Words and photos by Alex Fishburn
Now before all of you freeriders and speed freaks get antsy, this review is not for you! This is meant for those just starting out, looking for a great board that won’t hurt the wallet too much, and just needs a bit of guidance because they’re overwhelmed with the enormous amount of choices. So with that being said, welcome to our in depth look on the Sector 9 Lookout and Mini Lookout!
There are hundreds of boards marketed to the cruising and carving community. It’s a big market, and it’s the market that drives the industry, since anybody can get out and cruise around or carve on a board, no matter how much experience they have. So there are a ton of boards out there designed to cruise or carve, but it’s really tough to figure out what the differences are, what board is good, what board isn’t, or what board will be best for you. Well luckily, we have a ton of longboarding experience over here, we’ve ridden plenty of good and bad boards, and we’ve finally narrowed things down to what we think is possibly the best (and best for your money!) all around cruiser/carver board; the Sector 9 Lookout.
The Sector 9 Lookout is fantastic; it’s built with highly renewable bamboo in a vertically laminated orientation to ensure an ultra long lasting, ultra snappy flexing platform. Anybody can make a floppy noodle of a deck, that’s easy. What separates the Lookout from other cruiser options is how it pops back to center, and how much energy it gives back when carving hard. This makes it so much easier to flow in and out of sharp carves, the flex sucks you into the turn, hooks and swoops at the depth of the carve, then shoots you out into your next carve. This makes for a lively and fun carving experience! Don’t settle for saggy, go for snappy!
We love the shape of the Lookout, it’s perfect for a relaxing cruise or carve because of the drop through mounting, it makes pushing and footbraking much easier. The wheel cutouts are enormous too, you can run whatever sized wheels you want! That’s something that a lot of cruiser wanna-bes look over, tossing a small 65mm wheel on the setup and calling it good is the easy way out, but carving and cruising on a giant, plush 74mm wheel (or bigger if you so desire) is so much better, and with the Lookout… well you have that option.
The concave is a bit unique as far as cruiser carvers are concerned, it’s a flat-to-mellow-tub concave, meaning the very ends of the rails come up a bit, but the middle isn’t quite flat, is has just a hint of W concave throughout. Not something that you’d ever feel while pushing, but once you start to lean off the board, you can dig your toes into the concave’d rails and press the ball of your foot into the W concave. It’s the difference between the guy cautiously and nervously carving back and forth, and the guy slashing back and forth at the limit of grip… it’s all in how the concave performs, and the Lookout definitely nails it.
So all of this fun for medium to large sized riders, but what about you little fellas? Well, the review did start with mentioning a Mini Lookout, and that’s because there’s a small version this year to make sure even the smallest of riders have a sweet carver to hop onto! The bigger version fits really well on someone over 5’6″ and up to around 220lbs, and with a shoe size of 8 (USA mens) or larger. If you’re under those constraints, then the Mini Lookout might feel a bit better. The cool part is that if you’re a bigger guy that just wants a compact, small, agile carver, then the Mini Lookout will be perfect, and if you’re a smaller shredder who just likes the stable ride of a larger board, then there’s no reason you can’t enjoy the larger Lookout!
When you’re looking for a good cruiser carver, you really should check out the Lookout and the Mini Lookout. They have everything one would want in a relaxed, round-town sort of board, and it comes in two different sizes to appeal to the wide range of sizes that humans come in. We know that you can cruise or carve on just about anything, but why settle for junk when you can get one of the boards designed for the job, and at a real low price to boot. And if you’re wondering how to set it all up complete, well we thought of that too. We decided to go with the Bear trucks, the version 5.01 to be exact. They’re flowy and carvey, but stable enough to handle some hills. For wheels, we put on some Sector 9 Nineballs 74mm 78a wheels; they’re super gummy and squishy which keeps you glued to the road, and they’re even comfortable on rougher pavements, so while your buddies are getting their ankles vibrated to dust, you can comfortably cruise the chunderiest of spots! Toss in some Bones Reds bearings and you’ll be set to roll for a long, long time!
This Sector 9 Lookout Custom Complete is a rad ride, but there are a couple of other great ways to set either of these boards up. If you want to get after the Lookout, but you want to hear about some of the other options to set this bad boy up, feel free to hit us up on chat on the website, give us a call at 801 (467)-8000, or just stop on in and ask us about it! Enough reading, go skate!
