Merde Skateboards: Cigar Band

Width: 7.75 – 8.5
Length: 31.375 – 32.5
Wheelbase: 13.75 – 14.75

Sometimes a graphic can be so hideous or messed up that it can draw you to it like gawkers at a grisly highway accident. The graphic on this deck is one of those. On the surface it’s just a cigar band featuring a skull and crossbones on it with a beard and flowers for eyes. Sounds horrible right? But It’s totally hypnotizing, and I like it. There once was a guy who wanted to make some skateboards just to make them, not really even caring if he made money or even was able to sell them. Actually, there are probably a lot of guys like that, but this is the tale of one of them.

Merde Skateboards? It’s French for poop, pronounced “M-air-d”. The guy behind it says the main focus is to provide decent boards for a low price. He feels it’s good a way to give back to skaters, while fulfilling his own artistic endeavors. He get’s the wood from a well known manufacturer in the U.S.A., same one doing wood for Stereo right now. The shapes are old Flip shapes with the steepest concave available (Monster Mold), which in reality is more of a medium concave. He’s selling them around local skateparks in PDX as well as a few shops, basically trying to cover expenses so he can make another run and maybe get a little gas money every once and a while. He’s even given a few away to kids with super janky setups. The price is $30 a board for what amounts to a grade A quality American made deck. Oh yeah, it’s a heat transfer if anyone cares about that kind of thing anymore. Having a deck named after shit sounded like a good thing at the time, so he stuck with it. He can be reached at egbertmk7 at hotmail dot com. The following sizes were available at press time.

8.5 x 32.5 with a 14.75 wheelbase
8.25 x 32.125 with a 14.25 wheelbase
8.00 x 31.75 with a 14.00 wheelbase
7.75 x 31.375 with a 13.75 wheelbase