To Nick21. - Rayne copied the Flushcut with their Demonseed. So Kebbek copied the Avenger with their Revenger, as a "revenge".
Put small wheels on the Niko D if you want it close to the ground. 83mm are definitely too big. I use 70mm grippins right now and it feels good on the board. I paid my first ride with 2 small pepperonnis on my elbow and knee (wheel bite on 83mm and loose trucks) and I also got hit by a cab for the first time with that brand new deck.... haha!
It is 1.75" longer than a Flushcut. All the details on CDS. There is a 8° angle at the front, 0° at the back. The concave is more agressive than on a Comishin.
About making the drop lower - it seems there's two complementary trends in speedboards at the moment - topmounts, and extremely low trucks like Kahalanies and Smokies.
And these complement a third trend, which is trying to rail the hard turns rather than drift them.
well it's the final board height that counts, not how it got there. (not counting truck height that's a bit different)
Basically if the board height is the same, but you bent the board rather than cut into it - the only difference will be how it feels underfoot.
as for the trend towards higher boards, this is one reason why i think drops are great, it allows you to run risers to adjust your height up and down. I've seen a few Carbon evos with smokies on half inch risers for example.
Indeed Kebbek is slowing on the dropthrough. With all the baseplates around, it makes the whole production much more complicated. All the Comishin this year are also underflush. So keep your dropthrough if you like riding low.
There are only 60 or something of them. If you want one, contact Ian directly ian@kebbek.com and he will tell you where to get one in Oz (he probably knows where he sent the decks!!)
I have just gotton the Niko Desmarais, well I should say it will arrive sometime this week anyway. http://www.daddiesboardshop.com is where I got it from, that was aonly a few days ago so dad probably has some left. Will keep ye posted on how she rides.