Mono Tragedy

Team Altus suffers its first casualty. The deadly mistress Mono has struck down Samir Kothari, so he's contagious and we can't really work this weekend. Shucks. We'll use this time to get ahead on homework so that when we do get the opportunity to work, we can get in a lot of hours. We really need to get the press finished and press the wood to make sure that the design will work so we can move ahead with the progress of Altus Boards as a company.

Some progress we've made in the past week is finding roarockit.com, which has the exact type and size of wood that we want, so no more hassles with lumber stores. Now that we have a guaranteed provider, we just need to get the press sorted out so that we can get out of the red and into the black. Only once we're in the black will donations to charity become feasible.

Here's a picture of Samir Kothari shaking off some styrofoam during a work session:

Winter Wonderland

Altus Boards is midway construction of the first press. Takaaki Sagawa and I are hard at work and precisely shaping the styrofoam into the correct shape. If all goes successfully, the styrofoam of the positive side will be shaped precisely enough that it will fit perfectly into the negative side, leaving no room for error when we press the wood.

One difficulty that we're encountering is the tediousness and inconvenience of shaping styrofoam. Fortunately, we're only using styrofoam in the prototype stage, because when we develop a final design, we will create a wood press. This is more advantageous for two main reasons. First, the wood press does not deteriorate and lose structure like a styrofoam press. Second, there are many wood shaping tools that will aid the shaping of the wood press.

Our plan is to try and work this weekend or next weekend to finish the press, because we would like to have prototype #1 (Altus Alpha) created by the end of November. When it is completed, I will take it up to the hills and try it myself along with other local skaters to make sure that the quality is sound. If I find flaws, or the board breaks/has low performance, we will know exactly what to improve.

Here's a picture of me hard at work on a section of the press:

Construction Underway!

Altus Boards has officially begun construction! We've begun to build the press. All of the materials are gathered, including the Baltic Birch that Samir picked up today. This Sunday we're gonna be finishing up the press and hopefully pressing the wood to make the first board. So far we have the plywood all ready to go, and we're just shaping the styrofoam to glue to the wood. After we finish glueing the styrofoam, the press will be complete.

Planning Begins!

Within the last week, we made several important steps in the development of the very first Altus Longboard! First, we decided to make the board a drop thru design. This is good for two main reasons. First, it makes pushing and commuting on the board much easier and energy efficient. Second, drop throughs are ideal to learn basic freeride and sliding on. Although many people shift to shorter wheelbased topmounts later, you can always just topmount your trucks on our board! (Or purchase one of our later topmount designs). To aid in the cruising and commuting aspect of the board, we decided to make the board a microdrop design (1/2") to make it even lower on the ground for pushing. I decided to use foot pockets to aid in the microdrop, as well as really lock your feet in during the slide. I advocated for this design during group testing because of my experiences with the foot pockets in my Landyachtz Switchblade 38", my first freeride board.

We've come to a somewhat informal decision that the first board will not have a graphic on the bottom, rather the natural wood finish and our logo. We collected money this week and we're ordering and buying all materials necessary, and we go to work on the press this Wednesday!

Progress Update: 10/4/13

Altus Longboards has made noticeable progress since our last post. We've accomplished several major things:

1. We have decided to make our first board good for cruising and slow freeride. We decided this for several main reasons. Firstly, it is the most appealing to the vast majority of our potential customers in the community. Second, honing in on one style creates clear goals for us to gauge our success with.
2. We have created a list of initial materials and a budget for acquiring these materials. So far, we have come to a total cost of 200$ to manufacture the first four 'practice' boards, including the initial press, which can be reused. This means that each group member will have to contribute a total of $50 dollars to the board.
3. Takaaki Sagawa spent hours designing our steezy logo. It looks great and we plan to have it on the bottom of our first few boards as the graphic design.
4. We have been thinking about a vague marketing strategy of making stickers for Altus Longboards and distributing them, as a way to spread the word in the community about our company. No final verdict yet.

We're all pretty stoked to start building the boards. Here's a picture of the logo:

Stay stoked!

Introduction

Weclome to Altus Longboards!

We are a new longboarding company dedicated to quality design, helping the community, and serving the customer.

Three classmates and I are the founders of this company, and this blog is to document our progress throughout the year. Two things motivate us. First, we are doing this as a project for our English class. Second, and more importantly, we are donating our profits to a charity of our choice.

We will be constructing primarily freeride and downhill boards, as well as attempting to cast trucks during the second half of this yearlong startup. This weekend we’re planning to specify plans for an initial longboard, acquire materials, and gain access to tools necessary to construct the board.

There are no definite specs yet, but we are planning on beginning with Baltic birch longboards, and then progressing to Canadian maple in 1-2 months. We will be utilizing labs on school campus and in external facilities in order to construct our longboards.

In the meantime, I’ll be heading on a research excursion this weekend (a.k.a. going skating with some locals and getting opinions). Stay Stoked! Enjoy a picture of me skating: