Shipping was normal time, a week or so US to UK. What I feel I must unfortunately comment is that whilst this particular instance of a deck being sent to me was quick, I had been promised a deck multiple times over what must be a 6 month period. I know he got busy and I don't expect a review deck to be a priority, but I feel it's worth mentioning. However all customers I've heard have got their decks in a normal amount of time, so I doubt there's anything to worry about. 6/10
First impressions I loved the ply colours on this deck! A gorgeous top and bottom, and everything about it looked nice too. Kicks and concave looked really nice, although I didn't know the wheelbase was a long wheelbase before seeing one in person, so I was surprised at that, but not in a bad way. Everything looked nice, except a bit of the shaping, which I'll cover in the next section. 9/10
Craftsmanship of this deck is in many respects, really nice. Perfect holes (and as such, easy setup), great rounding around the edges of the deck, an evenly pressed deck at a perfect thickness, and a very solid, crisp, and poppy finish. However the shaping of the kicks seems odd to me, maybe it's how they're supposed to be but I just found it a bit lacking compared to the rest of the deck, the kicks seem to drag out too much before they start to curve and make the whole deck look a bit odd (only on close inspection though). 9/10
Performance of this deck is really nice. I was taken back by how quickly I got used to it, how every trick seemed to snap into place, and how even though it's a longer wheelbase it still caught tricks well! Honestly these excelled my expectations, and the kicks being not perfectly shaped didn't make any difference to how nicely this rode either. Tricks were fast, responsive, and almost as effortless as using my main. One negative I will say is that the lacquer smudges and marks very easily, even light grinds on a rail seemed to make a visible difference, and as you can see in the closeup picture after my time trying this it had taken a fair smudging. I think it's aesthetic rather than performance related though, so whether that's a problem depends on how you like your decks. 9.5/10
Overall this is a very nice deck. A few problems that could be ironed out, but from what I can see they're purely aesthetic. Whether that bothers you is a matter of opinion, and given the nice price tag on these it's easy to look past that and enjoy these for what they are - especially if the rest of the specs look like something you'll enjoy. I cant help thinking there are companies in the same price range that offer this quality and no aesthetic issues, but the ones here aren't severe enough for me to not recommend these decks, or at least make them worth having a look at. 9/10
Go check the Temple site here :)
