I got this board in early summer and have been loving it. I hit my fastest top speed ever on it, a confirmed 63mph but likely got faster runs in later that day.
Chopped Earthwing Hoopty R on 22 inch wb, Zealous trucks with stock bushings, Seismic Alphas blackops thane, Zealous bearings, Riptide slab, diy toe catch, Venom torque block.
Looks sick man! Honestly if I were to commit to a small DH setup, I'd go with almost that exact one. Earthwing is mad core, the Zealous look fire, and Black Ops Alphas are great for rough pavement.
@RatBürger its the exact reason I went for Earthwing. I took about a 10 year break from downhill but before I stopped I was a loyal Bombsquad Agent Orange fan. When I returned, I went with something familiar and got the Earthwing Hoopty. Then i was super intrigued by the little boards and stuck with Earthwing because they had a complete offering and it was a great choice for me.
With that said, I am tempted now to try other boards like from Happy or Pantheon. My only complaint about the Hoopty R is I wish the flush mounts were a little longer too be able to use the shortest wb option on the Zealous baseplate but other than that its awesome. I dont have any real reason to get a new board so ive held off.
Swaggy setup, I really like this earthwing deck.
A friend of mine rides this with one of those direction skatetech torque blocks, awesome leverage for standup toe. He has his on cal precisions, I would go with zealous if I bought one.
@Gabriel Fockler how are the skatetech torque blocks? Been looking at those since my Venom one is getting a little squishy. The Skatetech wpuld probably last longer but i have no idea hpw I would like an asymetrical shape.
are toe stops the new fad?
@Alex Guerra i quite like them. It felt solid to me, but I don't own one myself. Having the full height under the toes with the relief under the heel feels very good to me. You can that elevated stance for standup toeside, but it's rolled off under the heel so the standup heelside isn't thrown off.
Some people like the tall side under their heel with the toe side rolled off. I think that this feels awful, but there's no accounting for taste. Harrison bell was posting about this recently. His was set up with the relief under the toe.
@Alex Guerra since we sell em I don't want to go too into the positives, but objectively they are more firm and last longer (ideally "forever" like a footstop) than venom. If you have felt a happy board co TB you have felt a TB with the same construction as skatetech since skatetech shared that with them - they nerd out sometimes.
My personal negative is, visually I don't like that the higher side is the side further forward so you have to tilt it on the deck and practically that their is less toe leverage than venom unless you do more leverage on the toeside.
@Sam Diefenbacher unfortunately so, I'm a big fan of toe risers tho, and had been at a loss since venom stoped making them and the market didn't get new ones for a bit.
@Sam Diefenbacher i have been seeing them around a lot on instagram. I sometimes have trouble keeping my front foot planted when I heelside slide grippy wheels. It just acts as insurance to keep me on the board. Sure, its a crutch and theres probably something wrong with my form, but I'd rather not eat it if I can avoid haha.
Also, I have been working on my form and my foot has been sliding around less.
@Matt Needs Wheels I bet the shape is awesome for some, maybe a little less functional for me since I don't do much freeride but idk, I'm tempted. Do you know if there are plans for a normal shaped one but out of the materials you currently use? I'd love one like the Venom but more durable.
@Alex Guerra we've had skate tech toestop a, toe risers and w concave up for a bit. Not quite sure what you mean by a normal shaped one? What are you referring to?
Side note: Toe stops can cause bailing your board to be more difficult and potentially cause issues with your foot being "stuck" post fall. They scare me personally but it's up to people to make their own decision on that.
@Matt Needs Wheels i meant a symmwtrical torque block. So you know of any plans to make one of those?
I can totally imagine what you mean about trying to bail and getting stuck. Luckily I haven't had any issues with that yet. I'd imagine that would be more common in the freeride world, which I don't do much of. I wouldn't see as many benefits for it for freeride, where I think it's useful is for fresh, grippy wheels.
@Alex Guerra completely semetrical is not up soon from what I know, I've been bugging him to make them tall on both sides since I don't like having a lack of leverage on one side, so hopefully that's coming up next.
@Gabriel Fockler The DH ppl ik who like heal higher, including myself (I will prefer venom untill there's leverage on both bc I like a TB for slides) seem to like it is when tucked you don't have to drop you heal as much to turn healside. Having it higher wouldn't benifit toeside lean in the same way since your toe is already touching the same rail.
@Matt Needs Wheels there's no accounting for taste i guess. Perhaps this is a use case split - toe higher makes sense for standup, heel higher for glovedown.
@Gabriel Fockler Agree, I've been impatiently waiting for tall on both sides tho.
