At the end of last year I finally had a go at tech sliding and realised how much fun it was... There was nothing for it, I had to get a tech slide board. I knew pretty much straight away that I wanted a Dangerous Decks SE10, and after months of making do with a set up that I'd swapped for unwanted skate gear I finally got one.
look at the shiny
My first thought when I
first opened the package was “ooooooooh pretty!”
I had spent a bit more on a
board with a carbon fibre layer on the bottom (pink carbon fibre no
less) and the finish was beautiful. In fact I know how much effort
went into it as Will, the guy who builds them, spent a few extra days
re-doing the finish because he wasn't happy with it. Now that's
craftsmanship.
The SE10 is 34” long, 9”
wide, and has wheel base options from 15.5” to 17” adjustable in
3/4” amounts. There are decent sized kicks (7” with the shorter
wheelbase) and an aggressive tub concave. The cave flattens out at
the kicks so you have really nice pockets to lock your feet in. The
board was designed around Indy 169s, I wasn't able to get any because
I'm extremely poor and I had to swap more unwanted skate gear to get
some suitable trucks. I ended up with a set of 9” Gullwing Mission
1s, which are slightly taller that the 169s, but seem to work fine
set up without risers. For the wheels I went with the ubiquitous
Earthwing Slide A in 62mm... Which are epic, somehow managing to
combine (possibly through witchcraft) zero hookup with a lovely
smooth (and fairly quiet) slide. Like I said... Witchcraft.
no hand HS drift
The deck is very stiff with
minimal to zero flex and had a decent about of pop, and as mentioned
the combination of aggressive concave and kicks really locks your
feet in when your going sideways. Basically it inspires confidence to
try new stuff, first time out I was managing to do hands down 360s
without even thinking about it. Early grabs magically improved as
well... the usual pathetic couple of inches was magnified to over
6... Yes size does matter, especially when it comes to getting air. I
also tried a lot of stuff I would never have attempted soft wheel
sliding, like laybacks, switch colemans and even hands down blunt
slides. Admittedly they all ended badly and I now have a nice
collection of bruises, but I was trying.
Nathan trying a blunt slide
The SE10 is also fun away from the hills, the kicks mean you can do all manner of flat land
tricks and there's even enough space to do some board walking (I
managed a peter pan, but failed at cross stepping). Stick some soft
wheels on and it's great for cruising round town or going on a beer
run to the local shop. Speed was also handled well, I never felt out
of control and the board felt solid under my feet when foot braking.
Overall the SE10 is a solid
deck, it may have been designed as a tech slider, but it's certainly
versatile enough that you'll want to use it all the time, and
certainly with soft wheels it makes cruising round town a lot more
fun. This said there were a few down sides... The carbon fibre, while
looking pretty, is already pretty shredded (I have abusive
relationships with my skateboards), in hind sight I think the plain
birch version would be the better choice (it's also the cheaper
option). I also managed to delam the nose attempting a kick flip.
It's nothing serious and easy to fix but worth mentioning. Despite
these minor issues I still love the deck and would gladly hand over
more of my money for a new one when this one dies.
