When I set out to start building skateboards, I really underestimated how fun it would be. I’ve been posting a lot of my updates via Instagram (btrif0), and then to Facebook, so this blog has not been getting much of my attention. So, I’d like to recap everything from the past month in a quick post here.
After failing to make a good wood mold by hand, I decided to invest in a vacuum bag skateboard press from Roarockit Skateboard Company. They’ve got tons of great resources and how-to videos, and my first board definitely came out better than I anticipated. I have since made two more boards with different molds, as I’m still trying to get the building process down (you need to have the right amount of glue and need to be very quick). I plan on starting to sell them as soon as I consistently build a quality deck. The other cool thing about this – I am trying to hone in on a board that’s perfect more my skating style (mostly freestyle/flatland skateboarding), and learning a lot about how I respond to different shapes.
After testing out a couple of boards with different shapes, I designed a few shapes that I’ll be looking to take to a manufacturer for the openSource(skateboards); product line I’m working on – you can check out the prototype website at www.opensourceboards.com – there, you will hopefully get a pretty good idea of what I’m trying to do (if not, please let me know, because that means the site isn’t doing it’s job!)
Here are the decks I’ve made so far:
The square-ended deck has since been converted to a semi-circular ended deck like the others because I wasn’t a big fan of it (it made certain freestyle tricks much more difficult).
Please post your comments and/or questions. And, if you’d like any tips for board building based on what I’ve learned so far, shoot me an email and I can try to help you out!
If ___________, then venture. 