Onda

Onda Longa Skateboard – I got the Onda Longa for a Birthday present, it's a great low cost board that can pump and carve (not as good as dedicated surf trainer like a Carver but at a fraction of the price). I am a 52 year old male with over an 37 years experienced surfing, surf skater / bowl rider / cruiser and long board LDP rider. Review: 1. Cost. Cheap!! well relatively cheap if you hunt around for a deal. Mine was on special but I got stung (see trucks below).

2. Trucks. I have made numerous boards and even designed a new surf skate truck in the past. The Onda truck is a torsion style design that allows the axle to swivel around a pivot bolt. Tension is controlled by changing out 2 x torsion suspension bushes, softer bush makes easier turning and harder bush makes harder turning, Bushes are simple to change out to adjust for different uses from pumping to hill bombing. You can mix and match up different bushings to accommodate stronger or weaker front side or back side turning.

The overall casting on the Longa axles and base appear sturdy and well made, turn stops on the axle / hanger limit the amount of rotation against similar stops on the base. Rotation is around 25 deg either side of neutral, any more than this and large wheels would bite the deck. However if you wanted more rotation for a better carve it would not be difficult to modify the turn limiters, you would also need to modify the deck and cut some away to allow greater rotation. This in turn could weaken the deck but could easily be strengthened with a layer of epoxy and fibreglass or carbon fibre to the effected area. I will be making this mod on my board to get around 32 deg rotation front and rear. Having the extra rotation will also put additional stress on the bushings and their locators, softer bushings should cope better than harder in this situation. My mod will be to make it a bit more of a carving machine and not for down hill bombing.

Stung! Buyer beware! My board was purchased as a gift for me by my wife and kids, I did a fair bit of research on the board before telling them what I wanted. All my research showed that the board was fitted with 8mm axles and that I could fit alternative 608 bearings to the ABEC 5 bearings that board is supplied with. In anticipation I purchase a set of Bones Swiss 6 bearing to change out (huge fan of these bearings). Anyway long story short my board turns up and the bearings say 608 ABEC 5. So I start pulling all the bearings, fit my new ones only to find out that the axles are 9.5mm and not 8mm. As you can guess WTH?? Turns out that the earlier models that are more than 18 months old had the 9.5mm axle, NO mention of that on the Onda Motion site and No mention of that on the suppliers site. So I got an old stock board and the misrepresented axle and bearings. Don't get stung and check with the supplier before you purchase, worst case is finding replacement bearings that fit, if that is you then you should check out R6 bearings 3/8 x 7/8. Personally I have contacted Onda and am awaiting a fix of replacement axles. Will comment back if things go north or south on this in the future.

3. Deck. The Onda Longa deck is well built and strong, deck grip is a little aggressive and can and will remove skin, essentially it's like they sprinkled broken glass on the varnish as the grip. Deck is bamboo laminated over maple core with a fibreglass layer sandwiched in. All up around 9mm thick with good spring but not too flexible. As above the deck could be modified to suit other mods and setup's. Bolt hole pattern is new school for the fitted trucks. Has a good balance of length to width. Note that the truck location is such that you have zero tail or nose so no kick turning and carve turns only.

4. Wheels. mmmm.. Way out of the standard sizing for a skateboard and amost impossible to find other than OEM replacements for. Mine are the big wheels which I think are around 150mm x roughly 30mm. You can also get a smaller diameter 125mm x 30mm. The wheels are a reinforced nylon hub and spoke design with a polyurethane tyre, the tyre is 80a duro hardness which is standard for a cruiser style / carving board and to give a softer compound with more traction.

In my opinion the wheels are ok, they would be better if they where around 5 to 10mm wider as when pumped hard the rear can easily skip out. Technique with weight transfer can adjust for this but only comes with experience. A wider wheel would make cornering hard also feel a bit more positive, the skinny wheels can feel sketchy especially if the surface is contaminated with things such as sand, small rocks, leaves, pollen or a good layer of dust, and water or any type of wet stuff.

The nylon hub and spokes seem reasonably strong but given the bearing size and leverage being applied by the wheel diameter will most likely suffer from stress deformation over time. This will basically make your wheels wobbly over time and reduce the effectiveness of the pumping and carving. You can upgrade the wheels to a Tampa board design which are stronger and they also sell an ABEC 7 rated 3/8 x 7/8 bearing which will suit the Onda.

5. Performance. So I watched all the online videos prior to purchase, saw people doing slides and spins, cruising and pumping along, happy faces and all that craps that the marketing guys pump out to entice you. So my expectation was that this board would surround me with pretty girls on sunny days and would make me a skating god with everyone mesmerised by my board and skills....... Seriously do they really think that this sort of marketing works?? I guess so seeing as most products are sold that way. Anyway's being a cynical engineer I don't, when I got this board I expected to have to do some mods to make it work the way I wanted.

So I'm glad to report that for the average skater who wants a cruiser come semi surf skate that can take the rough with the easy terrain then this board straight out of the box is an excellent option for the price point. Just do some homework first and make sure that it is what you want for the type of skating experience it offers.

Other than my issue with the axle I've been pleasantly surprised by the out of the box performance of this board, took a little getting used to as I've been riding a much smaller and looser board but all up a nice bit of cost appropriate kit.

6. Recommend as:

A general cruiser and transit board. Big wheels cover many terrain challenges well, rocks sticks cracks or gaps in paving, ridges, nuts and pebbles all rolled over with ease.

Good at maintaining momentum so less tiresome over distance with kick pushing, relatively low deck height helps reduce fatigue.

Can be LDP (Lond Distance Pumping) option but not as good as a dedicated LDP. Having said that once yo find your groove on this board it maintains speed well and can pump up low climb hills easily, not as relaxing as dedicated LDP as you are constantly aware of the skinny wheel wanting to let go on the back.

Land paddle is excellent, has good deck area for foot placement and excellent traction on deck. I personally combine kick push, pumping and land paddle in all my riding on this board and can easily cover 10km at an average of around 20 km / hr.

Manoeuvring is good, would be able to avoid people on sidewalk easily with medium heavy crowds. Crowded would need something like a Carver C7 which is twitchier and more manoeuvrable. But given the length and size of this board (it is big) it responds very well to weaving around people and other obstacles.

7. Durability. I touched on concerns with the nylon wheels earlier with traction and and fatigue potential. Also the poly on the wheels may wear down quicker due to reduced surface area and contact patch. Bushings may split over time but this is normal wear and tear on any board or truck design. ABEC 5 bearings fitted are fit for purpose, make sure you check for 8mm axle diameter before purchase to allow upgrades to bearings if desired.

In summary: Given how much (or how little) my board cost, I would give the Onda Longa:

4 / 5 rating on performance.

4.5 / 5 rating on value.

3.5 / 5 rating on customisation.

4 / 5 rating on LDP and land paddle.

4.5 / 5 rating on cruiser.

3.5 / 5 rating on surf emulator / surf skate, (more so a long board emulator than a short board, I have a Smoothstar 39" and like the Onda better than the Smootstar).

Good luck with your purchase and I hope this review helps.

Onya ONDA – Let me start by saying I am a 47 year old male who does NOT have a history of balance sports. I have never owned a skateboard, never snow boarded, skied once, surfed unsuccessfully 6 times, never water skied, ice skated once and roller bladed once. For Christmas we gave our daughter a cheap ALDI skateboard. She spent Christmas Day on it and I had a couple of careful attempts. The next day was the Boxing Day Sales and I found myself drawn to grabbing a heavily discounted Skateboard of my own from Rebel Sports. It set me back $24. I had requested something that went straight and slow.

For the last 2 weeks I have been slowly kicking my way to and from local transport on the Skateboard as part of my work journey. Let me make announce I know why I have never seen a fat skateboarder. It is an excellent form of exercise. When it comes to stripping weight there is no better place to exercise than the upper legs and the core. That is exactly what skateboard riding does.

After only 2 weeks the time came to upgrade the straight and slow $24 model to something more .........

Last night I hit Gumtree and EBAY and then You Tube. By 2am I had found a weird looking skateboard called the ONDA. The promo videos were great and the reviews seemed to cover what I was looking for.

I managed to find the exclusive Australian Distributor Go Easy Online and they were selling 2 models for just $200. As bonus today was my day off and they were in Deer Park. A quick phone call to check if they were open. James who answered the phone answered a couple quick questions and I was in the car and one my way. James did point out that the pick up pricey was $10-$15 more than the Online price. So it was just on $200 for the expensive model.

When I arrived at the showroom the place was packed with all sort of gear to get a person moving. I found James at the counter and he gave us a chance to demo it and he did likewise. Not wanting to embarrass myself the extent of my test run was just to make sure all appeared as listed. I was more interested in the way my daughter and James could work the ONDA. An easy sale made and a purchase of a helmet. Up to now with my straight and slow board the risk of head injury was very low but not impossible. Now that I was moving up in the world the head needed to be protected. Common sense prevails.

After 2 short sessions on the ONDA I am extremely happy with purchase which was made with my leftover November birthday money. I cannot comment from a comparison perspective like other riders could be from my naive space the ONDA is smoothly, handles varying terrain, turns effectively, is assembled easily and is an all round joy to ride. I cannot wait for work tomorrow so I compare Tuesdays ride to my new ONDA ride. I think I will alter my route because some of the steer downhill parts might scare me. So I will choose a flatter course which was a definite no no for the old board. I am sure after a week or so I should be right. I am also looking forward to the way the ONDA handles small rocks, cracks and driveways. My old board was always a candidate for a jack knife My daughter keeps pinching it. Tonight I had my old board whilst she rode the ONDA. She was on the Porsche I was on the horse and cart.