How skateboards are made.

The Science Channel’s How it’s Made program featured skateboards as one of the items that they show… how they are made. For some reason they chose the skateboarding segment to include some gratuitous “history of” narration and crappy animation. None of the other products got the extra dog and pony show. The skateboarder in the picture above seems to be caught in some sort of time-space wormhole anomaly where he is forced to dress like the late 70’s but ride a skateboard that looks like it was designed in the 50’s.

Every skateboard manufacturing process seems to vary a little, but the basics are the same. If you’ve never seen this type of thing before it can be interesting. These guys are using the heat transfer process to apply the “decorations” as they call it. The video does not show how the heat transfers are printed (similar to printing t-shirt transfers, colors are printed in reverse order on a flat substrate.) but does show them being applied. The shapes are cut out by hand using an interesting shaping template and what I think is a planer. I’ve never seen it done that way before. Actually, a factory using heat transfers for graphics is probably also using a CNC machine to automate cutting out the shapes. They probably got out the old templates for the camera. Oh yeah, check out the crappy skatepark they show. Classic concrete tranny stuck on top of asphalt flatground. Sweet. If anyone knows where any of this was shot, please leave it in the comments. Watch the video after the jump.

How it’s Made: Skateboards

This operation is likely in Canada, because the show is produced in Canada, with Canadian public broadcasting affiliations. I’d like to know what company they filmed at. One of the board lines they show is Avera Skateboards, a Canadian company that I’ve never heard of. They’ve been in business since 2002, and their web site has nothing about their history or facilities, so I don’t think that’s the parent company. [Update: I think it’s Premium Skateboards]

I couldn’t find out what episode this is in the channel guide, the web site kept turning my browser to molasses, so I gave up. I did find a video about how snowboards are made where you can listen to the narrator lisp through the opening sentence of “The snowboard is the delight of winter sports enthusiasts.” Worth it just for that.

Also, I heard that the Powell factory was once featured on the show “Made in America.” Can anyone confirm?