How to Make a Skateboard Shape with Paul “The Professor” Schmitt

Recently the Braille team had the honor and privilege of learning from The Professor himself, Paul Schmitt, on how to make skateboards and create skateboard shapes. In the video below, you’ll see The Professor conceptualize Aaron Kyro’s requested cruiser/filmer-board. You’ll witness the shaping process starting from the deck being drafted out on a cardboard template, all the way to the board being painted, finished, and ready to shred. Curious to see how much skill goes into creating that piece of wood we all know and love to skate on? Watch the video below to see how Paul “The Professor” Schmitt gets it done. 

How to Make a Skateboard Shape

1. Make a cardboard template for a half-template of the desired board shape
2. Draft out the half-template to hand-make a board from it.
3. Place the completed cardboard template on top of a raw blank and cut out the board.
4. Use a drill press to drill your holes for the front and back trucks. (Usually in a factory, a machine drills all 8 holes at once on a stack of boards.)
5. Sand the edges of the board to dial in the exact shape specifications, rather than trying to cut with extreme precision using the saw.
6. Use a router all around the edges of the deck to begin rounding them.
7. Finish rounding the edges of the deck by sanding them to perfection.
8. Apply a coat of clear paint to the deck to seal it up.
9. Apply a second coat of paint to gloss the deck.
10. For the final part of the production process, a heat-transfer piece of film with ink on it is placed on the deck. A large, heated silicone roller then presses down onto the deck and squeezes the film and board together. Once the board cools down, the film is removed and the graphic is trimmed clean. 

Aaron’s Filmer-Board Specifications

For Aaron’s board, The Professor decided to create a shape that is short, “whippy”, and tight. In order to make this compact board-shape, Schmitt opted for a 7-inch nose. Anything longer than 7-inches and you’d start to lose that idea of compact. For the wheelbase, Schmitt went with 14-inches and for the tail of the board, he went with 6.75-inches. The width of the deck is 8.78-inches and the length is just shy of 32-inches. This board is perfect for filming videos, slashing curbs, and dropping into pools. As long as you’re having fun though, that’s all that really matters!

We hope that seeing this process inspired you in some way, whether it inspired you to skate, to try new board shapes, or to get into woodworking and creating your own board shapes! We had a blast filming this video with The Professor. Check Paul Schmitt out on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/professorschmitt/, https://www.instagram.com/PSstix/, and https://www.instagram.com/CreateAskate/. For all your skateboarding needs, including gear, tutorials, and more, visit our online shop. Now get out there and SKATE!