But part of the attraction to learning the skill was telling the young boarders I encountered that their sport is linked to trees.
The first skateboards were just wooden boards with roller skate wheels attached to the bottom. But modern decks — the piece you stand on — are composed of multiple layers of wood veneer made from sugar maple trees that grow at the northern part of their range. The shorter growing seasons there create narrower growth rings and harder wood, which can withstand the inevitable wear and tear a skateboard endures.
The layers are pressed together with polyvinyl glues at a pressure of about 300 pounds per square inch. After curing, routers cut out the final shapes, apply edge trimming, paint them, and send the boards on their way.
And because maple is heavier and is less flexible compared to other tree species, makers often combine lighter woods like birch and bamboo to make the decks easier for boarders to do those nimble carves and turns. Some decks get a top sheet of Hawaiian Koa or rosewood to give the board extra strength and a more responsive ride. Plus, it just looks classy.
You can buy synthetic decks made from epoxy, fiberglass, or carbon-loaded thermoplastic nylon, but they don’t combine the toughness and elasticity that laminated wooden boards provide.
And although I did manage to learn the skateboarding basics all those years ago, I never mastered the freewheeling zoom of real skateboarders. But I can’t blame the board — or the wood. Maybe my kids were right after all; for some things, you just have to be a teenager.
