A monkey with a banana

on January 08, 2013. in Blablabla, Free time. A 4 minute read.

From time to time I browse through the local board shop’s website, especially the “Longboard” section, because, well, I have recently developed this passion for longboarding. Few weeks back, just sometimes before Christmas, I was doing the same. Just casually browsing around, nothing that would catch my interest. And then, there it was, at the bottom of the page. A banana board. “Oh my, a real beauty”, I thought to myself. The price was also in the affordable range. But, a problem was that I really couldn’t, justify to buy it.

Whenever I find something to buy for myself, I really give it a lot of thought and wait for a while, just to see if I really need it. Doing my best to avoid buying stuff in the heat of the moment, which prevents me from having lots of regretable purchases. And it works quite well, can’t think of anything that I regret ever buying. It’s also a very good tactic for saving money.

And after giving it a lot of thought, going to the board shop a couple of times to check it out (sadly, I haven’t seen it, as they didn’t have it in the Novi Sad store, they’d have to order it from their central shop in Belgrade), and giving it some more thought, I finally broke down last week and ordered the board. The fact that they introduced an additional 20% discount around new year’s, also helped with this decision.

Luckily, the ordering time was just two days, so when I placed the order on Thursday, I was to pick it up on Saturday. Marvelous, getting a new board in the middle of a weekend. Even the weather forecast was looking good, not so cold, and dry, even if it’s beginning of January.

Fast-forward to Saturday noon-ish and me being told that the board is actually in Novi Sad, but in the distribution center, and they won’t be delivering it to the shop, as the delivery center doesn’t work on that specific Saturday, but only on Tuesday. Something about having a second Christmas in Serbia and people not working during those days (the orthodox church uses the Julian calendar).

Bollocks.

Tuesday, finally!

And today, just after getting back to the office from the lunch break, the dude from the shop called me, letting me know that the board is in, and that I can come in pick it up after work. “Fuck it!", I said, “I’ll be there in 5 minutes.”

Once I saw the board, I knew I did a right thing ordering it. It’s just fuckin’ gorgeous! I tried it a little in the shop, paid for it, and hurried out to the streets to give it a test ride back to the office.

It’s fun riding it, extremely fun. It’s much smaller, and feels much different than my longboard. The wheels are smaller, but softer than on the longboard. I was expecting the banana board to be slower, but two-three pushes and it rides like the wind. Oh, and it’s light as a feather!

On slower speeds it's not really good for making turns, but when going a bit faster the turning is easier. I'm an idiot. I need to loosen up the trucks. The little "buttons" on the top of the board, which are there to provide a good grip whilst riding, are doing their job insanely well. I was pleasantly surprised how good the grip is.

Maybe even a bit too good. While I was riding the board home from the office, the “buttons”, or maybe the bolts from the front truck, under my front foot were bit too hard, and gave an uneasy feel during the ride. Like when you have a tiny rock in your shoe and the damn thing doesn’t won’t to get out. But I’ll try out different stances before giving the final verdict on this.

Apart from this little thing, it really is a fun little board, and I’m happy that I got it. I’ll be mostly using it for quick rounds around the city, and goofing around at the local skate park. Sticking with the longboard for longer rides, cruises, though.