Noah
This one has been a long time coming. Organic profile, Side Effects compatible; borrowing some goodness from its Fruitbowl brothers but firmly set on its own path.
We're proud to introduce the Noah.
SPECS
dia 54.3mm
wid 48.4mm
base weight with AL Ultra Lights 62.3g , and 65g with Brass Ultra Lights
material 7068 AL
includes AL Ultra Light Side effects, Brass Ultra Light Side effects
The Weatherman Line draws inspiration from – quite obviously – aspects of weather and the wilderness. Nature has always been a personal refuge for me. I’ve found being in the great outdoors helps me clear my mind, and can be incredibly restful. Given my adoration for and years spent in nature, it was instinctive to draw from my experiences in it – in the Nepali Himalayas, Norwegian Alps, and even desertlands of the Midwest in my years in the United States – and connect them to the concept of variability, which is core to the Weatherman Line.
The Khuno is named after the Incan God of the Storm. Its construction as a Side Effects bimetal, which gives its user a wide range of weight and power, pays homage to the spectrum of force in meteorological phenomena.
Noah as a name was a wonderful starting point for our next model. It has obvious ties to the Biblical episode of the Flood, but more directly, its etymological roots gesture towards the notion of rest – which one can experience deeply in nature. Nature can be a terrible force – it is also simultaneously peaceful and restorative.
In mapping out design parameters and descriptors, we wanted to do something that was unreservedly light, and relaxed. Something that mirrored the ability of nature to set someone completely at ease. Going with an organic profile made sense, given our design parameters.
Still, we needed an approach on organics that was clearly distinct from our Fruitbowl designs. The Cloudberry and Goji were designed to still provide power in their rims to balance an otherwise lithe playfeel, but for this project, we weren’t really looking for balance.
We wanted a purer organic shape that moved as easily as the Goji and felt as floaty as the Pomelo, so that’s what we set out to work on – our initial sketches were based on a miniaturised Pomelo with a frame akin to our smallest and zippiest organic, with the added feature of variability through One Drop’s Side Effects system.
We ended up with something fluffier at 54.3mm, just sitting between the physiques of the Cloudberry and Goji, and with a base weight of 62.3g.
As weight distribution goes, there is nearly zero bias towards the rims. The rims are a clean, lipless cup with unbroken curvature.
We wanted to add a bit of centerweight without rehashing the protrusive hub-bump that has been popular in many other recent designs. Keeping consistent with curvature, we ended up with a graduated slope surrounding the Side Effects axle holes, replacing the usual straight-line edges of other Side Effect designs.
This addition is subtle, but we managed to pack on roughly 3g to centerweight while maintaining its gradual, gentle surface.
We’ve also gently reworked our schmoove-response bump to be less aggressive than before. These are micro, under-the-hood changes that might not be immediately obvious to the eye, but they contribute to a smoother ride.
Part of our ongoing tinkering is focused on getting our Side Effects designs as smooth as possible. This included extensive testing with various bearing types, all of which have specifications that can vary on a microscopic level. The construction involves multiple independent, fitted parts, and the tiniest amounts of vibe can emerge from imprecisions in any of them.
Yoyorecreation’s NSK DS Platinum bearings worked well with the Khunos. We managed to source for an alternative concave design, which we internally refer to as Type I’s, which yield a similar smoothness.
These Type I Concaves will be included stock with the Noahs.
They will also be kitted with the new Saturn Pads, which we developed and produced in conjunction with RSO. These pads are made to Shore 30 spec, and provide nice, tight binds.
When Noah prototypes were first posted online, we had someone ask what Side effects felt most “native” to the design. Your mileage may vary, but I’ve most enjoyed the Noah with Aluminium Ultra Lights, since they make full use of its light frame. Aluminium Flats feel great as well. In its native featherweight configuration, the Noah just bobs, weaves and floats through tricks.
It’s a joy to regen and whip – something you might be familiar with if you ever played a Pomelo.
Heavier setups, such as with the Brass Ultra Lights (65g) (or some of my personal favourites in Brass MMCs, 65.9g) grounds the playfeel a bit. Despite the extra weight, the relative distribution keeps those additional grams away from the rims, so you don’t lose its supple feel.
In some ways the Noah feels like our version of the essential blank canvas for organics. It’s capable of a wide spectrum of play, but it’s designed for a certain purist in mind.
Short aside – this “restful” style of play, in my opinion, is wonderfully embodied by Coleman Weimer. On top of being a really kind and insightful human being, he’s been behind many outstanding short film projects that have emerged in 2021, such as We Got This Pt. 5, which features Harrison Lee and Ethan Cheung (link here, if you happen to like incredibly produced yoyo videos.)
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The Noah comes with our signature dusty, ceramic-like blast, and includes:
- A pair of Saturn Pads
- AL Ultra Light Side effects (installed)
- Brass Ultra Light Side effects
- Zipline String’s Case Study 50s for some out-of-box goodness.
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Thank you for getting to the end of this writeup!
We’d love to hear your thoughts, questions, or any reactions at all.
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We rigorously hand-tune our Side Effect models to be smooth, but players should expect that some degree of tuning a multi-part model is part of the game.
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november 2021
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