Unparalleled stability, control, and comfort

Spring 2014

I wanted to design a deck that combined the most important features of all my favorite boards, creating what I saw as the future of the all purpose freeride / downhill board. 

A dropdeck, with its lowered standing platform and topmounted trucks, offers an extremely stable riding platform. However, lowering the deck requires cutting out areas for wheel clearance, which reduces the deck area and limits foot placement options. Having this extra area is one of the reasons topmount decks are so desirable. Some boards have come close, with smaller drops and large wheel wells. I decided to push past what any deck had achieved, and make a dropdeck with the deck shape of a topmount but retain full wheel clearance to run large downhill wheels. 

The w-concave is clearly visible in the vacuum press

Pressing two boards, the Prophecy is in the back

The w-concave profile I used was based of my experience adding W to boards in the past. After lamination, I sculpted the profile to fit the curve of my feet precisely, giving an amazingly comfortable feel and improving grip on the deck. In order to achieve a fully concave deck profile at the foot pockets, I added extra layers of maple veneer and blended them into the deck. This type of concave is now known as "cereal bowl" concave, the top of the deck could hold water since it is curved up on all sides. These flares are the start of the curve of the full fenders and add a very firm footing to the deck. 

Clamping and gluing the extra veneers

the extra concave veneers blended to shape

Laying up the fiberglass fenders over a foam mold shaped to match the contours of the deck

Test fitting trucks on the deck

The fiberglass fenders after trimming and finishing to the final profile of the deck

Flushmount pockets for the trucks level the base plates and lower the mount height