My first Publication Science and Art of Skateboard Design

The Science and Art of Skateboard Design
What is a Skateboard ?
Is it just a glorified plank with roller skate wheels on it ? Or is it a highly engineered device through which kids have reclaimed the urban landscape , bringing creativity and style back to the sterile asphalt spaces of sprawl ?
The basic elements of the skateboard seem pretty straightforward . A board has three parts : the board or deck , the wheels , and the trucks , which connect the wheels to the board , and allow the board to turn .
But how do you get from this relatively simple mechanism to the perfectly balanced vehicle , the tool for endless creativity on the ramps and streets ? We talked to two of the leaders in the design and production of skateboards , Tim Piumarta of NHS Inc ., and Fausto Vitello of the Ermico Foundry , manufacturers of Independent Trucks , to find out about the mixture of industrial science and " feel " that goes into a great board .
Plank , Deck , or Board : Whatever you call it , wood is the thing .
Tim Piumarta has been one of the most influential skateboard gear designers over the past 20 years , as the R & D guru of NHS , creators of Santa Cruz Skateboards , Road Rider Wheels , and much more . He described to us the process of making a modern skateboard :
" Modern skateboards are made traditionally from 7 plies of sugar maple veneers , pressed together using polyvinyl glues in either aluminum , metal or concrete forms , generally taking around 300 psi to take up multiple skateboards in one closing of a press . Anywhere from 3-5 skateboards are done in one press , and after 30 minutes to an hour , the boards are removed from the press . At this point they have been stuck and laminated in the compound curve or the shape , which is the concave . Then after days of curing , the CNC routers , or hand routers depending on the woodshop , will cut out the final shape , apply the edge trimming , paint it and send it on its way ." Why maple wood ? Piumarta described the unique characteristics of wood . " With all the alternate materials we ' ve tried , from epoxy and fiberglass to carbon loaded thermoplastic nylon , nothing has had the combination of toughness , elasticity , feel and response of laminated sugar maple board ."
Concaves , Kicktails , Nose
Piumarta was one of the first designers to put concave curves into boards in the early 1980 ' s , and developed the first upturned nose . When skaters refer to " concave " they are talking about the way that the board curves up at its edges , nose and tail . This curvature both strengthens the board and gives the rider more control of the board .
" There ' s two shapes you talk about when you look at performance : of a skateboard : number one is the concave , the 3-dimensional curves that are in the board itself , nose , tail and side to side concave . Every manufacturer has their own style or philosophy . Mine is based on actual functionality ; what your foot feels like when it ' s in the concave itself . To get there , I do a lot of prototyping in foam cutting , letting all of our pro and amateur riders have a say in what feels good and what works before we go and cut tooling to make skateboards . So our approach is based on a feel functionality first , and then secondly , when no one ' s looking , I slip in curves and bends engineered into this 3-d curve , the concave , that makes the board stiffer , stronger , and makes it last longer ." The other shape is called the plan form . This is the shape of the board ' s outline ; if you put a board flat up against the wall and traced its outline , you would be drawing the plan form . According to Piumarta , this shape is largely determined by the choices of individual riders . " Now the other shape we ' re talking about is the plan form , or the shape outline of the board of looking at a wall . Pro riders can tell by looking and feeling with their hand , they can tell if a board is out of shape by even fifty thousandths of an inch . They can feel it , they know what they like , and what they don ' t like ." And , as Piumarta says , all the engineering in the world means nothing if it doesn ' t result in a good ride .