The Philippine maker's new five-ply deck is listed at Slushcult for $36, with a custom-engraved top ply that the listing says makes each board one of a kind.
Mina Seo3 min readCivil Made's Skull Swing is a five-ply, 34 mm deck in the brand's Rage shape, listed at Slushcult for $36. The detail worth stopping on is the top ply: according to the listing, every Civil Made deck gets a custom engraving there, so no two boards come out the same.
That puts the decoration on the side the rider actually works with, under the fingers, rather than only on a printed bottom that slides and grinds will eventually take down.
Part 1 of 3
The Skull Swing listing is short and specific. Here is everything it confirms:
A 34 mm width sits at the wide end of where most riders set up, a width that tends to suit people who like room for flat-finger flips and a stable stance on ledges and rails. A 96 mm length is in the normal range for a realistic shape at that width. Medium kicks are the middle road: enough tail for pop without the steep, scooped look some riders run for technical flip tricks.
What the listing does not say matters too. It doesn't name the veneer species, the concave depth, the wheelbase or mounting-hole spacing, or whether the plies are dyed. It also doesn't say how the engraving is made or whether it relates to the Skull Swing graphic. Those are the specs a buyer comparing Rage against other realistic shapes would want, and at the time of writing they are not in the product record.
Part 2 of 3
Most graphics in fingerboarding live on the bottom, and bottoms take damage. An engraved top ply moves the design to the surface that stays covered by tape, which is an interesting tension. The listing ships the deck with foam tape, so how much of the engraving stays visible once a rider sets it up depends on how the tape is cut and laid. Riders who trim foam around the engraving, or run it bare for display, will see the most of it.
The one-of-one claim is the other half of the pitch. Slushcult's listing says each engraving is custom, which turns a production deck into something closer to a numbered piece. For a $36 board, that is a meaningful production choice: it costs the maker time per deck, where a print shop would run the same graphic across a batch.
According to the Slushcult listing, Civil Made decks are handmade in the Philippines, and the brand has been making decks since 2009. The same copy says Civil Made took a break and relaunched in 2020. The listing doesn't say how long the hiatus ran or what changed in the process after the return beyond describing the decks as better than ever, so the relaunch-era details stay with the brand to fill in. What the Skull Swing shows is where the brand is now: a named house shape, a five-ply build, and handwork on every top ply.
Part 3 of 3
The listing shows a single version of the deck, with no other widths or colorways offered.
Reference links used for this piece. Confidence labels show how firmly each source is established.
SlushcultRetailer
Product listing: Rage shape, 34 x 96 mm, five ply, engraved top ply, foam tape and stickers, $36; brand history (Philippines, since 2009, 2020 relaunch) from retailer copy.
Product Spotlights
Mike Schneider posted a 90-second G4 deck clip ridden by James O'Neill on September 2. The footage came first; the listings that followed date the mold to around 2005 and put the deck on sale.
,
Product Spotlights
Delidecks' Type 2 Hex Hybrid trucks differ from the Originals by fractions of a millimeter in two directions. Here's what the listing confirms, what it leaves out, and who should actually care.
,
Product Spotlights
The Muni Ryse Domino is a distressed-finish ledge modeled on the skateable domino at Philadelphia's Municipal Services Building, now stocked at Index Fingerboarding for $45.
,
