Thursday, April 5

Lib Tech Looks to the Future

By Dave Finger
EXPN.com

Have you ever noticed that nobody writes about the future of skateboard construction anymore? The topic used to be a regular column in the skateboard magazines but today one standard has replaced innovation in skateboard design. This standard, the 7-ply-maple-veneer constructed skateboard, is the end result of refining a single direction of manufacturing and design; one idea and one wood refined to a point where people think, "this is the way to construct a skateboard."

Alas, a new idea in skateboard design is borne from the engineers at Mervin Manufacturing, a Seattle-based company known for its Lib Technologies and GNU snowboards. Lib Technologies' skateboards are the manifestation of this new idea because of their focus on the future direction of skateboard design and construction. They stand out because they are actually built one at a time by the very people who use them - skateboarders. I had the opportunity to catch up with the Mervin crew to see what makes them tick, check out how they create these fine tools for recreation and discover why these boards are truly a new idea in skateboard manufacturing.

Micah stands proud with a brand spankin' new Lib creation.

Sitting in the Seattle facility conference room with Mike Olson, the founder of Mervin Manufacturing, we talked about how he got started making skateboards, where his passion lies for his product and how Lib skates are different from the competition. Mike started skateboarding in 1976 on a board he bought at J.C. Penney for $9.99. He fell in love with the sport but realized he liked certain parts of different skateboards and wanted to try and make one that combined the merits of each.

In '77, when Mike was in seventh grade, he made his first board at home in his mom's garage. It was a cross between a design from Logan Earth Ski and one from Sims. He walked into class and all the kids went crazy over his new deck.

"I would just sit and think about materials and what would work to build a better skate," says Mike, adding, "I didn't have anybody to teach me about wood so I just had to learn by trial and error, and that's probably what has helped me."

The legendary Lib factory... Where it all goes down.

Mike explained his theory on using different board materials. Aspen wood is 27 lbs./cubic foot where maple is 45 lbs./cubic foot, so aspen is less than two-thirds the weight of maple. Aspen is not as tough as maple, but break-strength-wise, it holds its own. A regular board has seven plies held together with glue, whereas a Lib Skate has only three wood layers - less wood and less glue equals less weight. A traditional maple board is three pounds, but making the board primarily with aspen shaves that down to two pounds.

That gives Mike an extra pound to play with new materials whose strength is greater than that of maple (actually, three-quarters of a pound, because Lib Skates wanted to be one-quarter-pound lighter than their competitors). What Mike did with that three-quarters of a pound is the revolutionary part: he put birchwood around the circumference of the board for extra ding strength; a semi-slick Plastihide skin on the top and bottom (for Lib's custom Dye Sublimated graphics); an internal polyethylene tip and tail protector; a layer of BI-axial fiberglass for tensile strength, a layer of graphite for a rigid pop; end-grained wooden "I-beams" at the tip and tail for ding strength; and Lib Skate's power pockets - a recessed ellipse in the bottom wood layer bringing true truck contact and cleaner energy distribution.

Mike is committed to making a board that lasts twice as long, is lighter, better for the environment, a better value and has a more lively and responsive ollie over time. It's a big change from that first skate built in 1977.

Paul "The Pharaoh" Ferrel gets his smith grind on during a lunch break back at the ranch.

On a factory tour with Micah Shapiro, Mervin's Skateboard Division Product Manager, I got to take a look at the board-making process and see Mervin's theory of new material use put into action.

We started at the die-cutters bench, where wood layers are cut into shape by hand. Mervin mills all components of the board layers directly from rough lumber at their Port Angeles facility. This allows for less finish work off the press because there is not any shape to route (it's already been cut) and not as much sanding.

From there we went to the lay-up bench, where the different layers of the board are placed together and put into the skateboard mold. The material hierarchy from top to bottom is: Polyethylene tip and tail protector; semi-slick Plastihide; aspen wood layer with birch rail; thin layer of bonding agent; bi-axial fiberglass layer; thin layer of bonding agent; aspen wood layer with birch rail; thin layer of bonding agent; tension graphite layer; thin layer of bonding agent; aspen wood layer with birch rail; semi-slick Plastihide. Note that the fiberglass and graphite layers are recessed from the board's edge so that over time, as the edges wear down, you won't get any exposed glass or graphite to make your fingers itch.

The custom-made aluminum mold, machined in-house by Apostolos Karabostos, is then placed in a heated hydraulic press to give the board its shape. Once pressed into shape, the board is stored overnight before being taken to the finishers to cut off the excess materials, drill the truck holes, lightly sand it, then clean it to a slick and pretty perfection.

After being handled by the finishing squad, the boards are put through a rigorous quality control process. This QC process looks for cosmetic imperfections, properly drilled truck holes, dimples in the top and bottom, and anything else that would keep the board from shipping to retailers. After QC, the board is taken to shipping where it is inventoried, SKU'd, invoiced, purchase-ordered, packaged, taped and prepped for shipping.

This is how Mervin operates. Its revolutionary style of construction and technological vision are unique in the skateboard industry. Look for this new paradigm of skateboard design on the street, at the park, or in a specialty shop near you. Trust Mervin Manufacturing.