ISSA - International Slalom Skateboarding Association

Wot, no banana? Some better images of the deck under discussion:



Pictures from www.cruisin.de

Thanks Jani.

The Indiana Big Chief was the first board on which I learned to pump back in '99 (before then we used to do tic-tac races) so it is interesting to see product development from the company that introduced me to the sport.

Although I started on an Indiana, I found the Big Chief to be both too twisting and narrow and far too flexible for accurate conework. As a street board however, it was fast and comfortable.

Indiana has always had a Race Team to showcase product, yet the range does not appear to have changed from the cruiser/ street line-up that was offered at the time of my initial purchase. Where the product on their site was thin and flexible, the deck raced by Luca was a solid slab of oak.

The latest deck seems to have a little more width, a longer tail and a little less camber (the latter suggesting that the board must be stiffer than typical in order to give up the same rebound). Yet it is still narrow enough to accept very narrow gauge trucks which means that it might be a good deck for Tight Slalom, wheelbase permitting.

If you look at a manufacturer such as Fibreflex, the race decks picked up the results, were seen by all and yet were impossible to come by. Instead people turned to other constructors in order to be able to race on a competitive board within the same year.

Indiana were running these decks as early as the Paris World Cup in May (if not before), so it would be a good marketing coup to seal their fine results with product availability, given that the race boards appears to have been fully developed. Equally, it would be a shame to cast aside the very good groundwork and miss the sales opportunity so provided.

Is there then, a projected release date for this product?


The cruiser decks are available in the UK through importers Octane Sport who distribute to retail outlets such as www.smallplanetsurfshop.com in Hove.

Sam Gordon wrote:The Indiana race board has been on many podiums this year, driven by riders such as Luca, Maurus and Noemi. Why then, if it has been so successful, has it not been made widely available to the general public?

Sam,

The Indiana boards are much more widely sold than you think. Most boards are sold in shops to the "general public". What they probably lack is sales to the racing community. It seems their best boards are actually not offered for sale (yet). I assume they are working on that. Is there anyone to confirm these rumours?

That they have healthy sales in regular sport shops, just like Airflow, is a very good sign. Airflow and Indiana are probably the top two slalom brands in terms of number of boards sold per season (that is counting their full range of crusing related decks).

/Jani

The Indiana race board has been on many podiums this year, driven by riders such as Luca, Maurus and Noemi. Why then, if it has been so successful, has it not been made widely available to the general public?


Bettina, Noemi & Nastasja at Antibes World Cup 2004



Maurus Strobel at Antibes World Cup 2004

Check: www.indiana.ch

Board display - Autumn 2003

Here's an enlarged view of the SkyHook.

Leo, it's best that I answer in place of Jani as regards the above featured boards (it's a posession thing). The Indiana was set up to do the Eastbourne offset slalom course (6-8ft) set by Clingfilm, with a single skyhook from http://www.lushlongboards.com used as a footblock. If you look at the dirt on the Indiana's grip-tape you can see that the foot position is such that the rear foot faces slightly backwards to suggest a surf-riding rather than feet-forward position. Whilst such a position allows for excellent fast cruiser pumping, (it was my chosen board to and from the race for its combination of speed and comfort) in race conditions my foot position caused the rear to wash-out, or 'oversteer.' The board is very flexible, and its comparative lack of torsional rigidity does not help for tractional purposes; however better riders (ie. Swiss) can make these boards stick and win. Maurus Strobel at Morro Bay 1 springs to mind. The 'skyhook' is in place to stop the front foot from being thrown off by the deck returning to reverse camber after a pump and is very useful as a position-locating device.
I finally rode the race on the Fibreflex Response (shell logo replaced with G&S bar sticker to allow more grip-tape under the front foot), but its wheelbase was a little short for the course and the only result obtained on the day was a startling amount of sunburn (http://www.slalomskateboarder.com/event ... sults.html). The most successful deck on the day for that course was the Turner GS/Hybrid. Top tip du jour came from Simon Levene who recommended a head-up, feet-forward, shoulders-forward position both to increase traction and retain momentum. Next year...

Both decks in the picture are great to ride in their own spheres; the Indiana for fast free-riding, the G&S for tight slalom. Hope that helps!

P.S. Thanks for the photograph, Jani; the boards are far more photogenic than my skating...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: sam gordon on 2003-01-07 14:49 ]</font>

hi Jani,
though it can be used as one wishes, this is not a foot blocker, this is "fly hooks", you're suppose to have one at each end and, as the name says, this is meant for jumping sidewalks.
It produces a lot of pizza (i don't know if this metaphor is in use in american skate jive, means tomato-like road rubbed skin)

Nice pic. can we get a close up to the foot block?

is that board for ts, hs or gs?

leo

Indiana is a Swiss brand which has been around since the early 90's.

Here's a picture of one of their models next to a Fibreflex board for comparison. (Note that the front has a hook to keep the front foot in position - a technique which many Swiss riders use.)



See www.indiana.ch for more information.