Airflow prototypes for 2004

[Jani Soderhall]

I took this picture of Martin Siegrists board at the European Championships, autumn of 2003. It's a prototype that Airflow is trying out. Fibreglass, carbonfibre etc as opposed to wood (which Airflow already masters to the extreme). I like the little bent up edges. I guess you can achieve the same thing on any board nowadays with Chickens concave stuff, but on this board it's built in. I'd like to try one of those!



I also like the shape of the board much better than any of the previous Airflow designs. The extra width will certainly pay off their boards were too narrow until now.


...and as usual the Airflow team comes to events in nicely decorated cars!




photo: www.cruisin.de

[RL]

Jani, please keep us up to date on these decks. I really like the shape and concave. Carbon fiber and glass. Sounds great.
Thanks as always Jani and Adam for the great and unique things that Slalomskateboarder.com offers the slalom world.

RL

[Brady Mitchell]

Are those abec 11 wheels or is Airflow prototyping new wheels too?

[Glenn S]

Cool. It is good to see that Airflow is trying new stuff. It looked also that Marus Stroble had a wider Indiana deck that he was using when he won the Europe Championships this pas summer. That deck he had was definately different in shape than what they sell, or so it looked.

I have wondered why no company from Europe has yet produced a deck similar to Roe and Pocket Pistol foam core style/carbon-fiberglass/epoxy using the vacuum bag method.

Also do you know if any company in Europe is planning on making a slalom wheel that would be new and competitive with what we have available currently in the U.S.? The green wheels on that deck above look like Abec11 Gumballs with the logo removed. Or are they?

Who is making the Airflow decks? What is their history?

[Howard Gordon]

I saw a version of the mold for this board last summer at the Airflow shop in Zurich - my guess is that it's being built in a press rather than vacuum bagged, so the construction should be stronger. Chris Hart is a very clever designer, and the shape of this board looks great. It's really nice to see the Euro boards moving in this direction.

[Martin Siegrist]

Hey guys, the deck above was made in a vacuum bag. And the wheels are Abec11 Gumballs. The logo is not removed. Chris Chaput gave me a set of prototyp Gumballs at the 2003 Downhill World Championships (Hotheels) in Austria. I think our foam boards should be available for this season!

[Sam Gordon]

A developed/ finalized version of Martin's slalom deck (C-81) is currently available from Switzerland on www.sk8shop.ch:



Designed for Giant Slalom, the flanged box contruction should make this a very stiff deck indeed, with vibration absorbed by the foam core.
Lenght: 81cm/ Width: 22cm/ Wheelbase: 62cm/ Weight: 800g

This will be one to watch out for at Grueningen!

[Brady Mitchell]

Nice ;ooking shape!

I`m assuming by this latest pic that I`m envisioning a deck with foam only in the truck base with and more fiber thin deck. That along with upturned lips should give plenty of wheel clearance. Especially for those Gumballs.

Question I have, with an upturned lip and wider deck, is the full nose and tail necessary?

I have a Pumpkin stringer core deck with 8 3/4" width and 3/4" concave. It`s got generous cut outs and I`ve never had wheel bite. I also tend to ride further back from the nose then from flatter decks due to the concave and wider width.

Does the nose flex much with the narrow core?

[Martin Siegrist]

it almost doesn't flex, it's fuckin stiff!