Workin' and Lurkin' in San Diego

Posted on Thursday, September 4, 2008 by Rob

By Rob Meronek

Frequent flyer miles keep adding up which means First Class upgrades on the regular. That was a great airline meal with plenty of free sauce and Ironman on the boob tube. Thanks, Delta

Gonzo flew with me, but unfortunately he got stuck back in Poverty Class with the rest of the commoners. I passed a beer back to him. I think I spent just as much time in the plane pisser as I did in my seat with all that sauce flowing

Body and Porpe are my roommates for the weekend. They ain't skeered to spoon

If you need a badge to get in, Schaefer's got you

That's Adam from Transworld Skate Business. There's a Skatebook shindig tonight with a bunch of Bart Simpson prints of him killing it at famous skate spots. Looks like he's kickflippping Wallenberg there. ABD by Gerwer, dude. Adam did a video interview with me just now at the show. I can't get it to play from where I'm at. I'm sure I look like a tool ending it shirtless

That's the tech section of the Battle of the Shops Contest going down on Saturday

Porpe made another new friend at the show, then she took his board and started doing tricks he can't even do

Probably the most action Prope's wood is going to see from a girl all weekend. I like the all white angel suit

The theme at the Volcom booth this year has something to do with hot dog stands. That's Jake the ATM with the BTM front boarding the rail in his frankfurter get-up

Remember Paul Schmitt's Create-A-Skate Program? I went and did that today. You get to learn all about how a board is made and then make one yourself. Professor Schmitt's got a math calculation for everything. First step, measure your height to see what wheelbase you should be riding

Then the Professor breaks down all the measurements of a board, what they mean, and how they can affect your ollies and nollies. You then pick your nose, tail, and width you want for your board and set them on your template. I also learned that about 150 boards can be made from one maple tree. About 8,000 trees are cut down a year to produce the 1.2 million decks from the wood factory a year. The trees are between 40 and 80 years old and are growing back faster than they are being cut down. Settle down, hippies

It's been a long time since I've done caveman math like this. I chose to make an 8.75 width cruiser board

There are lots of nose and tail shape templates you can trace from or you can pick your own. I chose to use the Hosoi Hammerhead tail as both the nose and the tail and ended up with a nice dog bone template

After you get your template, line up the truck holes, trace your shape onto the slab, then you're ready to saw it up

This is what an uncut skateboard deck looks like. It's off to the buzz saw. Everytime I hear the word uncut, I think of a Euro anteater style uncut penis