Getting a longboard tonight and looking at getting a kahuna big stick. Just curious if anyone is still using one and what they think of them?? The adjustable size one is $80 on their site so figure it might be a fun investment.

Shaggs...

Give Dino a call, he's got the 411 on kahuna

And Bladerunner. He was singing the praises for the big stick last year or the year before. Do a search on here. You'll probably find the threads.

Haven't had my big stick out this year yet.

I have almost NO skateboard experience. I can ride OK but am not a great kicker. The Big stick is just the ticket for me. Great core workout. Simple to pick up. Erin prefers to kick and has mad longboard skills. I couldn't go out with her without mine.

I am real bad at stopping and the stick helps there as well.

I have gotten my $80 out of my stick and it's still in great shape. The original woody style.

Shaggs...

Give Dino a call, he's got the 411 on kahuna

So, I decided (wife decided lol) that I needed to make a stick to try, before I spent the money on the real thing. After searching around the web, I came up with these parts.

3/4" rigid aluminum electrical conduit ( cut to length for user height)
Rubber kong dog ball
3/4" PVC plumbing tee with no threads (for handle)
1/4"x3" bolt
1/4" lock washer
1/4" nut
1/4" fender washer (x2)
Vice for holding ball while drilling

Drill hole 3/4 way through ball, with hole saw just smaller than conduit for tight fit.
Stick ball onto end of conduit and drill 1/4" or slightly larger hole through side of ball and conduit.
Secure the ball with 1/4" bolt, fender washers, lock nut, and nut.
Measure and cut stick so that the handle is middle of forehead, when standing on longboard. (stick fully assembled length)
Use rubber mallet to hammer tee-fitting onto end of conduit (mine fit snug so that no adhesives or bolts were needed to keep from falling off).
Use different colored tape to decorate. Rubber tape, cloth or hockey tape works for middle handle grip.

It has also been mentioned in a couple threads, that sanding down the surface of the ball to make it flat, makes for a larger contact surface for pushing. The kong ball takes a lot of time to wear down on its own as it is quite durable. Other options were to use a lacrosse ball instead of kong ball, but not sure how it would work with these parts.

Haven't tried it out yet but will let everyone know how it goes, when I do.

Shaggs- i like it. I have a big stick and cant see why yours wont work as well as mine biggest problem i have with mine is the rubber rings on the end will come off if i push the wrong way actually like your ball idea better.

very nice , i have been on my daughters longboard, "San Diego" sector 9. SO smooth! and nice flex. forgot about the stick things ,,you inspired me to make a stick!

an hour a night at sunset for past 3 weeks like a real addict! SO smooth

Nice job on your stick! There is not much to these things so that is why a lot of people make their own. Its cool to see what people come up with on their own creations.

The original sticks just had a piece of pvc on the bottom and the rubber pucks just friction fit on them. The newer blade is more "official" looking and lasts longer with a little better grip. Kahuna just came out with yet another new version and I have not seen it yet.

To you guys making your own I highly recommend to try and make it adjustable. The huge advantage to the adjustable is you can collapse it to fit in your vehicle. I love the natural style of the wood sticks, but a 6'5" stick is not the easiest thing to transport around

Have fun riding ... your shoulders will be burning

Another thing for do it yourselfers. The blade style simply slides on the end of your stick and has 2 bolts that hold it on. So if you select a rod that is the same diameter all you need to do is mark the holes, drill them, and bolt the blade right on . Pretty simple.

Never heard of this thing until I saw this thread. Looks like an interesting alternative to a power kite when landboarding on low-resistance surfaces with no wind or space.

I suppose I could make an experimental prototype for myself using a rubber hammer or a camera tripod, just to see what it's like. :wee:

I never thought of just ordering the blades and getting my own stick. I also noticed that they have a snowblade option for winter use. Might order them up and give that a try as well.

Always wanted to try this thing, but price kept me away. A couple SUP days made me want to really try it. Saw a guy in the park with lacrosse balls drilled to the end of a 7 foot wood staff, he let me try it....works great, might have to build my own with balls or DaKite's replacement blades

Went out and put a mile or so on the stick. It's actually pretty easy to get the hang of once you get going. The ball seems to be quite grippy and even works as a brake. It is however a bit awkward trying to switch between paddling and kicking, but I'll get it down. I almost but the pavement once when I let the stick infront of the board bringing me to a dead stop. Front strokes are a ton more powerful than trying back strokes, but that should be expected. Throughout the ride, it didnt seem that I was getting a workout, but when I got home, I was sweating lots and my arms were shaking like I did a pile of chin-ups and arm curls. I'm gonna keep at it, as I think this will be a great exercise, and is a lot of fun. Still going to skate without it, so my legs get a fair workout as well. I recommend everyone give it a try at least once cause its a great time once you get going.

I've now put on an estimated 26-30km. Using my garmin forerunner, it is now taking me just under 5 minutes to go around the block three times, which happens to be 1.3km. The rubber ball is showing very little sign of wear. At first it felt awkward to be using it, but now it feels funny not to use it. My top speed so far just paddling is 21km/h. Tonight I really got into it, in an empty parking lot. Using a combination of kicking, and paddling followed with some great carving. Even managed to get the groove for a little pumpin, which really killed my core after a few minutes. It is proving useful in trying to learn to skate goofy foot, as you can focus on the turning and carving before the kicking part. I'm going to order up those two different blades from Kahuna, to do a comparison to the ball in the future. So far this thing is proving way more entertaining, than I expected. It's really awesome watching people's faces, as I roll past them. Even had a couple skater kids ask me what the point was. On Friday, I'm going in to the local skate shop, to show it off to the owners; as, they were interested in seeing it, when I told them I was making it. So, if you've go an itch to try something new, I highly recommend giving this a try. Next time, I'll try to get some video footage.

OK....I can't stop thinking about this. Gonna see if I can fund my way onto a board to give it a whirl...maybe keep an eye on the 2nd hand board market local?

Anyway......my brain keeps coming back to the obvious.......stopping. I think I've seen in some vid clips just grinding down on the stick to stop? Simple as that? What about hills/inclines? Just bear down and power up? We've got great paved trail systems all over the new neighbourhood.

The wife's gonna fall over dead if I do this.......

Kijiji Edmonton always has lots of great deals on boards that are barely used. I think for this application just about any type of board will do. For stopping I try to anticipate, and roll to a slow, then step off and grab my board. Dragging your back foot works well too. Really hoping I can get the switch riding down this summer so it helps with my snowboarding.

What constitutes a reasonable price on a second hand longboard? Are they like the good old days where it's a combination of the components you have? You buy the deck, the trucks, the wheels, the bearings all separate when buying new?

Looks like anywhere from $150-$200 is an average range for used boards often a lot of them sound to be barely used. You can build from scratch as well, but most seem to come with complete as option. The neversummer revolt I bought was $360 in the store new, and I bought it off a guy that used it twice for $150. I was thinking that those urethane wheels from MBS might work to just use the mountainboards, till I got this setup.

http://shop.mbs.com/mountainboard-parts/mountainboard-wheels...

When Airin introduced me to this sport she loaned me a fish shaped board. I was pushing pretty fast one morning and stabbed my back wheel. BAM, I was hit with a dead stop and went down hard. I slammed my elbow into a crack on the sidewalk and got a deep blunt cut. It took 7 some kind of fancy stitches to draw it all back together.

When I bought a board I picked a wider drop one so the wheels aren't as exposed.

I have gained this little move for stopping where I jump off and snatch up the tip of the board with my blade. Simply dragging the stick is excellent for doing a bit of slow on the go. You can sort of use it to assist in turns by leaning on it as well.

A had almost no skate skills when I started this . Other than the bit I picked up kiting. I find it easier than kicking and am still pretty lousy going at it that way.

Yeah I caught a front wheel, when I wasn't being careful. Luckily it was at a slow pace, so I just stepped off the board. Just got back in from a half hour ride. Hips and calves are aching something fierce. The board that I wanted to buy for some time is a loaded dervish. One video in particular had me hooked on it. Never the less I ended up with the neversummer revolt and am pretty darn happy with it. Drop through trucks are so stable. Just hope I can also learn some if that dancin, cuz it looks super slick.

So.....ask and the universe shall provide......

I asked a guy I know (do some work for him from time to time) if I recalled correctly that he was into longboards and a conversation ensued. It all wrapped up with "Don't buy anything - I'll set you up...I have too many!" (Sounds like a kiter if I've ever heard one ; )

So I got hooked up with a Rayne Hellcat and then called MEC because they actually listed the Kahunas - I thought I'd splurge after scoring a free board. Lo and behold the only one they had in was the shop demo but "if I wanted it real bad they'd discount it to me". $50 later and I was set up. Anna (our 4 year old) and I played around on the board yesterday a bit. Today, for the evening dog walk I let them go ahead of me and scrambled to catch up after about 10 minutes. Crazy fun! Takes me right back to the 'good old days' of skating and inlines (helps that we live in the same town that the 'good old days' took place in

Caught up with the family and spent the rest of the dog walk paddling with one arm while holding Anna who was standing between my legs. Gonna be sore tomorrow but feeling GREAT! Thanks for the inspiration guys. I might just put a few miles down on this thing this summer.

How's the big stick holding up?? I've managed close to 50km on mine and its still holding up with little wear. I hadn't realized you posted about yours, and was gonna piece together a break down unit to mail to you.

So far I've dumped myself a couple times, with only a bit of road rash. I've been laughed at and heckled by several skaters around town, but its not phasing me. Hopefully the weather stays okay till October, cuz I'm hoping for a more flexy deck in September.

I've only managed to get out a few times so far and most of those time I have Anna standing between my legs but that said. I'm loving the quick adjustment. I find with her on board with me I need to shorten it right down so I can man handle it with one arm while I hug her between my legs with the other arm. Mom thought she'd be funny and start to jog away from us but I was able to crank on it and keep up. I was pretty sore the next day but that's a GOOD kinda sore. I also find I need to use it to brake when Anna is riding with me but I can get good leverage on it to drag it and stop us.

So far nobody around here really "gets it" and I get all kinds of looks but all things are so much more accepted when people see a daddy with his little girl