Santa Cruz Skateboards is one of the oldest, most influential, and most prestigious skateboard companies in the world.
Founded in 1973 by three surfer friends in Santa Cruz, California, initially as a surfboard manufacturer, the company has been producing high-quality skateboards, apparel, and accessories for over 40 years.
Santa Cruz Skateboards is known for its iconic skateboard lifestyle and artwork such as the Screaming Hand, the Dot, and the Roskopp face (designed in 1985 by legendary artist Jim Phillips).
NHS Inc., the distribution company created by the Santa Cruz boys, also distributes Santa Cruz Snowboards, Santa Cruz Surfboards, Creature Skateboards, Independent Trucks, Bronson Speed, Krux Trucks, Ricta Wheels, Mob Grip, OJ Wheels, Road Rider, Slimeballs, Bullet, and Nor Cal Clothing.
The Santa Cruz longboard lineup includes 4 distinct shapes:
- The Drop-Thru
- The compact Pintail
- The mid-size Pintail
- The Drop Down
The above 4 models combined have close to 30 design variants. The following table recaps the longboard shapes and designs with their key specs:
If you’d like to see the full list in a Google sheet, click on the capture below:
See also:
Santa Cruz Cruiser comparison guide
Santa Cruz Surf Skate comparison guide
1. Santa Cruz Drop Through 36″ Longboard
The Santa Cruz Drop Thru longboard is a medium-sized symmetrical drop-through cutout shape. The 36″ length and 9″ wide give this board an ample foot platform resulting in very comfortable commuting.
Its solid 9-ply hard maple construction makes the Drop-Thru very durable and suitable including for heavier riders (e.g. 250 lbs).
The drop-through mount style results in a lowered ride compared to topmount, well-suited for effortless distance pushing.
The long 26.75″ wheelbase makes this longboard very stable at higher speeds. This combined with the symmetrical shape makes it a good board for freeride. The W concave helps keep your feet in place.
The shape’s sidecuts help make this board nice and carvy and make it easier to push the board sideways for slides. The small dual kicks also help with quick turns and add to the board’s overall maneuverability in turns.
The 180mm RKP trucks provide a responsive and flowy feel in turns. The large (66mm), soft (78a duro), square-lipped Slime Ball wheels offer a high grip for hard carving including downhill. The deck’s large cutouts and wide trucks eliminate any risk of wheelbite.
| Size | 36″ x 9″ (WB 26.75″) |
| Kicks | Small twin kicks |
| Construction | 9-ply North American Maple |
| Trucks | Bullet 180mm RKP downhill |
| Wheels | 66mm 78a Santa Cruz Slime Balls |
| Price | $209 |
Below are the gorgeous designs available for the Santa Cruz Drop Thru.
Floral Flame Dot Drop Thru
The Floral Flame’s bottom side features a beautiful fuchsia background with an attractive flower pattern. Layered on top is a dark and flowery Santa Cruz Dot with blue and white flame brand name lettering.
Like all Drop thru versions, the top side of the deck is fully covered by grip tape (no graphics)
Roskopp Five Drop Thru
This version of the Santa Cruz Drop Thru has stunning artwork on the deck’s bottom side, featuring the iconic Roskopp face alongside other comic-like characters amidst an explosion of flashy green, yellow, and pink colors that span from wingtip to wingtip.
Classic Dot Drop Thru
The Classic version is what you’d expect based on the name: it features the classic Santa Cruz Dot with a red background and the SC name in yellow lettering on top. The red dot sits on a dark veneered backdrop. Simple and elegant.
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Journey Drop Thru
The journey shows an awesome blue comics-like hand with legs and a smiling mouth. The hand carries a beautiful flower. This is in contrast with the habitual pain-suffering Santa Cruz Screaming Hand.
The hand around a joyful background with cheering yellow, red, blue, and green colors, with mushrooms and other objects alongside the Santa Cruz letters.
Wave Dot Splice Drop Thru
The Dot Splice features an ocean-inspired Dot, with in the background half solid red and half surf waves, and a dual color Santa Cruz lettering. Around the Dot, red and turquoise patterns made of thin lines fill the bottom of the foot platform.
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Mandala Hand Drop Thru
The Mandala Hand shows yet another version of the Screaming Hand, this time in psychedelic-style red and green tones on a dark backdrop. The Santa Cruz Drop adds purple tones with the Santa Cruz lettering in fluorescent green and black. Overall very nice oriental-inspired artwork.
Prismatic Dot Drop Thru
The Prismatic, as the name suggests, has a pastel, prism-like gradient overlaid on top of concentric motifs alternating circling lines and checkered patterns. In the middle is a discrete Santa Cruz Dot with the lettering in shadowed light color characters.
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2. Santa Cruz Pintail 33″ Longboard
The Santa Cruz 33″ pintail is a classic pintail shape – narrow aspect, widening shape from tail to nose, long tapered tail. At 33″, this is a nice and compact pintail that can easily be carried around into a store or public transport e.g. when commuting.
The pintail is also a great shape for relaxed riding, cruising, and effortless carving on boardwalks or bike lanes. The long wheelbase (21″) makes it very stable for easy riding and exploring the surroundings, including at moderate speeds.
The 9-ply maple construction makes this pintail relatively stiff and highly durable, including for heavier riders. Despite the narrow aspect, the 9″ width gives you ample footroom even for larger shoe sizes. the ride height and low flex also help minimize any foot rub.
this board features a mellow W concave that helps keep our feet in place when riding faster, making for a comfortable ride when commuting or carving.
The Santa Cruz 33″ pintail comes fitted with 160mm reverse kingpin trucks, resulting in a smooth, flowy and carvy feel that matches the spirit of the pintail.
The smaller and softer 60mm Slime Ball wheels provide the necessary grip for seamless carving and ensure sufficient wheel clearance even in tighter turns.
| Size | 33″ x 9.2″ (WB 21″) |
| Kicks | Pintail |
| Construction | 9-ply North American Maple |
| Trucks | Bullet 160mm RKP |
| Wheels | 60mm 78a Slime Balls |
| Price | $200 |
Let’s take a look at the designs available for the Santa Cruz 33″ pintail longboard.
Holo Flame Dot Pintail
The Holo Flame pintail has a discrete and elegant design, symmetrical on both bottom and top sides of the deck. White and yellow contour lines around a dark background, with a small, toned-down Santa Cruz Dot toward the nose with flame-like golden letters.
Screaming Hand Pintail
This Pintail has the infamous Santa Cruz blue Screaming Hand spanning the full width of the deck’s bottom side. A flamboyant design with these classic graphics laid out on a dark background with a thick red contour stripe.
The top side is covered with black grip tape, also contoured with red and blue lines. It shows the traditional Santa Cruz Dot with a red background.
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Stranger Things Screaming Hand ($218):
This variant of the Screaming Hand (see above), the bottom side artwork is a collab between Sana Cruz and Stranger Things, evoking the spooky and supernatural Hawkins atmosphere. The lower part of the hand turns to a black and red, inferno-like color theme. The rear wheels are red as well.
Yin Yang Dot Pintail
The Yin Yang Dot is mind-boggling with its blue backdrop patterned with the Yin-Yang symbol, pink rails, and yellow rails contour lines. The large central Santa Cruz Dot is also Yin-Yang-themed. The same theme and colors are used on the top side as well. The yellow wheels match nicely with the art colors.
Stipple Wave Dot Pintail
The Stipple Wave Dot has really cool wave-like graphics on both sides of the deck – brown waves on a wooden background for the bottom side, blue waves on a turquoise background on the top. The rail contours on each side of the deck use the color theme of the opposite side.
Toxic Dot Pintail
The Toxic Dot pintail has an impressive look with flashy poisonous graphics in orange, yellow, and pink shades. The top side art is also gorgeous with the rails covered with the same ebullient orange and yellow pattern surrounding the Santa Cruz dot on the bottom side.
The Santa Cruz lettering in the black dot has an awesome orange, pink, and white melting aspect.
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Wave Dot Splice Pintail
The Wave Dot Splice has a nice bee-like look with brown-toned stripes and turquoise rails on both sides of the deck. The Santa Cruz Dot has a beautiful island theme with a mighty surf wave, tropical flowers, and a pink and turquoise color theme. The pink trucks match the dot and top side contour lines.
Cabana Dot Pintail
The Cabana features a tropical-inspired theme on the bottom with turquoise palm trees on a pink background surrounded with harmonious pastel green and wood-veneered contour lines.
The top side also has a wood veneer aspect with attractive turquoise rails and light green and pink surrounding lines. The pintail ships with nicely matched silver trucks and black wheels.
Iridescent Dot Pintail
The Iridescent Dot Pintail features an astonishing color spectrum on the top side, both inside the Santa Cruz dot and around it, with color gradients transitioning between blue, pink, orange, green, and more. The bottom side reflects the top art through subtle contouring lines and a larger version of the dot.
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Obscure Dot Pintail
This board features cool flashy green and blue patterned graphics on a dark background with a pink contour line and black rails. The top side of the deck has dark grip tape highlighted with pink lines, with the rails using the same graphic theme as the bottom side.
Rad Dot Pintail
The Rad Dot has a hypnotizing, small checkered black and red pattern on the bottom, and beautiful pink, purple, and orange contour lines highlighting black rails and grip tape on the top side. The Santa Cruz Dot features a matching color theme with melting lettering on a black background. Purple wheels.
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Serape Dot Pintail
The Serape Dot version of the Santa Cruz Street pintail could have been named “Rasta” for its sunny yellow, red, and green tones stripe graphics. The pattern is also used on the rails on the top side. Matching green wheels. Make sure you put on sunglasses before you look at it.
Decoder Wave Pintail
The Decoder Wave is a variant of the Wave Dot Splice, this time with a cool turquoise, water-like patterned background and turquoise rails on the bottom side. The top side has a veneered wooden aspect with darker blue rails and fuchsia outlines. Silver trucks and fuchsia wheels,
3. Santa Cruz large pintail 39″
The 39″ pintail longboard is a sized-up version of the compact pintail we discussed above. It has the same classic pintail shape and stiff 9-ply maple construction, only longer and wider (39″ x 9.6″).
this large pintail naturally boasts a longer wheelbase (27″ vs. 21″), making it super comfy for cruising and commuting and very stable at higher speeds. yet it has the same nose and tail length (2.4″ and 5.4″) as its smaller sibling.
Due to its larger width, the 39″ pintail comes with wider RKP trucks (180mm vs. 160mm for the 33″). As a result, it can also run much larger wheels (72mm vs 60mm) without risk of wheelbite.
While the full-size Santa Cruz pintail isn’t as compact and portable as its little brother, its huge foot platform and nice and responsive ride make it a great board to ride on a daily basis.
| Size | 39″ x 9.6″ (WB 27″) |
| Kicks | Pintail |
| Construction | 9-ply North American Maple |
| Trucks | Bullet 180mm RKP |
| Wheels | 72mm 78a |
| Price | $200 |
Amoeba Dot Pintail 39″
The art theme on this mid-sized pintail features a really cool “amoeba” worm-like pattern on the bottom side and the top-side rails surrounding the black grip tape. The red bottom-line rails, contour lines, and Santa Cruz Dot color greatly complement the graphic theme.
4. Santa Cruz Drop Down 37.5″ Longboard
The Santa Cruz Drop Down 37.5″ is a midsize longboard focused on commuting, distance, and freeride. It’s a very comfortable board with a large foot platform. It rides very low to the ground, making it extremely stable and effortless to push on.
this is an ideal board for long-distance pushing – even more so than the Drop Thru discussed earlier, since the very low ride height allows you to push with minimal knee effort.
This longboard also has a significant wheelbase giving it high, wobble-free stability for faster downhill riding.
As a result, it’s a great board to learn to freeride on as it provides a very confident and secure feel, including when breaking traction into slides.
The Drop Down features functional dual kicks which help make it maneuverable and turny despite the longer wheelbase and dropped platform. The kicks also come in handy for technical freeride maneuvers, including for switch riding.
The Drop Down ships with relatively narrow and responsive 160mm Bullet RPK trucks, and 66mm Slime Balls wheels that run wheelbite-free on the high-clearance deck.
| Size | 37.5″ x 9.5″ (WB 27.5″) |
| Kicks | Twin kicks |
| Construction | 9-ply North American Maple |
| Trucks | 160mm Bullet reverse kingpin downhill |
| Wheels | 66mm, 78a Santa Cruz branded Slime Balls |
| Price | $210 |
See also: Drop-through vs drop-down longboard: which to choose?
Botanic Skull Drop Down
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Crane Dot Drop Down
Toxic Hand Drop Down
Phase Dot Drop Down
Obscure Hand Drop Down
Decoder Roskopp Drop Down
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Split Hand Drop Down
Contra Eclipse Drop Down
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Bonus: older Santa Cruz longboards on Amazon
Santa Cruz Mahaka Rasta Fade Pintail 39″
