Description
CONCAVE
The concave and curvature of the Fantail Cruiser is what this board is about. Not only is the deck a sort of modern fish shape, but we’ve pack a super tiny crescent shaped micro drop in the front and back at the truck mounts, and we managed to beautifully swoop the curves along the entire length of the deck. You’re not going to see the drop. You’re not going to be impeded by the drop. But you will feel it. The concave is a medium classic radial. The tail swoops up off the back of the deck in a way that combines all the curvatures perfectly. You are riding a perfect meld of aesthetic and functional wood craft, and you can shred it.
CONSTRUCTION
The Fantail Cruiser is a 6 ply maple construction. We put triaxial fiberglass underneath the top and bottom layers of maple to functionally make this board as strong as an 8 ply but not as heavy. The glass and epoxy construction make the Fantail exceptionally weather proof. You can shred this thing anywhere at any time and not worry too much.
CONCEPT
Cruisers are a ubiquitous design for just about any longboard company. We’ve been making boards since 2014, so why haven’t we come up with a cruiser until 2023?! Well, conceptually, Pantheon boards are boards of specificity, and we like doing things perfectly. It took quite a while to come up with a way to make this board special. We’ve tested several shapes and molds in past years, and if riding a board doesn’t create a unique and exemplary experience, it doesn’t make it into our lineup. That’s where the Fantail Cruiser comes in. What we wanted was beauty, a unique feel, and a shape that doesn’t create limitations where a lot of cruiser decks do.
Most cruisers are tiny, and tiny boards can be fun, but they can also be scary. They aren’t particularly great decks to learn on, and great skaters can show them off, but novice skaters often find themselves getting hurt or just not being able to do much beyond cruise slowly on these decks. The Fantail starts off from a more forgiving space already by increasing the wheelbase to 19.2 inches. A larger wheelbase is more stable, and having more space on the board gives riders room to shift their balance without falling over the front or falling off the back end.
The micro drops are small enough that you can stand right over the top, but you will feel it enough to always know where you are on the board. Between the curvature of the micro drops, the sweeping rails, and the tail, you never have to look at your feet on this board. But if you do, you’ll be standing on top of something sexy!
The overall footpace on the Fantail Cruiser is such that most riders will feel comfortable standing right on top of the trucks or slung back just a touch with the front foot in the micro drop and the real foot in the swooping tail. Riders with small stances may even find that they can slide the board around with both feet inside the drops. The Fantail does an excellent job of having features without making those features impediments.
SETUPS
We set up the Fantail with two sort of baseline setups in mind. Traditional street trucks are a great setup on this deck, but because it has a large wheelbase, we like to set this board up with wedges for general cruising. With this, you get a more active turn, and it essentially rides like a smaller wheelbase board with the benefit of having a large cruiser platform. This makes the board super fun but also confidence inspiring! With traditional kingpin trucks and wedges, expect to be able to ride between 65-70mm wheels without wheelbite. If you drop the wedges, you may need to change bushings to avoid wheelbite with larger wheels.
Our other setup of liking is with RKP trucks. The 19.2″ wheelbase is just the right size to level up your turn with an RKP truck on a cruiser deck. Again, smaller wheelbases can get squirrely when you make them too turny, but with the Fantail’s larger wheelbase, a small RKP truck feels right at home. This turns the board into a cruiser that can really be treated like a freeride board. It lowers the kick angle a touch, making smaller ollies even easier (although for a big ollie, it’s usually best to have the steeper kick angle of the street trucks), and adds a ton of control and stability to the setup. Now, it’s quite a bit more than a cruiser. Other benefits of RKP trucks on the Fantail are that you can more easily fit larger wheels. If you want to get silly with this thing, throw some fat square lips on it.
Owen Coulls –
the deck feels suburb.
it is relatively large for a cruiser, the micro drops feel great and very comfy.
I bought the RKP 50/40 – mostly as all my other setups are TKP and want to try something different
. so far it feels pretty good, but is missing something and I will be tweaking the stock setup to try find some more flow, fun factor. yet to try downhill as there’s not alot around me.
will look to try TKP too and compare later on.
the wheels are pretty great for slides and fast nimble pumping and turns.
I tried 70mm snakes but they felt dead and had slide bite on the rear truck on max turn. a narrower 70mm slideable wheel with slight offset could be ideal for the extra roll speed.
a versatile deck to experiment with based on your needs – hopefully I can make this a 5/5 with some changes
Jeff Vyain –
We really prefer the TKP setup with wedges over here. For some reason we have ONLY sold RKP setups so far (it’s still quite new)! As fun and wild as that is, I prefer the flow of the TKP. Less turn and more lean. I’d say give that a shot, and don’t be afraid to stick a little riser in if you need it with those RKPs. With the wedges on the TKP, you shouldn’t need any additional riser. Cheers and thanks for the review!
Gavin (verified owner) –
This deck feels great and this setup has been a fun addition to the quiver!
I have been looking for a reliable single-kick style setup with a truly functional kicktail that can provide pop (not just kicktails for shuvits and etc). I did not want a super heavy board nor just a wider/ longer popsicle. I was looking for something functionally unique… The fantail has scratched that itch! It is compact, comfortable, nimble, and FUN.
The board has a subtle drop that lands very comfortably under foot, and provides foot placement indication while riding. The slight drop in ride height is nice too but not enough to throw off kicktail feel. The trucks offer a lot of bite-free lean and the stock bushings have a wide range of adjustment with small turns to the kingpin nut.
The board has ample foot space, but still feels compact when carrying it in hand. It has a comfortable concave, and there are no large bumps on the top surface to create wheel clearance underneath; there are functional wheel wells sanded in that align properly. My feet feel locked in on the tail, but also locked in while doing other tricks like sliding.
I use it for skating to the grocery shop, general cruising, or even that day on the hill when you are not sure if everyone will be casually skating afterward too. If you are looking for a versatile single kick, this is a great choice!
Randy Marsh –
I opted for a TKP+Wedges setup, and Jeff was able to work out a custom build for me with slightly harder seismic bushings and the 73mm Meatball wheel with I think a new wedge design in a 40 degree but i forgot to ask what the number was. It’s very nice though, and i tried, and tried until i made it bite, but i had to like loosen my kingpin a bunch and then STILL lean over really far, so I’m gonna say there’s little-to-no wheel bite on 73s at all with this wedge unless you’re unsafely loose and acting crazy, and it hardly raises you up at all, so you’re still nice and low!
The first thing that stood out when I opened up the package was the size and lightness of the entire deck+trucks+wheels Lifting it up, you can’t help but be impressed by the quality the Stylus trucks. These things are amazing, I would bet this is probably the best cast TKP on the market. It does everything I’ve wanted in a TKP.
I’ve been riding fatter and longer boards with RKP’s for a while and it looked kinda tiny at first. Then I saw the artwork and its sick, it’s just like it looks on this page, only better in person, even the top is like premium…should i stand on this? What if i get it dirty?! I had to tell myself to get a
Grip quality is great. That’s a GREAT grit, clean af, beautiful lines on the application and just feels good to stand on it, because of the design. Your feet can talk to this thing and it tells you exactly where it is and what it wants because It carves so deep and so much nicer than I thought it would, and you can cruise around barely pushing at all and just hip thrusting around if you have nice pavement.
I have bad pavement, which is why i needed the Meatballs. I wasn’t familiar with Pantheon wheels before this, but they got nice thane. I don’t slide really, because I’m like mid-40s and I’m just cruising around with my little dog, but these are quality wheels and i would run them on other stuff. Stacking up against other options, in 73, these are top-tier in a barrel shape wheel.
The tail really pops, it’s a perfect angle for hitting snappy-pop-whatever. You can get some height on and Ollie and it tricks like a little monster for y’know, forward facing stuff that doesn’t involve the nose so much. I’m like 6’0, 220lbs and my favorite part of this deck is the slight amount of flex it has for me. I haven’t had a deck flex like this perfectly in the middle, because it’s generally too stiff and has no flex, or too flex and i can fw it. This fantail has a perfect little pop that some people might not even notice, but it allows you to add a deeper element to your movements and save yourself a little bit of energy because it almost wants to carve FOR you, and when I went to Ollie it, or hit a 180/kickflip, it was messing me up for a few minutes because I’m just really used to zero flex and a wider board. After i settled down though, it’s just a pleasure to skate this deck and I’m very satisfied with my purchase! The process was painless and Jeff’s a good guy to work with!
Thanks guys, I’ll definitely hit you up again
11/10 Tegridy
Noey (verified owner) –
The deck’s killer for blasting across the concrete. I’m 6′, 150 lbs, have taken it downhill, across plazas, through my neighborhoods. The board’s wide and my feet stable, the wheels glide smoother than my burritos. And it’s more durable than them too. I’ve gotten used to abusing this monster after throwing it down stairs and dropping it dead while sign spinning by stoplights. Plus, after a whole ten months of wear, it’s getting chips on the nose and edges, but the wear’s had zero impact on my performance.
I chose the RKP setup with the 40-50 angles. For all I know, it’s stable while jetting on concrete downhill and on sharp turns. I’m too used to hard carving on it that I step off when I try any other board. The best feeling’s when I don’t even gotta plant my backfoot and I weave through obstacles: cars, pedestrians, debris on the floor. The cruiser sails as a motorboat on water.
The kicktail easy and comfortable to pivot at slow speeds, tricky or absent at fast. I stick to carving on most turns and can pivot when the setting’s narrow or I’m already slow. I chose this specific board because I wanted something that could cruise while learning tricks, but now I’m working on my slide. I’ve gotten it to make squeeze noises when I’m downhill, haven’t noticed the wheels slowing down. I’ve seen other people ollie on it fine, so seems that it’s peak for commuting and sufficient at tricks. It’s definitely playful, and you’ll have a good sesh while riding the Fantail.
Keep aware that distributing your weight too off of any end can flip the board. Stepping on the sides can flip it. The deck starts tilting when too far off, two wheels hovering the floor. Since I’ve always been a cruiser, my feet landed off centered as I began attempting ollies, and it flips. This might be another consequence of keeping the kingpins loose. I’m not sure, but the flip was noticeable to me. While I’ve been improving my feet positioning, it’s become more and more absent.
I used to experience strains on parts of my ankles and feet from my foot positioning. Could be that I naturally had a stance to the right, or it could be that the concave naturally places the feet in that position. If you’re deterred because of strain issues, I believe it can be solved. I’ve felt crisp while riding on my Fantail ever since.
The Fantail Cruiser lands with any versatile use. I bomb downhills, cop main roads, and commute. This was a dope birthday present from my pops when my longboard split half. The dollar’s high, but the value you’ll get out is much greater. Also, I can’t count the amount of compliments I’ve gotten for the graphic alone, the artwork is tight.
Order this cruiser, and keep fly Pantheon.