What is up homies! Man have I been busy this week, or lets say this year so far. Ok, so what you got cooking?
Besides traveling quite a bit for work I have been playing in two bands, doing family gatherings and making skateboard decks. It is skateboard decks and the spring time weather outside that inspired a day of writing. I am so antsy right now, I want to go outside and play its driving me mad.
Traveling for work is nothing that special. I mostly go to rural areas in Mississippi, Indiana, Arkansas and Missouri to teach people how to use software and set up accounting books. It is rather satisfying work to say the least when there is a abundance of work. This year has been busier so far than most. Know anybody who needs someone who can train people? haha.
And Family.....What can I say, a couple of weekends ago I went to Little Rock AR and catered a baby shower for my sister. I have not catered in a very long time, years, but dam I still got it. My brother-in-laws father is in the food business and he said that the food and presentation was as good or better than professional services he has seen in Little Rock. What a great compliment. I have to give huge props to my assistant Alea though, she was perfect. Alea is my mother's helper around the house. I had only met her that day and knew only that she had been in food service before. She was terrific.
I have also traveled to St Louis for work but got to see my little Brother Sam who is attending Washington University. I have been to Mountain Home AR for a weekend and plan on going back week after next to visit my dad.
Ok, enough boring. Skateboards!!! Skateboards!!
My last
blog post was about my Little Rock trip where I picked up some blank uncut decks. Since then I have spent an entire weekend working on designing, cutting, sanding and finishing these nine decks. In the past I think the most I have ever worked on at once is two decks at a time. For instance, here is a blog post of cutting wood for the
Vegan Luchador. With one or two decks you can be done with the wood work in a couple of hours tops. Nine decks present a whole new circumstance, you got nine decks, what the fuck??
Everything just takes longer. It makes me feel rushed to some extent having so many decks to finish. You can't get in a big hurry with them or they bite back. I have had to re-drill holes, sand paint off and repaint back on, scrap art work and just suck up the mistakes. There are places where the Black Enamel paint ran, but who cares, its a skateboard not a wall ornament. It can be a wall ornament after you have thrashed the hell out of it and worn it out completely.
The shape of the board is very similar to a Black Label shape with a slight adjustment to the sides and the nose. I used the tail design since it is fairly blocky. The basic idea is the same as a Popsicle shaped board, the sides of the board do not vary in shape, they are straight lines in width from nose to tail. The only true difference is this board has a tail that is square compared to a rounded tail. Some people who skate transitions like a squared off tail because it gives the foot more surface which makes certain tricks feel better. There is also more tail now which will extend the life of the board a bit longer. Finally there is no guess work in which end of the board is the tail. I see come skaters do something to their grip tape to indicate the direction of the tail/nose. It is a personal preference in the end. I do see more and more of these shapes being skated, so what ever....
I would like to make more boards but I need a better set up and a system. That is what I have realized from this experience so far. I also guess I should produce some Popsicle Sticks if anybody is going to buy them as well. Really, everybody should think of buying boards from local board makers like it is supporting organic farming since that is what this is, sorta. I get my uncut blanks from a local guy. So support your Local Organic farmers which includes me.
Here is the
picture album to the boards in progress. They are not finished yet but getting ever so close. They will go on sale at the
Half Marathon Skateboard event this weekend. The staging and registration at 9am this Saturday starts here according to their
FB page -
Faith Baptist Church of Bartlett 3755 N Germantown Rd, Memphis. The boards will sell for $30 a piece. Not sure if any will sell, we will see.
Then my final thing that has been consuming time is playing music. I play drums with two bands. Both bands are power trios at the moment and I am the old guy. The other members in the band are high school students. I have ran across the paths of my little friends because they are all skateboarders who skate my boards oddly enough. I will have to write more about these experiences another day as things develop and we have opportunities to play out. I am not even sure what the band names are yet? And we need gigs!! So if you know anybody that needs a band to play then holler at us, leave a comment or something. If you want to listen to some of the work then this is
Band One and this is
Band Two. Coltrane (he is in both bands) hates both demos but we need to record better demos then don't we fart knocker.
So maybe I will see you over the weekend and you can buy a board from me. I have a couple of 8.6 and a few 8.5's. Leave a comment if you want one because I will sell them to who wants them first.
