Generation Grind

The Generation Grind – Skateboard Art Show was recently on display at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, ON. The show ran from April 14-20^th, and the grand opening event (Wednesday, April 16^th) attracted over 250 people from the local skateboard and art community.

Generation Grind matched up local artists with students from the Oasis Skateboard Factory (OSF) to collaborate on a series of boards based on their experiences as youth in the city.

Each board was available for auction, and the event raised over $1600 in support of the innovative OSF program. Below is a recap of the work put into creating the exhibit, and the finished boards that were on display. 

Students teach their partnered artist how to build a skateboard from scratch!

Students press their laser etched decks, and a collaboration with the infamous artist Runt.

Pyrography collaboration with Champstiles Woodburning Toronto

OSF students show off their freshly etched veneers

Finished Lil' Rockit decks 1-9

Finished Lil' Rockit decks 10-20

Salvaged Skateboard

It is important to us here at the Roarockit Skateboard Company to keep up with trends in the skateboard industry – especially anything to do with supporting local builders and artists! We recently came across a unique start up called Salvaged Skateboard Shop that is trying to create an online marketplace that focuses on independent builders and crafters who are working with skateboards as their medium.

The man behind Salvaged Skateboard, Chris Anderson, got his start making projects out of recycled skateboard decks after travelling with his wife and coming across a shop in Nova Scotia that sold rings made out of old decks. He went home, tried making some himself, and eventually started expanding his production of custom skateboard accessories.

As his hobby grew, he soon realized that he was not the only person making beautiful projects out of reclaimed skateboard materials. This (combined with his background as a web and app developer) led to the idea of an online marketplace where builders could display and sell their work in a focused community.

We spoke with Chris to hear more about his plans for the site and the crowdfunding campaign he has started to help launch the marketplace.

Where do you get recycled skateboard decks for your own projects?

I get my boards from local skate shops here in Ottawa. They have a program where you can bring in your old boards and they will fix them up to give back out to the under privileged in the community. Some of boards are too far gone and they give them to me or to other local artists.

What benefits do you think Salvaged Skateboards can offer to an independent builder/artisan?

Salvaged Skateboard is about creating a focused online marketplace for those buying and selling unique, functional pieces of everyday art from recycled skateboard decks - such as handcrafted jewelry, accessories, furniture, eyewear, and the list goes on.  This will also be an environment for independent skateboard deck builders to sell their custom decks and a great way for these people to find each other on a local level.

What do you mean by a focused marketplace? Like Etsy, eBay etc.? 

Basically one of the winning strategies behind a large online marketplace is that it lets everyone setup, share and promote their own unique shops. Not one shop selling many products, but many unique stores selling their own unique products. All under the same umbrella, collecting all the metadata from all the different storefronts combined.

Why then might this be a better option than paying for your own 'out-of-the-box' style ecommerce website?

The first major advantage with this marketplace is that it would be large enough and focused enough to get out in front of every search engines category related to skateboarding. The second major advantage over your own ‘out-of-the-box’ ecommerce website is word-of-mouth and the community. Instead of trying to sell your own products to everyone in your social circle, there would be hundreds of people telling all of their social circles to go checkout Salvaged Skateboard.

How have you been received by the skate community so far?

It’s been extremely positive so far! There has been a lot of enthusiasm, support and some great feedback. I can take criticism and am always looking to improve the idea to make it a great hub for everyone in the skate community.

What other communities do you look to engage with the site?

I would like to engage with artists, designers and board builders of all kinds because there are endless amounts of possibilities for creation with salvaged skateboards. We also need to engage skaters that want to donate their boards, as this is a very important part of the artistic process, and the general public that are interested in promoting local artists and want to buy unique one of a kind items.

Make sure to check out the Salvaged Skateboard Indiegogo campaign!

We think this is a great project, and any help spreading awareness to get this idea off the ground will go along way towards making it a reality. 

Post #SWAP7...Post

Another Swap Meet has come and gone, and everyone involved is still riding the high from such an incredible day! Every year we seem to get more and more people out for the event, and the community blows us away with their creativity, kindness and energy. 

There were people giving out free gear to new riders (so awesome), delicious baked goods and bbq, documentaries being filmed, live art being created, AMAZING weather, tons of sponsored giveaways, more photos than ever... and of course, SWAPS galore!!

Check out our full gallery of photos posted to our facebook page here

And as always, we are proud to share another Skate Invader film documenting the days festivities by local photo/videographer Jonathan Nuss:

Here are some of our favourite photos from the event as well:

Swap Meet couldn't be done without the help of many friends and volunteers!

Wall of prizes donated by local builders and artists

#SWAP7

It may not feel like it outside... but it's that time of year again!

Click on photo for the official facebook event page

The annual Swap Meet is an event for both new and experienced riders to get together to buy, trade and sell their skate/longboard gear. It is a great place for beginners to pick up some gently used safety gear, or for the experienced rider who wants to add something a little different to their quiver.

The Roarockit Team is always proud to host this event at our dedicated teaching facility (880 Millwood Rd. Toronto, ON) and we hope that it is the biggest and best one to date. As part of our efforts to make this event a memorable one, we are looking at ways to include more sponsors, more prizes and more stoke than ever!

The event will take place from Noon-4pm on Sunday, March 30th. If you want to come early to grab a spot and set up, we would suggest 11:30 earliest.

THIS IS A RAIN, SHINE OR POLAR VORTEX ICE STORM EVENT!

Here's a few things to look forward to:

1. We will be setting up as many tables, chairs, benches and designated areas for people to set up shop as possible! As always you can claim your space on a FIRST COME FIRST SERVED basis. If you're not familiar with the area, it is a corner lot in a residential neighbourhood and space is at a premium. Because of this, we also ask that you be respectful to the surrounding houses and business... we usually do a pretty good job of this, so let's set a good example for the newbies :)

2. It's FREE! Free to attend, lots of free draws to enter, free table space, even FREE BBQ! You could potentially come to Swap with no money and have a great time.

3. #SWAP7 – Last year we introduced the SWAP6 hashtag, and it proved to be a great place to post what you are bringing and see what people have in store for the event.

   For anyone who has a Twitter or Instagram profile, make sure you check #SWAP7 for promotions and giveaways from Roarockit and other participating companies.

   Follow @Roarockit @BomboraBoards @skate_invaders @Champstiles and all the sponsors for the latest.

PLUS! Don't forget the - POST. SWAP. POOP.

Once again, everyone's favourite skate team/art collective the Skate Invaders will be hosting a post Swap shred at the Poop Chute.  If you don't know where it is...well, come to the Swap Meet and follow everyone there after!

Hope to see you all there :) 

Feel free to email chris@roarockit.com or bomboraboards@gmail.com for more info or sponsorship inquiries.

One-of-a-Kind Decks

Throughout the year, we are planning to make a series of one-of-a-kind handmade decks that will hopefully inspire builders to get creative with their own boards. Not only do we want to show the world what can be done with the Thin Air Press vacuum bag process, but we want to continue and challenge ourselves to think outside the box and do something fresh. 

Here is the first board that we have created to kick off the campaign:

We documented each step of the process for this unique double drop deck, and focused on four different graphic applications to create each number of the '2014'. You can check out the full tutorials on our Instructables page here - http://www.instructables.com/id/4-Creative-Longboard-Graphics/

Here are some quick pics of the process involved in creating this deck:

Stay tuned for more creative builds like this in the future... we had a great time documenting this build, and are looking forward to sharing more of the same throughout the year!