Tag Archives: longboard

The Best of 2025

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Happy New Year, everybody! Welcome to 2026.

As is now tradition here at Platinum Al’s Virtual Hot Tub, our first post of the New Year will recap the most popular blog posts of the last twelve months. This Top Ten covers all of the articles posted during 2025 – from day one to the very last – to give an idea of what you, the reader, has enjoyed most:

10. Berlin Wall – A Piece of History?

A school trip in 1990 brought this item into my possession. But is it a genuine piece of European history, or some concrete with paint on it? Read and decide for yourself…

9. Skateboard Museum – Sector 9 Longboard

2025 was a great year for my skateboarding. In this post, I looked at the Rolls Royce of my skate quiver, the trusty Sector 9 longboard.

8. New Deck 2025 –  Death Benson 

Another skate post, this one a look at my then-new deck and set up. Documented to preserve the memory of how it once looked! This Devil Woman graphic is a bit saucy and very cool.

7. Black Project – Blood Moon  Album Review 

The only album review to make the Top Ten, this mighty Hard Rock/Metal album by British band Black Project made some fine noise. Also featured on the Ever Metal website.

6. North West Doom Fest – Part 2 

A two day festival celebrating the joys of Doom Metal, North West Doom Fest was a fantastic event. This review of the second day, featuring bands from all over, made a healthy showing in the end of year figures.

5. Liverpool Comic Con May 2025 – Part 2

Comic Cons always fare well in these results, though Liverpool was the only one I attended last year. Day two of the convention lands at number 5.

4. Disneyland Paris 

Our family trip to Disneyland Paris in August 2024 made a big splash at number 4. A magical experience, not to be repeated – Star Tours was, of course, the highlight.

3. North West Doom Fest – Part 1 

The first day of this amazing Doom Metal festival in Chester certainly pulled in the punters. Loads of awesome bands, great music – I’m looking forward to this years event already!

2. KASP Gig Review 

Well, whaddya know?! Storming in at number 2 on this prestigious list, my review of this local band has proved popular, much like their excellent set. Hope to catch them again soon.

Which leaves us with our top performing blog post of 2025. The one with the most visits since publishing, the one that’s fired up the internet and brought the world wide web to the Virtual Hot tub. But what could it be?

  1. Liverpool Comic Con May 2025 – Part 1 

Well I said Comic Cons always do well, didn’t I?! What else could it be than Day one of my visit to Liverpool Comic Con, which included a whole bunch of Cosplay photos too. A great day out, highly recommended!

2025 was an incredibly successful year for the Virtual Hot Tub. We saw the highest number of visitors for years (2016, to be precise). Sometimes I wonder why I bother writing this trove of random nonsense, but last year showed me that it’s worthwhile. We have an audience, and you guys love it just as much as we do.

Thanks for reading Platinum Al’s Virtual Hot Tub. There’s no place else like it!

Skateboard Museum – Sector 9 Longboard

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Sector 9 longboard

My Sector 9 longboard is the Rolls Royce of my skateboard collection. Classy, quality and luxurious – it’s top of the range and stylish.  It’s also a bit of an antique now as I’ve had it a long while.

This was my second longboard.  I sold my first, a pretty cool United Skates pintail, and put that money (about £20) towards a new board.  I really wanted a top quality longboard and had my heart set on a Sector 9 of some type.

Legends surf shop (remember those?) in the Trafford Centre had the goods, so I drove there one evening after work to check it out.  If I remember, this was the only one in stock.  It cost £150 – a lot of cash for me –  but I thought that was fair.

This longboard has served me well over the last twenty years.  It’s pretty much retired now, as I like to use a slightly cheaper board for regular use.  A recent ride proved that this  skateboard was still in great shape and could deliver the goods.

It’s 46 inches long, and still has all the original components – except bearings which I’ve replaced.  The kicktail always seemed superfluous on a deck this size, but the shape overall is great.  I should probably update the wheels, but they’re still performing surprisingly well.

Sporting a beach graphic, this Sector 9 board still looks and rides brilliantly.  I should use it more often!

I have no idea if there’s a specific name for this model.  If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Subskate Summer Fun!

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Are you going on a summer holiday? Maybe a nice Mediterranean place, with lots of sun? Can’t take your skateboard with you? Or if you could, will the pavements be cracked and broken? No skatepark, no surf, but still want to enjoy your board riding fun? Then the subskate could be just the thing for you!

There are many boards in my garage: skateboards old and new, longboards, a snowboard, a mountain board, etc etc. Some years ago whilst on holiday in Greece, I encountered someone with one of these subskate contraptions in the hotel swimming pool, and I had to get my own to add to the collection.

All it is, essentially, is a float – like a buoyancy aid for learning to swim – shaped like a skateboard. Unlike a surfboard (or wakeboard, or windsurf board, for that matter), the rider stands on the subskate which is submerged under the water. There, the “subskater” floats around with their upper body out of the water, and the lower body floating on the subskate in the water. Crazy! Whatever will they think of next??!

See the photos for info. I used a fancy underwater camera for these pics, no expense spared.

Of course, there’s not much to do in the water, just float around. You could try some 360 turns, which I did well at. Shuvits weren’t really happening, though. Everything moves real slow under the water, but the board just wants to escape to the surface!

Where the subskate could prove to be more fun, however, is jumping into the pool using a caveman style trick. This could actually be helpful learning those caveman variations. To be honest though, it got old pretty quick jumping in and constantly getting water up my nose. Or ears. Maybe if you had a crew of similarly kamikaze friends to try this with, it could be more fun…

To be fair, I quite enjoyed the relaxing feeling of floating around in the water. My first caveman into the pool was a good laugh, too. And slow motion ollie practice might have actually been worthwhile! I’ll leave it to the readers to decide if a subskate is worth the valuable luggage space to take on holiday, though. Maybe have a week off with a beer at the bar instead?

Does a subskate look like fun to you? Or am I just a grommet who can’t resist splurging money on skate related nonsense? Leave a comment and let me know.

Two Bare Feet Longboard

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OK, so I admit: I don’t really need another longboard.  I already have Sector 9 and Mindless longboards.  But I found this Two Bare Feet set up for a crazy price and I couldn’t resist.

I first came across the brand in a surf shop in Rhosneigr, Anglesey.  They looked pretty cool and I looked them up online.  In particluar, I was interested to try out this type of shape, with the drop through trucks too.

This is a 42″ 821 complete longboard, and it’s ridiculously cheap to buy from the Two Bare Feet online store.  In fact, the low price made me cautious and it was a while before I clicked “purchase”.

I had to wait to get some spare cash together anyway, and in the end I figured the risk was minimal.

Glad I decided to buy: for a budget board, I’ve been very impressed so far.

As I stated, I really wanted to try out this “twin tip” shape deck and it’s turned out to be a lot of fun.  Although I had been curious about learning tricks on this shape deck, so far I’m not convinced that’s a good move (though that’s my problem, nothing to do with the board).  It has been good fun for cruising around on though.

I’ve never skated drop through trucks before, and I like the lower ride they provide.  I found these trucks a bit unresponsive at first however; this problem seems to be improving as they wear in a little.

The board comes with great, big, fat wheels that are nice and soft; they roll very comfortably with the ABEC 5 bearings supplied.

Graphics wise, it’s simple and clean with a slight retro 70’s style that I like a lot.  You can select different graphics and colours (including wheel colours) on the online shop.

The board arrived fully gripped (nice job).  Unfortunately the only major downer was that it was shrink wrapped, which takes ages to remove satisfactorily if you’re obsessive like me.  Still, the whole delivery and transaction was totally painless.  Well done, Two Bare Feet.

This has proven a great addition to my longboard collection, we’ll see how it performs longevity wise.  For now, I would say that this is an ideal skateboard for a more experienced rider to own as a back-up or for a different riding experience.  The real beauty of the 821 complete though, is as a budget price entry level board for a beginner who fancies trying out longboard riding.

Technical Specifications:

  • Length: 42″
  • Width: 9.5″
  • Canadian maple deck
  • 70mm x 51mm wheels
  • ABEC 5 bearings
  • Supplied set up and complete

Two Bare Feet are a British company offering lots of different board riding equipment.  You can visit their website here.

Random Skateboard Playlist

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It’s been a long while since I shared a random playlist with you.

I recently went out for a skate, split between riding my Mindless longboard and spending some time on a classic old school Santa Cruz Street Creep.  Whilst skating around, I switched the iPod onto shuffle and these are the tunes I heard.

  1. Dead Kennedys – “Moon Over Marin”
  2. Steppenwolf – “Live Your Life”
  3. Little Richard – “I Don;t Know What You’ve Got, But It’s Got Me (Parts 1 & 2)”
  4. Motorhead – “Back At The Funny Farm”
  5. Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Gimme Three Steps”
  6. Orange Goblin – “Hounds Ditch”
  7. Rod Stewart – “True Blue”
  8. Wire – “I Am The Fly”
  9. The Wildhearts – “In Lilly’s Garden”
  10. Hypnos 69 – “My Journey To The Stars”
  11. Monster Magnet – “Slut Machine”
  12. Iggy Pop – “New Values”
  13. The Charlie Daniels Band – “The Devil Went Down To Georgia”
  14. Sisters of Mercy – “More”

Not a bad selection by the iPod there.

Random Longboard Playlist #2

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On Sunday 2nd November I went out for a quick skate on my longboard.  Luckily the weather has been fairly warm and dry, meaning that a short skate trip was possible.  Usually at this time of year, it’s too cold and wet outside for cruising and carving.  That skate might be the last of 2014, as the pleasant autumn has now decayed into winter.

As is often the case, the iPod went on shuffle, and here are the songs that provided a soundtrack to skate.

  1. Napalm Death – “Blind to the Truth”
  2. Volbeat – “Our Loved Ones”
  3. Blaze Bayley – “Madness and Sorrow”
  4. The Offspring – “Killboy Powerhead”
  5. Curtis Mayfield – “Party Night”
  6. Alice Russell – “Living the Life of a Dreamer (Mr. Scruff Remix)”
  7. Rocket From The Crypt – “Normal Carpet Ride”
  8. Electric Light Orchestra – “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head”
  9. Smokey Robinson – “Being With You”
  10. Anthrax – “Imitation of Life”
  11. Buckcherry – “Broken Glass”
  12. Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here”
  13. Zombina & The Skeletones – “I Go Psycho!”
  14. The Clash – “Rock the Casbah”
  15. Screaming Trees – “Witness”
  16. Run DMC – “Can You Rock It Like This”
  17. Judas Priest – “Living After Midnight” 10366066_10152942352488714_5260061854670921576_n

Random Longboard Playlist

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A longboard is, for those who don’t know, a skateboard.  A very long skateboard.  It’s great for just cruising around on, carving, getting a little speed.  Recently I went for a skate on my longboard, and hit shuffle on Ipodicus.

I was rewarded with the following soundtrack.  The random tunes varied across numerous genres and kept surprising me as I rolled around.

  1. AC/DC – “This House Is On Fire”
  2. Television – “Prove It”
  3. Thin Lizzy – “Mama Nature Said”
  4. Kool & The Gang – “In the Hood (Beat System Remix)”
  5. Pixies – “Tame”
  6. Dead Kennedys – “Hellnation”
  7. Weezer – “Run Away”
  8. Syd Dale – “Disco Tek”
  9. Black Flag – “Out of This World”
  10. El Cabrero with Pedro Bacan – “Con Tristeza Y Con Locura”
  11. Volbeat – “Magic Zone”
  12. Robert Johnson – “Cross Road Blues”
  13. Queen – “Made in Heaven”
  14. The Monkees – “Words”
  15. Public Enemy – “Incident at 66.6 FM”
  16. No Doubt – “Don’t Speak”
  17. Yomanda – “Synth and Strings”
  18. Viking Skull – “Beers, Drugs and Bitches”
  19. Hysterica – “Devil in Me”
  20. Discharge – “The Nightmare Continues”
  21. Camarosmith – “Choker”
  22. Britney Spears – “Boys”

There you go – some interesting choices from Ipodicus there.  The highlight was Syd Dale, that is a tune!

If you’d like to read more about my longboard, you can check it out here.

Mindless Skateboards: “Hunter” Longboard

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The skate shop in Chester closed down recently.  Bad news.  They had some pretty cool stuff.  As chance would have it, I turned up on the very last day, and managed to pick up a couple of bargains.

The big bargain of the day was this Mindless Skateboards Hunter model, which I picked up for under half price.  I had been hoping to pick up a new longboard for the collection for a while, and it had been my birthday not too long before – so I actually had a bit of cash to spend.  This board was perfect.

Mindless "Hunter" longboard

Mindless “Hunter” longboard

The Hunter is the ideal shape that I was looking for, pin tail (with a nice concave) so it offered a different ride to my other longboards.  At 44 inches long, it’s a little shorter than my Sector 9 board.  It’s solid but not too heavy, with a very stylish striped graphic that is reflected on the grip tape cut away.

Soft (80A) wheels provide a slick yet comfortable ride – ideal for cruising.  I’ve taken this longboard out and found that it glides very nicely and was easy to get used to.  With winter well on it’s way, further rides will probably have to wait a while – which is not a good thing!  Come spring, this board will be excellent to carve the local area.

The only down side with this board is that, as a complete, the deck comes ready shrink wrapped.  Great for keeping the graphic in nice condition, but annoying when trying to remove the deck from it’s plastic prison.

As my Sector 9 board had been around for a while, this Mindless longboard has made a fine addition.  Not exactly a replacement, but it will fare well as my day to day standard board.  The price was excellent for a man on a budget (like me) without compromising on quality.  Overall, I’m very impressed.IMG_2576

Technical Specifications:

  • Length: 44″
  • Width: 9 “
  • 100% Canadian maple deck with concave, complete with di-cut grip tape
  • 6″ Six Star Raw trucks
  • 95A SHR cushion & 14 x 8mm rubber wedge riser
  • 70 x 42mm 80A SHR wheels
  • ABEC-5 chrome bearings

Soundtrack: Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath

IMG_2574