Skateboard Decks For Sale made by Rufus himself

I have a couple of 8.6 and a few 8.5, they are 32 inches long with15 inch wheels base. I am not happy with the finish on them, painting has its ups and downs. I will sell them for $25 each plus shipping unless you are local.

The best way do buy one for now is email me at rufusskates@gmail.com to set up to buy one. Then once we have communicated hit the donate button on my blog and you can pay for it plus shipping that using paypal. The is the best system I have st this moment until I set up the merchant portion of this site.

This is the lot, the top two are 8.6, the rest are 8.5.

Spring Broke- Popsicle Deck Debate - Skateboarding a Marathon distance & Buy My Decks.

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.

Uncut Blanks

I had to manage a catering gig in Little Rock on Sunday. Since I had to do all the grocery shopping and most of the cooking I made my way to LR on early Saturday morning.

On my way to LR I stopped by Paige Hearn's warehouse and picked up nine uncut blank skateboard decks. The dimensions uncut are: 35 inches long by 9.5 inches wide. I am not sure what the plan is for this batch of boards is to be...NO one seems that interested in blank uncut pieces of wood on first glance it seems. I posted a great pic in the burdening social web site with no avail.

See there, that is a great looking flock of boards that want to be cut up, painted and trashed. I might do something like this with a bit more of a blocky tail, different graphic (if any), 32 inches long, 15 inch wheel base and probably at about 8.6 in width. 

If you want to inquire more about one of these decks feel free to email me at rufusskates@gmail.com. I will post more about the process as I enter into each phase. Later.

Cutting Wood - Longboards for David

I got a text late Friday night from David saying he got wood, that is two blank decks. Wow, finally the supplier had them, http://eastbilt.com has been out of stock for months forcing DAvid to skate somebody else's design. What time?? Better make it 10 am since my Liverpool Football Game starts at 9am.  That way I can watch the second half while working on drawing where the trucks go.

So he gets there at straight up 10am, very punctual, got to appreciate that. Unfortunately the game is on and Liverpool have not scored against Stoke, in fact no one had scored. So I get to work on David's first board, a massive 48 inches long by 12 wide. There is a pencil outline of where he wants me to cut out of the blank, this is the most massive skateboard I have ever help make. This bad boy is fully concave and going to be David's next skate for tranny. The other board is strictly a on the road long board measuring 10" X 58" with no concave. So the trucks got placement points.

The next stage happened just as the Liverpool game finished in a draw. That was a very weird game, Kenny had some crazy tactics that did not work today, hmm. To cut the blanks I have to use my neighbors tools which consist of a band saw and some sanding tools. I would really like to get my own setup but I do not have the space, no shop space per say any where to be had on my property. The concaved beast I cut out using the band saw. I followed DAvid's pencil outline the best I could, got it really close. Cutting blanks out gets intense for me for some reason but it is so much fun. I cut the second blank with a jig saw. You can actually cut all your blanks with a jig saw, I might try that in the future. Then we moved onto sanding:

 I use a belt sander primarily on the concave board. It is gets fairly tiring since you have to work the wood over and over to get a desired edge. I could use a router to do this but I would have to build a jig, one day.

Those are some big daddy boards, that pool skate is wide as shit.

Little more sanding.

Back at David's house for paint. Good Job.

Back in Memphis

Back in Memphis, jet lagged, tired and trying to get my life back. The last day in Bangkok I did not do much, walked around a bit, did some last minute shopping and headed over to Khoisan road for one last visit to hang out with my friend Costal. I did not stay for a long visit for I had to get up early the next morning and make a flight out at 815am. I did how ever ride a motorbike taxi back to the hotel, it was a wild ride for sure. The travel guides said to get there 3 hours before, so I did but the check in counter for Japan airlines did not open until 545. I got on the plane it was a nice 6 hours to Japan from Bangkok sitting next to this Japanese business man who did not smell like he had time to take a shower before he got to the airport. Got to japan and waited for two hours for the long flight to take off. I guess the flight took off around 6pm Japan time. I was suppose to have a aisle seat according to my itinerary but no, I had to sit between two dudes which makes for a slightly less comforting flight. It only took 10.5 hours to get to Dallas Fort Worth, but hey, I got there. I then had to go through immigration and recheck bags, exchange my currency back to US dollars and find a Hamburger and frosty beverage that yelled American. I sat down to wait for the plane and woke up to the boarding announcements, I had no idea where I was then I figured it out quickly. got my self together, got on the plane and headed to memphis. Don picked me up, we went to a Christmas party and then home.

Would you go back to Bangkok?? Yeah, but not to stay in someone's house like that again. I actually met this guy at the Christmas party, don took me to, that spent two months in Thailand many years ago. he described doing a few things I wished I had, like renting a motor bike in Chaing Mae. It was somewhat interesting being incorporated into someone's family but it got old since they were not the best of hosts. I do believe that I could go back and have a grander time than I did on this trip. I experienced a culture far different than the one I live in and that is what counts most of all to me. There is far more to Thailand that what i saw although I saw a good bit. What i saw more of than I had wished was a troubled and tormented family man. You can't always go on a trip like this an expect every moment to be grand. I had some grand moments and I had some terrifying ones, as well, all the in between. Did I do this trip the right way?? Not sure, I would do it different next time. I actually met a guy from colorado on the flight to Japan. He had been on the south beach islands of Thailand partying very hard. Is that worth doing?? I would not want to have had it any different to tell you the truth. It was truly a growing experience.

I new beginning in Bangkok

Now I am in Sukhumvit in a nice little hotel not far from the center of activity for the area which is mostly comprised with street markets, street food, large malls, bars, restaurants, 711 after 711 and other various businesses. I am doing the tourist thing now for the last couple of days left in Bangkok. Instead of living in someones house and abiding by their rules. I now make up the rules and do what ever I want. It is almost noon here in Bangkok while it is 11pm at night back where my buddies in United States reside. It has been an interesting ride to say the least the last three weeks. I have seen a lot, done a lot and have gone past what the usual tourist might see experiencing what it is like to live in Thailand as a real Thai. That does not mean that all my time was entertaining and fun, its means I saw life as it is lived...the good, the bad and the ugly. While in my high school friends home I had to resign my usual everyday routines and abide by the house rules. It was exhausting some days when your host snapped at you about leaving a light on in the bathroom or leaving your rooms air conditioner on when you were not in the room at the moment. There are slews of instances like this, every little thing I did was scrutinized in one way or another as though trying to find fault in the most unimportant events to make me look like a unworthy house guest. I don't think they wanted me there from the beginning but I don't really know that, maybe it was after the first week. I should have gotten a hotel room a long time ago but I kept hanging on because I did not want to give up on the person who I thought was my friend. People change is all I can say, and the person I knew was not the person I met in Bangkok three weeks ago.  Enough of that....and don't think I have had a bad time here either because that is not true, I have had a great time here other than a few set backs here and there.

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to meet up with a friend I met when I was in the South of Thailand two weeks ago. I took a taxi to a area known as Khoasan Rd were my new friend Costal is staying. He gave me a address and google map location and to meet him there at 4pm. So we meet up. Costal is a great guy, real easy going,  we have a  lot of things in common. He lives in Basel Switzerland,  works as a I.T. professional, has a girl friend and lives in a warehouse apartment were he makes tents and bike trailers among other things. I met him at his hotel and then we set out over to a local bar for a sit and chat. We started walking towards the street and I asked Costal where his shoes were?? No shoes he said, he walks bare foot every where. You guys ever heard of Dean Potter, the famous mountian climber, slack liner and base jumper. Dean does not wear shoes either because he says walking bare foot makes your feet at their best and even improves posture. Costal is a climber as well but I dont think he knows Dean yet, I bet he will after reading this. You should check out the documentary on Dean Potter, its really good. So after sitting a while and watching people by the street side restaurant we headed for a cab to Siam square which is right by my hotel. We just continued to talk and walk around. Costal gets a lot of attention walking around Bangkok with no shoes.  We walked around the Siam Square mall, went into a tobacco shop to pick up cigars and the girls in the shop were so taken by his lack of shoes. They laughed and giggled, asked him a million questions, it was really funny and definitely an ice breaker conversing with strangers.  He says he enjoys the attention and that having the confidence to walk around with no shoes builds character. I go back to Dean Potter and if Dean Potter does it then..... Dean is the best climber in the world by the way. So we parted ways around 930 or 10, I headed back to the hotel for a goods nights rest on a comfortable bed. Not sure what I am going to do today, Costal said something about a Imax show or something.

 Anyway, tomorrow is my last full day in Bangkok. I leave Saturday morning on a 815 am flight. That means I have to be at the airport around 6am or before. I will have to get a cab at 430 or 5am then, uhgg. I can't wait to see my own stuff again, haha - later.

Days in the past, The Ching Mai experience and now alone in Bangkok

Ok, so Sunday I woke up and headed out with Joe and his family to get breakfast. After which they dropped me off at a hair salon were I got my hairs cut. Once I got back to the house I pretty much spent the day packing for a little side trip up to North Thailand to a place called Ching Mai. Ching Mai is the capital city of Bangkok and a tourist spot to say the least. We boarded a bus in Bangkok at 830 pm at night. Buses are a choice way to travel around the provinces of Thailand. The bus we were on was a double decker bus with reclining seats and a video screen to watch movies. All the movies are in Thia language so I did not have much interest in watching Planet of the Apes with a dubbed over thia voice. It took ten hours to arrive in Ching Mai and I did not sleep. So we get there, sleep a little and then I headed up to a mountain top Buddhist temple named Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. I had to get a taxi to the top of the mountain, the taxi is just a small pickup truck that is covered and has bench seats. You go to the taxi stand at the base of the mountain, get in the back of the truck and wait until they have filled the truck with who ever is going, you pay 100 baht and off you go. The temple was amazing, I even got a foot massage while up there. We came back and then headed out about town. So we went out that night, had some grub and I will leave the story at that. Things happened that night I cannot discuss in this forum, I ended up moving out of the condo we were sharing and getting my own room that night. At that point I was alone in Thailand far far away from Bangkok. I got a bus ticket back to Bangkok the next day and rode the 10 hours back into the city of Bangkok. I really lucked out on the bus. The seat I got was on the bottom and the girl i was sitting next to was Thia who spoke a little bit of English. She was great, very nice, helpful, made me feel very relaxed to sit next to a person that was human. So I get back into the bus station in Bangkok, get a taxi, go to dudes house, get my stuff and take the taxi to a hotel. I stayed at a nice place but it was way too expensive, so once I got into the hotel I got on expedia found a deal on another nice place for $50 bucks a night. I got up this morning and ate breakfast and transferred hotels. So now I sit and write this blog.

Hey, dont worry, I am having a great time. Life is full of ups and downs. This afternoon I am going and try to meet up with this dude i met on the south beach. He messaged me on google+ and we are going to hang out. He is from Swizterland and traveled with a bike and trailer that he pulls with the bike. It will be good to hang out with someone that acts like a friend. I thank Joe and his family for their hospitality.  later

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