The story of Santa Cruz starts all the way back in 1973, when Northern Californian surfers Rich Novak, Doug Haut and Jay Shuirman founded NHS Inc. with Santa Cruz as its leading skateboard brand. The first Santa Cruz pro models belonged to Duane Peters and Steve Olson, though the likes of Jason Jesse, Rob Roskopp, Jeff Grosso, Tom Knox, Eric Dressen and plenty more found their names gracing legendary skateboards over the following years.

The Santa Cruz brand has stood the test of time and has constantly evolved and grown alongside the ever-changing shape of the skateboard industry, and, as such, have managed to stay relevant and current right the way through the company’s mammoth 44 year history.

“One final touch is the integration of Santa Cruz’s legendary ‘Everslick’ into the bottom ply, meaning that the graphic sits underneath a layer of extremely slide-friendly plastic”

This ‘Pitchgrim Universe’ board perfectly brings together a variety of elements from the brands past into one well-rounded 2017 shaped package. The hectic graphic depicting the universe in question brings together a whole load of colourful elements that should instantly scream ‘Santa Cruz’ to you, the shape is a fairly standard popsicle silhouette, though the squared off nose and slightly longer 14.5” wheelbase gives this deck more than enough space to allow you to comfortably control it at high speeds, especially when blasting around larger transitions.

One final touch is the integration of Santa Cruz’s legendary ‘Everslick’ into the bottom ply, meaning that the graphic sits underneath a layer of extremely slide-friendly plastic. Is the coping of your usual mini ramp a little bit sticky? Is your local curb in need of some waxy attention? If you’ve devoted your money into a Santa Cruz ‘Everslick’ board, those questions won’t even cross your mind; just charge at your preferred terrain and let the ‘Everslick’ layer take care of all of those worries for you. At £64.99 the price tag may be a tad higher than what you’re used to, but if you don’t like to leave your slides to chance, those extra few pounds should certainly be looked at as an investment.

• SANTA CRUZ – PITCHGRIM UNIVERSE
• RRP: £64.99
• Width : 8.375″
• Length: 32″
• Wheelbase: 14.5″
• SANTACRUZSKATEBOARDS.COM