Lew (driving)
Weston
Ben
Native
josh
Kris Link
Brumley
Sunshine (Photography)
Caleb (filmer)

There's the present roster for our upcoming trip south...

Next Road Trip: GBR 2010

Fickle's on the road this October 14th through 20th, down to the GA bowlrider comp... We'll be camping in Columbus GA, and hanging out with the Doghouse crew... those guys are an interesting scene. we found much love amongst them over the last year or so... we can't wait to skate with all you all... y'all...

If you are on the road there, like knoxville or chattanooga or something, hit us up and let's try to get in a sesh... the crew is huge this time:

we're camping out and crashing with folks down there. it's epic all over again. thanks to all the folks who put us up and put up with us. Thanks to Mike Mills down there in the ATL area who always has been down with Fickle. Thanks to Will Boatwright for holding it down on the daily at Brookies...

We spent a goodly portion of last February on a road trip, camping out at Kona in Jacksonville, FL. Here are some notes from Weston's perspective. This year, we'll load up with a bunch of freshly pressed boards and go again in Feb. No kidding. the road trip, funded by quality handmade lumber, is the way to go.

update

this is old Lew.

we just skated at Louisville last night. yesterday, really. just till right before dark. it was real fun... i wore my army pants for the first time. it wasn't quite cold enough for hesh holiday...

well, I just wanted to let all of our friends out there know how things are going here at Fickle Corporate.

we are welding on the press, a little more each week, making trips to the steel supply store and designing and fabricating and having a blast creating a press that will last for years and produce amazing wood at longer lengths...

we are also more sure than ever that the skateboard wood market has gone completely insane. You see, I spend time on the phone and face to face with wood suppliers... some people make fun of how much phone time I spend... and I have more than "learned"... I've SEEN with my own eyes that the american skateboard wood market is a sick place.

sick in a bad way, that is.

I won't go into all of it, but this is why we're pressing our own from here on out. That means handmade boards. That means temp and humidity control. That means some custom shapes. That means artistic, custom finishes and a punk/DIY aesthetic. In other words, we're going to completely rock and completely suck at that same time.

We won't be pressing thousands of boards per week, like the majority of American Wood Houses. We won't have to spend time ignoring our wood customers and marginalizing the small guys, because we're only going to press Fickle Boards.

This shrinks us down, to some extent, but not really. We'll see... We think you are going to love our new wood, but we'll let you guys and girls be the judges. For sure, we're going to have the satisfaction of skating wood that our own hands have touched.

As it is, you can trust Fickle to be trying to do it right, and be sacrificing to get it right, the whole time. We just can't stand to be another "heat-transfer-on-a-popsicle-from-wherever-it's-cheapest" wood company. We are shifting the whole thing to be a company that makes your board fresh, in our own lab.

So keep looking for the new, Cincinnati-Pressed Fickle Wood this year. We aren't quitting, and we're sure you'll be stoked! Until then, we'll see you out there!

TNT sez trix are dumb.

9LIVES "Tony Trujillo" from Six Stair on Vimeo.

we got rippers. we do. okay.

but we all agree that TNT is spot on in this clip where he gets philosophical at the end and says that tricks aren't what skateboarding is about. Go Thirty. Enjoy the feeling of speed and flow. Learn to flow and carve and just RIDE. Side step the pissing contest about who is "best", and just do what you do, period.

We are stunned at how liberating and good for us skateboarding can be. Stunned.

Good Words from Matt...

Guess what boys and girls... we are getting very close to pressing wood right here in Cincinnati. No ordering from some big company that doesn't care about skaters (other than having someone to sell their crap to). We have been working with the only wood shop around that can deliver a high quality wood, and you know what? As good as that wood is, we need better. Why do we think we can do it better? Because we love skateboarding and we will skate the wood we make. What more motivation is there to do it right? We have the raddest crew. The may not be the "hardest" rippers out there (although some of them are). What they are is a crew that loves skating for skating, not for their newest youtube clip or video part. That is why you will only occasionally get lucky enough to get a flip cam or phone clip of us. We all love skating too much to stop and film. If you want to see us skate get off of your computer and get out to the park. We will spend our time skating and making the most solid board you will ever skate.

Josh Viles did some bonelesseses... please enjoy.

Ever skated with josh? Our pleasure.

Many Many thanks to Jamie Dahl, photographer, for these images. We are stoked.

We cannot escape the irony of that Cincinnati hat. Fickle Boards is HQ'ed in Cincinnati, but has home in so many other places. Thanks and shouts to Mountain Bike and Skate in Knoxville for taking GREAT care of Josh, as a rider. You guys are a rare example of a good sponsor. Josh, and all of us appreciate that greatly. Shouts to all heads in Knoxville who keep cheering our effort to break out the good wood.

NJ Skateshop Visit

Had a good visit. Scored a sweet tee shirt. Nice folks at NJ. Thanks Ryan.

Sayanora Superbee

We are sorry for the loss of the Superbee. She was our mother for twelve days on the tour, but Enlou's bus broke down and Allthedayholiday sent the Superbee to the rescue. Maybe someday Fickle will own and maintain a Superbee fleet. Until then, there is only one superbee.

Thank you so much, Allthedayholiday.  You guys blew our minds with the generous loan of your van.

Props tow Push

We were at Push during the heatstroke tour, and just thought recently about what a good visit that was. Check out Push when you go through Asheville NC. It's a good stop to make. 

Josh Viles Kills an 11set rail...

josh made this on something like the first try... it's fone footy, so that's pretty much an indicator of how we roll here... we are low budget and on the move all the time... just like you. Josh is the kind of guy who'll stop the car and jump out and just do it. All his friends are stoked.
Thanks alex for shooting this and sending it to us. We're stoked on all you guys in Knox.

Z-Boy spotting.

Will got to hang out with Wentzl Ruml at Brook Run skater the other day. Sick, eh?  Will takes skating Brook Run very seriously so you can imagine how rad it was for him to skate it with Wentzl. 

Sick amazing crazy stoked things are happening daily with the Fickle crew.

Friar Tuck

Our man Will Boatwright continues to get rad in ATL. Tucking in these frontsides under the vigilant camera of Nick Scott of ATLskater.com

Our thanks to Nick and the whole scene in the ATL area that are making Atlanta more epic for skateboarding, every day.

Pigment of your Imagination

Guess what boys and girls - we are doing this for a reason. We have smelly hippies on our team that are the essence of Tie - Dye. Contrary to popular belief we are not following others. In another move to not follow others we are getting very close to pressing wood right here in Cincinnati. No ordering from some big company that doesn't care about skaters (other than having someone to sell their crap to). We have been working with the only wood shop around that can deliver a high quality wood, and you know what? As good as that wood is, we need better. Why do we think we can do it better? Because we love skateboarding and we will skate the wood we make. What more motivation is there to do it right? We have the raddest crew. The may not be the "hardest" rippers out there (although some of them are). What they are is a crew that loves skating for skating, not for their newest youtube clip or video part. That is why you will only occasionally get lucky enough to get a flip cam or phone clip of us. We all love skating too much to stop and film. If you want to see us skate get off of your computer and get out to the park. We will spend our time skating and making the most solid board you will ever skate.

Cincinnati's finest tie dyes, made by hand in northern Kentucky, at Matt's house tonight. They aren't the OG Real Deal, so they cost a little less... all to promote proper wood for serious riders. We are hyped because these came out really good.

Something I Found

Hey, check out Texas Style Skateboarding, even if you're not from Texas. This guy Greg is the COOLEST dude and he's seen it all over the years. He and Old Lew had a great meeting of minds on the phone a couple days back...

Seriously, it's good to look at Texas. There's always been the GNARLIEST skating in the world happening in Texas since Old Lew here was even a little kid. Seriously. and it's good to look beyond our own neighborhood and see other scenes and get our minds blown. Humility is its own gift.

we are people who skate, who skate and work together to make skateboards that we like to skate... and in between skating them, we sell them to people who like to skate them... and we don't really know what anybody is talking about with some "industry" thing out there...

as far as Fickle Boards is concerned, we're just like, "Let's go skate!" and if you're "better" or "worse" isn't even on our minds. We just learn off you and you learn off us and we're STOKED...

Our boards get made in PA or in the home shop press here in Cincinnati, and we sell them to your shop or to you directly out of Old Lew's HOUSE! So when you get one, it's all handled by our crew...

Especially Sunshine, Weston, Native and Ben help out with shrink wrapping your freebies and stickers in there...

...and we are working every day to make sure your shop and you can get Fickle Boards on time and pressed right, because WE love to skate good wood and that's what we want to share with you.

We look forward to the day when we're screening all our boards by hand ourselves in the shop here. It's coming fast, so if you get one with a small flaw, soon, please count it as authenticity points and enjoy the quality as you skate and destroy. If you get one you really like, slap some rails on it, or take a pic before you smear it.

Everywhere we turn...

...we find people bummed out by low quality pressing, punky soft wood that loses POP the second day, flatten out, breaks without reasonable cause... people aren't expecting miracles from the companies that they're buying from, just "good" quality.

We get it. That's why we have chosen to work with Pennswood for the last 2 years. They consistently produce excellent wood quality, even if getting the dimensions or colors perfect is sometimes an issue. 



No wood shop walks on water, but Fickle's wood to date has always sold out because of our STANDARDS, and Pennswood's ability to meet them.

After 26 years of skating (i'm 37), and working on various industry related stuff, I realized that there CAN be amazing quality, if we don't Chase the dollar so hard.

So Fickle is now shifting gears to finish up our shop in Cincinnati. We still offer Pennsylvania wood. We still come skate with you. Now we also press, cut  and screen wood for you. It is our honor to make some of our own mistakes for a change.

We hope you go 30 today.

Josh Viles at Tyson Park

update.

we hit the beach. we screened mass shirts. we are skating woody's. things are rockin. we got a new screen press. everybody is rockin

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shut up and ride the superbee!

you all know we're on the road down south. get on our twitter page and catch the realtime flow of events. www.twitter.com username "fickleboards".

this is day 4 and so far we have seshed flopa, dry ridge, stayed over in lex area, hit knoxville, the boardroom, then dropped boards on our former knox rep's kids, got free gas, headed to ashevilleNC, met locals, slept in walmart parkinglot, visited push, hit ZG, dropped love, shredding and boards, skated hendersonvillmingtonberg till late, missioned to GA, and nnow we are about to skate with boatwright and dave allen.

just get on twitter... easier that way.

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