i skate, well just still, and use 8" decks. i have size 12 feet and so its easier to land tricks 'perfect' with a wider deck and its also easier to catch the board with flip sticks so i can add that little but more 'syle' haha.
i skate an 8" black blank deck, Thunder trucks, aesthetics wheels & some bearing from my buddies roller hockey skates and ive got black és Accels atm which are getting on.
i need to buy some new skate stuff. ill post them when i get em.
An 8" inch deck can be used for tricks as long as it has some concave in it and some curved edges on the sides in front and back. I had a very flat 8.25" inch deck and it was useless for tricks and was shaped more for a mini longboard setup.
Some really big guys still use 7.5" inch decks and the closeness of all the contours makes getting the initial kickflip or heelflip easier. Landing is easiest on a flat deck, but the catch 22 is that it's hard to flip it in the first place if it's too flat.
Very stiff bushings can make up for a flat deck and make it easier to kick flap and land very cleanly, but then it won't turn as well. I tried to get a deck that could do everything but that became impossible.
So for some time, I had 7.5" inch decks with very stiff Tensor Mullen trucks (with standard Tensor interlocking bushings) and small/hard wheels (element 50s) for tricks and street style, and the 8.25" inch flatter deck with wider and looser Indy 149s and big risers with bigger Bones 54 wheels for slalom and rough surfaces.
This worked out well to relearn the basics.
I have given up on the more dangerous kick stuff and rail/ledge work, so I have the 8" inch deck, but with small wheels so I can get manual/techie somewhat if I want to. This seems to be the most common setup for a park board that can double as street transportation. Some of the skaters are good enough to ollie high enough to do 10 stair rails and gaps.
