In this first episode of the Seismic Eurotour Video Series, Seismic Team riders Rafa Garrido, Javier Tato, and Aleix Gallimo drove from Castell de Castells in Valencia (Spain) to Almabtrieb, Germany, for the first race of the 2013 Eurotour. Despite a few misadventures on the road, they managed to get to the race on time – but not without first learning a lesson in auto mechanics!

Follow the next episodes in the Seismic Eurotour Video Series on the Seismic Youtube Channel.

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Ever complained about the snow harshing your gnar? Snow doesn’t phase Dre “Grizzly” Nubine one bit as he tears down a Colorado mountain pass at speeds in excess of 50mph — with a little help from Seismic’s top-secret new speed/freeride urethane formula. Bright white to match the weather conditions!

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Check out new team rider, Brandon DesJarlais, trying out 73mm Elixir Speed Vents and Ceramic Tektons for the first time on the damp streets of Salem, Oregon.

Artist: Kind Dub
Song: Good Morning Sexy
http://soundcloud.com/kinddub/

The post Brandon Desjarlais on new 73mm Elixir Speed Vents appeared first on Seismic Skate.

Matt Rosborg

We sent Matt a set of  Silverfish Exclusive Hot Spot wheels and he made this sick video!
Check it out!!

The SHS are a Special Edition of the 69mm 84A Hot Spot wheels. They are 69mm tall x 52mm wide. They have an offset bearing seat and a dual lip design. They are Poured in 84A Seismic Elixir freeride urethane.

The Hot Spot features a slightly squared lip that bevels inward at a small angle.

Check out Seismic rider – Matt Rosborg and the rest of our riders in our Youtube Channel. More videos to come!!

The post Seismic Rider Matt Rosborg cruises on the SHS Wheels! appeared first on Seismic Skate.

Seismic flow rider Brian Lugbill coats the streets of Boulder, CO, with yellow 79a urethane ripped from his 75mm Landslides. From bustin’ 100ft (30m) slides to tearing 58mph (93kph) downhill, Lugbill shows just how versatile the Landslides can be. This freeriding speed demon is also rockin’ Seismic Tekton bearings and a Seismic rocker-kick topmount carbon prototype. Brand new Seismic deck line, coming soon! For more Seismic Skate videos, please check out: http://www.youtube.com/user/seismicchannel?feature=results_main

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Seismic rider Dre Nubine shows deadly style on 70mm Bootlegs, 73mm Speed Vents, and Tekton bearings. Dre puts his own spin on things with a low, rubbery, effortless approach. P.S. We call him “Sweet Knees” because they’re so scabby!

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Check out Seismic flow riders meltin’ pavement all over Madrid. AND TURN YOUR EARS to the sound of “In the Whale”. The band started underground in Greeley, Colorado then moved to Denver shortly after to be a part of the growing music scene.

A little bit about the band:

“…Our music tends to explore the sleazier side of life… the creepy guy in the bar eyeballing the pretty girl, the televangelist who tells you he can save you from the lake of fire, that one uncle you have with the gun collection. We hope to convey a sort of mixture of passion, aggression, and fun with our live show, and we like to think we do a damn good job at it, thank you very much…” – In the Whale

http://www.myspace.com/songsinthewhale

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Boulder, CO – After more than two years in development, Seismic is proud to unveil the patent-pending Tekton bearing – the bearing behind the Official IGSA Downhill Speed World Record. (Click here to witness the awesome feat on YouTube.)

Said 2009 World Cup Champion Mischo Erban, who set the new record of 80.83mph last fall, “Tekton bearings roll fast, hold alignment better and stay cleaner, longer. It’s that simple!”

“The difference is the wide flange at the ends of the integrated half-spacers,” said Seismic founder/owner Dan Gesmer. “The big, flat contact surfaces square up, co-align and self-stabilize inside your wheels.”

“Once coupled, the Tektons literally block themselves from sitting or rocking out of alignment, so they stay straighter than any other bearing system ever,” Gesmer added. “Your wheels roll faster with better control, while the bearings last longer and stay quieter!”

According to Neil Sload of Focus Supply, one of the world’s leading suppliers of bearings to top pro skateboard brands, “The Seismic Tekton is by far the most technical skateboard bearing I’ve ever seen produced.”

“It wasn’t easy to find a bearing factory capable of manufacturing this design,” Gesmer continued. “The integral flanged half-spacers need to be custom-machined, not just cut from a stock steel tube.”

Tektons should not be confused with bearings that have their inner races stretched on one side to form a simple half-spacer. Sometimes called “industrial” bearings, these have been used in pre-assembled skateboards since the 1970s, and more recently for racing, but they’re still vulnerable to misalignment.

The diameter of the Tektons’ flanged contact surfaces is up to 35% larger compared to bearings coupled with floating spacers, and up to 23% larger compared to bearings with stretched inner races. This translates to exponentially better correction for flaws in bearing seat levelness, bearing seat spacing, axle diameter and axle straightness.

“I have total confidence in their ability to push extreme speeds – 80mph and beyond!” said Erban.

Tekton bearings, rated at ABEC-7, are precisely dimensioned to provide superior alignment safeguards in all modern high-performance skateboard wheels. Features include steel balls, nylon retainers, black outer casing, removable rubber-coated steel seals with printed graphic, and a proprietary lubricant combining both oil and grease.

The inner race is stepped underneath the seal to resist contamination, and it’s stepped between the bearing and the flange to save weight. (A set of Tektons weighs the same as a set of conventional bearings with simple floating spacers.) On the side opposite the flange, the inner race extends 0.5mm to form a thin integrated washer.

Like all Seismic wheels, trucks, and decks, Tekton bearings are available from finer skate stores and online at www.seismicskate.com. No bearing spacers, axle washers, or World Record budgets required.

For further information, contact info@seismicskate.com. Stay tuned this year for more startling innovations in trucks, boards and wheels from Seismic!

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The post Mischo Erban Slashes His Own Speed Record! appeared first on Seismic Skate.

The last day of September, on a secret, two-lane county road in northern Colorado, downhill skateboarder Mischo Erban was clocked bombing a hill at 80.83 mph, the highest recorded speed on a skateboard in history.

The news and corresponding YouTube video spread like poison ivy among the downhill community but made little impact beyond — a fitting response for a sport that, in cases like this, can best be compared to drag racing.

Erban, 27, the reigning World Cup downhill champion, was aided by three visual spotters who used hand signals (not radios) to warn of a car driving uphill and thus alert Erban to stay in his lane on the twisting mountain course, which started at 8,000 feet and dropped 670 feet in a mile. Its average grade, 12.7 percent, was steeper than most Tour de France climbs.

“The stars really did align with how this road was built,” allowed Erban, though he wouldn’t disclose its specific location. “It’s like a marble countertop; perfect for what we do.”

Erban hit 80.83 mph on his 19th of 20 runs, clocked by a Tag Heuer timing system known as a “speed trap” that he borrowed from the president of the International Gravity Sports Association. The system measured Erban’s time between two photo cells 100 feet apart, then converted that to a speed more precise than those recorded by GPS units or radar guns.

The world governing body had a representative in attendance, Gary Fluitt, and recognized Erban’s speed as a new world record. Whether Guinness will is still in question.

Initially, Erban — who flew from his home in Vernon, British Columbia, to bomb the hill — took some heat from local downhillers who were angry he didn’t alert them of his runs in advance. So he declined to pursue the Guinness distinction. He also wasn’t sure what he needed to do to get it.

But according to Guinness spokeswoman Sara Wilcox, Erban’s timing system and witnesses meet the standards required for a world record. When notified of this Tuesday, Erban said he’d submit a claim to Guinness after all. The current record is held by Brazilian Douglas da Silva, who was clocked more than 10 mph slower (70.21 mph) in October 2007.

Erban already makes an unlikely world record holder. Born in Prague, he lived there until he was 2, when his parents fled “the strict control of communism,” he said. “There wasn’t much freedom.” They settled in British Columbia and Erban now lives halfway up the twisting road to Silver Star Mountain Resort.

He won his first downhill race in 2005, two years after he picked up the sport. Now, at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, he competes on a World Cup circuit that stops in 10 countries. “People fear him on a race course,” IGSA president Marcus Rietema said.

Even among top racers, downhill skateboarding still operates largely underground. Take the secret site in Colorado: A few years back, some locals bombed it and posted on the Internet speeds in the mid-to-upper 70s (mph), much faster than the official world record. As Erban tells it, one of those locals soon asked some pros if they’d like to come run the hill, and its reputation grew.

Erban got his first shot last year (or the year before; he can’t recall), recording a speed of 74.5 mph but narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a police car that pulled out of a vacant parking lot. The cop turned into the uphill lane as Erban blew by in the downhill lane, causing the incensed officer to U-turn and chase Erban to his stopping point.

“He said if he caught us idiots again he’d charge us with reckless endangerment,” recalled Erban, who once splatted onto the pavement at 57 mph.

Undeterred, Erban returned in September to do some test runs with his sponsor, Boulder, Colo.-based Seismic Wheels, in front of eight people. After whizzing through the speed trap on his 40 ½-inch, self-designed GMR board, he’d stand up from his tuck and hold out his arms for four-tenths of a mile on flat asphalt, eventually stepping off at a near stop.

The day wasn’t without a close call, however. Not long after Erban set the record, a cop showed up. “He’d gotten the call about us earlier in the day but he was busy with something else,” Erban said. “We got lucky.”

Asked what it feels like to go that fast on a skateboard, Erban replied: “It’s surreal. I know I’m in control the whole way, so you have, like, this calm; and you also have this raw power pushing you down the hill at 80 mph. But it’s so smooth that you could be thinking about what you’re going to have for lunch.”

Skateboarding Blog | ESPN Action Sports

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