with the boys from Create a Skate, Lewis Cruise, & Adrift Shop
For anyone who has attended or seen postings around town for Converse's limited edition CONS Project Workshops, they are definitely not one to be missed. These free workshops led by industry professionals, combine skateboarding, music, and art in an unparalleled warehouse setting in Boston, L.A., New York, and Toronto where attendees walk home with a new project they created all assembled with materials free of charge.
It's actually a steal. This past weekend, I had the great fortune of attending the 5th installment of their workshop series, a Making and Designing Skate Decks focus in Toronto at 358 Dufferin Street at Queen West.
Building the deck
Codi and Jared Hager, twin brothers and skate ambassadors of Create a Skate demonstrated the fundamentals of assembling a simple skateboard deck.
Did you know - the most sturdy wood used to assemble decks is found in the Greater Lakes region? That's right, maple trees, known for their density and resilience to cold weather and grown in our backyard are shipped locally and internationally to manufacture your favourite brands of skate decks worldwide.
Many decks can contain plexiglass or carbon fibre sheets in combination with wood, but the most fundamental, basic template involves seven sheets of maple wood. The sheets will alternate from longrain (where the wood grain will run along lengthwise) to crossgrain (the grain runs along the shorter width edge) to longrain again. These are pressure glued together or can also be vacuum-sealed in a mould that shapes the front (nose end) and back (tail end) of the deck.
Each attendee was given a stack of the seven layers of wood sealed and moulded, and cut-out templates to measure out the desired shapes of the nose and tail end of the deck. In addition, we were each given a tool to measure the wheelbase: the distance between the truck holes for the wheels between the front set and back set. I free-handed and drew a comforting nose and tail end that resembled my current Santa Cruz longboard. These shapes were later cut using a band saw and further smoothed down using an electric sander and sanding paper.
Designing the deck
Next, Jared from Lewis Cruise skateboards, who specializes in silk-screening amazing and limited edition designs on skatedecks, walked us through the basics of how and what we could use to design our own decks. Provided with spray paint, permanent markers, stencils, x-acto knives, and glue, the warehouse became a creative playground of possibilities. Provided with the sunny spring temperatures (finally), tarps were set out outdoors to enable a spray-painting and drying zone.
Given the shortened time frame of the day (11AM-5PM for the workshop), I maximized my time by bringing in printed out graphics which I cut individually and wheatpasted onto the deck itself.
Wheatpasting is a simple and inexpensive process to seal and adhere concert posters and printed advertisements on brick walls, cork boards, and basically any porous outdoor surface. It is simply a mixture of wheat flour, sugar, & hot water that is applied like a paper-mache style of applying a thin coat of paste on one side of the graphic to be pasted down, and another coat on top of the graphic to seal it into the surface. Along with a layer of UV base sealer, my deck was nicely protected.
The workshop was of great attendance. A number of students, teenagers, yuppies, and professional artists were all present to skate in the makeshift skate ramps, grab some nutritious, catered lunch by Rancho Relaxo Food Truck, and network with freelance bloggers, photographers, and brand ambassadors. Everyone I spoke to was super thrilled to be there, and being the last installment for Toronto, who knows when the next upcoming workshop will be hitting the city?!**
Check out the official Converse CONS Project website to register for more information when more free workshops come through! It's something definitely not to miss!
**(Past CONS Project workshops have included Making and Designing Zines, Making and Designing Skate Parks, Silk-screening, Wheatpasting, and more.)
