Rayne Phantom review.

I've spent most of the last year riding my Dangerous Decks SE10, learning the art of downhill slide. Sometimes though I feel the need to ride something a bit bigger, but don't want to break out my DH setup (truthfully this is because I haven't yet progressed my tech-slide style onto softer wheels and bigger boards)... So I bought a Rayne Phantom, which if you've never seen one before is basically just a big skateboard. 

My first impressions of the Phantom were that it's a thing of beauty. I loved the B movie inspired graphic so much so that I ignored a second hand one in really good condition because I wanted it so badly. Normally I'm like the queen of bargain hunting when it comes to skateboards. Construction is classic Rayne: light and stiff which translates to a lot of pop and an ability to handle speed.

I've been riding the phantom now for a couple of months solid and I have to say I love it, to the point of not riding anything else if I can avoid it. The thing I like most about the Phantom is how versatile it is, set up with RKPs and suitable bushings you can do everything on it from ollies and flips through to mobbing down a hill at speed. It's especially amusing to stick Slide As on it - compared to the shorter WB on my SE10 it's ridiculously drifty and invites all sorts of shenanigans like exploring exactly how much grip you can get out of Slide As by railing corners you have no right to be railing. 

Basically it's a huge amount of fun... yes, the longer WB means I find it harder to do 3s on it, but it's bridging the gap between tech-sliding and freeriding quite nicely for me. Especially as my goal is to use a tech-slide style on soft wheels.

So downsides... well there aren't that many really. I got razor tail really quickly (like really, really quickly), but beyond that I can't really think of anything bad to say.

In conclusion, I really like this board, it's well designed and well built and I'd happily get another one when this one inevitably dies.