ok....little grom comes over to me and goes..." hey mister is that a longboard?", "well...itsa little short for a longboard." 27" wb...can you say "twisted sister?". i reall dig the flex of the #2 along with the wheelbase...i dunno, could be the trucks/bushing combo, doubt it though, my set up resembles a wallmart board with plastic trucks and bushings. i got 2010 bears ( luv em ) with the lime DH boardside and a reflex big barrel streetside, not the best for carving...works great for me.[subject to bushing change at any given moment]. did i mention i luv the way this board carves?
...little grom comes over to me and goes.."hey mister, longboards are for cruzin around. not skate parks." "they failed to mention that to me when i bought this".....foiled again, i rolled into the snake pit, thrashed the cope outa the first corner, high centered the next outside corner for a speed pump, never missing a beat, came in low on the big wall, top side got a heelside speed check to bomb across the bisket for a double pump into the next wall. another heelside thrash for a quick turn across the face of the spine, pump, corner. pump...rollout, breath, insert winston, inhale, exhale. repeat. did i metion the similarities that stims and wall glue have?
...little grom comes over to me and goes "hey mister your killin it." " im old and i aint that good, but thanx little man." I started skatin again with my kids 2 years ago, ive been through a couple popsickle sticks,never feeling comfy or safe. bushings, trucks, bearings, redrilling, different shapes, widths, brands..nothin my style. longboards changed that, this deck got me back my stoke. STOKE. falling down has never been this fun.
... My kid comes over to me and goes " dad, dont. yer gonna get hurt." "just getting my skate on little man, its all good". so what is it with this deck that instills confidence and provides a fast comfortable ride? im geussin its the wicked grip job.
anyways, in a nutshell, this board is not a downhill demon, this board is not rodney mullins uber light, this board is not an earthwing,rayne, landyatchz or whatever the very bestest at whatever is today. However...wana ride some walls at speed? wanna surf ( NOT PUSH ) your local skatepark? wanna not eat it cuase of a crack or rock in the tarmac? want kicks front and rear ( they look sketchy, they work perfectly)? wanna slide with some cofidence? do you want to know why these boards were all the rage this year? Buy one, skate it.

This board is great for freestyle and sliding. Typical Dervy design but with some added concave, and better kicktails. Just the right amount of flex. Could use another 2 inches or so though.

I have had my tan tien for long enough to get a lot of great runs in. I am a very experienced rider and i would like to say that i am good at what i do. This board is very good for manuels and shuvits but that is obvious by the lip on it. This board still has great concave and great grip tape to keep your feet locked in place making hard carves very easy. People on here are saying its hard to slide and that you can not go fast on it. I am here to tell you i can do anything on this board. i can do any stand up slide switch or regular toe and heel side. i can do tons of hands on slides and more complicated slides. I have hit over 33mph with ease on thios board and didnt feel unstable at all, even though it wasnt made to do that you still can. I think the biggest problem people are having with the board is that they simply arent good enough riders to excede 30mph on any board or just simply dont have enough experience sliding enough. This is a great board and i would strongly recomend it to a beginer or an advanced rider.

Overall Impression: I am extremely pleased with this board. I've had it for about a month and has served as my go-to board the whole time. One of the more fun longboards I've ever ridden. Though there are some significant flaws, I feel the strengths outweigh the weaknesses by a significant amount. If you have the money, by all means, seriously consider the Tan Tien as the next addition to your quiver.

Pros: Part of the reason I love this board so much is that it's a tech trick and sliding machine. It's extremely light, and coupled with the functional nose and tail, it's a breeze to whip around shuvs as well as bust out bonelesses, flat tops, fingerflips, and almost everything you could imagine on it; even traditional street tricks like ollies and kickflips are perfectly doable on it. Manuals are effortless as well. Standups are easy and so much fun, big 4-wheel checks and 180s are a cinch. I was actually surprised by the amount of dancing room it had; cross steps, peter pans, and your other run-of-the-mill dancing moves are very easy and comfortable.

Cons: The first problem I have with this board is the price. Loaded makes very good but very pricey longboards that are not easy on the wallet. Do I feel that the quality of the board is much lower than the ~$180 pricetag indicates? No. But $180 is $180, and while there are companies like Kracked Skulls putting out ill COMPLETES for a little more money than one of these DECKS, I consider the price of this board to be a burden relative to other possible purchases. Furthermore, I have no problem taking this board up to around 25 mph, but anywhere beyond that, this board gets pretty sketchy. This doesn't really hamper me at all, considering I don't go much faster than that while hitting up the local hills, but to a more serious downhiller/freerider, this may be a problem. While there's easily enough room for some basic dancing moves, some larger, more demanding (in terms of board real estate or ability) or just more complicated improvised combinations are hard to pull off, as I'm not a huge fan of the shorter wheelbase and concave on a dancing board. This board also razortails extremely fast. Be sure to pick up or make some nose/tail guards to prevent this from happening if you plan on doing a whole lot of hand tricks or bonelesses or the like.

Very nice deck, I enjoyed riding it. Tight carving, good flex. The nose and tail kicks were awesome for manuals and "aerial maneuvers". The deck is very light. shovits and slide-shuvs were easy. Turns really nice.

Problem, I am 6'0, and personally, I found it to be a little on the short side for me. For someone my height, I would recommend the dervish before the tan tien. The dervish feels a lot better while sliding, carving, dancing and all else (for someone my height). Speed was another factor on the tan tien. It did not handle well with speed, BUT, that's not the purpose of the tan tien to start off with. If your looking for a speed deck, we all know to look away from the Tan tien.

Overall, good board.

Sam B