When I bought my Ray Barbee re-issue last July I bought it with the sole interest in learning to ride pools. Ever since I was a 12 year-old kid riding around the suburbs bombing hills, eating shit off launch ramps and doing acid drops off park benches the pool was this amazing and unattainable grail, the kind of thing we watched VHS tapes of kids from California do, not the kind of thing us nice, corn-fed kids from suburban Chicago could ever do. So when I saw the pool at Wilson last summer I knew instantly it was time for me to make good on a fantasy that had been lingering around my shrinking brain far too long. Like most things I do these days, I needed to make good on my 12-year old self.
The Ray Barbee deck was ideal as far as I could tell, nice concave, plenty wide at 9.5″ and a little longer than most rides. I ordered it as a complete with 64mm G-Bones thinking those would be my best choice. I was definitely ignorant, thinking you’d want softer, larger wheels for better grab while riding the walls of the pool.
Lately, I’ve been getting frustrated having to put so much work in getting around the pool. So I started hunting around on several forums looking for threads on the best wheels for pool riding. Based on what I read I narrowed my choice down to two different kinds of wheels: RockNRon’s Black Holes and Rainskate’s Yellow Jackets. Contrary to what I believed, both of these wheels came with high praise because they were hard and fast, but still had great grip.
I was most drawn to RockNRon’s mostly because of the cultish air of mystery with which people spoke of him and his wheels. I’m still not totally sure what the deal is with RockNRon, but it sounds like he’s some kind of NASA engineer who lives in Malaysia and makes his wheels and bearings only in his spare time when he has it. Awesome. Unfortunately, the same things that drew me to RockNRon may be the reason I can’t find his wheels anywhere. And I’ve looked. The few places that carried them, including Ron’s own site, are sold out with little indication when they may be available again. I sent Ron an email the other day inquiring, but haven’t heard anything back.
My runner up was the Rainskate 62mm 98A Yellow Jacket. Apparently durometer measurements mean next to nothing, changing from manufacturer to manufacturer. In some cases, like RockNRon, manufacturers will list fictional measurements to illustrate a differentiation that is not really able to be articulated in the A scale of durometer measurements (Ron lists his as 101A when in fact they are like 99.8s). This point was only driven further home when my order arrived from SoCal Skates. The difference between my 97A G-Bones and my 98A Yellow Jackets is like night and day. Not only are the Yellow Jackets noticeably harder, but they are clearly made from a different kind of polymer than the G-Bones. I put them on my board and kicked around the wood floor of my apartment feeling a bit sketched as my board rode like it was setting on ice. I was assured they would react differently to pavement, but I was skeptical.
Hitting the pool this morning was a revelation. I used so much less effort to get up the walls and across the flats and there was no slippage at all on any of my turns. And to hear the growl of a harder wheel while climbing up a wall is pretty great.
There’s so much noise and garbage out there regarding gear, it’s always exciting to find a piece of equipment that delivers on it’s promise of making your experience better, and the Yellow Jacket does just that. From now on Rainskate Yellow Jackets are an essential part of any pool riding I do.