For Fun: Buttboard
Background:

Well...Dready Boy talked about his sunny fun time at Dampierre St Nicolas in France, when he visited the dude's and galls from Riders en Bray (website in French)...Some buttboarders were there too and they happened to have bulk loads of fun...
After some talk with Mr Dread, I thought that I could use a pre-pressed panel that was lingering in the cellar...First I had to check available info on the net...This was found at www.skateluge.com in their butboard section ...So here's what I did...
Step1:
I started with a pre-pressed panel...quite handy that my press pops them out in no time...
Measurements for a buttboard are well regulated, with certain rules that make it competitive for all who want to have a go...
The good thing is that a buttboard has to be made of wood...and all features have to be standard...
First there was some measuring done to see if it would work out well...

Info:
No longer than 1200mm (48inch)
Not wider than 305mm (12 inch)

I started with drawing a template, a simple design that looks like other buttboards seen on the net...
Again things were kept larger or longer or wider...with this I mean certain aspects of the shape...not the regulated length or something...
By doing this I can still reshape the rims,tail and nose section...
As mentioned on Skateluge, the wheelbase is about 1000mm (40 inch)...dunno...this means that the front truck is positioned some 200mm (8inch) from the nose
Another thing will be wheelbite and the avoidance of this trouble...
The template was traced onto the panel and cut out roughly...next I sanded the edges and smoothed them up with a circular section...
I'm also planning on cutting out some handle bar styled features like you see on other buttboards...but this is probably not essential...
Here's a rough cut-out of the thing...staring at it for a half an hour was inspiring for the graphics that have to be added to this buttboard...more about that later on...
I also checked a truck and wheel setup...dunno if the wheels are according to the rules...they should be maximum 70 mm...so those Abec11 Flywheels could be grinded down to that diameter...they are 74mm now...
The more I look at the thing the more I want to take it for a spin here in Antwerp...work is in progress on the huge ringroad and all entries and exits are traffic free, and get a new surface!!!...
After a simple pre-finish layer of varnish I added trucks, pads (to avoid wheelbite) and wheels...Then it was taken for a test ride in Nieuwpoort on a sunnny day...First impression: bags of fun and difficult to handle without rubber padding...all was a bit too slippery to sit onto...
Pictures taken by Geert aka "Wushu" from Oostende...thx dude!

More later,

Ive "Toothless" Vandewalle