€150, down from €239. That is a 37 percent cut and it makes this the best value board on the site by a clear margin, because unlike most discounts at this end of the market, the hardware underneath it is correct.
The trucks are the reason to pay attention
Every cruiser on this site runs standard kingpin trucks, the same design fitted to street skateboards, chosen because they are cheap and available. This one runs 180mm inverted trucks at 45 degrees, which is a reverse-kingpin design, and the difference is not cosmetic.
Reverse-kingpin trucks turn by leaning through a much longer arc. On a longboard at speed that means you steer with your body weight rather than by stamping on the edge of the deck, and it means the board settles down as you go faster instead of getting nervous. Standard kingpin trucks on a 39 inch board feel vague and start to wobble.
The double-barrel bushings are part of the same story. Two barrel-shaped bushings per truck, above and below the hanger, give a progressive return to centre. Cone bushings on cheap boards do not.
And there are bearing spacers in the wheels. That is a €4 part that keeps the two bearings in each wheel square to one another under side load, and it is the single most commonly omitted item on a factory complete at any price. Somebody at Hydroponic was actually paying attention to the build.
Drop-through mounting is the other half
The trucks bolt up through cut-outs in the deck rather than underneath it, so the platform you stand on sits at roughly axle height instead of two inches above it. Pushing a skateboard means dropping your foot to the ground once every couple of seconds, and taking two inches off that drop makes a real difference over three or four kilometres. Your standing leg does less work and your ankle stops complaining.
The deck itself is seven plies of Canadian hard rock maple with a fibreglass layer and epoxy, which stiffens it without adding much weight, and the concave is mild and progressive so your feet find their place without being locked in.
The 70 x 45mm wheels at 83A finish the job. Big and soft, which is what Irish road surfaces want. On coarse chipseal, on the cracked stretches of footpath near every school in the country, on wet tarmac in October, these keep rolling where a 52mm park wheel would stop dead or slide.
The case against it
Thirty-nine inches. Stand it on end and it is taller than most people’s kitchen counter. Getting it onto a bus, into a lift, up a narrow stairwell or under a desk in an office is a daily annoyance and it is the reason plenty of longboards end up unused.
It cannot ollie in any meaningful sense. The kicks are small and the board is heavy and low. If the plan involves kerbs and steps, this is the wrong purchase and a cruiser with a proper kicktail is the right one.
The 90A double-barrel bushings are stiff. Under 65kg you will lean and find the board barely turns. Budget €12 for a softer set and expect to fit them.
The discount itself is worth reading carefully. Thirty-seven percent off a complete usually means a shop is clearing a graphic that did not sell rather than being generous. That does not make the board worse, but do not expect the price to indicate the demand.
Who should not buy it
Anyone under about fourteen. The board is long, wide and heavy, and a light rider cannot lean the trucks or manage the bulk.
Anyone going to a skatepark. A drop-through longboard is useless on transitions and unwelcome on a busy park.
Anyone whose journey involves public transport at both ends. Buy the Madrid Picket instead and carry it under one arm.