Skating was born from surfing, or at least the days we wish we were surfing. For this reason it’s only natural that the act of riding a skateboard has undergone a few tweeks and twists over the years in an effort to get a little closer to actually riding a wave. Cruise your longboard down the boardwalk on a Sunday afternoon and it’d be hard not to throw those hips out, feet together, in classic Leah Dawson style. Jump on a Penny board and fight the urge to carve the thing like you’re high lining a wave at Rincon.
Razor’s newest toy is intended to mimic just that. It even looks like a surfboard, traction pad, rocker, stringer, fin boxes and all. “You can cut and carve like you do on with a surf board” said the Ali Kermani, the toy’s designer. “We moved the wheels closer together so that as you lift up the front the back traces. Like a surf board to turn you just ‘drop a rail’.”
As somebody who is embarrassingly uncoordinated atop a skateboard I see a broken eye socket on two caster wheels. But Kermani actually makes it look pretty fun in his demo videos. The pumping, the tighter cutback type turns, and even a little spin like he’s coming off the lip, are all a little closer to the normal surfing mechanics than other gadgety surf toys I’ve seen before. So who knows, maybe this really is the closest thing we’ll get to true sidewalk surfing.
