Skateboard manufacturing used to be a closely guarded secret, a process that many skaters has little knowledge of. How the boards were cut, sanded, pressed, printed and laminated. How wheels were poured and moulded. The intricacies of truck and bearing design. Now the doors have been thrown wide open for anyone to see how the worlds best skateboards, wheels, trucks and bearings are created. Stacy Peralta, one of the original Z-Boys, made this short documentary film about how things go down at Skate One Distribution. This is where all the Powell-Peralta decks, Bones wheels, and Bones bearings are made, along with other skate products from Mini Logo.
A Lifetime Passion
You might be surprised by how much research and development takes place in skateboard factories, how new boards are tried and tested, the amount of effort that goes into creating the skate equipment most skaters take for granted. People like George Powell and Larry Stevenson were among the original innovators, the guys who cooked up the urethane wheels in their kitchens and tried out kicktails on decks. It still takes a real passion to keep building and improving the equipment skaters use, and it’s amazing to see that some of the guys who were involved with skateboarding from the beginning are still doing it.
Reunited
Powell-Peralta were arguably the biggest and best skateboarding company during in the 1980s. Their iconic deck graphics from that era, like the Steve Caballero Dragon and Tony Hawk’s chicken skull, are now part of skateboarding culture. By the end of the decade skateboarding suffered a serious downturn and Peralta stepped down from the partnership that had once done so well. Powell kept on making skateboards and things picked up again, and now Powell and Peralta have teamed up again to bring back some of the classic shapes and designs of their previous partnership.
Doing It Yourself
Now the skateboarding industry has developed a whole range of custom machines to help make the best professional skateboarding equipment, but at the beginning it all took place in the garage. Powell made a custom skateboard for his kid in the 70s in his own garage, and we all have start somewhere. If you are interested in making your own skateboard, doing it all yourself from scratch, there is help out there. DIY Skate has so much information on everything required to build a skateboard deck, from the dimensions of skateboard veneer to the different type of skateboard presses out there. For any skateboard parts you need, like bolts, riser pads, grip tape and bushings, we got it all here at the DriftingThru store. Good luck building you own custom ride!