Kebbek are a well respected company and have been around for 19 years, I picked up their 2011 Smoothcut 37 model, and have now been riding it for one month, not too long but I feel I have the knowledge to write a good meaty review on the deck.
As I said I have been skating the Smoothcut for about a month. I came from a top-mount and felt the deck took a bit of time to get used to, but I don't think I will be going back to a top-mount for a while.. so far I have been very impressed with the deck, coming from a deck with little concave it was a real step-up, the concave locks you in really nicely for doing heelsides, I have had problems in the past with my feet slipping of other boards, but I can happily say that nothing of the sort has happened on this deck yet, set it up with edger grip tape and your feet grip to the deck like a dream, for toeside pre-drifts the concave will lock your back foot in perfectly, however toeside standup slides took a while to get used to on this deck, but it was a case of getting used to it, and now I am happy doing them on this deck and feel very comfortable with them.
As I said I have been skating the Smoothcut for about a month. I came from a top-mount and felt the deck took a bit of time to get used to, but I don't think I will be going back to a top-mount for a while.. so far I have been very impressed with the deck, coming from a deck with little concave it was a real step-up, the concave locks you in really nicely for doing heelsides, I have had problems in the past with my feet slipping of other boards, but I can happily say that nothing of the sort has happened on this deck yet, set it up with edger grip tape and your feet grip to the deck like a dream, for toeside pre-drifts the concave will lock your back foot in perfectly, however toeside standup slides took a while to get used to on this deck, but it was a case of getting used to it, and now I am happy doing them on this deck and feel very comfortable with them.
The size of the deck is a key aspect to making it great for smaller skaters and people who want shorter wheel base. I started freeriding on a 26" wheelbase top-mount, then I moved onto a 30" WB deck, then finally I came onto this deck and I am very pleased I did. Its a really nimble deck which made learning technical tricks such as no-comply slides and shove it slides that little bit easier. I also felt that some drop-throughs can feel a little unresponsive but on this deck I think that the short WB (28”) turns it into a reasonably responsive deck, meaning that getting around town is not an issue, but bombing hills is a breeze.
So... Bombing hills on this deck. Well to start of with I felt it a very stable deck, even when I had loose trucks and soft bushings, but when I swapped them out for harder bushings, god did it shred hard! the sharp edges and sharp concave that only starts rising close to the edge which Kebbek call ‘SC concave’ means that you always know where your feet are avoiding the awkwardness when you have to look back to correct your back foot placement after a fast corner or slide, which can lead to wobbles... And wobbles suck!
Freeriding; this deck likes to freeride. It likes to go sideways, it likes to do big standies, it likes shredding the gnar. So basically this board is at home when sliding, I've got it set up with Randals and pink Powerballs. A great deck, I would highly recommend it for someone wanting to do freeriding and/or downhill.http://www.newtons-shred.co.uk/decks/kebbek-skateboards/kebbek-smoothcut-37-2011.html
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