Bamboo Skateboards

The other Asian Invasion: Bamboo Skateboards

Bamboo is an amazing plant. You can use it to feed pandas, make flooring, furniture, and even bicycles and saxophones. And yes, skateboards too. The crazy thing about bamboo is that it has a stronger strength to weight ratio than maple, but has been know to grow 4 feet in a week’s time! Think about how many boards in a year that a typical street skater goes through. What if you could make a bamboo board that performs as well and lasts as long as a hard maple deck? There are companies making decks containing various percentages (up to 100%) of Bamboo, but they are mostly carving or downhill setups not meant to take the torture of street or bowl riding. Today I received an email and pictures from a Slovakian company with a Chinese manufacturer of 100% bamboo skateboards shaped like a typical popsicle stick. Even that’s nothing new. Check out some bamboo Skateboarding action after the jump.

A couple of years ago I contacted an Australian company called Bamboo Skateboards (duh!) who appeared to be first to market with a 100% bamboo traditional popsicle stick board. I can’t believe I just used “traditional” in conjunction with “popsicle stick.” Ugggh! I say “appear” because I recall they were very short on actual pictures and specs, and they never returned my emails. Now it appears they have gone out of business or forgotten to pay their web hosting bills.

The Slovakian/Chinese connection

Today I received an unsolicited email trying to get me to buy bamboo skateboards in bulk. The main thrust of the argument was market analysis about sustainable materials and a “better attitude” towards the environement. The prices were cheap, starting at $11.15 for 1000 boards, with screen printing included. Now, I haven’t priced a thousand blank decks in a while, Chinese or otherwise, but it sounds cheap. Strangest of all, the email was from a Slovakian company, and actually contained pictures of the finished product. You can skip to the end to read the email in it’s entirety and see another picture. Click the pics to see them enlarged.

Bamboo Skateboards

So are these things any good? All Chinese manufacturing issues aside, there remains the most important question of whether or not a bamboo skateboard can perform as well as a hard maple skateboard. It’s possible, you never know. And if it is, then that’s not necessarily bad news for American manufacturers. I hear bamboo grows like weeds, literally. If you plant some in your yard you have to take special precautions to contain it or else it will spread uncontrollably. Maybe they could stop subsidizing corn somewhere in Iowa and plant bamboo skateboard farm instead. Can you make Bamboo paper? Then we could have mile after mile of homogenized bamboo instead of pine trees planted in pretty rows.

Seriously though, it remains to be seen if these boards can take the place of 8 plys of maple. The quickest way to get these guys to stop sending you emails soliciting your business is to ask them to send you a bunch of free samples on their shipping and import tariff dime, which is exactly what I did. If they come through with the goods, look for me at your local skate park. I’ll be the guy giving away bamboo skateboards if you promise to tell me how they stack up. In the mean time, let’s look at some good old North American manufactured Bamboo skateboards.

ALL Bamboo boards
Boards that are 100% constructed from bamboo.

Longboards by Fatboy

Longboards by Fatboy

Longboards by Fatboy may not have been the first, but they were the first boards I ever saw made out of bamboo. These are total custom jobs that aren’t mass produced. A 100% bamboo slalom deck will run you $80, and bamboo with hardwood stringers start at $100. I thought he used to offer a bamboo street board, but I don’t see it mentioned on the web site.

Sector 9 Skateboards

Sector 9 Bamboo Skateboards

Sector 9 has a line of 100% bamboo skateboards called, wait for it… the Bamboo Series. The Bamboo Series are either long or short, and none of them are available in a traditional bowl or street shape. These are carving boards or downhill bombers, and one is a “mini-cruiser” so it’s safe to say that you wouldn’t have to worry about wear and tear issues related to street and park skating. They don’t appear to be any cheaper than their other boards so the main appeal is aesthetic and environmental. They have a good catch phrase: “Save a tree. Ride a weed.” You can ride a weed for $60 – $70, deck only.

Arbor Sports

Arbor Bamboo Skateboard

On the surface, Arbor Sports does not have much differentiation from the Sector 9 offerings. Price remains unaffected, and their models to not appear to be made for high-stress riding. Straight from their web site; “Bamboo is an amazingly renewable, environmentally friendly material. It’s incredibly strong; yet light, flexible, and resistant to compression. The natural bamboo deck-ply improved return and resilience, while adding a clean, Zen flavor.” These decks cost about $80 online. In an unrelated note, I’d have a hard time buying a skateboard from a any company whose name contained the word “Sports.”

Bamboo Composite boards
Boards with a bamboo component.

Loaded Carving Systems

Loaded Carving Systems

Loaded Carving Systems has a line of bamboo composite boards. In fact their whole line up appears to have vertically laminated Bamboo core, surrounded by epoxy and fiberglass. These decks have the distinction (?) of being nearly twice as expensive as the competing brands coming in at $151-$160. Part of that may be due to the fact that each can be ordered in varying levels of flex. They also appear to be a lot stronger than the others, which I’m sure is due to the fiberglass elements. In the technology section they even show a car wheel bending a fully set up deck to the ground. Impressive? Yes, but not unusual. I’ve seen the same thing happen in uncontrolled circumstances with a regular sized board. I had a friend who had an Uncle Wiggley (Argyle fiberglass epoxy model) that shot out into traffic, got run over by a car and came back completely in shape. It’s much more impressive for a short board than a long board, and this was 20 years ago. Loaded makes a strange fish shaped deck with wheel cutouts that is targeted for bowl riding. Not a traditional shape for that usage by any means. I’ve actually seen one of these (Loaded) in person, and I was a bit disappointed as it didn’t look like it was finished well. The edges appeared to be damaged or coming apart. This may have been due to being knocked around while on display in the shop, but it was concerning nonetheless.
 
Comet Skateboards

Comet Skateboards

Comet Skateboards has some boards which feature bamboo (vertical laminate) in some of the layers, but near as I can tell they don’t have an all bamboo board in the lineup. They do have several links in the sustainability section of their web site. Comet’s bamboo boards all have fiberglass and some carbon fiber element in them and cost from $85 to $100 for the deck alone.

Cheap asian bamboo skateboards, Direct from Slovakia!

A search on the web turned up this fuzzy picture with some sideways contact information. That’s why I was surprised to get a direct mail from a Slovakian company and a couple decent medium resolution images. Here’s what they had to say.

Hello,

I am writing to you because we would like to offer you our OEM services concerning bamboo skateboards.

We are a European based company and we have developed with our chinese partner a unique, extremly durable, tree saving skateboard. This alternative to maply ply skateboards is made out of bamboo fiber which is fast growing and easily renewable.According to our market analysis, popularity of bamboo products, skateboards included, are rising and are expected to continue for at least several next years. Therefore a bamboo skateboard is likely to appeal to many customers as it combines the qualities of classical maply ply skateboards but has a diferent look and a “better attitude” towards the environement.

Currently we can produce 30 000 bamboo skateboards per month and we are capable of supplying you with different styles and sizes of skateboards according to your needs, all under strict QC.

The prices for our bamboo skateboards are:

1000 pcs -> 11.15 USD
2000 – 5000 pcs -> 10.45 USD
5000 – more pcs -> 10.00 USD or lower depending on quantity ordered and mutual contract.

These prices include bamboo skateboard and screen printing.

All prices are FOB China.

MOQ is 1000 bamboo skateboards.

We really hope that you will like our offer and we are looking forward to
hearing from you soon

Best regards

Adam Minarovic
Rovniankova 20
85102 Bratislava
Slovakia

And finally, I leave you with one last picture of a bamboo skateboard from a Slovakian company with a Chinese manufacturing partner.

Bamboo Skateboards

Discussion

67 thoughts on “The other Asian Invasion: Bamboo Skateboards

  1. Will they also sell me viagra and cialis and ringtones? How about Mitsubishi airbags?

  2. Bush is forever saying that democracies do not invade other countries and start wars. Well, he did just that. He invaded Iraq, started a war, and killed people. What do you think? How does that work in a democracy again? How does being more threatening make us more likeable?Isn’t the country with the most weapons the biggest threat to the rest of the world? When one country is the biggest threat to the rest of the world, isn’t that likely to be the most hated country? If ever there was ever a time in our nation’s history that called for a change, this is it! The more people that the government puts in jails, the safer we are told to think we are. The real terrorists are wherever they are, but they aren’t living in a country with bars on the windows. We are.

  3. That’s fine and all. But what does that have to do with the use of bamboo in skateboard decks again?

  4. Nothing in fact. that was comment spam. The URl was for an airfare web site, the associated email was in Russia. A bot must have picked up on the word “invasion” and spewed out some hand picked text. Kind of amusing, actually.

  5. Nice article. I’ve noticed when manufactures try to sell you on the eco-friendly alternatives the consumer usually pays a premium for these niche products. ie. bamboo flooring, smartcars, solar panels. (all great ideas) also I might worry about vertical delam problems in the slovak board examples. Someone let me know how these hold up if you actually have one.

  6. i would love to have a baboo bord that just sweet. any ways you should e mail me so i can find out more on how to get a bamboo bord from this company.

    matt

  7. im also interested in buying these boards if they are any good. if they are good enough, they will or should be a good seller. at that price, you could also sell it a bit cheaper then a regular maple board and people might just get into it. Bamboo is an amazing grass. they make cloth out of it now. even paper.

  8. there are also bamboo baords by habitat:
    http://www.loadedboards.com/newsite_v1/vanguard.html

    i don´t know if they are ALL or just Bamboo Composite boards. you don´t get them in europe (i am from gemany) yet but maybe somebody of you can try and give a review here.

    maybe interesting for the blogger of skate and annoy:
    there is also a german skateboarders who is annoyed of the mainstream skateboard industry:
    http://www.sub-stance.com/

  9. hey im thinking bout buyin one of three long boards… the Sector Nine Maccas Longboard, Arbor Bamboo Bug, or the Gravity Larry Bertleman 33″ longboard… ive never skated before and i cannot decided which to choose… what do u think is the best one to start off with…

    and in regards to the bamboo boards… im 155lbs and im scared that i would break the bamboo boards… lol… what are their limits?

  10. houseofneil on November 5, 2007 - Reply

    33″ is not a longboard. Most shortboards are close to that these days.

  11. I am not a longboarder by any stretch of the imagination… but I have ridden the Loadedboard board seen above on three occasions (that exact set up in fact). And it was a BLAST, and that was just on flat around the skatepark. That flex made it so easy and fun to bounce and pump around. Very cool. (I’m 150lbs and wasn’t skeered about breaking the board at all… the board owner is right at 200 lbs, and he liked it just fine.)

    Can’t give any report on the other brands, but I’d feel comfy saying Loaded is a fine choice.

  12. The bamboo decks are good and their actually cheaper than 12 dollars for a thousand piece its china man and I been in the trading business and I know the production cost of it and even in Taiwan they have that.

  13. I have been riding a bamboo board (8″ x 31(?) I think) for the past month. I have beaten the dog sh*t out of this board.

    There are no delamination issues. I will warn you the deck is notably heavier than the typical 7 ply maple.
    This could be a mental thing but I think my ollie got another 4″ higher due to the excess weight of the board; physics say it’s possible.

    Another thing you will notice is that the board has less than half the typical flex of a maple deck (I am 165lbs). This becomes quite apparent during board slides on rails. I adapted to the additional stiffness within two sessions out on the board.

    Another point of interest is the impact resistance of this board. The A-frame at my home park is directly next to metal railing, which separates the bowl area from the street course. Any slight miscalculation that leads to a bail results in the nose (or tail) of the board slamming directly into this metal railing; instantaneous splintering. Recently working on my grabs, I have launched the nose of my board into the railing at least 500 times this month. A typical maple would have been destroyed (I know from experience). The bamboo does NOT flake apart like maple. A few taps on the nose to realign the fibers and the board is like new. The fibers of bamboo will not break off because of their individual flexibility as compared to maple which is brittle and weak without girth, for lack of a better word.

    I also love doing manuals which means my nose & tail scrape the ground a lot. Amazingly, the bamboo seems to hold up twice as well as the maple decks.

    Now, why did I get a bamboo board? No I’m not some environmentalist tree-hugging hippie that smokes a lot of dope because it’s natural. No, I’m not out to save the world. I do recycle occasionally but it’s because the recycling bin is right next to the garbage cans at my apartment. I broke another maple (deck number 217 in my lifetime?) and the shop on site didn’t have any 8″ boards in stock except that one bamboo.

    How much could it hurt you to try one…?

  14. I’m confused about how you think a heavier board will help you ollie higher? A heavier board would be harder to ollie.

  15. nweyesk8 on December 4, 2007 - Reply

    I have to agree with bradley, I can ollie larger, 8.5″+, boards with big trucks and larger wheels way better that i can ollie the narrow little street/freestyle boards with smaller wheels and trucks..

  16. Professor Schmitt points out that larger wheels and riser pads raise your board higher off the ground, so when your tail hits, your board angle is steeper making you ollie more vertically and get higher. Conversely a flatter take-off with smaller wheels will give you more distance.

    I wonder what the weight difference would be. I was comparing some bigger boards and found an eight ounce weight difference. I once compared some cored wheels with regular wheels and found the difference in weight very slight.

    Anybody in a skate shop want to compare some deck and wheel weights for us?

  17. I agree with Conahan. I think you’re getting increased ollie height from geometry not increased board weight. I’d bet if you had two boards of the same size and different weights, the lighter one would yield higher ollies every time, unless it was Conahan’s board, in which case it would not ollie at all.

    Bradley, your comment almost reads like comment spam. What shop did you get yours at, and what was the brand name? I’ve never seen an actual bamboo popsicle stick in a shop, just longboards.

    1. Rip Van Winkle on April 24, 2011 - Reply

      Ektooally, if you people would get out (beyond skating) more, you could see how it would be possible for increased weight to increase ollie height with a bamboo board. (Though some seem here can’t even comprehend that increased safety equipment could lead to increased injuries, cuz cuz “false security” is not a word, dude.) Anyway, any good fly fisher knows that bamboo has a higher modulous of elasticity than fiberglass even, and MUCH higher than maple… and any non-fly caster knows that, up to a point, a heavier weight will cast farther. And anyone with any imagination should be able to grasp that an ollie loads a deck like (a lure loads) a fishing rod, and then “casts” the forward weight of the board into the air, dragging the rest along with it (granted, un-like a rod casting a seperate lure). So increasing weight, up to a point, as long as the deck has the modulous of elasticity to take advantage of it, could make for higher ollies, ya thoughtless know it alls.

      1. Rip Van Dyslexic on April 24, 2011 - Reply

        *(Though some “here seem”?)

        1. Rip Van Drivel on April 24, 2011 - Reply

          **(Though some [who hang around] here “can’t even seem to” comprehend) [my gibberish??].

  18. jesus f’n christ people go out and try to ollie. if you can’t ollie up a ledge jump your fat asses higher.

  19. It’s the hardware in my misshapen knee joint and not my fat ass that keeps me from ollieing up a ledge. I don’t know what Conahan’s aversion is.

  20. JAKEFERRANTI, KNOWITALL ESQ. on December 4, 2007 - Reply

    Common sense, lighter will get your higher.
    I bought a 7 3/4 a year(for a street complete) ago and rode it for 2 weeks, and havent since. It floats ridiculously high without very precise control depending on foot size, just too ackward for indy’s, airs, ollies.
    Too skinny, too light.
    For me 8.5 OR 8.00 is perfect for street, comfortable solid ollies. Just perfect for the small roster of flip tricks I can do.
    Risers, Indys(trucks), bearings & wheel size of course play a factor in wheight. Just depends on what is comfortable to the individual.
    But more wheight? I could only imagine that theory works on tranny as you have something that will launch your ollies. If you just get enough speed you can just fly DOWN any set of stairs without olling. Though do the same off a hip or corner and you actually get air(as in propel upwards). Gravity results clearly depend on individual circumstance & trick. Wheight should be differenciated from board shape, from what I read above.

  21. JAKEFERRANTI, KNOWITALL ESQ. on December 4, 2007 - Reply

    I had this conversation before so many times with Schroeder, so Iv’e already beat the hell out of it.
    If you stay exlcusive to street, a side affect is tranny concepts become very confusing and intimidating.
    If you stay exclusive to tranny, ollieing without tranny is like trying to jump on flatground right after you get off a trampoline. Hence the slappy grind prefence over just ollieing onto grinds/slides. Remember when we all were kids and had the peak of our skills on shitty, 2nd hand or chipped, banged? Yeah..me neither…

  22. concrete disciples thread?

    where’s the rockin rons bearings with the 7.5325′ shim regulating the speed/turn axle velocity combined with a custom 95a bushing boiled with old kook speed lube at 425 degrees for 13.3 minutes??

  23. skatehardretard on December 4, 2007 - Reply

    434 gigawatts per second.

  24. Ryan Heckler on December 4, 2007 - Reply

    Seems we have gotten a little off topic for this post so lets get back to the subject at hand, make sure you smoke your banana peels with non-bamboo pipes and give the finger to those panda bears trying to ram their heathen harvest into our sport…is it a sport:)

  25. Bought 2 of these guys from some company on ebay. Both are holding up really well. They are a little bit stiffer. I didn’t notice a weight difference. Maybe I got different ones or something. Mine is 1 ply bamboo – 5 plys maple – 1 ply bamboo. That’s 20% renewable. Multiply that by the amount of boards are sold per year. I don’t know how many decks you get out of a maple tree, but slowing down the rate of those guys coming down is all good with me. Maybe it’ll make guitars cheaper or something. Anyway, I’d like to find more of these boards and am having a hard time doing so. If anybody knows where I can get my hands on some, let me know. Thanks.
    justinjameyson@yahoo.com

  26. When purchasing GripTape from China…importing from China to the US, what other costs would I incur besides the cost of the GripTape? %?

    Is the cost already included in the price that the manufacture quotes me. If not, when/how do I pay it?

  27. Anyone try one of the Moose ones? Looks like it’s bamboo top and bamboo bottom. I’ve seen them on ebay through the seller tgm_skateboards

  28. WHERE DO I BUY A 100% BAMBOO SKATEBOARD???????

  29. We have a new brand of skateboards called BACKYARD BOARDZ. All of our decks are made of 100% bamboo and are made for street/bowl/vert!! The boards have been “real world” tested in it’s newest form for several months and have withstood the torture we give our boards better than Maple. Check us out on facebook for more information.

    We are a very young business so please be patient with us. The response has been a bit overwhelming but we will be sure to respond to you as soon as we can. Pricing is still TBD however, it looks like our decks with graphics will be around the $50-$65 price range and our completes around $137 (that’s with the best designer trucks in the business)!

    Thanks for taking the time to read this.

    Save the Earth…Ride Some Grass!

  30. You can find more information about BACKYARD BOARDZ by going to http://www.facebook.com and searching – backyard boardz.

    Or you can email us at; info@backyardboardz.com.

    Thanks~

    Save the Earth…Ride Some Grass!

    1. you are the biggest tool i’ve ever seen. didn’t you read the part about 1000 boards for 12 bucks. hahaha 50-60 bucks ?! hahahahah flip makes skateboards with kevlar in it for that doucher

  31. I am the owner of Board Luv, a artistic company that does custom art work on boards. I’m definitely looking to make my company very enviro-friendly with organic apparel, using non toxic water based paints, and switching to bamboo or other sustainable materials for longboards.Does anyone have any links or info on companies who do wholesale for cheaper than $80/deck or even sells the materials to press your own decks? Also a company on the east coast so we don’t contribute to more transport emissions shipping them. Thanks! Peep my site if you wana check out Board Luv work… http://boardluv.synthasite.com

  32. I am so stoked bamboo is beginning to take off in the skate world. At ASR this year I ran into a company called BambooSk8 and they gave me one of their decks. Honestly, it better than just about every other deck on the market. It’s super light and strong. I usually break decks in about a month but I’ve had my bamboo sk8 deck for about two months now and it is still intact and as poppy as day one.

  33. You’re a little too enthusiastic, almost as if you work for a company that sells bamboo skateboards…

  34. Eko-boards now manufactures “green” bamboo skateboards made in the USA…for more information about the boards…write lwcummings@hotmail.com The boards are amazing!!

  35. We recently launched our 2008 BB Splat 100% 3 ply bamboo deck. Nice graphics with the natural bamboo showing through. Please visit us at http://www.backyardskateboards.com for additional information on our eco-friendly 100% bamboo 3 and 4 ply decks. Lighter, stronger and more pop than traditional maple decks!

  36. We produce the worlds finest 100% 3 and 4 ply bamboo street decks! Visit us for more information…
    http://WWW.BACKYARDSKATEBOARDS.COM

  37. We are having a huge Holiday Sale so now is the time to try out our 100% bamboo deck. Free shipping plus 30% off all decks and completes http://www.backyardskateboards.com. If you haven’t ridden a pure bamboo deck – there is no better time than now!

  38. Hey Joe, stop spamming our comments. We get it. You have a company that sells bamboo boards. If you want some more publicity, send us some boards to review.

  39. Ryan Heckler on December 10, 2008 - Reply

    joe,is it the bamboo that makes all your boards 8″ or less?

  40. Estes' Ghost on December 11, 2008 - Reply

    I thought Joe was Max Headroom there for a minute. He was having a conversation with himself……..does it come with a cute Panda logo?

  41. No Panda logos… ha ha ha. No I am not Max Headroom either – nice! Yes Ryan, it’s the size of the veneers we use that for now we run 7.5, 7.75, 7.625 and 8.0. We wanted to capture this niche in the industry since there are no other 100% bamboo street decks on the market that we know of.

  42. I would gladly send you some of our bamboo deck samples Kilwag. Can you please email me the address and person who’s attention I need to mail them to? Thanks and have a Happy and Healthy New Year!

  43. Excellent “eco” skateboard! It follows all of the other enviro-commie marketing propaganda except that it is actually cheaper than the non-eco type thanks to the Chinese.

    I guess the only trade-off here is that it is heavier than a maple skateboard deck. There has to be some lesser cost/performance attributes compared to whatever environmental-destruction-causing product that it compares itself to or it would be able to save the planet.

    Hey Joe – send me a thousand of those decks and I’ll spread them all over the southeast US.

    By the way

  44. bamboo grows quickly and naturally in china. it should be cheap, and for ecological reasons made in china. since this post has attracted the interest of people in the bamboo board biz,I thought I should comment on how I’d hope these boards are made with some sort of non-toxic organic glue. keep up the good work of trying to come up with something that is in the long run better than maple

  45. Actualy, if you believe burning fossil fuels have anything to do with global warming, bamboo would be better grown where it to be used to manufacturer the product and distributed that product for sale.

    A bamboo board would be more “ecological responsible” if it were made in the US. Sure it would be five times the cost due to the high price of labor in a free society. But those people fooled into believing in made-made global have to pay more to “save the planet”.

    Think of the fossil fuel that is being used to manufacture this board in China, ship it to Slovakia and then ship it to the US.

  46. think of Canadian maple, shipped to the manufacturer, and then to a distributor (or two), then to a shop etc. this chain could cross any ocean. skaters need boards all over the world. any plant is best grown where it naturally grows. perhaps the strain of bamboo that is good for making decks can be grown in the US?? maybe in the south east?? even with the cost of farming the stuff. it should be cheaper in the long run than maple, even if you have to import raw materials.

  47. shepeSpeniach on December 30, 2008 - Reply

    Hi there! I was wondering if someone knows a nonfree stocks monitor sofware for my nokia-5800 cell?
    Thanks a lot

  48. I monitor new/old stock on “art of skateboarding” and sometimes on this web site (skate and annoy) they do this “ebay watch” thing that is very helpful when keeping an eye on the price of your stock. other than that I’d check the inter net, they know tons of stuff!

  49. Does anyone sell bamboo blanks in bulk? i am losing my mind trying to find them. and i dont mean cheap thin veneer layers either…i mean the good stuff.

  50. Ryan Heckler on January 25, 2009 - Reply

    I got a yard full of Bamboo blanks…….I can’t keep the damn stuff from taking over my yard

  51. How you think, in our situation whis crisis its actual?

  52. Hey Kilwag,

    Did you ever get one of these Backyard bamboo board to review. I’m really curious.

  53. Nope. never did.

  54. Wats there email I’m talk to them I’m a new board company that presented the idea of bamboo boards to my sk8rs I’d like to get my hands on a couple and c how they hold up to my sk8ing

  55. dude are these seriously 500 for ten bucks lol

  56. nathaniel on October 29, 2010 - Reply

    October 29, 2010, this article came up while searching “bamboo skateboards”

    facts – bamboo is stronger than ‘hard rock” maple, that is, it’s specific gravity or density is higher, like hickory, in comparison. it is 17% harder than ‘hard rock’ maple. bamboo’s modulus of elasticity, or it’s pop, is much higher than hard rock maple. an average of 3″ higher ollies than hard rock maple. maple trees take 50-60 years to be replaced while bamboo is a grass, grows up to 2 feet a day, is mature for harvesting in 5 years, and doesn’t need to be replanted (it replants itself). bamboo has higher resiliency than maple, higher responsiveness than maple, and intenser memory than maple (it’s ability to rebound to natural shape).

    skateboard conclusion – bamboo kills it compared to maple.

    1. Name your source. Anyone can just say “Fact”

      1. francisco on October 30, 2010 - Reply

        Is he talking about hard rock maple?

        1. talentlessquitter on October 30, 2010 - Reply

          I only ride death metal maple…

  57. I have a bamboo slalom board that takes abuse far beyond what any other board has. It’s a Pumpkin that is Swiss made. Vertical laminate bamboo, with epoxy top, and P-Tex bottom. It still has the same flex as when I bought it…almost 10 yrs ago.

    Since bamboo grows here in south Florida, it would be interesting to use this renewable resource. hmmmmmm???

    1. hmm not sure it is Swiss bamboo …
      but you are right about Pumpkin – Trick or trash ?
      I am also not sure a bamboo board withstands a tenth of what a street/park/ramp deck endures.

  58. BambooSk8 is a cali company that has a great 100% bamboo short and long boards…http://www.bamboosk8.com/

  59. Bamboo hardly seems sustainable with the numbers of boards shipping out these days. Lib Tech had the best gimmick with fiberglass. Lasted forever but would slice your shit wide open when it razor tailed.

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