It was early February and I had surfwax in my hand. I smelled it and I smelled summer, pretty girls with dark tans shimmering in cocoa butter tanning oil, I smelled the sea mist wafting in off the crest of an onshore peak. I smelled the official smells of surfing courtesy of a bar of sexwax. And I smiled because I had a good idea: bring smell to skating. We never planned on doing slide pucks until that moment, and then we couldn’t not do them. As LBL always says, “be innovative, don’t just copy what everybody else is doing”. And if we were going to do this… they would be the best pucks on the market or we would bail the whole effort. We laid out 5 things to perfect in this order: 1. material, 2. shape, 3. design (holes), 4. color and 5. smell.
Lift Longboards began in February 2011 in the back yard of my house in East San Diego County. My new friend Mike had built a crude press at home and made himself a few boards. He showed me how he built them, I bought the materials to make a press and we pressed our first board, The Castor. The board was solid and had a functional shape. The shape was derived from a few other boards. We liked an aspect of one board and an aspect of another and so on. We put them together drew the shape and pressed the lams. This board, however, has such radical concave that it was almost un-ride-able. But the more we tried it, the more it grew on us and soon we were riding, cruising, and sliding it at our local spots.
The name Lift is in reference to assistance (giving someone a lift). Giving back/helping out is the basis for which Lift was started and we are dedicated to just that. We strive to give back to/conserve the environment and the American way of life. We are going to make a difference in the world, how big a difference we make will depend on the amount of support we get from riders. We will touch the lives of many very deserving people and there is no better way to get your own Lift than to be a part of Lifting another in need. So come on, get your Lift Longboard and make a difference with us.
Born and raised in San Diego, CA, we've seen the ups and downs, ins and outs of the skateboard industry. We feel that our timing is perfect to launch Lift Longboards and we hope that we can give you a Lift on one of our boards. We love all aspects of the long board skateboarding industry/lifestyle and this love and dedication is transferred into each and every board we make.
Magic Bearings is a brand new company on the scene. Founder Rob Nickell answered a few questions about the business to give people a sense of what’s going on.
So where did Magic Bearings come from?
Magic Bearings stemmed from a desire to be more involved and give back to something I enjoy: downhill shredding. A friend gave me the idea to look at bearings and I realized: except for a few niche companies, everyone just buys trick skate bearings, and those profit dollars fly away, never to be seen again. If there was a bearing company that focused on the interests of the community, those dollars could be turned around and used to grow the scene.
The goal was straightforward: release a great skate bearing, for less than $10, and bring it to skaters everywhere, not just a few core shops. It took a lot more time, money, and samples than was expected, but the end product was worth it.
I thought bearings didn’t matter?
That doesn’t mean you don’t want good ones! There are bearings out there that are higher precision, or come packed with all kinds of gimmicks and marketing bullsh*t, but for the price there’s none better. A lot of effort went into getting the right bearings, and I couldn’t be happier with what’s resulted.
For years, skaters have been relying on brands such as Icaro and Charly (alongside clones) to provide them with their downhill helmets of choice. Built and designed around paragliding, said helmets have long offered skaters excellent road visibility in a lightweight package, with one major caveat: they provide a questionable level of safety.
Enter the Predator DH-6. According to Predator, it’s pretty much the first readily available skate helmet specifically built to meet the needs of downhill skateboard riders; it’s relatively light, has excellent visibility, and is safer than any paragliding helmet to date (more on that later). Created by Predator Designs in Vancouver with input from skaters around the world, it typically retails for a pretty penny: $325. Read Silverfish Longboarding's gear review to find out whether it’s worth its weight in copper…or gold.
The DH-6 side by side with our no-name Icaro-Style paragliding helmet
First Impressions
Out of the box, the DH-6 comes with a tan visor installed, a separate clear visor, a carrying bag and a “fit-kit”(we’ll discuss that later).
The first thing that comes to mind in describing the feel of the DH-6 is how sturdy it feels. We took a peak inside the helmet and noticed that Predator included a tag detailing how much of each material the helmet consisted of.
It appears that Predator was generous with the fiberglass layup of the outer shell, and it shows. We tried to compress the sides of the DH-6 to see how it fared in comparison to our no-name paragliding helmet, and the results were confidence inspiring (although not necessarily indicative of how safe either helmet was). If you watch the video below, you’ll notice how little the predator flexes in relation to our no-name helmet.
Weight
In terms of weight, Predator provided us with the following numbers (based on its blog site)
DH6 weight-2 pounds 3 ounces or 992 grams
Charly No-Limit-23 ounces or 652 grams
Icaro 4flight cut-840grams
Bell Drop-1045 grams(no visor)
Airwalk Half Shell (CPSC EVS)-470 grams
Giro Xar Half Shell-374 grams
Using our own analog scale (which isn’t 100% accurate), our no-name paragliding helmet came in at the 980 gram mark, while the DH-6 came in approximately 60 grams north of that number. What’s interesting is that a label on the inside of the helmet states that it weighs 890 grams, but that’s probably without the visor taken into account. Regardless, the DH-6 iscertainly a lightweight helmet for what it offers, and the 1000 or so grams it weighs is nothing to scoff at. During the time we spent DHing/freeriding with it, we didn’t experience any neck strain or anything of the sort, indicating that the helmets weight is nicely distributed.
Graphics
As for the paintjob, it was clean, simple, and the paint itself seemed to be of a good quality. We have to say that the racing stripes are a nice touch to what would otherwise be an all-glossy solid black helmet. As we understand, more colors are on the way for those who want something other than black.
Visor/Visibility
When it comes to helmets such as the DH-6, visor quality is critical. A visor that provides little to no distortion is the only way to go, and that’s a tough order to make considering the degree to which polycarbonate needs to be bent to fit these types of helmets.
During riding, we did not notice any distortion that affected our field of vision/concentration on the road. If you are really picky though, you might notice slight distortion present at the most extreme bending points of the visor.
Speaking of which, the DH-6 comes retrofitted with a tan visor that can lock into several positions, which is a nice touch.
As you can see from the video above, the visor fits snugly onto the helmet when fully closed. During DH sessions, we experienced no noise coming from the helmet, as the visor locks in pretty solidly.
As for visibility, we were pleasantly surprised at how much vertical visibility the helmet offers. In comparison to our no-name paragliding helmet, the DH-6 actually offers an inch more vertical visibility. What this translates to in real life is simple: we found ourselves adjusting our head less often while in full tuck.
The DH-6
As for horizontal visibility, the DH-6 had around the same amount of space available as our no name helmet (around 7.5”). It’s hard to tell the exact measurement due to our camera angle, but you can see the horizonatal viewing space from the pics below.
To show you a rough image of what is seen once the helmet is put on, we took an ultra-wide angle shot of the helmet with a camera inside the shell.
Ultra-Wide Shot from the inside
The top black section you see in the image is visible in tuck, however the left (cheeckpad), right (cheeckpad), and bottom black sections are not really visible. Trust us when we say the visibility is pretty great.
Safety
Unlike any other aerodynamic/paragliding helmet out there that we know of, the DH-6 is certified to CPSC and EN 1078 standards for bicycling. The standards set for bicycling match up great to the sport of speedboarding.. It’s pretty much the first impact rated helmet for downhill skateboarding, and Predator considers it a big step forward for the sport. We’d have to agree. Below is an image taken from their blog detailing the CPSC testing/certification process.
Excerpt from Predator explaining the image and CPSC Certification:
What you are looking at is the EPS foam and shell of the DH6 being driven into a metal anvil by a mechanical arm. The lady in the top right then measures the read-outs to see if the energy dissipation meets the requirements for the CPSC skateboard standard (thats the Consumer Product Safety Commission for those that were wondering what CPSC stands for).
Now if you’re the type to nerd out on stuff, heres some more in-depth info on the certification process. Keep in mind these answers are from Matt Kelly the owner of Predator and not in any means the official words of the CPSC.
Is the gray material of the helmet raw fiberglass?
The gray material is a gray gel coat. Same stuff on outside of most power boats, canoes, etc…You usually need it to pull fiberglass products from the mold. Shell is 100% fiberglass. Fiberglass a polymer resin with a glass-fiber cloth reinforcement. Gell coat is a resin with a paint-like content mixed in. usually sprayed or painted into mold before resin and cloth laid in.
What constitutes enough damage to fail? I’m guessing the cracks in the picture are a pass since the surface hasn’t fully broken, right? Open holes in substrate would be the one, right?
It is not the damage to the helmet that they look at. Most are cracked right through shell and eps in some area after the impact. It is the force transmitted to the sensors and computer that somehow measure in g’s…. I really don’t know exactly how, but over 300 for CPSC is too much. The testing guy tests many a day for many sports standards so has a feel for things bases on the shape of the impact graph line and what he sees in the helmet construction.
What kind of force does “huge impact” actually mean & equate to?
It was a subjective opinion based on what I saw in the test…..to me nobody would walk away conscious from the impact used to test the CPSC standard. It is really hard, like hitting a brick wall head on at 30kph. No neck to flex, steel head hitting solid steel anvil. The standard for “fit” on helmets, or coverage is pretty low or hard to test (but I think super important), but the impact standard looks to me to be more than adequate
As mentioned earlier, the DH-6 also conforms to the EN-1078 safety standard, which is used in Europe. According to Wikipedia, “the standard covers helmet construction including field of vision, shock absorbing properties, retention system properties including chin strap and fastening devices, as well as marking and information.” Getting technical…to obtain EN-1078 certification, a helmet must pass through several key tests including:
Test anvils: Flat and kerbstone
Drop apparatus: Guided free fall
Impact velocity, energy or drop height flat anvil: 5.42–5.52 m/s
Impact energy criteria: < 250g
Roll-off test: Yes
Retention system strength: Force applied dynamically. Helmet supported on headform.
The DH-6 uses a retention system like that of most half-shell helmets, and it’s good to know it’s been tested/works (we’d rather not find out the hard way, thank you very much).
The retention system
Comfort/Fit/Ventilation
Similar to our no-name Icaro clone, the DH-6 helmet is designed around one standard shell size. But you ask, how is this possible if the helmet is meant to fit XS-Large users? Well, although only one shell size is offered, a fit kit is included that has various sized check pads and various other pads.
Our helmet size has always been a large, so we used the thinner check pads and the DH-6 fit us quite snugly. After a few uses, the padding did compress ever so slightly, but it did not become an issue.
The DH-6 has a more “rounded” profile compared to our no-name paragliding helmet which is more on the oval side, but truth be told, they both fit fine. Results may vary, because everyone has a different noggin and different comfort tolerances.
In terms of ventilation, the DH-6 has a single front vent located on the chin guard. We didn’t really feel it too much while testing it, which is both good and bad. It doesn’t create a lot of drag, but it also doesn’t seem to do that much. Then again, we’re sure that in times of colder weather, the vent will help offset fogging issues, which is one of the major downsides our no-name helmet faces, since it lacks ventilation whatsoever.
Conclusion
No doubt, downhill skateboarding is “blowing up”, and thanks to the Predator Helmet, you can (probably) rest assured your head doesn’t have to. We found very little to fault it with, and can pretty much recommend it without a lingering doubt to those looking for a safe DH helmet in a light weight, aerodynamic package. If you’re considering getting an Icaco/Charly, you might want to rethink your decision, because the Predator is no alien to DH, and was built with what we do in mind.
Photo Cred - Blair Caldwell
Ultra-Wide Shot from the inside
The retention system
