I feel you there. That is an ugly board. As for the pickle being too soft for you to ride, I would check up on some of the videos that have been posted of pro's riding that board and the GNU - B-Nice for that matter. The softer boards seemed to be holding up quite nicely to those who like a little stiffer board. It's why I went with the B-Nice is the first place, soft enough to play on but I don't lose a whole lot of functionality.
Btw, I wasn't a big fan of the B-Nice graphics to begin with but when I got my boots and bindings, it all kind of fell into place to make one kick ass set up. Hope you can find something. I am huge fan of GNU also.
