A YOW surfskate is ideal for a deep & divey carving experience.
Their coil spring adapter allows you to get into a natural pumping motion. It does a great job of replicating the feeling of surfing on land.
In this post, I’ll take it apart and discuss the various aspects of it.
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My personal opinion
YOW surfskates offer a deep, divey feel. They’re one of the easiest surfskates to pump from a standstill.
Out of all the surfskates I own, this is one of my favorites because it feels so natural to pump. Their front adapter allows you to do sharp turns but doesn’t jackknife as often as a SwellTech.
It’s one of the best options for practicing your pumping and turns for surfing. The pumpy, flowy feel is incredible, even if you don’t surf.
How to choose your YOW surfskate?
I wrote a dedicated article on choosing a surfskate, which I recommend checking out. But if you just want some quick tips, here are a few suggestions.
Define your riding style & environment
After talking with many others, figuring out your riding style and environment is key.
Where and how will you be riding?
If your riding environment is rough and has steep hills, a YOW Meraki won’t make sense. The Meraki pivots deep and sits high off the ground, so any real speed can be sketchy. I’ve had the most fun using my Meraki in flat areas with low-key hills or mellow transitions.
If you ride in skateparks often, YOW’s surf cruisers offer more stability.
Yow surfskate for beginners?
One of the most common topics is whether a beginner should get a YOW surfskate.
It is possible for a beginner to learn on a YOW Meraki, however it will pivot deep and might take some time to get used to. You might want to ease your way into surfskating by getting their Legasee surf cruiser or a Carver surfskate.
Surfskate Trucks
YOW offers two trucks…
- Meraki (Spring-Adapter)
- Legasee (Bushing-Based)
Meraki’s come on their surfskates and Legasee on their surf cruisers.
YOW Meraki Truck
360 video of the Meraki
Surfskate Adapter: Spring-Based
Spring Type: Coil (5mm or 4mm)
Axle Width: 8 ⅞” TKPs
Bushings: 92A Barrel/Cone
The YOW Meraki is their most popular surfskate system. It’s a spring-based pivoting adapter that uses a coil spring. The front adapter has no truck baseplate since it’s connected directly to the Meraki adapter.
The back truck has a 1″ riser pad to even it out with the front adapter, preventing wheelbite.
YOW Legasee Truck
Type: Bushing-Based
Axle Width: 7 ¾” TKPs
Bushings: 92A Barrel/Cone
The Legasee truck is a bushing-based TKP that offers more stability than the Meraki system. It’s YOW’s attempt at combining surfskates and street setups.
YOW Wheels
The older setups used to come with 66mm 78A Blue Cinetic wheels, but they switched.
They now make their wheels in-house; every setup comes with their URA wheels.
Props to them for making their wheels in-house. I don’t know of any other surfskate brand that manufactures the components of their setups. However, compared to other urethane formulas, YOW wheels don’t have as high of a rebound.
YOW Hardware
They use two different sizes of 10-32 flat hex bolts.
YOW front adapter bolts size are…
- 5/8″ flat hex bolts
YOW back truck bolts size are
- 2″ flat hex bolts
YOW Decks
Their decks are made of 7 Plies Canadian maple.
From an aesthetic point of view, YOW is leading the surfskate market. The graphics/art direction is beautiful.
They have a 3D viewer on all their product pages, which is helpful to get a better idea of the concave/kicktail angles.
YOW Bushings
The bushings are street cone and barrel.
The cones are 1/4″ and the barrels are 1/2″. YOW’s bushing durometer is 92a.
Now that I’ve covered every part of a YOW surfskate let’s compare them to other brands.
YOW (vs) Others
A common question I always get asked is to compare YOW to other popular surfskates. In this section, that’s exactly what I’ll do.
YOW vs Smoothstar
YOW’s Meraki dives more than Smoothstar. Almost like you’re balancing on a tightrope. YOW and Smoothstar feel pretty similar to each other compared to the others.
YOW vs Carver
YOW uses a coil spring, which offers some of the deepest carving, whereas Carver is more mellow. I’d recommend YOW if you want something you can do deeper carves with, and Carver if you want something you can also use as a cruiser for longer distances.
I hope you found value in this YOW surfskate review.
