I follow Paul Schmitt on Insta and he has been talking about wheelbase and the ideal length to match your height is ‘a foot and a fist’ ie the length of your foot and then your fist. I am 6ft 5in with size 11 feet and I thought my current board had quite long wheelbase (certainly longer than my previous board) but the gap between the trucks is much less than ‘foot and fist’ .
I have 8.5 wide but I tried to measure wb and realised I have no idea where it starts or finishes. I expected wb would be 14 or 15 but the gap between the trucks (back of front truck to front of back truck) is only 13 so I figured that cannot be right?
Any idea about ideal ratio for tall person or which boards have long wheelbase? At what point does a normal board become a dreaded longboard haha?
Here is my board
as much as I would love to have hundreds of deck shapes and sizes, realistically i think your average skater is just going to find something they like and skate that. assuming the formula you found is correct, do you think having a deck with the exact wheelbase for your height is going to make you land every trick?
even more difficult - how are you going to find a deck with the exact correct wheelbase? go to a skate shop and measure every deck? what if the wheelbase is correct but then deck feels rubbish or is 9" wide?
find what you like and stick with that. only pro’s are realistically going to have the means to discover that the 6th deck down in every pressing is exactly right for them (p-rod)
Part of the issue is that I am nowhere near the ‘average skater’ in terms of height. I barely do any tricks anyway so the motivation is just curious if there are any board makes that do longer wheelbase as until recently had never even thought about it, and it might make me feel a bit more comfortable, and also where actually is the measurement for wheelbase?
the wheelbase is the distance between the inner truck holes (the distance of the trucks)
i don’t know many companies that print the wheelbase of decks. maybe one of the guys who works in a shop here could take some measurements for you? or try phoning or visiting a shop?
John Fitzgerald’s Hockey shape is a little longer than the average board (maybe an inch) and it has a proportionately longer wheelbase than usual. They’re usually an 8.5 but I think he’s had an 8.6 on a couple of occasions.
Jake Johnson’s Quasi boards are usually an 8.5 or 8.75 and they have a longer wheelbase than usual too. My friend mentioned JJ has a 9” board out/out soon which I imagine is popsicle shaped because Quasi don’t do shaped boards.
My favourite board shape is Donovon’s Hockey board and part of why I like them so much is because the wheelbase feels a bit longer (although not as much as John’s boards). They’re an 8.38 though so maybe too small for you. I’m quite lanky but not tall-tall and it’s funny you mentioned the thing about height because now I’m wondering if that correlation is why I love that shape so much.
Anyway, I’d say all of the above might be a good choice for you. Plus, they’re pros worth supporting in my opinion.
Weirdly, he usually has a 8.375 on a shorter than normal 14" wheelbase. It feels really good to me. Hopefully get another one of those soon.
Seems like more and more are printing wheelbase on the boards. I know Girl/Chocolate does, Real does. Seems like more shops are putting that dimension in too.
Wheelbase affects the turning circle, Trucks closer together makes a smaller turning circle, and feels lively. Trucks further apart and the board has a bigger turning circle and feels stable at speed. Typical wheelbases are around 14” for street and 14.75 - 15” for vert:
Oh really? I haven’t bought a JJ Quasi board since the first few series (including when it was Mother) and they were around that size back then so I just presumed they still would be. I can’t imagine him skating an 8.38 though. He makes Arto look like an average height.
Yeah, some of them are. I was pretty hooked on their square shape for a couple of years. I worked with a guy for about two years and he skated that shape and that shape only the entire time. I prefer Hockey/FA for a square shape now though, they aren’t quite as square as a Quasi board but still have a bit of shovel about them.
Can anyone recommend an 8.25 wide 14" wheelbase board? I want to find something reasonably short for my son. He’s been riding a Polar Shin Sanbongi popsicle shape which he really got on with but I can’t find that shape and size anywhere.
