Cassette Revolutionizes Wakeskating
By Kevco
Back in June, Thomas Horrell invited me over to go wakeskating. I was riding the 41″ concave and everything was normal, until I see Thomas digging through the storage compartment of his Session boat. He casually said, “try this out” and threw the craziest deck I had ever seen towards me in the water. It is a deck with two levels — the bottom resembling a normal wakeskate and the top being the same size, but contoured more like a skateboard. There were two mounts similar in relation to where trucks would be, so the decks are separated.
Everything about this board felt different, but was easy to get used to. Getting up had a different drag to it, and edging around was different, basically because you are elevated above the surface of the water. Now lets talk about ollie-ing (that word is so weird to spell). The top deck has a lot of flex, so the first time I ollied this board, I felt like the man, because with just normal effort, I was able to ollie higher than ever before. I though shuvs would be weird, because the deck appears to be bulkier than a normal wakeskate, but the bs shuv I tried came around just as easy if not easier than I was used to. While getting into the boat, I had many thoughts going through my head as to the direction Thomas is going to lead wakeskating and revolutionize it once again.
When Thomas rode, he was pulling all his normal stuff with ease. It appears that a lot of basic moves will be more consistent on this design such as 90 shuvs out and stuff like that. A bi-level shape will be made in pro models for Thomas, Reed and Hampson for ’05. In other words, this is the design they will be riding into the future.
I usually don’t write personal experience stories, but I figured there would be a lot of wakeskaters who would want to know how this thing rides. Plus, I’ve been busting at the seams to tell this story since that day back in June, because I promised Thomas that I wouldn’t say anything until it was time. So I hope this article helps and make sure to try this deck out before you really form an opinion on it, because it rides differently than anything you’ve ever ridden.
Below is a press release from Cassette and images of their ’05 graphics. Check out the N/D issue of WBM for more info and photos of the bi-level decks.
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Cassette Announces Revolutionary “Bi-Level” Wakeskate
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Cassette Wakeskates, the originators of the wood wakeskate, the concave wakeskate and a-symmetrical shapes, announces that a patent application has been filed for Cassette’s latest creation, The “Bi-Level” Deck. Thomas Horrell and Bryan Dawley co-conceptualized this new project, in which Cassette will be offering three pro models in the 2005 line. Danny Hampson, Aaron Reed, and Thomas Horrell will lay claim to this unbelievable new deck that generates energy and pop that has never been felt on a wakeskate before. “Aaron Reed, Danny Hampson, Bryan Dawley, and I have been extremely involved in the testing of this deck and I can’t believe the results we’re getting,” quotes Thomas Horrell. “We’ve been playing around with hydrodynamic concepts for the last two years and figured out that it wasn’t about using the surface of the water to get more pop, it was about using leverage between the boards and snapping the tail of the top deck onto the harder top surface of the bottom deck”, quotes Bryan Dawley. 1/8th inch mounts attach the top and bottom decks together in two mounting areas, which cause a fulcrum effect that, accelerates the board’s lift from the water.
Cassette has revolutionized the wakeskate once again.
Photo’s of the Bi-Levels in action will be available soon on www.cassettewakeskates.com.
Cassette Wakeskates 2005: Aaron Reed, Danny Hampson, Thomas Horrell, Danny Molina, Jim Leatherman, Myles Vickers, Bryan Dawley, and Jason Gregory.
