Pocket Pistols: Duane Peters Slalom Deck
Width: Yes
Length: Yes!
Wheelbase: Adjustable
Slalom. I don’t know a damn thing about it. It came from the 70’s and it died in the 80’s, but somehow it’s making a comeback of sorts in this decade. (The 00’s?) In any case. Through a convoluted set of circumstances I found myself with a new slalom setup featuring wheels from a Brazilian company Moska, trucks from tracker, and a Duane Peters Slalom deck. It’s a composite deck made of fiberglass and wood. I’d look up the details on their web site but they took it down to prepare for a re-design. In any case. It looks bad ass. It has various mounting holes for adjusting your truck placement, something I know nothing about. There are corresponding shallow wheel wells for both rear truck placements. It features the classic Santa Cruz styled Duane Peters graphics which is no coincidence considering the guy responsible for creating their graphic identity in the 80’s, Jim Philips, has recently joined the ranks of Pocket Pistols. That’s quite a coup for them. Rumor has it that Powell Peralta graphic guru VC Johnson is also doing some work for Pocket Pistols.
Back to the board in question. Did I mention it looks bad-ass? I took it to walk-up slalom contest at a local hill one weekend and it made an impression amongst the guys that actually knew their slalom gear. Pocket Pistols has been active on the slalom scene for some years now, and they have a good reputation. Slalom is quite fun you close-minded twit! There are guys who geek out in spandex and body armor, and there are guys like Steve Olson, Dave Hackett and the rest of the Black Leather Racing crew. Obviously, I am not secure in my slalom manhood because I keep having to mention Black Leather Racing to justify my interest in slalom.
This deck is sharp. Not sharp looking. I mean sharp as in pointy! The edges are barely rounded too. It’s not meant to be banged around a lot, it’s just supposed to go fast. The top layer is covered in fiberglass. When I mounted up the trucks it caused some sort of stress around the bolt hole which at first made me nervous so I tried to be extremely careful when screwing in the rest. Apparently it’s unavoidable when pressure is applied to the virgin surface. It’s been a couple of months and it doesn’t appear to have affected anything. In fact, I’m struggling to remember why I set it up with out griptape in the first place because I can’t see it now. The deck as a lot of flex to it as you can see from the camber in the pictures.
So this deck worked great for me, the untrained slalom guy. If you’ve never done it, it’s like a precision bombing a hill instead of carpet bombing it. The speed rush is there but it’s intensified in some respects because you are trying to make turns instead of trying to be stable and straight. It’s much more concentration intensive than plain downhill (minus traffic of course) and it raises the potential for eating pavement. I’m stoked on the setup, and I didn’t come in last even though it was my first contest. As far as slalom decks go this one seems to fall in the moderate price range. There are guys who like to tech out and then there are guys who prefer to muscle through it. This deck appears to be one of the more no nonsense types, good for the beginner and the more advanced guys if they are good enough. I feel like a kook writing about something I know so little about, but there you have it.
