Review: Landyachtz Tomahawk

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Landyachtz is giving their Tomahawk deck a complete design reboot so we got Adrian Da Kine to take it for some shakedown runs and give us his thoughts. The Landyachtz Tomahawk is available in our Marketplace for a limited time as the Deal of the Week. Scoop the deck and get a free LY snapback and t-shirt with it! (Offer available to new and existing subscribers only.)

First impressions:

The build quality of the complete is solid. Well gripped with appropriate trucks (Bear 852s) and wheels (Mini Zombie Hawgs 82a) for a freeride board. A new, good looking, and sublimated bottom graphic along with clean griptape art and overall shape make it a visually attractive board.

Upon closer inspection this board has a lot of interesting bendy features. To start with, it’s a symmetrical shape with tails about six inches wide. A micro drop with bowled corners leads into a mild ‘w’ concave. The rails are sharp on top and taper in the center of the board. The stock bearings are ‘built in style’ so I made sure all my nuts were tight and went for a ride.

I hit up some San Francisco streets involving slurry seal, sidewalks, cracked pavement, sketchy intersections, and just a little bit of perfectly smooth blacktop.

The trucks come with medium barrel bushings and no washer on the bottom, so it’s plenty wiggly and carvable at lower speeds but got a little squirrelly for me as I went faster. Tightening the kingpin nut helped but was not an ideal solution. Flipping the hangers to their ‘downhill’ orientation also helped with stability at speed, but deadened the lively turning when riding slower.

The various bends in the board all work together well to create a great pocket for your front foot. The ‘W’ concave is noticeable, but not uncomfortable and the kicks are easy to find without looking. Right off the bat I felt very secure with my foot placement which was great for some standup slides on both sides of a curvy and crowned slurry seal road. Next I went steeper and smoother, but the board performed just fine thanks to those well defined foot pockets. They work great even with my size 8 feet, yet are roomy enough for a larger foot as well. After nailing down longer slides I ended up on some sidewalks doing lots of little check slides to maintain a constant speed. I don’t often ride a longer wheelbase on this terrain and my back foot found its way past the drop and onto the bolts a few times. While at first this felt a little strange, I was able to get used to it and consciously decide whether I wanted to put my foot there or not. After the sidewalk jam, I found something faster to get the chance to pull my back foot forward, get into a tuck and do some hands-down slides. Again, the curves of the board did their job and my rear foot settled on the rail and took advantage of the concave.

With seven plies of wood between two composite layers, I noticed a small amount of flex under my 145lbs so I wouldn’t personally choose to go speedboarding on the Tomahawk, but it can certainly rock a little high speed action. I couldn’t ollie this board. The angle when the tail contacts the ground is quite steep, but this gives some good leverage for shuvits and wheelies as well as keeping the nose up when dropping off curbs.

The short story:

This is the board for you if you are a medium or smaller rider looking for a medium speed freeride board that has tails, very defined foot pockets, mild ‘W’ concave, and is still comfy on flatter terrain. The Tomahawk isn’t really meant for railing turns at 40mph, although it can certainly handle speed, it’s just not quite stiff enough to be ideal in that realm for any except lighter riders.

Sound like the board for you? Head over to the Skate[Slate] Marketplace and check it out.

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