//subdivision

After many years of abuse, particuarly in big, carvey turns and deep stops, my FSK skate slide protection is starting to wear through to the liner, so I had a think about how I could give them a few more years' life. Glueing on chunks of plastic would be an option, but I figured this would be ugly and probably fall off.

I then came across something on ebay which I thought could be a fun alternative. Tail Devils are meant to be attached to skateboards as a kids' toy; a sparking slider made of the same stuff you find in a lighter.

This seemed the ideal material for a skate slider; tough, yet soft enough not to catch on the road. I ordered some from The Mysto Spot, a surf and skate shop in East Sussex, and they arrived really quickly.

Tail Devils come as five chunky pieces of flint, tightly embedded in hard plastic with a sticky back. I cut them out with a hacksaw, which wasn't too tricky.

I poked about on my skates to find the hardest bit of plastic in the right area, which turned out to be on the soul of the skate.

A 10mm drill bit was the perfect size for the job, and I used some good epoxy to glue the flint firmly into the skate soul.

I've been using the skates like this for a while now, and it works perfectly; the flint wears down slowly and predictably, and yes it is quite fun leaving a trail of sparks as you go (if a little sad, but I like it )

There's a lot of videos around showing Tail Devils in action, have a look below for some nice examples of skateboarders showing how much of a spark trail a few tail devils can produce together!

Tagged as inline skating, inlines, skating, sport + Categorized as Skate & Surf