#34 - Annie's Double Drop

Annie originally contacted me about three months ago with some non-specific questions about board design and shape and the resulting ride feel. Some one hundred emails or so later the deck is finally finished and on it's way to her.

The deck consists of three plies of bamboo and a bamboo stringer. There's a small amount of carbon fiber mixed in there to tune flex and a little bit of blue to accent the graphics. She designed the vinyl on the bottom herself and sent it to me to be applied before the final layers of epoxy.

Also, if you're finding yourself in need of some sweet graphics on your kicks, hit Annie up. Looks like she's doing good work.

#33 - Brandon's Crhistmas Present

Brandon's wife ordered a deck for. Christmas and since neither of us knew what he'd want exactly I built him what I'd want were I in his shoes, a double drop of course. Carbon fiber top and bottom, cloth up top over the carbon, and a bamboo stringer.

Since it was ordered as a complete I finished it off with some black on black Paris trucks(my favorite) and some Gravity High Grades.

#32 - Going Old School

Abraham requested a board similar to an old Hosoi Hammerhead with my own little twist. I really wasn't all that excited about the deck when I started, but by the time I got around to cutting out I was totally in love. It's such a beautiful and well balanced shape.

The deck has just a little but of camber, a decent amount of concave, nice kicks at the nose and tail, cocobolo risers, and a little kevlar and carbon in the tail to stiffen it up and fight razor tail.

It's a sexy board for sure, it might just be the next thing I build for myself.

#31 - The Shovel

Three plies of bamboo, cherry stringer, and some carbon fiber.

Dead sexy and fun to ride. I don't really know what else to say about this deck.

#30 - Mason's Mini(?)

Mason's deck was originally going to be a 32" mini but after a little discussion it was decided that a little extra foot space wouldn't be so bad.

I buried some kevlar in the layup to help fight razor tail, finished the whole bottom in carbon fiber and topped it off with a stealth logo.

#29 - Kyle's Hawaiian Double Drop

Kyle wanted a deck like #18, and that's what he got. Hawaii on the top.

Walnut split stringer on the bottom.

Super comfy drop.

#28 - Pumper revisited

This is my second LDP deck. I was going for a little more predictable flex then that found in deck #20 and hit the mark dead on.

The construction is 1/8" maple stringer, uni carbon fiber, 8mm of bamboo, and some various kinds of fiberglass. It'll find a new home eventually, but for now this deck is going to hang around as a loaner.

#27 - Addressing failure

I have received a couple of requests to try and get a steeper drop transition than the one I came up with in #25. I actually had a lot of trouble getting much steeper with the equipment and materials I currently have. This is the best I could do.

It may look alright but there's actually a bit of cracking at the edges of the drops. This is the best of three test blanks and on a whim I decided to just finish it off and see if it'll stay together.

It's been skinned in so much carbon fiber and kevlar I doubt it'll ever break. You better believe that I'm going to try and find out though. The deck is very stiff, combined with the shorter wheelbase plus loose trucks and freeride wheels make for a very fun ride.

#26 - The build off deck

The most recent Silverfish build off required incorporating multiple elements, a minimum of two from the following list: concave, camber, flex, rocker, and kick tail.

Rather than go for as much as I could cram into a single deck, I opted instead to just go with a nice clean concave and camber deck.

The board also has flex, but not enough to claim it as a feature. The bigger thing I was going for was to use Original trucks on a long wheelbase deck without risers.

I also really wanted a drag hole, it's by far the best way to tote your board back up a hill in my opinion.

My last requirement was that the deck be freestanding, not for function so much as the fact that it just looks cool. I'm a big fan of "looks cool".

#25 - Derek's symmetrical double drop

A double drop for Derek. At his request I added the Chevelle(the band, not the car) logo on the bottom. I also borrowed from Chevelle for the grip font.

It came out looking really nice, the carbon and mahogany work really well together.

#24 - Dragonfly Dancer

This is a dancer I threw together for the raffle at the annual Dragonfly Jam here in Seattle.

Shannon did the ink on the bottom(he also did the forty2 logo BTW).

The winner of the deck is also the same guy that's getting #25. My first multiple deck owner, after me that is.

#23 - Sherwin's Double Drop

Sherwin rode #18, and wanted one of course, but with a shark.

He got two.



Thanks to the grip job that I wasn't sure was going to work out new decals are on the way. Sooner or later anyway.

#22 - Fred's Double Drop

This deck went out and came back. I deemed it still worthy and Fred wanted it so I made him a hell of a deal.

The bottom came out beautifully, I couldn't be happier with the stealthy shark logo over the carbon fiber.

#21 - A Mini for Darius

Darius requested a mini, something that will fit in his locker at school. He wanted a drop through deck 8" wide, 30.5" long, symetrical, and with a little kick on the nose and tail. He also wanted to be able to run 72mm wheels on Paris 150s. I did everything I could to accommodate his requirements and still have some decent deck strength.

I didn't feel comfortable with how little material would remain around the trucks to accommodate the 72mms on 180s but I got him as close as I could. 70s are really tight and 66s are perfect.

Nice little kicks.

Mild concave.

It's a good looking deck and Darius is really happy with it, and that's what matters most.

#20 - The Long Distance Pumper

I built the LDP deck for myself as an experiment in localizing flex. By using two different hardwoods for the stringer I was hoping to make the deck more reactive in the back as to have less of an effect on the front truck.

The shape was inspired by another builder(with permission) and modified some for this build, I really like the modern look of it and the shape offers a lot of real estate for my front foot.

It's quite the comfortable deck and pumps nicely. There are some small things I'd change in a future deck, but for now I'm pretty happy with it.

#19 - Jordan's Topmount Speedboard

This deck was built secially for Jordan to take to Maryhill for the Festival of Speed. It's built with 2 plies of bamboo veneer and a 1/4" maple stringer. The whole thing is wrapped up in carbon fiber to form what is by far the stiffest deck I've built to date.


The shape was designed by Jordan to meet his specific needs, a narrow waist for foot braking, a tapered nose to help hook his foot on the rail, and a narrow overall width for his smaller feet.


39" long, 9" wide, and an adjustable wheelbase of 30" and 30.5"

#18 - The Partial Stringer Concept

The concept for this deck started right about the time I was starting to talk with Pete about his build. My thinking was that the stringer is most important at either end of the deck but in the body the deck is already quite strong due to it's width and concave. I really wanted more flex than #3 was giving me but still be totally confident that the deck could handle a beating from my rotund frame.

The construction is three layers of bamboo with the middle layer running bias. All of the bamboo I used was either scrap or starting to split and something I didn't want to risk having fall apart during the construction of a deck for someone else(this is only a risk run during initial pressing, nothing fails in pressing and I'm pretty confident from there on out). Knowing that just three layers was not enough for the body at my weight and not wanting to go to four I added a layer of 5.7oz twill carbon fiber to the top and bottom and then the flame cut split walnut stringer.

The deck is not nearly as stiff as #3 but still plenty stiff under my weight with just the right amount of snap. The bias layer in the middle helped to flatten out the concave a little making it a little less freeride friendly but infinitely better for mongo long pushing. The deck rebounds very quickly pushing back into the rider making pumping more effortless. This is not a pumping deck by any means but I can hold speed by pumping with this deck better than any of my others.

For riders of my weight this deck is downright ideal for pushing and it's not so bad for mild downhill as well as freeride.

#17 - Pete's Double Drop

Probably my prettiest deck yet, Pete's double drop consists of three layers of bamboo and a walnut stringer. The deck is something of a prototype, Pete asked if I could do a double with a stringer. I'd already been toying with the idea and it seemed feasible. My friend Shannon tested it out yesterday and feels that it's got the best ride of any of my decks he's ridden to date. I'm a little concerned about the depth of the flex and Pete knows that if it's too deep for him he can send it back to me for reinforcement at no additional charge.

A detail shot of the marquetry. The hardest thing about this deck is dropping it in the mail, I'm just so damn pleased with how it came out.

*NOTE* - Shots of the top are held back for now because Pete wants to be surprised by the grip, I'll update the site after he receives it.