#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! 

View Larger Map

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.

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 

Monga Boards

Straight Outta Sweden, some crazy board builders named MONGA!!

One of the best parts of Roarockit's Thin Air Press technology, is giving people the oppourtunity to start building their own high-quality custom boards, and seeing it grow into something bigger.  These three young builders, based in Stockholm, have been impressing us with their custom designs, craftsmanship and enthusiasm towards growing their own company.

Building their own longboard started as a high school project, and after a lot of positive response (and graduating) builders William, Karl and Rikard have continued to build on their success with Monga Boards.

The small team at Monga explain in their own words, the process involved in the creation of Monga Boards: 

“We had no knowledge at all and we just experimented our way forward. The first board we made actually got some really nice comments from our friends. They were surprised that we actually managed to make a longboard that was rideable! But when we take a look at the board today, we understand that we had no clue what we were doing, and that board we built was absolutely NOT rideable haha! 

We started to look on the Internet on how other people pressed their boards, and after some research, decided to make a 'rib press'. Well, even then we didn’t think much about how to do it, and just experimented our way forward. It took us 4 rib presses to finally make a decent board that we could present.

Even then, we still wanted to make better boards and the process with the rib press was taking too long and we hated it. Just working with it made us angry! But one day, William was looking on Facebook and saw another board company in Sweden that uploaded a picture of something called a 'vacuum bag'. 

I had no idea what it was or how it worked so I googled around and luckily found Roarockit's homepage with the great TAP bags! At this time we only had a few weeks left on the project and we were behind schedule. But when our first TAP bag arrived we managed to create an awesome pintail with the veneers provided and we really thought that this was going to change the whole project for us. A new way to press using foam and a vacuum bag, which took up no storage space at all and was easy to work with. We were really stoked! 

As we were giving the presentation at school in front of our class and teacher, we got even better feedback and everyone was wondering how we managed to do the boards so well! It must have been around that time that we decided “let’s do this after the project as well!” 

We graduated and all went our separate ways, but as everyone got back from their vacation we had a very short meeting and decided to do this. So we ordered another TAP bag, but this time the bigger version. And we love it. 

This project has given us so much experience, not just in how to make a longboard, but in how to plan something as well. Always keep your patience and really think something through before executing it. But that’s not all, we are really tight friends now and we wouldn’t know each other like we do today if we wouldn’t have started building boards 2 summers ago and getting the top grade on our project. 

Thank you all at Roarockit who made this possible and for your excellent service and quick deliveries despite that we live so far away from you!"

No, thank YOU!! Hearing a story like this, inspires us to continually get better in an attempt to grow with, and meet the needs of the independent builder like yourself.  

You can find out more about Monga Boards by visiting their Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/MongaBoards

FooARage Skateboard Company

As 2012 comes to an end, we wanted to highlight one of the biggest and most exciting developments of the year for us at the Roarockit Skateboard Company.  It took a lot of hard work and organization, but we were recently able to introduce the FooARage Skateboard Company as our official UK and EU distributor of Roarockit Technology!  

We are so proud of the work they have done in their community; engaging kids by not only building their own boards, but by actually riding them and helping to beautify their environment with some incredible artwork.  They have gone above and beyond with the direction of their programs (they actually do their own wheel art! Like C'MON!!), and we look forward to seeing what they come up with in the years ahead.  

We asked owners Brent and Nicola to tell us how they got started, and what using Roarockit Technology has meant to them:

"Brent has had a passion for skateboarding all his life, so we decided to build a mini ramp in our back garden in September 2011 to run some skate sessions. Later that day we discussed the idea of making skateboards, as part of a youth engagement project. That’s when our journey begun to expand as we researched the UK for a workshop that would explore the way they are built! Unfortunately, we found no one in the UK promoting that kind of thing, so our research took us into Canada to buy the maple wood and this is where we come across Roarockit....... WOW this is exactly what we would like to do here in the UK.

As professionals; Brent is a qualified teacher and builder by trade. I am a mixture of Management sales and working with the public on many levels of support. We decided to mix these skills together to make some changes to the way we could deliver education to those who are disengaged with the regular school curriculum. Our passion to create positive change and to inspire those who need it most is exhaustive.  

We have found that the Roarockit Thin Air Press process is fantastic because it’s simple and safe, and has a hands on experience which makes the whole process individual, while still being done in a group environment! No power tools involved and the TAP bags create awesome decks!

So here we are a year on, running many courses and changing many young people’s lives by creating positive social change with the amazing Roarockit Tech! This has been a truly inspiring experience and Norah and Ted have been fantastic mentors. We are the official distributor of Roarockit materials for the UK & EU and are very much looking forward to 2013 and what it has in store!!"

And what about the name FooARage you ask?

"...Oh, and the name FooARage was made up by our son who mixed two of his favourite band names together; Foo Fighters & Rage Against the Machine, to create his XBOX online tag name and because he is a big inspiration for us, we used the name."  Very cool.

Skateboards and Griptape and Wheel Art OH MY!

Make sure to check out the amazing work done by FooARage by following them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!  You can also email them for information about their programs and ordering Roarockit materials in the UK @ fooarage@gmail.com