My Kracked Skulls Scimitar arrived recently, but that didn’t mean it was ready right out of the box.
Let me first describe my new board:
- Kracked Skulls Scimitar, 44″
- double glass add-on
- Randal, 180mm RII 50° trucks
- Abec 11 83mm Flywheels
- Abec green bearings
That was the recommendation from Bill at Kracked Skulls. So I took it. It arrived with part of the trucks installed, so I had a little work to do. I got the trucks installed, then the wheels. I knew from the beginning that I’d want to design my own grip tape look, so I declined the clear grit/grip that Kracked Skulls offers as an extra. I had picked up a pair of grip tape rolls at One Way Boardshop, in Santa Maria, in preparation of the Scimitar’s arrival.
A few days before it got here I loaded up Illustrator and traced a photo of someone else’s Scimitar, from Google Images. Then I spent some time poking around Google images for some inspiration in designing my grip tape. Early on I decided that I was attracted to the idea of an argyle-looking design. It would be a repeating design, with at least half the board deck covered. In the midst of tossing those ideas around, I realized that I could really represent my affinity for Android, by tossing in a look of Andy. So I did. Take a look at the intended design…
Once the Scimitar was built, I printed out one of the diamond shapes, and the accumulated shapes for the Android logo. A center line, and parallel side lines, then a cross centered line, were my guides. Easy peasy! Cutting out the diamonds were easy with a new bladed box cutter. But the closer details of the Android logo needed a finer blade. An Xacto knife handled that nicely!
As soon as the grip tape was installed, I hit the street in front of my house. Being horribly out of shape kept me from doing much other than going back and forth a few houses away on both sides. Not to worry! I’ll be shredding the neighborhood in no time!
(Actual riding is seriously held back right now from a work-related staff infection.) (Yes, yuck.)
The finished Scimitar looks great! I’m quite happy with the design, and have had requests from online friends to make it up for them! Just today the family went on a bike ride, and I could have gone along on my board. I expect that in the coming days and weeks, we’ll be doing a lot more of that, all to my physical fitness delight.
