Fingerboard Fashion?

While me and Ethan and a few others were sitting at Mikes table setting up new decks and what not after the rvous, Harold (the dirty harry) came and sat down. He too was putting together setups and putting stickers on his ramps. Ethan needed help getting a bearing out or a screw, something like that, and Harold pulled out his fingerboarding box. In it were multiple tools. Usually, you look at someone fb box and they have maybe 2 tools: Closeup tool, and the eye glass tools, but Harold had tons of unique tools for fbing. He began to show us how to use a metal file to make perfect riptape cuts. I dont even remember all the tools he had, but it made me think: Has fingerboaridng become all about accesories? The answer is yes, and it's a good thing.

Think back, back before many of us started fingerboarding. All people had were tech decks, skate grip, and tech deck tools. Thats it, and maybe a lighter to "modify" your tech deck. Now look at the fbing scene. We have regular trucks, wide trucks, rip tape, extra smooth, anchor tape, low pro tape, flatface wheels, duel bearing flatface wheels, nocomply bearing wheels, nocomply duel bearing wheels, oringz, pivot cups, shaped trucks, polished trucks, kingpins... The list goes on.

We all have to realize how spoiled we are. Go back and compare that list to the list i supplied with the tech deck list. It's obviously better. In this case, being spoiled is good in fingerboarding. We all are a bunch of innovating people if we can go from the tech deck list, to the fingerboarding now list. It's something alot of us take for granted. People complaining about how they wish fingerboarding would go back to the old days, are prolly the ones who wanted new products and ideas at the time. We are in a phenomenal place right now for fingerboarding, and we all need to realize this, and stop whining.

In the end, i feel that we all should have a fun time with fingerboarding. Spoil yourself! Spend a little bit of money, or work hard to get those sponsors you want, so you too can make yourself an amazing pimp setup. Whats better, a tech deck with grip tape, raised kicks, and tech deck wheels, or, a homewood fingerboard with extra smooth, flatface g7 wheels, oringz, and kingpins?... Ethan always tells me,"Im having alot more fun with fingerboarding once i started caring about how my setup looked". It's true guys. Try making a good setup. It seriously does increase the fun level on fingerboarding. I made one with my frost, winkler wheels, and rip tape setup. Once you do that first kickflip and see that board spin under you and you see how amazing it looks, youll know what im trying to say to you.

Think about what i said. It may sound like alot, but its not.
-Tim Hurley (will be posting more articles like this from now on)