concrete wave magazine

8/13/2019 Concrete Wave Magazine

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TALESFROM VANCOUVER,PERU AND OKLAHOMA

GIRLIS NOT A 4LETTER WORD

Vol.12 No.2, FALL 2013

NORTH AMERICANRACE ROUND-UP


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FALL 2013 CONCRETE WAVE C2


TALESFROM VANCOUVER,PERU AND OKLAHOMA

GIRLIS NOT A 4LETTER WORD

NORTH AMERICANRACE ROUND-UP


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KARMA, POLICEAND CONNECTIONS IN VANCOUVER


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IS NOT A 4

LETTERWORD

G rlBy CINDY WHITEHEAD | Photos: IAN LOGAN

Many ideas in the skateboard industry have been born

over great food, cold beer and good friends hanging

out. This just seems to be how we all work best. Ask

any old-school skater and they will tell you stories from the

1960s and 1970s of how the ideas for various trucks, boards,

wheels and even skate shorts and shoes were conceived from

ideas thrown around among friends on a California hot summer

night. But as we all know, ideas are just ideas, until someone

puts the crazy plan into actual motion

Thats what happened less than a year ago, on October 20,

2012, in my small backyard here in Hermosa Beach. The idea

was that my husband Ian and I would invite a couple of friends

over, have some food and drinks and talk about skating, surfing

and whatever else we felt passionate about. So I threw an invite

out to Concrete Wave publisher and founder of Longboarding for

Peace Michael Brooke and to Nano Nobrega, the creative

director for Dusters California, because I just felt like theyneeded to meet. Little did I know what would end up happening.


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Midnight skate session with Laura Thornhill in Washington,

D.C., with Abraham Lincoln looking down, reminding us girls

that it's always been "with liberty ... for all."


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I blame most of this on Michael Brooke. The rest of us were content

with having casual conversation, scarfing down chips and guacamole,

fresh fruit and veggies and sampling beers. Michael was listening to

every word being said, but I could sense that there was something else

going on in his head.

All of a sudden Michael threw out a thought that was so simple, yet so

crazy, that we all stopped drinking. He asked, What if Cindy helped

create a skateboard for Dusters California that we tied in to Long-

boarding for Peace, and you then gave a portion of the proceeds to a

charity of Cindys choice?

There was dead silence. Then Nano and I started saying, Yeah,

that sounds cool. Lets do it! and two minutes later we were staring at

each other and wondering what the hell we had just agreed to.

Nano and I became joined at the hip from day one. And when I

say day one, I mean the very next day after the nice backyard get-together because Michael being Michael, he had already sent us

both an email detailing what wed all spoken about, telling us how

excited Longboarding for Peace was to be part of this, and that he

was tying it into the Vans Warped Tour in June 2013 which was a

huge deal and meant the board had less than a year to be designed

and produced. (The average time of designing a board and produc-

tion turnaround at a big company like Dwindle Inc. is usually

something like this: October 2012 planning stages of design;

Spring 2014 release product.) There was no turning back the

plan was in motion.

Nano and I found out the hard way that doing a collab like this with

so many components is like getting married and having a baby

together all within 8-9 months, without really having dated before-

hand. And Michael found out very quickly what its like to be a

therapist for a girl thousands of miles way who wakes up and calls him

at 7 a.m. with questions, concerns and requests for advice.

Both of the boys learned that I am pretty buttoned up, sending

detailed emails of due dates and lists of what needs to be done and

being a stickler for following schedules. I will also show up at youroffice and camp out to get things moving if need be. I am sure at some

point they were calling one another and saying, What the hell were

we thinking?

And I learned that a collab of this caliber isnt easy and requires

patience and teamwork, a lot of planning and many sleepless nights.

I also learned very quickly that Michael had my back every step of

the way, even when the going got tough or I doubted myself and what

I was doing.

You can always give artwork to a company and ask them to slap it

on a board, or you can go an even easier route and simply attach your

name to a project of your choosing and let others do all the heavy

lifting. But neither of those was what we wanted to do.

Nano and I started with a series of one-on-one meetings, usually

choosing to throw ideas around over lots sushi or gourmet pizza, as it

seemed to be an environment that worked well for both of us and had

fewer distractions. One of the first steps was to walk through the

entire Dusters line so I could really get a feel for what materials were

being used and what board shapes they had already done, and learn

from the ground up how the process worked and what to expect.I knew I wanted a board shaped kind of like my old-school pool-

riding boards, but I wanted girls to be able to ride it easily on streets

and sidewalks and for it to have a great turning radius. I wasnt keen on

doing a full-on longboard yet, as I felt the need was there for something

else in the womens market. And that something, in my mind, needed to

be a cruiser board that was fun to ride anywhere and easy to carry or

shove in your locker at school like I used to do back in the day.

Im sure it wasnt easy when I became adamant and at times a bit

intense on how I wanted the board to ultimately look and ride. Being as

hard-headed as I am about certain things, I really felt that if it didnt

live up to my expectations, I simply didnt want to do it. Hell, I had

waited 30 years to put my name on a board, so I was determined to do

it right. Luckily Dusters really listened to what I was saying and went

the extra mile to make it all happen, for which I am very grateful.

Graphics were a whole other thing. I spent weeks and weeks

pulling together ideas with Nano, analyzing trends and colors and

playing around with wording as well as art. Ultimately I went with my

gut, using a strong pro-female message with a color palette and let-tering that was a combination of feminine and edgy, with a little

punk thrown in for good measure.

After staring at Pantone color charts for more than an hour one day

with Nano, I was sitting in the Dwindle meeting room and looking at

boards on the wall. My old friend Rodney Mullens board caught my eye,

and I realized that it had the perfect shade of neon pink integrated into

its design. So I just kept telling Nano thats THE pink! From then on

I started referencing the pink in my board as Rodney Pink. So I have

Rodney to thank for the neon pink heart.

I spent a lot of time coming up with all the lettering and graphics,

using paint, pens, pencils or Sharpies. And in a new-school twist, when

I was away on location in my hotel room late one night and had no

sketch pad or pens, I started playing around on a drawing app on my

iPad and created the lettering that we would ultimately use for the

word Girl on the graphic.

Nano then took my pieces of artwork and started making sense of

them. Hed make a layout and run it by me, I would add my suggestions or

thoughts and wed do it all again and again. I cant even tell you how

many layouts we did together and how many changes were made. I doknow that I have more than 600 emails in the file I created for this project.

I sincerely believe that for both Nano and me, this has likely been the

hardest and most time-consuming project we have done in our careers.

Cindy Whitehead with Nano

Nobrega (left) and Michael Brooke

at the Skateboarding Hall of Fame

2013 induction ceremony.


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Some of Nanos best ideas were thinking up the extras like having

the layer of bright pink wood running the length of the board so thepink would show through in the wheel wells; taking my skull drawing

and substituting it for the O in Word; embedding the skull into the

grip tape; and convincing me that it would be edgy and cool to add my

personal motto and signature to the tail of the board all in gold let-

tering right below the Longboarding for Peace and GRO logos. Gold

trucks were something I felt were key to making this board me and

having it stand out, and since Dwindle wasnt doing gold trucks at the

time, that was yet another hurdle to overcome. Gold lettering and

little gold skulls in the wheels competed the design.

Picking a charity was also a difficult process. This was to be some-

thing that I was tying my name to, something for which I would

eventually decide to sign away every penny of my profits, so I needed

to believe in it 100%. I looked at nonprofits that were anti-bullying

(something I believe in very strongly). I spoke to a friend who works at

the White House and is involved in youth and fitness foundations. I

researched online until 2 in the morning deciphering what each non-

profit does.

Ultimately I decided I really wanted to give back to the sport that

has done so much for me, and I wanted this board to benefit girls. GirlsRiders Organization (GRO) was the obvious choice. GROs Courtney

Payne-Taylor has been a tremendous supporter of girls in action sports

over the years. I knew I had found our tie-in.

After months of planning, the first prototype came in. That was a

huge day for me. I was nervous. What if it didnt live up to what was inmy head? I knew I could go back to the drawing board if I needed to,

but so much work had been done by so many people, I was keeping my

fingers crossed that I would love it.

There really was no reason to worry; it was perfect well, almost

perfect. The only flaw was that the trucks were more rose gold than

bright gold. But Nano noticed it before I did and was getting it cor-

rected before I even walked in the office door. The guy justgets design,

and he will fight to make sure its right.

About five weeks later the second prototype came in. This time

everything was 100% right on, which meant we could move to full-

force production.

While we were waiting for the shipment, I started planning a photo

shoot with the new board and enlisting my husband, Ian Logan an

advertising shooter to take the photos. At this point no one except

Ian, Nano, Dwindle, Michael and I had seen the board. (The whole

project was so secret that even my closest friends and family did not

know about it.) These guys are the ones who listened for hours on end

to my ideas, marketing plans and anything else I dreamed up late into

the night. To say that I owe them big-time is an understatement.Its one thing to fail when only a small group of people know what

you are up to, but to actually put yourself on the line publicly for a

product that may or may not fly is another thing entirely. I sat on the

The prototype of the GN4LW board in its final

resting place the Smithsonian's National

Museum of American History's sports collections.


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photos from that shoot for weeks. I was terrified to put it out there and

let people know we had this board coming out. What if no one liked it as

much as I did? What if people didnt understand what we were trying to

do? What if no money was raised for GRO, or no awareness for Long-

boarding for Peace? And what if I disappointed Michael, Dusters and

Dwindle? I was thoroughly freaked out by the possibilities of failure.

When I finally saw the board as a full page in the Dusters California

catalog, it actually became real to me that this whole project was hap-

pening; it was really being produced and it was going to be out there in

stores all over the USA. As soon as we started releasing images via

Instagram and other social media channels, people were asking where

they could buy it. People in the skate industry were also supportive of

the concept, the design and the board itself. I realized I could now

breathe, as we seemed to be into the home stretch.

But a few months later, on May 10, another idea was born over food

and friends (but this time no beer). During the IASC conference,

Dwindle CEO Bod Boyle, Courtney from GRO, Michael and I had a

lunch meeting. Betsy Gordon, Jane Rogers and Jeff Brodie from the

Smithsonian were also at our table, and we were all talking about the

new board. Jane mentioned to Bod that the Smithsonian had asked me

about a year before to donate some pieces of my 70s skateboard history

to the museum, and then she asked if we would consider donating the

prototype and original artwork for the Girl is NOT a 4 Letter Word

board as well. This had to be the biggest honor any of us involved in

this project could have ever hoped for.

My birthday is June 15, which just happened to be the day that the

board launched at the first stop of the Vans Warped Tour. I couldnt have

asked for a better birthday present. Dusters had graciously agreed to

give away one board at every stop as part of Concrete Waves Passport

program. (Pick up a Passport at the Longboarding for Peace booth, visit

six nonprofit booths at the event to get it stamped and youre enteredinto a drawing to win the board or other cool items.) The booth was

overrun at each stop by kids wanting to win and willing to learn about

giving back to do so. Michaels plan had worked. Awareness for chari-

ties was being created via something as simple as a skateboard.

Five days later on June 20, I was at LAX boarding a plane to Wash-

ington, D.C., with my 70s skate gear, plus the prototype board wrapped

in plastic and its original artwork, ready to hand over to Jane at the

Smithsonian. I didnt trust shipping it after all we had been

through, I felt like it was a baby and I needed to make sure it got there

OK. People had heard via ESPN that Tony Hawk was donating his

board that weekend and started asking me about the board I was car-

rying through the terminal, and to tell them more about womens

skateboarding and Longboarding for Peace. It was amazing to see

peoples interest. One man was very apologetic and said he had not

known that there were female pro skaters. A female flight attendant

posed with me for a picture with the board, and people on our plane

made room for the board in the upper bin so nothing heavy would

damage it during the flight. It was an amazing journey.Walking into the Smithsonian is everything you imagine in your

head magnified by 100. Its prestigious and glamorous, and it gives

you chills to be with people like Jeff, Jane and Betsy, who know so

much about our history and are genuinely excited to show you pieces

from it. We were taken into the basement of the Museum of American

History building, where Jane, wearing white gloves, gently took the

board from me and placed it on its stand. It was now residing next to

historical items like Princes guitar, the original Howdy Doody,

Muhammad Alis fight robe, and skateboards from other pro skaters I

know and love. The whole experience was completely surreal.

The next day Nano and Courtney flew in and were there with me to

see the board being signed over and displayed during Innoskate, a

public skate event put on by the Smithsonians Lemelson Center on

June 22. The publics reaction to items on display from skateboarders

like Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Chris Haslam, George Orton, Judi

Oyama, Robin Logan, Laura Thornhill, Patti McGee, Di Dootson, Mimi

Knoop and many more was amazing. ESPN also covered the event. So

the Girl is NOT a 4 Letter Word board was now officially out there in

the world. There was a full day of skateboarding on a mini halfpipe,skate items on display, movies at night, and I got to spend time with

people I love in the skateboard industry.

I feel really lucky that I was able to skate the new board all over

D.C. during our stay from riding down 14th Street with about 500

other skaters for National Go Skateboarding Day, to skateboarding in

the museum hallways (and lobby sorry!), and then wrapping it all

up with a 2 a.m. skate tour of national monuments and memorials with

Nano and Laura Thornhill while Ian shot photos of us. For a city that

doesnt allow a lot of skateboarding, I think we all conquered and

brought a little bit of CA to D.C.

As I write this article, its now been a month since the boards arrived in

the warehouse, and I was just told by the Dwindle sales team that the first

shipment of the board is sold out and another production order has been

placed due to the demand for more. I have received notes, photos, emails

and Facebook messages from moms, dads and many girls telling me they

love the positive message the board sends, that they are very interested in

learning more about Longboarding for Peace and that they are riding the

board and loving it. These are the things that keep me pushing forward as

we continue to roll on from here, creating awareness for female skatersand Longboarding for Peace and raising money for GRO.

Thanks to everyone who has been involved in this project. I greatly

appreciate all your love and support. CW

Brainstorming colors, artwork anddesign with Nano at Dwindle Inc.

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