HOW TO CHOOSE A PANTHEON LONG DISTANCE PUSH (LDP) LONGBOARD
In today's blog, we are going to help you pick between your favourite Pantheon Long distance Push (LDP) longboards.
We will be discussing between:
It's a lot of boards... How are you going to pick just one? Stay tuned and we will help you out.
WHAT IS A LDP LONGBOARD?
Alright, so picture this: a Long Distance Pushing (LDP) longboard is like your trusty steed for epic journeys on four wheels. It's not just any old skateboard—it's your ticket to adventure on the pavement.
First off, these babies are built for the long haul. They've got a longer wheelbase, which means more stability and smoother rides when you're clocking in those miles. And let's talk about the deck—it's all about comfort and ergonomics. You want something that's gonna feel good under your feet for hours on end, right?
Oh, and those wheels? They're not messing around. We're talking big, soft wheels that eat up cracks and pebbles like it's nothing. It's like gliding on clouds, man. And the bearings? Smooth as butter. You want that roll to be effortless when you're pushing mile after mile.
So yeah, a Long Distance Pushing longboard is more than just a board—it's your partner in crime for those epic skate adventures. It's all about the journey, dude, and these boards are built to take you wherever your wheels desire.
TYPES OF DISTANCE LONGBOARDS
We are going to divide these boards into three different types:
- Flat Mounted double drop boards (the Quest, Pranayam, the Trip or the Nexus.)
- Angled Dropped LDP, pumping and pushing hybrid boards
- Bracket boards (the Bandito and the Wiggler)
One of the main factors that you're going to look for is standing platform, how far away are your feet going to be placed in relation to your shoulder width. It would be pretty standard for a beginner to be at least shoulder width apart with their feet. So, we will talk you through the different sized platforms Pantheon have between their boards.
HOW ARE YOU GOING TO PICK BETWEEN THE TRIP AND THE PRANAYAMA?
The Pantheon Trip
The Pantheon Trip is designed with reverse kingpin (RKP) trucks. They're going to be a bit more turny but also a little more stable. By that we mean that is your turning radius, the circle, that you are going to be able to make will be slightly smaller than a tradition kingpin (TKP) truck because you're getting more of that inward articulation with this type of truck. Pantheon make the Trip primarily designed around 150mm trucks and slim wheels. There are a couple of wheels options that go really well with this board:
- Pantheon Karma 92mm Wheels
- Orangatang Caguama 85mm Wheels
- Seismic Speed Vent 85mm Wheels
These wheels are all great as they are slim and don't have too much of an inset, where the wheel is inside of the bearing and thats what you need to prevent the wheels biting into the board. Slim wheels combined with slim trucks can be a recipe for disaster, but if you get the wheel offset correct, the wheel can articulate all the way without biting into the board. If you want to go for a wider wheel, you will be need to bump up the width of the trucks, pop a 165mm on them and. It'll be a great combo. With doing this though, you aren't going to get the wild agility which is where we go into the Pranayama.
The Pantheon Pranayama
The Pantheon Pranayama is designed to fit specifically street trucks, TKP style trucks. Pantheon recommend pairing this board with the Paris Street 149mm trucks. They think it is the best fit for the board but you could fit an Indy 149mm or a comparable truck on there as well.
You can go for 85/90mm longboard wheels or even up to a 95mm but you would be cutting it fine to the shoulder of the deck after that. The nice thing about the Pranayama is that it has a little bit more flexibility when it comes to wheel choice. You can fit a wider wheel on the Pantheon Parayama. It may look tight but with the way TKP (tradition kingpin) trucks turn, they're going to lean more than they're going to turn in. So, that big fat wheel is going to kind of lean straight up into the wheel well. There are a couple of wheel options you can go for:
- Orangatang Caguama 85mm Wheels
- 90mm Megawatt Wheels
This is an awesome board for flats and its' a great pick for if you're going to be riding hills. This boards provides a really nice tight stance and it's only 31.375" long. You can take this board anywhere, on a plane, on a train... Compared to the Trip which is 33.23" long, just a little bit longer to compensate for the RKP style trucks.
The Pantheon Quest
In general the Quest is great for primarily distance rides. It is a 7 ply core board, whereas the Trip and Pranayam are 6 ply core. Both have fibreglass top and bottom so that they're very strong. At Pantheon they say that the fibreglass layer, so a 6 ply core with 2 layers of fibreglass is the stiffness and strength equivalent to an 8 ply board and a 7 is more like a 9.
With the Quest, you can trust it just about anywhere. You can take it downhill, take it across the country and be just fine with it. It isn't entirely waterproof but it is pretty damn close. You can trust this board is just about any weather. You can outfit the Quest with 150mm trucks and slim wheels. It does have a little bit less flexibility in terms of bite prevention tan the trip does, so if you want to push it out to a 165mm truck to compensate that's fine.
The Pantheon Nexus
The Pantheon Nexus is more of a do-it-all board. It is a 7 ply core with a fibreglass top and bottom. This board has been tested with riders up to 300lbs and done exceptionally well; you could probably push a little beyond that. We like this board for freeride and for going up and down mountains. The Nexus is your ideal, do it all, downhill, freeride, distance board. If you live in an area with lots of mountains and you're going to be doing a lot of up and down riding, this is an excellent board for that.
Differences between the Quest and the Nexus:
The main difference is the platform. The platform is slightly larger on the Nexus but they're in the same mold. What that actually means is you get a little bit more activation of the drop, even though the drops are the exact same distance apart. You get to stick your foot up into the corners of these drops and really utilise the drops to their maximum potential.
If you're looking for a board that gives you the maximum comfort the Pantheon Supersonic is the one for you. It is 36.5" long, so it's still not a super long board. One of the key factors of this board is that it has wedged mountings and that is because this board is designed for not only pushing but also pumping. When you're pumping a board and you want to pump efficiently, you want to have that front truck angled nice and high, like a 55/60/65º. You also want that rear truck really dead in the back. Another nice feature of the Supersonic is that it is a top mount. Being a top mount, it means that you can run pretty much any size wheel that you want and you can always compensate with a little bit of added height. Pantheon pair this truck with either Bear 50º or Paris 50º and you can run up to 90mm wheels without the stress of wheelbite.
BRACKET BOARDS
Now, let's get into Pantheons bracket boards. Brackets may be a completely foreign object to some of people that haven't seen them before. What we're discussing is a platform that then has separate brackets or necks of the board that can sometimes be adjustable or might be totally fixed. The Brackets are a truck mounting system that is usually fully adjustable allowing you to set up a few different configurations, different degrees etc.
The Pantheon Bandito longboard is 23.3" long platform deck. It may appear to be a little bit of a weirdo and that's because it kinda is. This is an ideal board for extremely long distances where all you care about is comfort. Again, it is a bracket board, ideally suited to G-Bomb Brackets or the Loaded Zee Brackets. This board is great for ultra skates where you're going out for 24 hours at a time. It is pure comfort and flexibility and you can also use it as a top mount pumping board.
And that's a wrap! We hope you enjoyed this breakdown of the Pantheon distance longboards and be sure to check our range of Pantheon boards.