably around what you expect when you take...
- A super high-end Loaded deck
- Zee brackets
- Epic wheels
- Juicy built-in bearings
- £110 worth of trucks
- Double bolts
...Not to mention almost £50 worth of bushings!
They're setting these up with Orangatang Knuckles/Nipples: a split duro soft/medium on the front and hard in the back.
The difference this makes over the stock CX bushings is hard to convey via words, but we see it often on the face of people here trying out their options.
So there you have it - the new top spot. I think this one may hold it for a while... who knows from which direction the next usurper will appear from?
Stay warm this weekend. But don't stay dry - there's swell on the way,
Matt @ Vandem
Matt @ Vandem
Hey Ian! Honestly, these things are so freshly here that I wouldn’t like to say if they’d take the Karmas without having a proper dig on it myself. Off the top of my head I’d say it should be fine – the brackets put the wheels so far away from the board, and the regular version takes Dad Bods 105mm with no worries at all. If you try it, let us know how it goes!!
Ian Savage
Wow. I want one…… Would in take 92mm wheels? Looking for a new set up to put my Karmas on……..