Skateboard Building with Anchor Academy

Community Boating Center is happy to announce that the CBC board team has created a new skateboard building program at Anchor Academy. To ensure safety, we worked with Anchor Academy to split 25 students into 5 different cohorts, who meet Tuesday through Thursday. This program uses a Roarockit teaching kit, which consists of 7 layers of maple veneers, a mold, a vacuum bag, a surf-shape scraper, and sandpaper. Through this project students will be exposed to art and design, mathematics, construction technology, physical and environmental sciences, and a counterculture history using project and skill based learning techniques.

At the beginning of the project students start off by laminating their boards. Did you know when laminating with a vacuum bag, when all the air is out, the pressure on the board is about 30psi? This means the overall pressure that is coming down on the mold and board is over 3000lbs of force. The boards have to sit under this immense pressure for over 8 hours while the wood glue finishes curing. After at least 8 hours have passed, the air is let back into the bags and the boards begin to get shaped and then sanded. After the boards are finished being sanded, students seal their boards with a polyurethane coat to ensure the environment doesn’t damage their boards. Once protected, students start on the artwork that they have designed for their boards. One more coat of polyurethane is added and students now have a board ready to shred the concrete waves bringing new members of the Community Boating Center Board Team to the streets.