Students help Tyler Tuinstra quickly roll glue on seven successive layers of maple wood to make a skateboard deck in an innovative new program at Hill Park secondary.
Duck through a little-used passageway at Hill Park and you’ll find the quiet workspace where students are channelling their passion for skateboarding into small businesses, and handmade works of art.
The room, once forgettable, now features a painted skater silhouette. Under one table are dozens of bare sugar maple boards. There is a huge barrel of environmentally-friendly glue. And there’s a tech teacher helping at-risk students make their own skateboard decks – the wooden platforms – from scratch.
“Kids were talking about this skateboard course. I started thinking about skateboard-building being tech, so I started reading on the Internet about hydraulic presses, how much pressure you need, how you cross the grains (of wood),” Paul Brown says.
As he speaks, a crew of five students – many with their fair share of piercings and skater fashions – surround classmate Tyler Tuinstra, as the Grade 12 student quickly rolls glue on seven successive layers of maple wood. He has help lining up the nail holes, and moves with confidence and speed.
“It only takes about five minutes to do it. You have to hurry because by the time you finish the top, the bottom layer is already dry,” he explains.
Once glued, the deck is attached to a foam mould and goes inside a large sealed plastic bag. Students use a small hand pump to remove air from the bag, creating a vacuum that exerts 3,000 pounds of pressure. That is enough to shape the wood to the foam. Twenty-four hours later, the deck is ready to sand and paint.
The avid skater – who can go through seven boards in one summer – said he heard about the course through a “petition” at Hill Park and quickly signed his name to declare his interest. “They filled two foolscap pages with names,” says Tuinstra, whose orange toque slumps at the back of his head.
Hill Park’s adventures in skateboard-building began this year, thanks to the initiative of Brown and fellow teacher Paul Sartor. They travelled to Toronto to see how a similar program worked. They learned about the supplies, and the kits available from the Roarockit Skateboard Company.
New this year, the skateboard-building involves two courses: one, the tech course by Brown; and two, the business course, taught by Sartor, which turns skateboard-building into more than a hobby. Students in his course learn about starting a business, finding a market, pricing their decks. “It’s a business cliché, but they have to think outside the box, and ask: Why would someone want my skateboard?”
Sartor says the courses certainly help get at-risk students into their seats – attendance in his business course is always close to the full 23-student complement. Today, he was helping them create business plans and apply to Ontario’s Summer Company program – which gives people aged 15 to 29 years up to $3,000 to start and run their own summer business.
“It’s a lot easier asking them to write a business plan around a topic they are passionate about, rather than asking them to write a business plan about, say, selling Barbie dolls,” he says, smiling. “It is a way to re-engage students who may otherwise fall through the cracks.”
Tuinstra certainly attests to that. He’s an avid skater every summer – “from work, to work, everywhere” – but adds that “I just try to get my schooling out of the way. I take a lot of gym classes.” When he heard about the skateboard-building courses, he acted.
Support for the program has come from Hill Park Principal Angela Ferguson and Vice-Principal John Northey, as well as the broader community. Teachers’ Credit Union this week donated $600 to the innovative program. “We thought it was pretty awesome and great for kids that appear to be at risk,” said Shelley Lockley, TCU marketing assistant.
Hill Park will be sending at least 14 skateboard decks to the young patients at McMaster Children’s Hospital. There is also talk about decks also going to area businesses, sports groups, educators, and more. The decks – essentially skateboards without wheels – can be used to create one-of-a-kind signs for businesses, Sartor explains.
First, students need a business plan, and a design. Some are want to paint Super Mario characters on the bottom of their decks. Others want to put their last name. Brown, the tech teacher, hopes to burn his with aboriginal-style art. While many of the decks are for sale, each student will also be able to keep one.
“I don’t know if I will ride mine,” said Tuinstra, who likes the look of his deck in its early stages, with its background of black paint with colourful flecks spray-painted through a paper screen. “It will depend: if I need a board and don’t have the money for it yet… it will depend on how bad I want to skate.”
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