Board Review YOW X Pukas Dark 34.5″
In this blog post I wanted to do a small review of the YOW X Pukas Dark 34.5″ complete. This was one of my first boards and I ride it until today.
First Ride
After reviewing an endless stream of sizing guides and articles on reddit I decided to part with the idea of getting a cheaper board and ordered a YOW x Pukas Dark 34.5″ as 2022 model instead. The board came completly assembled and the look was totally great. I had some doubts from looking at the pictures first but the design is super nice.
I took the board for a ride in the local skate part. It was the first day I was standing on a board after literally 25 years. People say that YOWs are hard to ride, but I cannot second this. They are full ok, even for a beginner.
Bearings
Sadly the day was a little bit rainy and I made the mistake to drive through some puddles. As I wanted to ride the board again the next day the bearings started to make a weird noise and the board had issues to roll properly. I tried to clean the bearings and found them to be rusted. No so a great start here. After replacing the original bearings with some Bones REDS, the board was rolling better than ever.
Riding
Riding gives you a pretty surfy feeling and you can start to do great carves right from the start. Since it was my first ride I thought it was normal but YOW is defiantly different. I can tell this from direct comparison to other boards and truck systems now. The Pucas is a directional shape, this means it’s intended to be ridden into a specific direction. Perfect if you want to carve and have fun along the way. It does not feel too high too me like other boards I rode.
Trucks
The trucks designed in a way which needs just little servicing. Just in case of dirt inside the spring, it might be needed to disassemble them. They come well lubed and don’t make weird noises right of the box. There is no need for further adjustments, the boards is really a unpack-and-go solution. Even the wheels are nice for general purpose use.
Takeaways
The Pucas is a pretty nice board, the issue with the stock bearings was pretty much the only downside I experienced so far. All over the board gave me a pretty good first experience and totally hooked me up. It’s a board I love to ride regularly and I don’t regret anything regarding this buy.
Alex is a passionated engineer and skater who discovered surf skating as a hobby to fill the days between his windsurf sessions. Skating now takes so much time that it became his primary hobby. Alex runs this website as a platform for his hobby and discoveries.