Carver Skateboards was founded in Venice California in 1996 by Neil Carver and Greg Falk. Both are avid surfers and they also wanted to get in the sea and surf on the warm summer days. However, the sea was flat as a puddle and surfing became impossible. They wanted to find a new way to bring the feel of surfing to the streets of California.
Venice Beach and Santa Monica were both important and famous for skating and therefore the perfect prerequisite for the further development of classic skateboarding. The steep lanes, banks and the smooth tar were a large skate park to try out new things.
However, it quickly became clear to them that it was not possible with the trucks that existed at the time to produce the desired "surf feeling" which they so missed. In order to bring comparable sharp turns, snaps and speed pumps to the street, the two founders had to further develop the axle to allow more steering angles. So the axle had to be much more dynamic in order to carve properly.
From this point on, many prototypes and predecessors of today's axles were developed. In the meantime, the dudes from Carver have managed to bring the surfing feeling very close to the feeling in the sea to the street.
In this video, Neil explains in detail how the original Carver truck was developed.
"Mini" carving boards are between 25.5″ (approx. 65 cm) to 29″ (approx. 74 cm) long. Mini boards are extremely manoeuvrable and very easy to accelerate. With them you can throw in very jagged turns. They are ideal for driving on small areas, such as
wheelbase
the Wheelbase = wheelbase significantly influences the performance of the board. The performance of the Carver truck comes into its own when you place your front foot just behind the front axle and your back foot above the rear axle. The axis distance should also match your stance (= posture).
You can also screw the Carver trucks under any longboard, but you quickly notice that the wheelbase may be too big to be able to use the functions of the Carver trucks - acceleration and turns - properly. The back foot won't be able to reach the rear axle in most cases and it takes a lot more power to corner and pump.
height and weight of the driver
Basically, smaller riders have more fun on smaller boards and taller riders on bigger boards. But that also depends on which driving style you prefer, what skills you have or what terrain you have for driving.
A short rider who mainly wants to ride straight stretches along the lake will still choose a larger board than the 1.80 rider who wants to heat the few blocks to work with the board in a big city.
In order to make the selection easier for beginners, we recommend some suitable beginner boards from our experience below, depending on their build.
Be able
Do you want the Carver Skateboard especially for surf training use to improve your surfing, choose a Carver skateboard that has a length that matches the surfboard you want to ride in the future. Carver's illustration above can serve as a starting point. So you can practice the moves for the shorter surfboard on the street and change surfboards faster.
terrain
As already indicated: If you will mainly ride around in the skate park, the garage driveway or on another rather small area, you will be happier with a mini board or shorter board that also has a light kicktail.
If you want to push longer distances and possibly ride down one or the other mountain, you should take a longer board.
axis adjustment
Depending on how tight or loose the screw of the axle is tightened, the board feels looser or more stable. So that means even a shorter board can feel sturdier depending on how tight you tighten the truck. This can be helpful for beginners to feel more secure on the board at first.