Looking for something new and chill to ride effortlessly to work or around town? Something fun that carves great and that you can pump, carve, flip, and even ride mellow hills on?
The Chinchiller adds yet a new combination of capabilities to the Loaded lineup. It’s a primarily carving and pumping longboard meant for fun and comfy everyday riding.
This 34″ narrow symmetrical shape with double kicks and sweet flex turns fast, pumps great, and is easily flipped.
The Chinchiller owes its name to Kyle Chin, a core member of the Loaded team and passionate rider who played a major role in designing and launching the board.
Oh and tthe other half of the board’s name (“chiller”) quite well reflects its vibe!
See the Chinchiller here on Loaded’s website
What is the Loaded Chinchiller?
| Shape | Compact symmetrical, mellow kicks, slim outline, mild curves |
| Length & width | 34″ x 8.5″ |
| Wheelbase | 21″ |
| Weight | 3.1 lb (deck) |
| Profile & flex | Rocker with mild flex |
| Concave | Subtle |
The Chinchiller has a unique place in the Loaded lineup as a flexy, highly carvable and pumpable topmount board with a rocker profile and a freestyle-friendly shape.
The other flexy carving and pumping longboards in the Loaded lineup are all mid to full-size, cambered, cutout shapes, including drop-throughs such as the Icarus (38″),Tan Tien (39″), and Dervish Sama (42.8″), and the topmount Vanguard (38″ / 42″).
In contrast, the Chinchiller is:
- A lot more compact at 34″ (21″ wheelbase)
- Topmount
- With a dancer-like shape
- Rockered
The idea of the Chinchiller is to have similar (albeit more subtle) flex characteristics to the camber carving/pumping models, albeit in a compact form and lower riding for better stability and easier pushing. The rocker profile also provides more ergonomic foot hold.
The symmetrical shape and mellow dual kicks also add to the Chinchiller’s fun factor and versatility for day-to-day riding, making it trickable and street-smart.
Like on the larger cambered models, the slim shape makes foot placement instinctive and results in super nimble edge-to-edge response.
Compared to Loaded’s similar-size cruisers such as the Poke and Omakase, the Chinchiller has noticeable more flex and narrower width. It commands more of a forward riding stance vs a primarily backfoot-driven riding style (read on for more comparisons).
The Loaded Chinchiller in short
Pros
- Flex and narrow width allow fast edge-to-edge carving response
- Very pumpable
- Feels longer that it actually is, walkable
- Versatile – carving, pumping, pushing, mellow freestyle and freeride
- Lightweight, beautiful design
Cons
- Wheel wells may not provide enough clearance for more radical riding
- Flex and low concave not the most adequate for bombing hills
- May be a bit narrow for very large feet (foot rub)
See the Chinchiller here on Loaded’s website ($299 for the default setup)
Loaded Chinchiller test drive
Carving
I was surprised by how responsive the Chinchiller feels (default setup). Looking at the board, I expected slower, more drawn out turns. The narrow shape combined with the 150mm Paris trucks makes this board incredibly nimble – it turns FAST!
A slight rail pressure is enough to initiate turns, even with both feet placed toward the center. You feel super comfortable on this board the second you get on it. It rides silky smooth and is incredibly reactive, almost carves on its own.
To me, due to the flex and slim outline, the Chinchiller feels closer to the 44.5″ Mata Hari than the 34″ Poke.
Wheel clearance is fine with the 65mm Love Handles and stock bushings, I was able to make fairly deep turns without issues without risers in spite of the slight bounciness.
I’m a shoe size 12 and haven’t come close to getting foot rub. At 8.5″ the deck is narrow, but I either didn’t carve hard enough or my feet aren’t have large enough to feel the limit.
Pushing (commuting, urban, LDP)
The Chinchiller is a great pushing board for a topmount. The rocker and flex lower the deck closer to the ground, reducing the distance to the pavement for your pushing foot and the amount of knee bend in your other leg.
I noticed the slightly springy deck even helps me get a bit more distance out of each push. While a dedicated LDP board like the double-drop Pantheon Loaded Trip rides even closer to the ground, I feel that the bounciness of the Chinchiller helps make my pushing perhaps even more effective.
The flex also further absorbs the vibrations and ground imperfections, resulting in a super smooth ride for longer rides.
Pumping
I’m generally able to pump pretty much any board, from a 28″ Ballona stiff cruiser to a 39″ drop-through Tan Tien, all the way to a flexier 47″ Tarab. The main difference is the way these boards can be pumped.
On shorter and stiffer boards like small to mid-sized cruisers, your pumps are backfoot driven, similar to the way you gain speed on a surfboard in the wave, with your back foot sitting near the tail.
On a flexier board, however, you can get awesome pumping efficiency by leveraging the flex toward the middle of the deck and using a good weighing/unweighing technique. This works great with the Chinchiller with a feel similar to some flexy pintails as well as larger dancing longboards.
This contrasts noticeably with something like the Loaded Poke, even though it has similar size, width and rocker. Pumping on the Poke is a lot more backfoot driven.
Freeride
The Chinchiller’s shape makes it suitable for some freeride. The shape has similarities with the Loaded Basalt Tesseract (a specialized freeride deck) albeit smaller and flexier.
The Chinchiller’s symmetrical topmount shape with double kicks, as well as its carving abilities, makes it a good candidate for moderate hills, switch riding, and sliding.
Keep in mind though that the Chinchiller is a “chill” board, not a hardcore freeride board. The subtle flex and mellow curves (no crazy contours or wheel flares for serious foot lock-in) aren’t specifically designed for high-speed, speed checks, technical slides etc.
At least not with my riding skills!
Freestyle & tricks
The Chinchiller’s mellow double kicks and super light weight makes it easy to ollie, hop on/off curbs, jump over small obstacles, and do manuals, shuvits, and other kick and flip tricks.
Again though, it’s a versatile, playful, all-around board, but not a dedicated freestyle board. The kicks are relatively short and low angled. While the flex is stiff enough for some tech tricks and slides, it may not be optimal for really hardcore trickery.
Of course, some might disagree:
Beginners
The Chinchiller is a great board for newer riders because of the low ride, stability, comfortable flex, and large foot platform resulting from the low-ish angle of the kicks.
The streamlined shape and gentle flex also makes it great and forgiving for learning basic tricks such as ollie, manual, shove-it, or kick flip, and for practicing switch riding and basic slides.
Check out the Chinchiller on Loaded’s website
Chinchiller construction, shape, design
The Chinchiller uses Loaded’s usual high-performance composite tech consisting of a vertically laminated bamboo core wrapped in fiberglass layers and glued together with high-resistance bio epoxy resin. The special top and bottom sheets reduce abrasion and dampen vibrations.
The Chinchiller’s special flex characteristics results from achieving the right combination of bamboo, fiberglass, and epoxy.
The Chinchiller is rockered between the trucks and flatter between the mounts holes, resulting in a slightly lowered section (even more so with the flex when you stand on it) and a bit of “foot cradle” in the middle.
If you look at the deck from the side you may notice that “nano-drop” where the flat section transitions to the rocker section.
The cradling and lower section help nicely for carving and sliding.
The concave is mild but still provide subtle anchorage for your heels and toes, without interfering for relaxed riding and commuting:
In contrast, I find mellow cruising or commuting on the Poke less comfortable due to the more pronounced concave, uplifted rails, and flared contours, designed for more radical styles of riding.
Likewise, the kicks are a lot more mellow on the Chinchiller vs the aggressive tail kick on the Poke:
I find the art on the Chinchiller really stunning, especially the bottom side:
The artwork is by the Barcelona-based design studio RETOKA from their Color Waves collection.
See the Chinchiller on Loaded’s website
Loaded Chinchiller setup
The default setup includes Paris v2 150mm RKP trucks which the Chinchiller shape is designed to fit perfectly with for smooth and super fast response.
The 65mm Orangatang Love Handles are fast and lightweight (145 g) offset wheels with a wide 50mm contact patch designed specifically for high traction – carving, pumping, surfskate, dancing, racing. The 80a duro provide a good balance between grip, smoothness, and popping/sliding.
Again, the CNC-milled wheel wells on the Chinchiller deck allow for a wheelbite-free ride for “normal” riding without the need for extra risers.
Chinchiller vs Loaded lineup
Here’s a table that provides a quick comparison between the Chinchiller and a few other Loaded boards that I feel have things in common (features and/or riding feel):
[NOTE: if on mobile, please flip to horizontal for better viewing]
| Loaded board | Size & WB | Shape | Curvature | Flex | Remarks |
| Chinchiller ($299) | 34″ x 8.5″ (21″ WB) | Symmetrical double kicks, small and mellow angled | Concave 1/4 | 3/3 (flexy) | |
| Poke ($294) | 34″ x 9.125″ (20.75″ WB) | Directional, big wide high angle kick and subtle nose, wheel flares | Concave 4/4 | 2/3 (medium) | Comparable size but much stiffer and a lot curvier, smaller nose kick |
| Omakase ($289) | 33.5″ x 10″ (22″ WB) | Directional, big wide low angle kick, flat nose, wheel flares | Concave 3/4 | 1/3 (stiff) | Comparable size but a lot stiffer and single kick |
| Coyote ($204) | 30.75″ x 8.375″ (17.5″ WB) | Directional, Big high angled kick, small pronounced nose, wheel flares | Concave 2/4 | 1/3 (stiff) | Similar width but shorter, much stiffer, curvier, smaller nose kick |
| Basalt tesseract ($340) | 39″ x 9.5″ (26″ WB) | Symmetrical double kicks, large & mellow angle, wheel flares | Concave 3/4 | 2/3 (medium) | Much larger but somewhat similar outline, albeit stiffer and curvier |
| Mata Hari ($339) | 44.5″ x 9.25″ (29.25″ WB) | Symmetrical double kicks, big, high angled, narrow | Concave 1/4 | 3/3 (flexy) | A lot longer with more pronounced kicks, but similar in flex & concave |
The Poke is likely the closest in terms of length, width, rocker profile. As I mentioned earlier though, the riding feel is widely different due to the noticeably stiffer flex, the more pronounced concave, the wheel flares/contour/foot pockets, the more aggressive tail kick and smaller nose kick.
Final thoughts
If you’re looking for a super versatile, comfortable and mellow, do-it-all longboard in a compact package that will help you up your riding a notch, the Chinchiller may just be your guy.
The board’s low ride makes pushing pleasant and effortless, the flex is super nice for efficient pumping and for rolling on bad pavement, the symmetrical shape and mellow kicks are awesome for learning or improving your pops, flips, and slides.
If you’re not sure whether you’ll be focusing on freeride, freestyle, dancing, or LDP (or a combination of these) in the near future, the Chinchiller lets you experiment with all of them without hindrance. it will also grow with you as it’s capable of handling more advanced stuff in each discipline – simply by tweaking things like the wheelbase, bushings, and/or wheel size/duro.
Grab the Chinchiller on Loaded’s website – you won’t regret it. I certainly haven’t!
