#SWAP6

SWAAAAAP MEEEETING!!! SWAP!SWAP!SWAP!

As the winter weather starts to (hopefully) retreat, and the salt is pushed to the side of the roads – the new year of bombing hills and fancy footwork starts to take focus. What better way to kick off the season ahead than with your friends at the 6^th Annual Swap Meet!?! None. Exactly.

As most of you know, the annual Swap Meet is an event for both new and experienced riders to get together to buy, trade and sell their skate/longboard gear. It is a great place for beginners to pick up some gently used safety gear, or for the experienced rider who wants to add something a little different to their quiver.

The Roarockit Team is proud to once again be hosting this event at our dedicated teaching facility (880 Millwood Rd. Toronto, ON) and we hope that it is the biggest and best one to date. As part of our efforts to make this event a memorable one, we are looking at ways to include more sponsors, more prizes and more stoke than ever! 

The event will take place from Noon-4pm on Sunday March 24.  If you want to come early to grab a spot and set up, we would suggest 11:30 earliest.  

THIS IS A RAIN OR SHINE EVENT! 

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Here's a few things to look forward to:

1. We will be setting up as many tables, chairs, benches and designated areas for people to set up shop as possible! As always you can claim your space on a FIRST COME FIRST SERVED basis. If you're not familiar with the area, it is a corner lot in a residential neighbourhood and space is at a premium. Because of this, we also ask that you be respectful to the surrounding houses and business... we usually do a pretty good job of this, so let's set a good example for the newbies :)

2. The 'Sliver from your Quiver' program will be introduced by Michael Brooke's Longboarding For Peace initiative at this year's Swap. They are asking that you bring an old board that you are willing to donate, that will be cleaned up and given to needy students in the GTA as part of their after school longboarding programs. For your donation, you will get a commemorative shirt that signifies your awesomeness.

   

3. It's FREE! Free to attend, lots of free draws to enter, free table space, even FREE BBQ! You could potentially come to Swap with no money and have a great time. Ever see the show Barter Kings? Who knows what you could walk away with!?

4. #SWAP6 – This year we are introducing the SWAP6 hashtag. For anyone who has a Twitter profile, make sure you check #SWAP6 for promotions and giveaways from Roarockit and other participating companies. Follow @Roarockit @BomboraBoards and @Champstiles for all the latest.

PLUS! Don't forget the - POST. SWAP. POOP.  

Once again, everyone's favourite skate team/art collective the Skate Invaders will be hosting a post Swap shred at the Poop Chute.  If you don't know where it is...well, come to the Swap Meet and follow everyone there after!

We would also like to take a second and give a big shout out to ever-growing list of sponsors for this years event:

- Always working hard to help organize this event, big thanks to Rob from Bombora Boards

- Another local builder doing incredible things AM Wood Skateboard Co.

- Ontario Longboarding ...pfft, nuff said!

- Local skateshops Hogtown Extreme Sports - Longboard Living - Longboard Haven

- The Rideable Artwork of Bozboards

- Longboarding for Peace and Concrete Wave Magazine

- Longboardism.com

- "Burnin trees since 83s" Champstiles Woodburning Toronto

- This...is my BOOMSTICK!! Boards.

- Muskoka chairs/wakeskates/longboards/spacers, Frenique Customs

- Always down to show some love, BC's Switchback Longboards

- Toronto's own Skate Invaders holdin down the Post Swap Shred at the Pooper

- Stoked to have Aimless Skate on board as a late addition!

Click on the poster below to visit the event page for the 6th Annual Swap Meet!  People have already started posting what they are bringing and further updates will be made there.

Custom Phi Guitar

Every once in a while, we get a builder contact us with a project that truly blows us away. We get to see so many custom built skateboards, that you may even say we've become desensitized to them (not really though, we love them all! Haha). Recently we were contacted by a new customer of ours who is using his 36” x 52” TAP bag to laminate specialty woods onto the bodies of his handmade guitars.   

Dave Morgan wrote, "The Thin Air Press worked amazingly well.  Very simple to use and I had zero problems with it.  The bag lost no air even when left for 12 hours.  Thanks for making such an affordable press that allows people like me to make a radius-top guitar!" 

Well, with a quote like that we just had to ask him to go into more detail about his build! This is what he sent us:

"My current guitar design is based around the Fibonacci spiral (a.k.a. golden spiral).  A key element of that design is for not only the shape to follow the proportions of the spiral, but the profile as well.  This introduces an interesting challenge into the building process.  In order to use various woods on the top of the guitar I need a mechanism to evenly bend it over a curved surface.  That is where the Roarockit Thin Air Press (TAP) comes in. 

Other vacuum laminating systems are available on the market but I found them to cost $500 and up!  When discussing the problem with my brother he mentioned that he read an article on the TAP in a woodworking magazine and recommended I take a look.  I knew immediately that this would fulfill my need.  The small size (26"x28") would fit a guitar body by itself, but the large size (36"x52") would fit the entire guitar, necessary for my neck-thru design. 

Prior to building the guitar I watched the videos on the Roarockit site to get an idea of how difficult the process would be.  There were two specific suggestions from those videos that I found very useful.  First is to have one or two people help during the vacuum process to ensure the bag is flat and the pressure is applied evenly.  The second was to use a glue with a longer set time (I used TiteBond II).  Once I was ready, I put the guitar in the bag and spread the mesh evenly over the surface to allow for air flow.  

Before applying glue I used a shop vacuum to evacuate the air to see how quickly I could pump all the air out and check for adequate pressure to bend the wood.  After a couple test runs I enlisted the help of a couple family members, applied the glue and placed the guitar and mesh in the bag.  As recommended, I used the shop vacuum to get as much air out as possible first followed by using the included hand pump.  This proved much easier than expected and within two minutes everything fully pressed.  I checked the bag a couple times over the next few hours and found that the bag had not lost seal at all. 

I left everything to set over night and in the morning the bag was still sealed as ever.  I couldn't be happier with the results after removing the guitar from the bag.  Roarockit have been great to work with and I highly recommend the TAP for wood working of all kinds."    

Thank you so much for the kind words Dave! This guitar project really IS amazing.  

While he is currently not taking orders for custom guitars, Dave left us his contact infromation for anyone interested in giving their feedback on the project.  

You can contact Dave @ dave@phiguitars.com

Lars Erickson Board Company

It's always fun to see up-and-coming board builders, with a passion for the industry, progress in their craft with the help of Roarockit Technologies. In this edition of Rockit Talk, we will be profiling a young builder named Lars Erickson who has been documenting the development of his own custom longboard company through various websites and videos posted to his 'Gnarfarian' YouTube channel. 

Lars has been building custom boards for almost two years now, and has recently added the Thin Air Press vacuum bag process to his arsenal.   

“I have been using my Roarockit vacuum bag now for half a year. It is working very well and I have been pressing customs and riding some of my very own decks... To me board building is all a process. Longboarding is a process. One that challenges barriers and walls set in our souls. It helps expand what we are capable of and push our limits.”

Lars currently lives in Kansas, and is constantly building and getting input from riders in his area. He plans to put that experience to use when he leaves for college, and starts selling his new topmount speed board on campus. Not only will he have a new set of customers, but he can teach them how to shred as well!

“Longboarding to me offers many benefits. It isn't just about going fast or learning to slide... I mean, going fast is totally awesome, but longboarding offers so much more than that. It can boost cinematography, woodworking and even people skills!”

"I hope to continue my board building and eventually start a larger company. It's definitely gonna stay with me my entire life."

As you can tell, Lars is very passionate about both building and riding his own longboards, and you can follow his exploits on his awesome YouTube channel, and his own personal blog – LarsLovesPeace – He is also sponsored by Daddies Board Shop to help test out new products and give reviews.

Check out the Lars Erickson Board Company on Facebook

Oasis Orientation 2013

This past Thursday (Feb.14th), the Roarockit Skateboard Company hosted the new and returning students from the Oasis Skateboard Factory at our 131 Sunrise Ave. location for the first time.  We had a great time meeting the new students, and it is always a pleasure to share our history and work space with these creative individuals.  

Together, Oasis and Roarockit have some big plans for this years intake. We look forward to collaborating on some great events, custom 'Dream Board' builds, and most importantly - helping these students graduate...Stay tuned!!

Here are a few pics from their visit:

Impossible to get a clear action shot of these kids devouring the pizza!Couple of great panoramic shots of the Roarockit tourNorah, Ted, Nico and Sarah introduce themselves and talk about the businessPizza Party!

Chris explains the CNC machine and how to keep the shop organizedMarcel shows his enthusiasm towards cleaning up 

Lisa Farrows Art

The Roarockit Skateboard Company loves showing off the work done by people in our community, and one of the brightest stars around is Ms. Lisa Farrows!

Lisa is an Outdoor Educator for the Peel District School Board and works with an expulsion program called Fresh Start two days a week. As both a passionate painter and longboarder, she has managed to incorporate both hobbies into her lesson planning and gets students to paint deck-shaped canvases in the classroom... very cool!

You may also recognize Lisa from the Ministry of Wood - as the first artist to be featured in our Builder of the Month section a few years ago. She does some incredible custom paint jobs on boards, often for events or fundraisers, and has even started restoring some historical pieces from around the city:

“...most recently I've been doing restoration work at the Flatiron Building and the Dineen building at Yonge and Temperance. It's been incredible to put my mark on two historical buildings in Toronto. Both buildings have 6 vault doors that are over 100 years old that I've done replication work on. At the Denine building there was a 150 year old safe that was found in an elevator shaft that I brought back to life ... Next on the list is a furnace door and an elevator. It's so exciting.”

Lisa has also worked closely with Rob from Bombora Boards to create some very special decks that were donated to the Boarders Against Breast Cancer fundraiser, and the annual Hospital For Sick Kids Gala.  

And what does the future have in store for Ms. Farrows?

"Who freakin knows! I'm sure there will be more Art, Adventure and Good times..."

You can check out more of Lisa's art on her Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/lisafarrowsart or follow her on Instagram @Farrows

You can also email Lisa for a quote on a custom design - artbylisa@gmail.com