Hey everyone!
Just wanted to start off with an introduction. My name is Raj, and I've been e-skating for approximately one and half years at this point. I longboarded for a few months back in high school and it was a lot of fun, so when I saw that I could buy a decently spec'd out board for under $1000, I HAD to jump on it.
My first board was (still own it) a Backfire G3+. I originally ordered a G3 and didn't see the UPS tracker update for a few days, me being the impatient person I am, I messaged Backfire. They informed me that their website had a mistake and they didn't have any G3 available in the USA warehouse, however they did have the G3+ in stock. They even ended up giving me a discount on the G3+ so I ended up getting it for just as cheap as the Backfire G3. (Backfire has absolutely the best customer service I've even dealt with, but we'll get more into that later in the future.)!
After riding the G3+ for about 2 months or so, I wanted an AT (All-Terrain) board because most of the riders in our group had DKP (Double King Pin) trucks on AT boards and I saw them carving, going over rough terrain easier, and making turns I couldn't even dream of doing. So what else would any reasonable beginner to the sport to? Buy another freaking board!
My buddy Josh put me in touch with one of the ambassadors for Verreal. Their 20AH big-boy battery had just came out and Andrew Penman had done 31 miles on his long-distance range test. That was more than enough to convince me to buy the board. Josh also gave me his 150mm AT airless wheels, so I absolutely rocked that board for about 1100 miles.
The Verreal has turned into a DIY board, so its sitting in the corner of my bedroom watching in agony as I continue to add new boards to the collection before fixing the Verreal.
I also purchased a Boosted Mini S off Josh, but haven't ridden that board enough to ride about it yet.
I'm currently riding around the Backfire Ranger X3 almost daily. The second you start riding this board, you can tell this board can do anything BUT stay stable at high speeds. It just isn't meant to do that. It carves better than any of the other boards I own. The trucks feel different compared to the DKP on my Verreal. It can ride over rough terrain with absolutely no problem. The flexible deck helps eat up so much of the vibrations and roughness. Its much much more flexible than any other boards I've ridden, ex. Verreal RS, Vestar Blackhawk, Backfire G3+, Backfire Zealot, WowGO AT2. This board probably has the most flexible deck out of any of the production AT boards in this range.
I'll be writing a lot more to go in depth about the board and anything e-skate related in later blogs.
Facebook: NCeSK8
Instagram: eSk8Raleigh
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP244HeysTHUvyDRM8yXb8A
I'm starting a DIY soon so I'll be posting about that on the next blog with what parts I want to order to build this. We're starting off with a 12s7p top mounted battery, and moving forward from there.