We are finally done with our first bamboo longboard completes (31.5″ x 9.25″ w/ bat tail) which will feature black or silver Randal Trucks (150mm/RII), Khiro Risers, Abec 7 bearings, 1 1/4″ hardware and our own high-quality custom BambooSK8 wheels made from 20% corn/urethane; pushing the limits of environmental consciousness!!! These will be available in the store very soon as blank or graphic “Octobomb” and a natural top or striped. $5 of every deck sold will benefit the National Wildlife Fund to help clean up the Gulf Oil spill. Limited runs so the pricing is set at $140/complete – the best price you will find around on any bamboo longboard. Those who are first to purchase will win prize packages from RockStar energy included in their shipment.
If you are a professional graphic artist with a creative flair for understanding what sells on decks while invoking our own eco sense and natural use of bamboo… then email our contact form with a link to your art. We are in need of some longboard art most importantly at this time but always welcome ideas on short decks. We are looking for those who can do pencil-sketch, tattoo-styled, polynesian, hawaiin tiki, fine-line, etc. We’re looking more than just a piece of art but someone who can encompass the natural beauty of our bamboo decks and utilize the bamboo within the art itself. Individual artists only – no commercial services please!!! All artists will be compensated fairly, get proper name credit, etc.
On Sunday morning, around 12:15am, one of our employees was skating through Oceanside minding his own business when a cop stopped him for no reason. When asked if he had been drinking, he said “yes”, although he had only had a few drinks. At that point the cop became a total jerk, despite our buddy being only a few blocks from his house. He was then arrested and held for the night until we could pick him up around 1pm; 12 hours later. I guess “SKATEBOARDING IS A CRIME” in Oceanside. What’s really funny is that the cop wrote “skateboard – bamboo”. AWESOME!
Check out www.bamboosk8.com/store for the latest bamboo decks including our brand new OCTOBOMB deck, with $5 per deck going to support the National Wildlife Fund to help with the gulf oil crisis. Completes will be ready in a few weeks featuring Randal trucks and high-quality custom BambooSK8 corn/urethane wheels.
We are expecting our new batch of bamboo skateboard decks to be ready around June 30th. We will have tons of stock on 7.5, 7.75, 8, 8.25 and 8.5″ decks, as well as our brand new locker decks. Also, we will have brand new bamboosk8 high-quality wheels made with corn. Yes, it’s an eco revolution as we now displace some of the traditional urethane! Soy wheels –> Corn wheels! We’ll be using Randall Trucks on our longboards – can’t get any better than that!!! New eco-friendly t-shirts in a multitude of designs are also being developed. We apologize for running low on inventory this month – sales are booming beyond what we predicted; thank you to all who have purchased and continue to purchase. We can’t do this without you!!
BambooSK8 is super stoked to join the Vans Warped Tour this summer. Please make sure you stop by and visit the Concrete Wave booth where we will be featured with a few other great brands and non-profits. Concrete Wave has introduced the “passport” program for the tour so make sure you get your passport and get it stamped. We will be giving out free stickers, green washed ritual music cards for 20 free songs, bamboo shirts and bamboo skate decks.
We are looking for serious fans of our brand to help out if possible. You will be responsible for purchasing your own ticket (sorry we only get a few tickets ourselves) but once in, you can help pass goodies out at the booth. Geoff and Wyatt will most definitely be at the California dates so stop by and say hello!!!
What style and level of skater skated the deck? Street skater and intermediate
How was the POP? The pop was excellent! I popped my highest ollie on the Bamboo deck.
How was the razer tail? The tail has not shedded a layer yet.
How long did the deck last? I am currently skating the same deck after 3 weeks.
How was the performance overall? Overall the deck is great and I am performing tricks I could barely land on a maple deck.
Would you give a thumbs up to these decks? If not, Why? Yes!
Here’s another example from 4/23:
What style and level of skater skated the deck? Well, I’m a decent street skater, and a pretty tough ramp skater. I skate mostly stairs and ledges, steering away from rails.
How was the POP? The pop was…well…weird. It’s hard to explain. Let’s just say, Bamboo gives POP a whole new meaning. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to maple…
How was the razer tail? The razor tail was not bad at all. I broke my bamboo deck before I could get too bad of razor tail.
How long did the deck last? Actually, the deck itself outlasted my spitfire classics…so as you can imagine, these boards stand the test of shred
How was the performance overall? I’m an avid skater, and you can’t really tell, being that it was a bamboosk8 blank (you couldn’t see the scratch marks on the bottom). The only wear you could see were some scuff marks and a little razor tail. I usually get major razor tail, scratched up graphic, and chipped everywhere…but with bamboo, everything is peaceful.
Would you give a thumbs up to these decks? If not, Why? I want you to imagine the episode of “MINUTE TO WIN IT”, where the guy had to stack three golf balls on top of each other…Remember how many divits and dimples the golf balls had? That many thumbs up. =]
We would like to extend our gratitude to Sutsu in the United Kingdom for the variety of great ecological responsibilty skateboard graphics they provide. Also, we would like to thank Impress Design from France who also puts out some great graphics with a sustainability focus. For those of you in Europe that skate, hit these guys up and show your support of their bamboosk8 manufactured bamboo skateboards.
Due to our hectic schedules, BambooSK8 (Geoff, Martin, Aaron, Jeff and Bri) only got to spend 1 day at ASR/crossroads this year, but 1 day is really all you need. Everything is still shrinking as business is declining for most companies, but I will say this – everyone looked good and happy unlike the prior ASR’s. Things were more upbeat for sure and our interns had a good time learning more about the role of trade shows. Crossroads was moved this year to the parking lot across from the convention center and the energy was definitely better by keeping the skate crowd together, although I didn’t see much business going on..nor a whole lot of skating for that matter. We chatted with many old friends, a few international distributors, and some legends like Christian Hosoi. I’m actually glad we didn’t do a booth this year, because all we had to do was walk around with our bamboo skateboards and people came up to us to learn more. Still, an enormous amount of respect given to us for our decks, so thank you skateboard community for being more loving towards the green. Overall, nothing really new product-wise, but I’m still waiting for some new technology (social media or application) to be incorporated that advances the skate community and inspires them into the new decade. 13 million skateboards in the USA but where are they all at? I don’t see them on the Internet as much… I don’t see them twittering… Myspace is dead… magazine subscriptions are declining… so who will lead the way down the yellow brick skateboard road?
BambooSK8 contributed some charitable goods that went directly to the LAYN organization kids at the shelters and some stuff for the celebrity gift bags (if all went as planned) - check out www.layn.org for more on helping out kids who have been abandoned by their families and need hope. We also gave 2 bamboo skate decks to Slash for his kids!!
What a spectacular night of rock star celebrities coming all together to help out this wonderful cause. Imagine if you can, Slash on guitar with Dave Navarro from Janes Addiction, Travis Barker of Blink 182 on drums, Duff from GnR/Velvet Revolver on bass, Ozzy Osbourne singing, Billy Idol singing, Chester from Linkin Park singing, Andrew from Wolfmother singing, Tom Morello on guitar, Perry Farrel of Janes Addiction singing, Steven Adler from Guns and Roses fame on drums, and many more… a mixture of covers from Led Zepplin to Black Sabbath to Janes Addiction. Wow! The event was hosted by George Lopez, who was incredibly funny. I wish I could tell you all the hilarious dirty jokes he said, but this wouldn’t be the forum for that. Another funny moment was when Slash’s wife and one of the kids was on stage asking people to text to LAYN to donate $10 and not too many people were dialing, so the kid grabs the mic and say’s, “start texting mother fr’s.” The crowd just erupted in laughter and finally pulled out their phones. The event was hosted at Avalon in Hollywood on Vine Street – across from Capitol Records building. It started out with each of the celebrities doing the red carpet horse and poney show for all the TV cameras and other press before going in and rocking out. I was fortunate to meet up again with some of my guitar heroes – Dave Navarro of Janes Addiction (who is never that friendly to strangers with his “I’m too cool for the world attitude”) and Tom Morello of Rage against the Machine (who is always super cool). The silent auction involved a variety of items up for auction including a really great one in my opinion – Anthony Keidis donated his 4x gold Canadian (4 million copies) certification and autographed it. It was a huge framed item that I believe only went for $600. Other items included autographed guitars, bamboo stuff, vacations, etc. Tickets for this event ranged from $85-500 for the VIP experience, with around 800+ tickets sold. Thank you Fez for making it happen!!
So where do I begin when it comes to the music? I’m a huge music fan…
I will start off by saying this – OZZY Osbourne takes it to mach 10 within 3 seconds of getting on the stage and the crowd just couldn’t keep up. His pitch was still relatively well but its his passion that just wreaks havoc on the crowd considering his age and mental state (?) – he comes alive like a little kid with eyes that just possess you. It was awesome!! Billy Idol was rocking hard as the crowd chanted “Rebel Yell” – always great to see him; I hope he never lets that punk attitude die. Watching the chemistry of Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro as they did “mountain song” and “jane says” was memorable, as it always is to see them connect again. Andrew from Wolfmother – what a voice; enough said! They covered Wolfmothers hit “woman”…which is so Led Zepplin but still so cool. Chester from Lincoln Park – hits some high notes but not that impressed overall – granted, he just flew in from France, so I got to give him cred. Tom Morello on guitar – who else can scratch a guitar with metal and make you hum along to it? Always great to see Tom, who is incredibly upbeat and even watching him from the side of the stage – he was so into watching Billy Idol and Ozzy…feeling every bit of the emotions put out. I can remember seeing Rage Against the Machine in 1992 with House of Pain in Detroit – I knew it wouldn’t be long before they took over the world. I then attended about 7 more shows over the years until they split, then came back, then split, then came back. Travis Barker – this dude is sick… he played 90% of the night with 110% – seriously, he’s one of the best drummers out there and always a super cool guy with no ego. I had just saw Travis a few weeks back at the Tony Hawk charity event in Beverly Hills. Duff from GnR fame… always keeping the groove locked down. Even GnR’s Steven Adler came out to hit the skins as they covered “Paradise city”.
The night ended around 11:30 to all of the celeb’s being bombarded by paparazii outside of the venue… thankfully no one got hurt.
Great job Slash, LAYN, Fez, and others involved!!!! May this money donated multiply in blessings for children in need.
Visit the sk8 store… new 70% bamboo skateboard decks are finally ready and they are selling like hot cakes!! These have incredible strength (over 400 psi) + tons of Pop. Each deck bought online gets you 20 free music downloads. Loopd Eco Tribe skaters all get a discount with their coupon code + grip tape + stickers + zine + music downloads.
ASR – where do we start? Smaller than ever… You could literally walk it all in a day and be done. But what fun would that be? Lucky for us, we had a booth with other green companies in the ASEC green room, full of carnival surprises. It seemed we created a lot of excitement this year for our new 100% bamboo longboards, and of course our new 100% and 70% bamboo short decks. People were also excited to learn about the Green Washed Ritual music project – check out our music page for more details.
Our booth – bamboo fence, bamboo seats, bamboo poles, recycled wood and metal, decks suspended by fishing line, etc.
Greg, Mark, Wyatt, Geoff, Andrew and Shawn
Kevin (Vans), Mark, Kennen and Cristina
Girls with our deck…
The Monster Energy girls… w/ Jo, Nathan and Andrew
We would like to thank Cathy for writing this article about our bamboo decks and then allowing the kids who have skated the decks to leave their comments.
BambooSK8, Out of Step Entertainment and New World Artist Management pre-Launch the Green Washed Ritual at ASR
20 free digital songs from around the world to promote sustainability
SAN DIEGO, September 9, 2009 – BambooSK8, a leading developer of eco-friendly bamboo skateboard decks, announced today that they have just launched a digital music compilation “The Green Washed Ritual”. This launch coincides with the introduction of 5 revolutionary new bamboo skate decks, and will serve to celebrate the company’s presence at the ASR tradeshow in San Diego, booth #2627, inside the ASEC Green Room.
“Music has the powerful ability to inspire change and there is no better time than now to make life-changing moves towards a more sustainable future – one bamboo skateboard at a time, one download at a time,” said Geoff Koboldt, president, BambooSK8. With the caliber and diversity of bands involved, this compilation has the potential to ignite awareness that no other medium has been able to attain in the action sports world and for that we are sincerely stoked.
Matt Philips of Silverback Music, who represents the artists Slightly Stoopid, Fishbone, Pepper, Rebelution, the Expendables and the Beautiful Girls said, “We are proud to have our artists involved with this innovative project and I respect that BambooSK8 is thinking outside the box! We are finally moving in the direction where music can be used to benefit the environment, which is an exciting time for all. I look forward to seeing companies continue to progress like this, and happy to have our artists contribute to this great cause!”
This revolutionary and energetic compilation consists of a wide variety of genres of music, as well as an eclectic mix of both major and indie label artists who have graciously donated 1 song each to promote sustainability. These artists include CKY, Fishbone, It dies today, Slightly Stoopid, Sex and Patriotism, Theory of Disorder, Rebelution, Story of the Year, Dropout Year, Buck Brothers, Doxy, Social Dropouts, The Beautiful Girls, The Expendables, Madina Lake, Arthur Autumn, The Takeover UK, Vallenbrosa and Avery Watts. Record labels include Roadrunner, Epitaph, Rykodisc/Warner Music Group, Law, Controlled Substance Sound Labs, Nightmare, TrustKill, New Ettiquette/The Orchard, and DKE.
BambooSK8 will provide access to download all 20 digital songs for free with the purchase of either a bamboo skateboard or a bamboo t-shirt off of their website at www.bamboosk8.com
These five brand new eco-friendly skateboard decks by BambooSK8 have been highly anticipated—three 100% bamboo longboards, and two short boards: one 100% bamboo, the other a 70% bamboo hybrid; always with amazing pop and durability.
About BambooSK8
BambooSK8, a manufacturer to the skateboard industry, is breaking new ground (without hurting the environment) by using bamboo, a truly sustainable and environmentally conscious natural resource, to create decks of the highest quality and the lowest eco-impact. BambooSK8 is headquartered in Oceanside, CA and has collectively over 30 years in action sports. For more information please contact:
BambooSK8 will be at the Action Sports Retail show (ASR) in the ASEC green room…stop by and see our new longboards and brand new short decks (70% and 100% bamboo).
We want to thank Dr. Twede and the Michigan State University packaging department (PKG 485 class) for their assistance with designing a skateboard package with an environmental and cost-effective focus. 11 students spent this past semester working on the project; Geoff Koboldt (MSU graduate) first spoke to the class about sustainability and skateboarding in January and then Ron Stebenne came in for the final presentation at the end of April. The 11 students got their special own bamboo skate deck with a “S” for Spartans and Michigan State University logo screened on.
Last month, BambooSK8 visited Shanghai, China to visit the worlds largest skatepark; over 150,000 sq. feet. This park was insane to say the least… although we only saw maybe 6 skaters total; all of which were from other countries. For the $3 to enter, it was well worth it… especially on a bamboo skate deck.
What an awesome day in the lovely San Diego sun when you’ve got your industry friends together all having a great time skating. Bamboosk8 had a pretty weird spot in between and over some ramps but under the main stage where the bands played, but it ended up working well as our banner was placed in plain view of the best trick contest where all the photos were being shot. Each of the winners got bamboo skate decks. Tons of skaters and parents visited the booth and we sold tons of 100% bamboo skateboard decks – thanks to the efforts of our interns Mark d, Mark o, Gary and Monica. It’s great to see the excitement of people who are proud of what you are doing for the environment and for skateboarding. Other than that, it was great to see some pros – Christian Hosoi, Bucky Lasek, Andy Macdonald etc. tearing up the 14′ ramp and pool. Also, to see the new hot shot kids like Allysha Bergado (thanks Tho), Austin Poytner (thanks Gerry) and Shane Borland (thanks Jimbo); all of which use to skate with me on Termite Skateboards a few years ago.
Thanks to George and his staff at Modern Skate and Surf in Michigan for putting out a great ad. Growing up in Michigan, I was always a fan of Modern Skate and Surf who had a few shops around the state with great service and great prices.
BambooSK8 had an awesome time at ASR in the (ASEC) Action Sports Environmental Coalitions GREEN ROOM. Again, the booth was mostly made from bamboo and featured our latest 100% bamboo decks with deeper concave.
You will find BambooSK8 at the Blackbox Distribution Crossroads retail show this coming week on Wednesday 21st. The event will feature about 40 different brands in the skateboard industry. This is a major shift to get skateboarding out of ASR or at least it seems like a political move. Anyhow, the event will run from the morning and into the evening, being open to the public after 6pm. So come on down and skate the massive mystery/zero ramp and say hello to all of us at BambooSK8, although we won’t have a booth – just walking around with 100% brand new bamboo decks.
Black Box Distribution
2777 Loker Ave West Ste-A
Carlsbad, CA 92010
BambooSK8 is offering a rare opportunity for those skaters to be a part of the ECO-TRIBE; a group of skate warriors who want to make a difference in the world by skating on bamboo versus maple.
Skaters can receive discounts up to 50% on bamboo skateboard decks and many other great benefits including environmentally friendly stickers + bamboo t-shirts (coming in 2009).
BambooSK8 crew made the trek over to Huntington Beach for another Action Sports Environmental Coalition event with other vendors – sector 9, volcom, AOSA, etc. This event was ran on solar panels off the biofuel bus that Frank drove down. We were interviewed by the Sundance Channels people who are producing “Big Ideas For a Small Planet”. After a few games of skate and awarding bamboo decks to the winners, we all watched some bmx aerials on the quarter pipe and launch ramp as the local skaters skated the variety of obstacles. The winner of the skate contest was then awarded a bamboo deck and a wide variety of prizes from all the vendors; so he was stoked. Recycle your brain. After the event, we headed down the road to the Quicksilver headquarters for an 80′s flashback – Tony Hawk, Tony Magnusson, Christian Hosoi, Steve Caballero, Bucky Lasek, and many more – all dressed in 80′s gear.
Special thanks to our friend Noah from ZJ’s board shop in Santa Monica who took one of our newest bamboo decks with him to Beijing to test them out. He said these are the best ones yet! Thumbs up!!
We had an awesome weekend in Lake Forest at Etnies. Our 2 interns David and Taylor arrived Saturday morning around 8am to set up our booth, which contained a bamboo table and chairs, bamboo art piece and 2 racks of decks to display, 2 banners, as well as around 100 decks for promotion. Geoff arrived around 9am after getting lost in Huntington Beach dropping off veneers to a longboard company. Ron arrived around 10 with the remaining promotional items. Anyhow, the weather was a bit cold and when the rain came down a few times, it got pretty darn chilly. Nonetheless, the level of excitement from kids stoked on our product made it all worth it. We had kids willing to break their brand new pro model decks on camera for a chance to exchange it for a 100% bamboo skate deck. At 1 point, we through a deck out into the crowd and it took nearly 2 minutes of a near riot before 1 kid made his mark walking away with the deck and a smile on his face. Many were amazed at how strong the bamboo decks really are. We also had a few kids who wanted to go promote our brand and hand out postcard fliers with a chance to win free decks for a year contest. The actual skate qualification took place on Saturday and it just floors me how many guys cannot land any tricks; and they are pros? Wow! What other sport can you get away with that? Saturday around 8:20, Bad Religion took the stage and rocked it hard. Amazing to think how long they’ve been around and still play that fast. Sunday, Ron and the interns worked the booth and we had another successful day; many more bamboo skate decks promoted.
Punk rock
Taylor, David, Ron, Geoff
Working the booth…
Joey Brezinski doing some manual work
These kids promoted our brand all day and got some free decks!
Earlier this year, we attended the 1st of its kind – the IASC industry summit at Camp Woodward West. The importance of this event was all the top brands and manufacturers in the industry to discuss key issues such as the creation of more skateparks, environmental/sustainability – going green, how to make ASR better, dealer/shop issues, government regulations, and so much more. The initial speaker the first night was Pierre, owner of Sole Technology. The highlight though was a guy from Harley Davidson who helped turn their company around years ago - his presentation was very inspiring and fostered a lot of thinking about the similarities between chartering a Harley Davidson and skating your favorite brand. The 3 day event was largely successful and we enjoyed skating, bowling, and other fun activities, and most importantly networking.
BambooSK8 joined numerous other action sports companies for the 2nd annual Action Sports Environmental Coalition Summit on August 13th in Laguna Beach, CA at a great art studio.
The keynote speaker was actress/activist Darryl Hannah, who said, “forgive me in advance – I’m not much for public speaking” as she read the words verbatim off the paper. Although she had written her speech around 3am that morning, her words cut to the bone of what it means to stand for something in the pursuit of sustainability and were quite inspiring.
ASEC founder Frank Scurra did a great job of pulling everyone together to have a sense of gratitude towards life – our breath, the air around us, the nutrients we put in our bodies, the ecosystems that thrive in perfect unity, etc. Lunch was provided by Chipolte and was excellent. Artwork from Mike Kershnar was displayed around the facility – really great stuff too.
The basic purpose of this event was to bring companies together to share ideas and put together action that will result in each company being more sustainable and ultimately, our industry leading the world in this pursuit. While it makes incredible sense for all of us companies to go in together and purchase let’s say - organic cotton t-shirts so we can all save money on the large volume discount, it is unlikely everyone will want to play ball or coordinate the efforts right now.
It’s expensive to go green for many because they have been doing business for so long down the wrong path – ie. high volume VOC glues in their decks, toxic cotton t-shirts, polluting due to excess shipping, etc. It’s a shame because our industry could be leaders in the eco/green movement of sustainability. I want to believe and trust that others will do their part over the next year. For us, bamboo is the ultimate in sustainability!
Visit the sk8 store… new 70% bamboo skateboard decks are finally ready and they are selling like hot cakes!! These have incredible strength (over 400 psi) + tons of Pop. Each deck bought online gets you 20 free music downloads. Loopd Eco Tribe skaters all get a discount with their coupon code + grip tape + stickers + zine + music downloads.
Are you sure you have to go poo poo?
Bamboo Sk8 News