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I decided to build my own skateboard because during quarantine, I enjoyed going to skate outside and the parking garage in front of my dorm. As I am a beginner to skateboarding, I cant really do many tricks, and I found that I enjoyed cruising on the board like a snowboard to be much more fun. Therefore, I decided to upgrade my small skateboard to a larger, cruiser board, meant for my riding style. While looking for cruiser boards, I was introduced to another type of board called a surfskate, which mimics surfing, another sport I recently got into. I decided that I wanted a board that was a mash-up of these two styles of boards. That type of board is unavailable on the current market, so I had to create my own.
By utilizing the press I made, I clamped the wood to form the shape of the board. The board is made from three layers of 3-ply plywood called Baltic Birch. It is the most common type of wood used for these presses because it is flexible, cheap, and each ply is even in thickness unlike most plywood. This means that my board is made of 9 plys of Baltic Birch, reaching a total thickness of 3/8". I add wood glue to the top and bottom of the wood sheets, adding moisture to the wood, which helps it bend and retain its final shape. The gluing process was very difficult for me as it was the middle of winter, and I was working at temperatures that was not recommended and the glue would dry up very quickly.
Issues Pressing
Because this was my first time pressing a board, I was bound to run into many unexpected problems during the pressing process. The first problem I noticed was immediately after tightening the bolts. As shown in the picture on the left, the nose of the board was not pressing straight. This happened because when cutting the press, the cut for the nose of the board must not have been perfectly straight, and also the wood extends past the foam press, meaning it is not getting equal pressure on the top and the bottom of the board. To mitigate this issue, I tightened some hand clamps to the table to try and force the higher parts even with the rest. It did work, however, not so well, but it didn't really matter because most of that wood gets cut off in the next step anyways.
Another issue I encountered is shown in the picture below; the wood did not perfectly bend with how I cut out the foam. There are gaps between where the wood and foam meet, which means those spots are not being pressed as much as everywhere else. This was destined to happen from the design of my press, as the curves were too extreme for the wood to bend. The solution to this problem would be to remake the entire press with this issue in mind, but that would take too much time and resources. I decided it would be best to just let the press do its thing, allowing the foam to flatten out over time. I knew that it would take a long time for the foam to do that, and the large bumps would still put enough pressure on the wood to produce the sharpest curve the wood could handle.
The Blank
After the wood spends two days in the press, it is finally time to take it out and reveal the blank. The two photos to the right help to show the curves of the board and its overall scale. Although the tail of the board looks very long, it will be cut down. The wood I bought was 36" long, while my ideal board size came out to be 32". Now that I have a blank, I can cut out any shape I desire.
I printed out the shape that I designed on AutoCAD and used spray adhesive to keep the lines stable while I cut out the board. I used a jigsaw to cut out the board, and followed the lines as best as possible. Home Depot only had the strongest bonding adhesive in stock, so it took a while to remove the paper after I was finished cutting it out.
Cutting the board out was pretty tedious, especially the first time. It made it very difficult that the board wasn't flat, so the jigsaw didn't always sit flat on the blank, and made it almost impossible to clamp down. I was impressed with how well it cut out, but there were still many rough edges that needed to be sanded. I spent a lot of time sanding the edges to make them one continuous, smooth line. Most skateboards use special routers to create a rounded edge; I tried using my friend's router table, but because of the shape of my board, it wasn't attainable. I ended up hand sanding the whole board and drilling the holes with a template I found online.
Painting
I played around with a bunch of color combinations on CAD, and decided that this looked the coolest. It reminded me of the cover art to one of Childish Gambino's albums, Kauai, which I really enjoy. As this board is a surfskate, I took inspiration from the ocean: imagining the yellow half as sand, and the blue as water.
I created a stencil of my friends' surf apparel company, Poseidon Surf Co. I thought the trident also fit the theme of surfing, so I made it the centerpiece of my board. I traced the logo on CAD and cut it out using an Exacto Knife. I printed out the stencil on thick cardstock so it would keep paint out better than normal printer paper. After the blue and yellow paint was dry, I used the stencil to paint the black logo on top. I used a paintbrush to fix any imperfections of the spray paint.
Griptape
This was my first time ever gripping a board, and it was more difficult than I expected. It was hard just finding griptape for my board because it is wider than a normal skateboard, so I ended up ordering a large roll of grip that I could use on the other boards I made. I tried making an angle stripe through the griptape where about 1/4" of wood is exposed. I underestimated how hard I needed to cut through, and the first half came out very bad. The second half of the cut looks good and if I have extra grip left after building the other boards, I will regrip the board at a different time.
Update: Board has been regripped and the cut came out great! Both cuts came out straight and even with each other.
Trucks and Wheels
I decided to reuse my trucks and wheels from the board I was previously riding. Before I decided to dish out more money on a new set, I had to have proof of concept that this board would actually work. The wheels are unbranded soft wheels that are really nice for cruising, so I felt it was necessary to keep those on the board. The black pieces under the pink trucks are the surf adapter. This is what makes the board ride like a surfboard, turning it into a surfskate. The trucks are mounted on top of the adapter, and it helps to make extremely tight and aggressive turns. Now that I know the board rides well and is a sustainable board, I am currently looking for nicer trucks and wheels to improve the ride quality.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this build was very fun and I would do it again. I got to learn a lot about the different specs of a skateboard and what makes it ride the way it does. I also got to use this project as a way to get creative; I was able to design the shape of my board and color it however I wanted. Most importantly, this is something that I will use almost daily, and it is custom to me and my riding style. I plan on getting some higher quality materials in the future, such as maple wood for the deck, which is significantly more durable, but is also much more difficult to work with. I look forward to continue making boards and learning about how different shapes and curves affect riding quality, and the different processes that will make my board building process quicker and easier.
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