One of the benefits of staying on the road and constantly traveling around, is that I'm constantly discovering new people, places, shops, and companies... sometimes, right even in my own backyard. The other day, I had to give Karl at Hardcore Sportz in New Castle, Indiana a call to check on a skatepark lead that had come floating across my desk... only to find out that Hardcore had moved to Noblesville a few months back! The next day, I figured I'd drive on up to the new digs to check it out for myself... since it's only about a half-hour drive from my house on Indianapolis' south side, and it'd been quite some time since I last hung out with the Poynter Brothers.
While I was chatting it up with Karl, and shooting some photos of the new storefront for an upcoming Skateshop Spotlight... I spotted a couple of these "mystery longboards" hanging in the racks. I pulled one down, and saw that it was pretty clearly an all-bamboo deck, mounted up with either Randals, or a very convincing Randal rip-off... and some wheel brand that I'd never heard of (but, looked pretty good) called "Bigfoot". Curious, I asked Karl who in the world "Sound Board Skate Company" is, and he told me that they're a local company, right out of Indiana. Karl told me a lot more stuff (which I forgot, because I was distracted by the board... it's really beautiful, up close and personal...). But that's the cool thing about Karl and Kyle: Even though their "core competency" is in bikes, they always seem to know everything and anything about whatever's hanging on their walls. Even in the world of skateboarding.
So, I started doing some homework. Sound Board Skate Company isn't just "from Indiana". They're actually based right in Noblesville, which makes them a little more "local", to the point of being practically "right in my kitchen". Which is super cool. I always like to see new stuff happening in our local scene. Especially longboard-wise.
Checking out the website (www.soundboardskate.com), we see that the Randal II/Bigfoot Wheels combo is pretty common across the whole line, while they also dabble a bit in special-request, art-project, one-off customs. The prices are damn good... maybe "too good"... however, the Bigfoot Wheels seem to be universally panned by the users at Silverfish Longboarding, which might go a long way to explain the pricepoint.
Whatever the case may be, we've got an e-mail in to these guys looking for some more info. Hopefully, they'll get back to us right quick...!
