BLEM SALE – SUMMIT SERIES

The Summit Series Decks marked an exploration into waterproof style decks that the industry has seen only through a handful of companies. One snowboard factory in particular does the majority of these board constructions, and we hired them to make ours. Our design team combined with some of the best manufacturing techniques the world has to offer, and we pushed their abilities to their limits. We even heard directly from some of their sales and engineering teams that these Pantheon boards were the most beautiful decks they’d ever made. That what we like to hear, of course, as it is our goal to push limits–always.

The downside of pushing limits is that sometimes you find them. In this particular case, we created some new manufacturing design techniques that pushed this factory to do some things they’d never done. These boards were manufactured using snowboard techniques, and our designs found limitations in their systems in ways that did not reveal themselves during prototyping. In particular, the “casette” which holds the pre-machined core had a hard time finding center. Had I been there to see these being made, gosh, I’d have saved us a lot of trouble.

The end result is that a lot of the boards with W-concave had concave issues. The W-concave was pressed with an insert in the cassette, and apparently that cassette was sliding all over the place. And when I say “all over the place,” I mean it slid somewhere between zero at best and five millimeters at worst. This results in the W-concave being shifted on many of our blem Summit Series boards. In our case, every time, it was to the right, if you’re facing downhill on the board. For some, this could actually be functional. If you like the W-concave further toward the edge and you’re a regular rider, you’re in luck! If you like the W-concave further toward the middle and you’re a goofy rider, you’re also in luck! If you don’t like either of those things, consider one of the boards without W-concave.

Also in this insert “cassette” were the flush mounts. So in some boards, the flush mounts are off. Oddly, in the case where the flush mounts are off, they usually slid along the X-axis, or along the length of the board. So on some of our blem decks, the flush mounts will be slid a bit too far forward on the bottom of the board. This happens on the Gaia and the Logos, and in the case of the Gaia, it is always the back flush mount that is effected (the Logos is symmetrical so there is no “back” officially). What this means is you’ll either need to use a soft 1/8″ riser pad to sort of mush that curved area into a more flat surface, OR you can just not use the inside rear holes and instead use the further back holes. This effectively means your wheelbase is now 24.5-25″ instead of 24-25″. Capiche?

Lastly, the Ember decks that we created were cracked en masse. Zero problems with several prototypes, and then we had to make tons of them to meet order minimums (this is the biggest order we had ever made, and it was because the factory minimums were huge). The factory reached out to us after all of the boards were pressed and informed us that pressing the decks cracked the cores in a huge number of the boards. The good news, they said: The decks were mechanically tested with over a 700 pound load down the middle. Essentially bottoming out the deck if it were equipped with 200mm wheels (meaning you could never flex this deck that far). They stayed together. In practice, we sent many of these boards out to friends for testing and never saw a single failure. We had to define a threshold for what could be sent to customers and what couldn’t. Cracks across the entire core were not accepted, but hairline cracks were shipped (again, remember that epoxy filled the crack). We still have not seen a single failure. At the end of the day, epoxy is stronger than wood, so it’s not going to break. But it’s cracked, and you can see that it’s cracked and filled with epoxy during pressing. It’s a visible blemish. There are a ton of them, so we are letting them go for dirt cheap. I simply can’t hold onto these things forever. If you’re looking for a waterproof push deck that can handle being unloved and ridden in all conditions, this is a stellar board for that. It’s also very fun.

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE WILL NOT BE GRIPPING THESE BOARDS. WE WILL INCLUDE THE FACTORY GRIP ON GAIA, LOGOS, AND EMBER, UNTIL WE RUN OUT. YOU CAN SLAP IT ON THERE IF YOU LIKE. ONCE WE RUN OUT, NO GRIP WILL BE OFFERED.

Here is a quick rubric for how to interpret our blem decks being offered here:

Good – This means nothing wrong could be found with the board. Sometimes I set things aside if I think there MIGHT be something wrong. If there is anything wrong with a board marked “Good,” it is so small that I couldn’t convince myself that there was anything wrong with these boards. There are very few of these since I set all of these boards aside because I felt they weren’t A-grade.

Big Holes – Holes were enlarged during the drilling process. Beats me as to how or why this would’ve happened. Once your trucks are locked down and hardware is tightened to normal levels, this is a non-issue. Trucks won’t move unless hardware is loose. Just be careful to center your trucks, or don’t use these holes. These were on a couple of Hierophants and it was the rear-most holes affected. If you’re a smaller wheelbase rider, it will be a non-issue.

Warp 1 – This is a very small warp. Most customers won’t see it or notice it. Very discerning customers and picky designers like me might notice this. Wheels MAY rock on the board if it is unweighted. It will ride normal once a couple pounds are on the deck. Consider this board very rideable.

Warp 2 – This is a slightly more significant warp. Know that when we are discussing a warped deck, we are talking about boards that were pressed with fiberglass. The degree that these warp is not very significant, so if weighing this against a warped all-maple deck you might have in your quiver already, these are likely much straighter. Consider these still very rideable once weighted. I would expect these to sit on 3 wheels unweighted. Your feet will almost assuredly not know the difference, but your mind will. Are you a rider who thinks a ton about their setup perfection? Simple, don’t get this one. If you’re just a “point downhill and go” type of rider, this will be fine for you.

Warp 3 – A warp 3 is a board I wouldn’t personally ride. In my opinion, this is too warped for me to ignore with my brain. Rideable? Probably. But you don’t want to be thinking about your substantially warped board being crooked when you’re on the hill. If you’re considering this board, I think it would make an excellent wall hanger for a piece of history. These boards are beautiful and hang quite well if you’re a fan of the art.

Flush – Flush mount is off on along the length direction of the deck. For whatever reason, this is always the back of the deck. Expect the inside holes to be unusable (you’ll dig the edge of the baseplate into the flush curvature) unless you’re using a 1/8″ soft riser pad. My suggestion is to just pretend like those holes don’t exist. Use the rear holes on the Gaia or set up your Logos on the outside holes in the 25″ position. Plenty of decks don’t have tons of wheelbase options. Pretend like yours is missing one.

W-1 – W-concave shifted during pressing. In all cases, the W shifter to the right (if you’re standing on the board and pointed downhill). This could potentially even be an advantage under the right stance! If it were me, I wouldn’t be bothered by a W-concave that’s closer to the edge of the board if I were a regular rider. Because I’m goofy, and because of my preferences, these boards wouldn’t really be for me unless I just wanted to score a deal. The W-1 is a W-concave that is shifted between 1-2.5mm. Please note: The rest of the concave is not affected. We dared to dare and put the W-concave into an insert that fit inside of the mold, so the rest of the concave is normal, and it is only the W that is shifted. Weird, I know. But that’s what happened.

W-2 – Take everything that was said in “W-1” and consider the W being shifted between 2.5-3.5mm toward the toeside (if you’re a regular rider).

W-3 – Take everything that was said in “W-1” and consider the W being shifter up to about 5mm. That is as bad as it got. These decks are priced accordingly.

Offset Urethane – This happened in a rare few decks where the cores slid in the mold along the length of the deck to the point where the holes were drilled just on the edge of the urethane. They’re still waterproof, but just barely. In these cases, the flush mounts are also off to that side as well. These are totally rideable boards, but they are priced with the mistake in mind. Put some grip on it, and you’ll forget all about it.

Cracks – There are visible cracks in the core material. These are cracks that formed under pressure during the pressing process, and the epoxy filled the cracks during that time. Epoxy is stronger than wood. These are visible cracks, and I can see why they would be alarming to anyone who wasn’t privy to this information. The board construction WITH CRACKS was tested successfully with over 700 lbs on the platform, flexing the decks far beyond what anyone would do on these boards (they’d simply bottom out). Cracks like this would’ve been covered up with a solid top sheet, but they’re clear, because wood is pretty. These cracks happened on the Ember decks only.

Bubbles – The bottom sheet formed some visible air bubbles. The rare few of these decks still have these to a minimal enough degree that it’s nothing to worry about, but nevertheless, it’s a blemish. Ride this and never think about it!