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Brandon Desjarlais on new 73mm Elixir Speed Vents

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/

Results from Morro Bay Mile Skateboard Push Race

Check out Marc Juvinall’s record setting setup for the Morro Bay Mile Skateboard Push Race! Marc bettered the previous skateboarding mile world record of 4:03 by 17 seconds, finishing with a time of 3:46.9. Here’s what he told us: “Love the Black Ops urethane, soo awesome… and the cores on the hotspots are awesome… it feels like you’re barely pushing a 65mm, but they roll farther and faster than a normal 75mm… and when you come out of a turn the thane just lifts you up and puts you back on you board :)”

Marc Juvinall's set up on Morro Bay Mile Skateboard Push Race
Marc Juvinall’s set up on Morro Bay Mile Skateboard Push Race

The Morro Bay Mile Skateboard Push Race

Hosted by Jack Smith, skateboarding legend and founder of The Skateboarder’s Journal magazine and Morro Bay Skate lab Skateboard Museum, this fast and furious race has seen the world record time broken in each of the first two years of the event.  Registration for this event is open to anyone, and all interested skateboarders are encouraged to participate in this fun event!  After the race, the awards ceremony will take place at the finish line.

HUGE News…Win $600!!!

Seismic Skate Systems presents the Seismic 3,2,1 Challenge at the Morro Bay Mile Skateboard Push Race held Sunday, July 3 at 3:00pm – 3:30pm.

Here’s how it works…
If you’re using Seismic Wheels you score a $300 bonus!
If you’re using Seismic Tekton Bearings you score a $200 bonus!
If you’re using Seismic Trucks you score a $100 bonus!
If you’re using all three you score a $600 bonus!

For more details, please contact Jack Smith at jack@theskateboardersjournal.com or http://skateboardersjournal.ning.com/

Poster for Morro Bay Mile Skateboard Push Race, July 3rd
Poster for Morro Bay Mile Skateboard Push Race, July 3rd

254 Gnarathon, (Waco, TX)

Seismic wants to give a BIG “Shout Out!” to Kevin Clancy from Waco Longboards, Blake Yowell from Gnarly’s, and the rest of gang from Skate254 for creating the 1st Annual 254Gnarathon in Waco, TX. This event will be held Sunday, June 26th at 9am. Fellow Texans, get out there and support these guys!!!!

Poster for 1st Annual 254Gnarathon in Waco, TX
Poster for 1st Annual 254Gnarathon in Waco, TX

Waco Longboard Club presents 254-Gnarathon 2011
On this year 2011 Edition of the 254-Gnarathon over 50 of Texas’ sick riders came out to race and shred it up. Organized By Waco Longboard Club.

Here is a video on how the event went down:

Results:
1st Kris Cox
2nd Dustin Dixon
3rd Zack Soliz
4th Nick Hayes
5th Brian Belcher
6th Eric Douglas

Seismic introduces Tekton™ bearings

The bearing behind the Official IGSA Downhill Speed World Record!

Tekton Bearings

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.”

Tekton Bearings

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.Tekton Bearings

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!

Mischo Erban Makes Headlines on ESPN – Speed Record Set in Colorado

Written By Devon O’Neil
Photo By Travis Conklin
ESPN Action Sports
October 20, 2010, 1:33 PM ET

 

British Columbia's Mischo Erban, en route to a new world record for speed on a skateboard.
British Columbia’s Mischo Erban, en route to a new world record for speed on a skateboard.

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.

The man and his machine.
The man and his machine.

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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