Pantheon makes some of the most purpose-driven, focused, and consistently excellent boards in the game. Plus, they share those boards early on Instagram. I saw the Gaia and CHiller before they came out. Deep concave, crescent drops, a bit of a kicktail, and a fiberglass layer to help improve stiffness and longevity? Yeah, I was excited. When it hit the store, I ordered from that first batch. I couldn’t wait to get it.
Unfortunately, it was winter.
I put together a fun freeride setup. I’ll go into details about that, but in the interest of brevity, I’m going to split out the reviews for components, and try to focus on just the deck. Still, here’s the main setup I’m testing with:
- Pantheon Gaia Deck
- Trucks: Paris Savants (165mm, 43º)
- Bushings: Riptide Cannon roadside (APS, 92.5A), and Magnum boardside (KranK, 90A)
- Wheels: Powell Peralta 69mm Snakes
- Also tested with:
- Bear Grizzly Gen 6 180mm (50º/40º split)
- Bear Grizzly Gen 5 180mm (once, and never again)
- Paris V3 165mm 50º trucks
- Powell Peralta 66mm Snakes
- Easy Hawgs
- Orangatang Morongas
- … and probably more that I’m not remembering
It being winter, testing was challenging. But it’s been warming up. The Snakes have stopped squelching every time I get a little close to 90º. The asphalt’s warmer. The air doesn’t freeze my face. Sure, I’ve got to dodge COVID-19, but I can skate to a few almost decent spots.
I’ve been holding back on reviewing this simply because I wasn’t sure I could do it justice. This is my favorite freeride setup. For going fast and putting a grin on my face, this is the deck I reach for.
Pantheon nailed it. Here’s how.
Table of Contents
The Not-Deck Stuff
I’ll just get this out of the way quickly. The wheels are Powell Peralta Snakes, 69mm size. It’s an excellent freeriding wheel, and it’s great for initiating slides at even a slower speed. However, I rarely feel like it’s losing too much grip. They do what you tell them to do and liven up every deck I throw them on.
Speaking of following orders, the trucks are my Paris Savants. These purple and greenish trucks look like a laser light show, which is convenient because they make your deck like a laser-guided rocket. I found I could do micro adjustments while initiating a slide to avoid a rock without even thinking about it. I can do things on these that would leave me tumbling on my other setups, even my other Paris setups.
You’re going to want to set this up with wheels under 72mm if you’re using 43º trucks with a 1/8″ or less riser/shock pad. 165mm trucks work great with centerset freeride wheels, and 140mm-150mm trucks will work for wider and offset wheels. Pantheon now offers the Gaia as a complete with custom ordered Paris V3 165mm trucks on 43º baseplates (why Paris still doesn’t sell this is beyond me). Those are great options to get started.
The Pantheon Gaia
Specs
- Length: 37″
- Width: 9.6″
- Wheelbase: 24.5″-25.5″
- Concave: Medium
- Construction: 7 plies of maple, one layer of fiberglass under top and bottom layers
- Interesting Features: 0.2″ crescent drops, flush truck mounting, kicktail.
Why the Gaia?
Why’d I go with the Gaia over the CHiller? After all, the CHiller is more downhill and fast freeride-focused, why shouldn’t I want that? The shape, the ‘W’ concave, even that extra ply of maple? That sounds great for a directional downhill or fast freeride board. But, I really do skate everywhere. I wouldn’t be loading this up in a car to take to a hill, I’d be skating to that hill, multiple miles away. I wanted something that I could kick up at a light. I like a ‘W’ concave for freeride but long skates to destinations could leave that ‘W’ shape digging into my back foot. When you push and cruise for 5+ miles in a trip, that makes a difference. Jeff at Pantheon describes the Gaia as “a Vibe,” and that’s what I wanted. A fast, fun, freestyle deck that was both a part of the ride and just there with me. Something comfortable yet focused, that could really just let me do what I want on a hill.
Why the Gaia in general? Pantheon makes fantastic boards. Pantheon describes the way the crescent drops meet up with the concave for the perfect foot position. I liked that, unlike a lot of other boards in this category, it still held on to old school skateboard roots. I know, that’s ridiculous, but really, when I look at a board, I prefer to see wood. It’s far nicer to hold and carry as well. I’m also not a fan of wheel arches. I feel they force your feet into a position you might not like, and generally avoid boards with them. The Gaia just sticks to the wheel wells, and it’s a nice touch. It puts the “free” in “freeride.”
This 5th generation Gaia sounded like exactly what I wanted. Deep concave, crescent drops to cradle your front foot at that perfect angle between control, flexibility, and aerodynamics. It’s got a kick tail, sturdy construction, adjustable wheelbase, and that killer design. I decided it would be my new dedicated hill bomber for fast and fun freeride.
So how does it hold up to my lofty expectations?
It’s a $150 deck. To be honest, if I hated it, I’d force myself to love it. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. I loved it right away.
Stiffness
The Gaia has seven plies of maple and two plies of fiberglass. That’s a construction that will stand the test of time, resisting warping for years. It also makes it quite stiff, without feeling too unyielding. It’s softer than something made of aluminum or carbon fiber, while still maintaining rigidity. There’s the slightest hint of flex to add a little liveliness to your carves, but it’s minimal.
While a more cushioned board is great for pushing around town, a stiff deck like this is perfect for the hills. It goes exactly where your feet tell it to go, pushing into the asphalt and forcing those wheels to break traction rather than flexing and robbing you of your momentum. This is stiff enough to transfer your intentions straight into the pavement.
Concave
The concave isn’t overly aggressive on the Gaia. You can shift your feet around for slides, get back into a low tuck, and yet still feel as though your feet are held in place. I’ll admit, there have been times when I wished it was a little more aggressive on the rails. However, I think it would lose some of its free-flowing vibe with a more locked-in feeling. The concave is just enough to feel secure, but not quite enough to make you feel like your feet are strapped to the board. That enables some creativity with your freeriding. Though a kicktail may make it seem directional, it’s not, this can be ridden either way. You can get creative with your slides, 180’s and more. The road is yours.
It’s also worth noting that the crescent drops, each of which are a modest 0.2″, meet up to the rails of the concave perfectly. You can really cradle your foot with the rail and crescent drop up front and in the back. It helps you know exactly where your feet are every time, even if you’re shifting around a lot. The concave gives you the tools you need to both feel free and feel in control. I actually rode this for testing without a foot stop, and didn’t really feel like I needed one. Still, I grabbed one from Riptide while buying more bushings (I swear, I should just have a subscription at this point) just to give me that extra point of reference while pushing off and a little bit more security. I think for the most part, it’s just not necessary, but I’ll be trying it out for a bit anyway.
Width
I like to feel the rails with my back foot. You might too, it makes it easy to transition between heel and toe slides quickly. The Gaia is 9.6″ at its widest point. However, it tapers down in the front and back. Up front, you’ll find the width of where you’d place your front foot to be between 8.625″-9.5″. In the back, it’s about 8.75″-9.5″ where your back foot would be, down to 8.5″ right at the drop itself. For shoe size context, I wear a size 9 or 10 women’s shoe, so that’s around a 7-8 in men’s, depending on the brand. My toes and heels just barely hang off the edge. I can get leverage, but I find I sometimes shift slightly. It’s best not to have too much overhang when you’re going fast and sliding sharply anyway. I think this will be the right width for most people.
I find that the concave and that crescent drop in the front is just a perfect little wedge for my foot. I sometimes miss the back crescent if I’m shifting around, but I rarely have trouble finding just the right spots for my feet on this deck. In fact, I’ve sometimes taken a wider stance in a tuck by putting my toes in the base of the drop, nestling the drop in the arch of my foot, and resting the heel on the beginning of the tail. You definitely have options for foot placement, even though it feels like there are “perfect” spots.
Adjustable Wheelbase
Because I frequently ride this on narrow streets, I have it set to the shortest wheelbase option, which is 24.5″. There’s only an inch of play there, but 24.5″-25.5″ is a good area for a freeride board. There’s enough room to stand, without it being so long that it’s difficult to push into those tight snappy turns for slides or predrifts.
I knew I’d need it to be nimble. I frequently ride decks with even shorter wheelbases. I like a narrower wheel base, and I’m still comfortable on a smaller standing platform. This is as wide of a stance as I like to go, and it’s perfect. My knee rests exactly where I want it on my calf during a tuck, with my back foot nestled into the drop, and I have a wide enough stance to have control without feeling over stretched. I have another freeride-focused setup with a longer wheelbase, and it just doesn’t feel as comfortable.
Tail? Tail
I’m not going to lie. The first time I bombed a hill on this, used a toeslide to come to a stop, and kicked that board up into my hands, I felt like the coolest person on the planet. I’m pretty sure an explosion happened behind me, but I wasn’t looking. For me, the tail is just something there to give you a little more control of your board. Something to help you set up at the top of the hill and kick your deck into your hand to carry back up to the top.
Could you ollie this? Well, maybe you could, but I can’t. I can barely get my cruisers off the ground. Are you really thinking about that for this deck though? If you are, you might be the kind of person who could ollie something this heavy.
Weight
The other day, as I was going to bed after a long weekend skating on this setup, I noticed my right arm felt a little sore. It wasn’t my triceps, useful for holding me up during a slide. It was my bicep, useful for carrying boards back up hills. This isn’t a light setup, it’s just shy of 9lbs. Walking it back up the hill so much during the day actually gave me a workout. Now, it’s worth saying that yes, I was wearing slide gloves, and the puck makes griping the deck a bit more difficult, and that, yes, I am a woman and I’m not going to win any pull-up contests, but that’s a bit of heft.
I think it’s worth it, but if you see me using two arms to carry my deck back up the hill or switching often, it’s just because I don’t want to neglect my other arm’s bicep.
The Design
Eddie Kihm designed the Gaia graphic. You might also recognize his art style on the Pantheon Ydrisil graphic, Sacrifice, and the Earthwing (RIP) Muirderer, and others. It’s a distinctive and detailed art style, and I love it. The Gaia is no different. A powerful goddess-figure commanding vines and wildlife? Yeah, that’s right up my alley. This deck’s a looker, and I’ve gotten many compliments from friends on it already.
One Little Problem: Grip Tape
The grip tape was coming up at the edges, was bubbled up on the drops, and generally wasn’t sticking well. In areas where it was peeling up and I could easily access it, I added some small drops of wood glue and used some clear tape to hold the edge down until the glue dried enough to hold it. But I took a chunk out of it with a sloppy toeslide, and that’s just lost on a hill somewhere.
For the drops, I broke out my hair dryer. I heated up the grip around the drops substantially, making it more pliable and heating up the adhesive underneath it. Then I pressed it into the crescent drops. I kept the heat on for a while, continuing to push it into the drops. Then I let it cool as I pressed on it. This has permanently formed the grip tape into my drops. You need heat to get thick, coarse grip tape like this to mold into the curves. I had a hair drier, it’s no big deal for me. But a lot of people—guys especially—likely don’t have access to a hair drier.
To those guys, I recommend getting one. Not only can you use it to apply or fix grip tape, you can give your hair a lot of volume.
So, Good?
Yeah, it’s good. That’s an understatement. It’s a stiff, weighty deck that doesn’t feel like I’m standing on a rock, but still does exactly what I want it to do. The Gaia with those Savants is a match made in freeriding heaven. A laser-targeting system on an arrow, fired low to the ground and downhill. It’s a comfortable ride, my feet never bark at the end of a day. I’ve felt more in control of this setup than most of my others. That’s thanks to stiff construction, board shape, and flush mounting.
I think this is a deck that more advanced skaters will appreciate more than freeriding novices. Perhaps I spent too much time on it, but it feels as though everything is right where you want it to be once you’re sure of what you want. The crescent drops mean foot stops aren’t really necessary. They’re in exactly the right places, at the right angles, for a wide yet flexible stance and a perfect tuck. If you’ve been skating a long time, on many decks, many decks will just be the thing you’re standing on, allowing you to move. But this feels like it’s doing more than just laying there, it’s working for you, pushing back in all the right ways. The Gaia gives you a platform to do whatever you want.
COVID-19 has kept me on the hills closer to my apartment. These are short, barely enough room to get up to 30MPH. Still, with only one lane and even cars parked around, I trust this board to stay planted under my feet as I pull slides into a hard stop. It’s a setup I can really put my faith into, and when you’re doing 30mph into an intersection with nothing between you and the ground but some wood, metal, and 69mm wheels, you’re going to want to trust your setup. When I want to go fast and get my slide pucks dirty, there’s nothing better in my quiver than the Pantheon Gaia.
The Pantheon Gaia is a vibe, and I’m feeling it.
Sneak Peek!
With COVID-19 and the weather, I haven’t had as much skating time as I’d like. However, I am working on a few new reviews. This includes those mentioned here, the Powell Peralta Snakes and the Paris Savant trucks. But it also includes (potentially in order):
- Bear Gen 6 trucks in a 50/40 setup
- 2020 Drop Cat with a 165mm, 43º setup
- Indy 127 Hollow Forged Trucks
- Zenit Morning Wood V2
- Loaded Vanguard, potentially reviewed alongside…
- Waterborne Surf Adapter
- And more!
So stay tuned!
