THE ARBOR COLLECTIVE RELEASES NEW KELLY SLATER SKATEBOARD
The 9x World Surfing Champion’s new swallowtail shape arrives in stores this summer.
Venice, CA – May 25, 2009 – The Arbor Collective is proud to announce the release of a new model created with friend and nine-time ASP World Surfing Champion, Kelly Slater. This follow up design builds on the foundation created by Arbor’s original Slater Model. The updated design provides speed down the line and the tightest turning available from any of Arbor’s carve oriented skateboards. “The new swallowtail design was inspired by some of the boards Slater has been surfing recently,” said Bob Carlson, Arbor’s cofounder.
Kelly Slater is arguably the best competitive surfer ever. He has won an amazing nine world titles, five of which were consecutive, and is showing no signs of letting up. “Kelly’s life is rooted in the world competitive surfing and all that comes with that path,” says Carlson. “This led us to work with Venice, California based artist, Jake Pickle to develop a graphic that highlights the important elements in Kelly’s life: surfing, music, travel, and friends.”
Kelly Slater is a Arbor skate team rider.
The new Slater Model, which is now more competitively priced at $179, is a 37” long tapered carver, with a concave profile that is 8.75” wide. A 26.30” wheelbase creates the stability and performance of large-radius turning. The Slater Model also features Arbor’s gummy 65mm, 78a durometer wheels for a smoother ride, and Gullwing 9” reverse kingpin trucks for tighter turn initiation.
The new Slater Model is built with a unique blend of materials that deliver a powerful combination of attributes, including: performance, an important amount of surf heritage, and a respect for the planet. “It’s the environment that makes a life of surf, skate, and snow possible,” added Carlson. “This awareness has always been important to Kelly and Arbor; it drove our design efforts ensuring that the new Slater Model is as friendly on the environment as possible.”
The Arbor Collective and Vanguard Records bring you an opportunity to win a new Arbor snowboard, skateboard or a bamboo Tee-shirt and you can get a free Trevor Hall song download. Simply click here and once you are redirected to the link, enter and submit your information. Once you do, you’ll have a new Trevor Hall song and be on your way to possibly winning some great Arbor swag.
Trevor Hall performing live at the Arbor headquarters in Venice Beach.
THE SYSTEM - A fusion of interdependent technologies that support jib-specific performance.
.Grip-Tech Sidecut: an unblended progressive tri-radial sidecut design that creates additional contact points directly under-foot for significantly improved control.
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Street Rocker: a rocker profile based on a stretched parabolic arc that further improves control, while providing a more uniform running surface nose to tail.
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Rocker Flex: a rocker specific flex pattern designed to address how riders experience board flex when shredding a de-cambered design.
Inlaid Power Spine: a structural spine of wood that counters the effect of de-cambering to maintain pop, while not hindering the rocker benefit of easy spins, presses, and butters.
Robusto Tips: a wider, more blunt shape and flat kick design that meets the needs of a rocker nose and tail’s more specialized role as platforms for presses and butters.
True-Twin: a twin-tip shape that encourage riders to equalize their stance and more effectively activate the Grip-Tech contact points and Street Rocker design.
Mercy Edges: softer bronze edges that deliver a less catchy ride, while balancing the active edge performance created by Street Rocker and Grip Tech.
Sumo-Stance: an expanded 2×4 insert system that provides a much wider stance (Max: 25.20″/64cm) allowing riders to size down their boards for classic rocker performance.
For us, time spent riding provides a direct understanding of what’s at stake. Protecting the planet is about the environments we utilize everyday. We need clean air to skate, clean water to surf, and snow to ride. For 14 years, Arbor has built on this understanding, replacing environmentally harmful materials with natural alternatives. The goal is to create a higher level of function, relevance, and style in the most responsible way possible. To that end, 98% of our apparel is made with bamboo-based fabrics. We believe that bamboo is the most environmentally friendly fabric available, providing a unique combination of ecological and performance benefits that make it today’s most promising alternative.