Many surf skates have a cruiser-like shape: pointed nose, a bit of a tail and a small size, so what do I mean by a “surf cruiser?” Aren’t many complete surf skates “surf cruisers?”
Yup. You’ve got a good point. It’s just that Landyachtz’ surf skates feel more like cruisers that were coaxed into surfing than surf skates that are shaped like cruisers. The difference could make them popular with beginners to skating in general, those looking to use their setup to commute or travel, and those who want something capable of a few simple tricks. However, anyone looking for a serious surf trainer or a setup capable of dramatic cut backs and high speed pumping may want to look elsewhere.
This is the cruiser that learned to surf, but it’s got a few tricks up its sleeves to make that an enjoyable experience, even if you already have a more dedicated surf skate setup, as I do.
Table of Contents
Truck Setup
The Landyachtz Surf Skates have two different trucks. Up front is their “Banger” reverse kingpin truck. In the back, a traditional kingpin Polar Bear truck, in 155mm. The combination of these two trucks and how they work together is where the Landyachtz surf skate gets its surfy feel. It makes pumping easier than standard RKP or TKP trucks alone.
Bangers
With their surf skates, Landyachtz introduced their new Bangers trucks. These are 65º trucks with a highly raked hanger, mounted to have negative rake. That gives it stability in the center, but still that high angle lean to turn ratio that allows you to snap into pumps quickly. They also use absurdly tall bushings, coming in at 23mm. Interestingly, that’s about the height of a standard street barrel and a short street bushing stacked, so you could theoretically replace them with four different bushings, if you wanted to really dial them in. I don’t think you’ll need to though. The front truck on a surf skate setup is supposed to be loose for pumping. This isn’t like a downhill setup where you want everything dialed in for your weight, truck angle, and riding style. Instead, you almost want less stability up front. This lets you get that sweeping motion going. It’s why people have made surfskates with as little as a caster wheel in place of the front truck.
To add to the already high baseplate angle, Landyachtz adds 5º wedges. This means that Banger truck up front has an effective angle of 70º. That’s a lot of movement. The lean to turn ratio of these trucks highly favors turn. 45º is equal turn to lean, with most freeriding and cruising RKP trucks coming in at 50º. The negative rake of that hanger means it’s not ridiculously unstable though, giving it a large and surprisingly comfortable center.
You can only get these through a complete Landyachtz setup, for now. Perhaps once (if!) supply can catch up to demand, Landyachtz will offer them as an individual setup or with a matching rear truck.
Rear Truck: Polar Bear 155mm
In the back, Landyachtz added their traditional kingpin Polar Bear truck in one of their larger sizes, 155mm. This is the same truck you’d typically get on a Tugboat. Here, however, Landyachtz added a massive wedged riser that levels out the rear truck, countering the deck’s rocker and dewewdging that rear truck slightly. Surf trucks often have more lean than standard trucks to allow them to turn more. This is why Waterborne offers their surf adapter with the surf rail. The rail allows the rear truck to lean more, turning less for the amount of lean you put in. You’ll also see this in long distance pumping setups. The rear truck may be a custom truck that leans, but doesn’t turn at all, like Don’t Trip’s Delirium trucks. There are two reasons for this. First, by not turning, you have a platform to sort of push off on. When the rear truck turns, it has to turn back when you pump, which takes away some of the energy you generate through pumping. Secondly, they need to be able to lean more than they turn as you can otherwise lift a rear wheel. When one of the rear wheels comes up, you lose traction, and can’t reliably push off the back with your pumping motion.
Surf skate setups often dewedge the rear truck. On the Landyachtz Butter Lines setup, that rear truck dewedging mostly just compensates for the rocker. If you decide to wedge the front truck more, you may decide to dewedge the rear truck by the same amount. This is something I intend to try as I attempt to improve the “pumpability” of this setup, which I’ll go into more later.
Deck Characteristics
Landyachtz went with a pretty traditional surfskate or cruiser shape, with a few Landyachtz tweaks to make it their own. Landyachtz has two different sizes (3, as of 2021, see update below), the Pocket Knife and the Butter. Each size also has pre-drilled holes for an adjustable wheelbase. The Pocket Knife is the smaller of the two. The deck is 29.6 inches long, and 9.1 inches wide. However, the wheelbase is a small 13.2 inches or 15.3. The Butter is a bit longer. This is 31.2 inches long, 9 inches wide, and has a wheelbase of either 15 inches or 17.1.
There are four different deck options, and, interestingly, two different grip options. The Pocket Knife FG Watercolor and Butter White Oak Lines feature spray-on grip, while the Butter Walnut Lines and Pocket Knife Black have a more barefoot-friendly high grit padded foam grip tape. That padded foam also helps lock your feet in, to really dig as much energy out of pumping that you can.
All of the decks have minimal concave, keeping with traditional surf skate roots. There is, however, a slightly upturned kicktail, and, on the Butter shape, a bit of rocker.
This doesn’t sound like a controversial shape, however, I do recommend ditching the smaller wheelbases, at least on the Butter (I can’t say for sure about the Pocket Knife, but it likely holds true). While shorter wheelbases can be fun for a dramatic turning angle, it shortens your effective standing area, and it can be hard to feel that if you’re used to a larger standing platform. Nothing like having your foot up towards the front when you go to push or foot brake to realize your foot is well past the front trucks. On more than one occasion, I came to a stop while doing a nose manual because I didn’t realize my foot was too far past that front truck. The padded grip tape does not help here, you can’t feel your bolts. For stability, and a bit more power out of larger pumps, you’ll likely want to keep it on that longer wheelbase. That means going for the Pocket Knife if you’d prefer that middle wheelbase size around 15 inches.
Pumping Feel
For my “other” surf skate setup, I have a Waterborne adapter. This has allowed me to make a surf skate out of quite a few of my decks. The most similar to this was my Landyachtz Dugout, which is about the same length, though more narrow. I found this setup agile and fun, but a little too difficult to get big, powerful pumping motions to carry me along with the speed I wanted (always faster).
This doesn’t move like the Waterborne. If the Waterborne adapter is a surf simulator, this is a surf simulator simulator. Or perhaps it’s just a highly wedged RKP truck. Yes, that front truck does move around a lot more than a standard truck for the same amount of lean. The back provides you a platform you can pump off of. You can pump just about any skateboard with the right motion. Landyachtz’ surf skates sit firmly in the “surf” side, which are easier than a standard or even wedged truck to pump, but not by very much.
I find myself pushing maybe 50% less frequently with the Landyachtz surfskate setup than a similar cruiser. I can get started and moving with pumping, but prefer to get the ball rolling with a push or two. Once moving, I can generate enough power to make it up slight inclines, but it’s not easy. Pumping this feels like work in all but the best conditions. The winter got me out of shape and hopping on this thing in spring this year was an extreme workout. I was not prepared.
With the Bangers trucks and these wheelbases, Landyachtz set out to make pumpable cruisers. These are sort of comparable to Carver’s C5 trucks. Yes, you can pump them. Yes, it’s a surfier feel than you get with even the surfiest of Paris street trucks or Bennett Vector trucks. But this is definitely a cruiser, and a very tall one that’ll be hard to push at that. If I were to rate this on a scale from cruiser being 1 and a surf skate setup that’s good for nothing but pumping (like a caster wheel setup) at a 10, I’d put this at a 2 or maybe a 3. For reference, I’d put the Waterborne at an 8 or 9. This is definitely more cruiser than surf skate, and you’ll feel that as you try pumping along.
Wheel Slippage
The wheels that come with these setups are Landyachtz’ popular 63mm Fatty Hawgs. However, unlike the normal versions, these are smooth, for a bit of extra grip. A very little bit, unfortunately. After a few slides, possibly accidental, these will be as stoneground as any other Hawgs cruiser wheel. Furthermore, they have an offset core, which means the outer lip of the wheel is a bit more malleable. Your weight is further from the edge, and that allows it to slide. I did my best to keep from sliding on them, to preserve what little grip they have, but a little slippage was inevitable.
In a surf skate, you want to be able to generate your power from the back. That’s what you push off of. For that, you need grip. These wheels are just not right for a surf skate setup. They’re great on cruisers. I love the stoneground version of these for the Dinghy. But for a surf skate? I would have preferred something that was more centerset, and with a square lip, at least in the back. (Once more, see update below.)
These do have more grip than standard Fatty Hawgs, at least while new. Still, I found myself pumping harder to go faster on more than one occasion, and kicking out the back instead of generating more speed.
Stability
While pumping may take a bit of a blow due to the cruiser-like setup of that truck, stability takes a win. Balancing or pushing on a Waterborne setup feels like being on a tight rope (or, you know, a surf board) with one foot. However, this? This just feels more like a normal cruiser board. Sure, it’s tall. You definitely have to bend that front leg more to push. But other than that, it feels like you’re just pushing around a slightly less stable and significantly taller cruiser. And that’s the point.
Landyachtz set out to make a beginner-friendly surf skate. They often make some fantastic beginner-friendly setups. This isn’t a setup that is exclusively for those looking for a steep learning curve, those looking to surf when they can’t get out to the ocean, or experienced surf skate enthusiasts. It’s for people who are either learning or who want a small, nimble, comfortable surf cruiser. I actually took this down a few slight hills without feeling like I was fighting to maintain stability. And, as I mentioned, it’s not as hard as I wish it was to kick those wheels out a bit, so you will be able to do speed checks and slides, if you need to slow down. Though with the minimal concave and high grit soft grip tape, you may want to leave anything faster than a gentle cruise to your other setups.
Pushing this isn’t easy, because you’re far from the ground, but it’s not hard because it feels like you’re balancing on a fragile platform. Which means this setup will give you quite a workout. Pumping isn’t easy on it because so much of your energy is wasted just fighting the truck geometry and loss of grip in the rear wheels. Pushing is hard because it’s such a tall setup. Surf skates are supposed to make cruising at a steady pace a relaxing thing, but this feels like a workout.
As a Cruiser?
There is enough tail here for an ollie. Maybe not a lot of pop, as it is pretty heavy, but you can get it off the ground. You can ride this off a curb without too much difficulty. Slash up and down sidewalks, carve over the road, and, well, skate it like you would any other cruiser. It basically is a cruiser. It’s just tall, nimble, and significantly heavier. Carrying this around in a shop as you run errands will be a pain. One of my other cruisers like my Dugout, Dinghy, or Bonzai will be my setup of choice for grabbing groceries.
You can still pump the Landyachtz surf skate to pick up speed or maintain it, so it is nice over flat distances. It functions well enough as a cruiser, at least under your feet. Is it as lightweight and capable as a street deck with cruiser wheels or a mini cruiser? No. But it’s still a fun cruiser that isn’t much larger than a standard popsicle deck and can manage city streets. I could see taking this to slash around in some bowls or just up and down sidewalks.
Conclusion
This is a setup that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, and it’s not great at either. It’s not quite a surf skate and it’s not quite a compact cruiser. It’s both. It’s a surf cruiser. You won’t be able to pump up to ludicrous speeds, but you can get around town… if your town is mostly flat. It’ll fit under a desk or bar table, so you can take it places like a cruiser. Got a hill that’s too big to pump up? You can push without too much difficulty (at least not from balancing). And if you find yourself going down a hill, as the skate gods intended, you won’t feel like it’s trying to wobble your foot off at the ankle.
It’s not going to be enough surf skate for someone looking for a real surf-like feel. But for someone looking to bring an incredibly delicate taste of the waves to a smaller cruiser board, it might be just right. For me, it’s not quite surfy enough. I have cruisers with wedged front trucks that give me a surfy feel. While this does offer more than that, it’s not as much as I was hoping for. I think it could have been a bit more nimble up front, and grippier in the back, to help generate more power while pumping. I found a setup that I just don’t like. I rarely reach for my Bustin Bonsai because it’s a bit redundant with all the other, mostly better, cruisers in my collection. The Landyachtz Butter Walnut Lines? I won’t reach for it because it makes most of what I want to do on a surf skate a chore.
I haven’t given up on this setup though. I may be able to customize this setup further, with better, grippier wheels in the back, more wedging up front, and dewedging in the back. I may also try narrower trucks in the back, for a little extra grip. Since I do like the deck, I could try it with trucks from other companies, like Carver’s C5 trucks, which have a similar setup. The deck might work well with the Waterborne adapter too. As a complete, I’m a little disappointed. The deck shows potential, and the general setup isn’t a bad idea, but it needs tweaking before it can really serve as a quality surf skate, or even a “surf cruiser.” (Note: See update below.)
These little surfers sold out fast online, but you may be able to find them in your local shop for $199.99 USD. Though you may want to go with a more mature surf skate cruiser setup, something more tried-and-true, like Carver’s CX setups for that in-between cruiser and surf skate feel.
2021 Update:
I started this review some time ago, back in late fall of 2020. Yes, this was a “COVID purchase,” as I tried to fix the mediocrity of COVID quarantine with something new. I decided to wait until the spring to publish it though, because I wanted to re-ride it to be sure I still stand by everything I wrote. I always do this before my final proof-read of an article, give it another ride session so it’s fresh in my mind. However, in that time, Landyachtz released new surf skates, with a new shape and a new version of their Bangers truck. These actually address a few concerns I had about the originals, so Landyachtz knows what was wrong with the first version. The 2021 Bangers are narrower and push the truck’s pivot point lower, giving you more leverage. They should be a bit easier to pump. This review covers the 2020 Bangers. I can’t say how the 2021 Bangers are, and Landyachtz only sells them as part of a complete, and my apartment just can’t handle more skateboards right now. Post-COVID, I’ll definitely set up shop to sell my less heavily ridden setups so I can make room for new setups to test.
You can see in the gif above, Landyachtz pulled the trucks in, which will make them more nimble. It’ll also provide more grip in the rear. Furthermore, you can see the wheels changed slightly too. Landyachtz fixed those too, adding square-lipped, 65mm wheels. This fixes what I don’t like about Landyachtz’ 2020 surf skates.
With the 2021 model out, I can definitively say: do not buy the 2020 models, if you can even find them. The trucks and wheels are, without exception, worse for what you’ll want to do here. I’ve been on the fence with the 2020 model when Landyachtz had nothing else to offer, only willing to recommend it for the select few who want a less surfy surf cruiser. Now that this is on the table? Don’t even think about Landyachtz surf skates from 2020. If you’re dead set on the Landyachtz model, and want to see if the improvements to the trucks and wheels were enough over the 2020, I think you can give them a try. In theory, these newer setups should be a lot more fun to ride than the 2020 models. They did directly address the issues I had. I wish I could just buy the trucks off of Landyachtz to give them a try, but they still don’t sell them separately. You can get them as a complete though.
