Your First Slalom Set Up By Karl Floitgraf

So you’ve probably tried slalom before and decided that you like it enough to drop a little coin on a set up. Well there’s a lot of cool equipment out there, some of it expensive and unnessary for a lot of people. My first suggestion for getting yourself a setup is to ask who ever you slalom with or got you into it. That way your riding something that you know will work on the courses you willl be skating. If that’s not an option then consider this advice:

The deck: your begginer slalom deck should be around 29 to 31 inches long, easy flex that’s weight appropreiate (most deck makers ask you for your weight inorder to detirmine the flex). Also make sure the board doesn’t have too high of camber. Camber is how the board shape will go up. Unless you are sure you like it don’t bother with concave. It often makes the board less responsive. I recommend either a custon board from Fatboy, a preformance series by Roe or the hardcore wood series by Pocket Pistols.

The trucks: in the past five years there have been some great inovations in slalom specific trucks, offsets, perfect 8mm axles and custom hangers. For your first setup you really don’t need that stuff yet. The best thing to buy is a set of Tracker RTX and RTS models. Use the RTX in the front and the RTS in the back. They are only $20 each.

Bushings, Wedging and Hardware: one word: Khiro. You’ll need to pick up a Bushing kit and some angled riser pads from them.
Wheels: Wheels are really a personal preference, you major choices are 3dm, which produces the Avalon(68mm), Avila(75mm) and Cambria(62mm)or Pocketpistols new Manx Wheels or my personal favorite the Abec 11 Zig Zags.

Bearings: In my experience nothing rolls faster longer for $10.50 than Pleasure Tool Abec 7 sealed bearings.

LINKS
DECK BUILDERS
FATBOY
ROERACING
POCKETPISTOL
TRUCKS
TRACKERS ON DADDIES BOARD SHOP
BUSHINGS AND ACCESSORIES
KHIRO SKATE EQUIPMENT
WHEELS
3DM SPORT
MANX
ABEC 11
BEARINGS
PLEASURE TOOL