Building a skateboard

Skateboards have come a long way since they were two halves of a roller skate nailed to the bottom of a board. In the old days, building a skateboard required ingenuity, inventiveness and cheap parents who made you use an old hacked-up board rather than buying fresh lumber. Most of the neighbourhood kids would drop by to offer design opinions, wrestle during boring parts, and eat snacks (wormy apples, warm off the tree).

The engineering of early skateboards was easy. So was incurring sprains and contusions because you wiped out when your metal wheels hit anything more substantial than a June bug. Those were the clattering, badly crafted skateboards of my youth.

(As one early skateboarder described the ride, circa 1961: "It was wobblier than hell, moved way too fast, and vibrated on the asphalt enough to jar every bone in your body and loosen every tooth. It was more like getting electrocuted than anything else." - Bob Schmidt, quoted in The Concrete Wave, 1999.)

But today, modern skateboards are produced by niche manufacturers with names like Alien Workshop and Ghetto Child. Today's boards have contoured 7-ply maple decks, urethane wheels, sealed circular bearings and steering 'trucks' that can be adjusted for more or less play in your ride.

You buy contemporary skateboards in specialty shops where you can select each of the components separately - deck, trucks, bearings and wheels - and then the shop puts your board together while you wait. You pay roughly 200 bucks for a decent board, and about twice that for the t-shirt, shoes, wrist-guards and helmet.

But where's the fun in simply buying a board? Where's the thrill of using an axe head for a screwdriver? Where's the arguing over the shape of the board, or adjusting the aerodynamics by sawing off the corners?

Fortunately, you can still build your own skateboard. Sociall Skateboards in Cochrane, Alberta, has a great DIY skateboard package used by hundreds of schools, clubs, sport centres and Parks and Recreation departments. The kit includes all the components you need, including a contoured maple-ply deck blank that you cut to any profile you want and then customize with paint, stain or stickers.

I got my friend Graham, 13, to help me build a Sociall kit. I think he was a bit dubious at first, but by the time we were finished, the board looked great and he was teaching me how to ollie on the driveway.

The kit took about three hours to complete. First we drew a pattern on the deck blank (I lost the toss so we didn't do a hammerhead shark shape), and then Graham cut out the profile with a jigsaw. Next, we sanded the edges with random orbit sanders, working from 60-grit all the way up to 220. Then we sanded the underside of the board and Graham painted it, rubbing cobalt blue acrylic paint into the grain with a rag.

Next, we ate snacks while the paint dried. Then we applied and trimmed the grip tape, a gritty, stretchy material that covers the board's surface. If we'd had grip tape in the Sixties, I wouldn't have half the scars on my shins.

Sociall's skateboard blanks are pre-drilled with four holes for each of the trucks. We installed the trucks with the provided screws, then seated the bearings in the wheels. Then we mounted the wheels on the truck axles, cranking the nut down but then backing it off a bit so the wheels had free-spinning action. Graham tested the board. The trucks were too loose, making the board rock too dramatically. We tightened the kingpins on the trucks. Do you love the lingo or what?

That was almost it, except for affixing the "Rehab is for Quitters" sticker that came with the skateboard kit. Apparently skateboarders still wipe out a lot. Isn't it good to know at least that hasn't changed?

Unfortunately you cannot buy a Sociall deck blank (officially called a 'wafer') from any of the hardware chains or home centers, so lean on your hardware supplier, or just order a wafer from Sociall at 1-866-390-3325. Cost: $25.00 (Sociall can also sell you trucks, bearings and wheels, or you can pick those up at your local skate shop.)