Our Journey

We have been at this for a long time...


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    It all started in October 2007 when I stumbled upon some fingerboard videos on YouTube, including the famous Alexis Milant video. I had played with Tech Deck Dudes as early as 2004, but I never knew fingerboarding was a possibility. 
      Stoke was high between 2008-2011. I had just discovered fingerboard companies and production and I was all in from the get-go...

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May 2008


My dad brought me home some cabinet backing, about 2mm thick. With that, I made my first board, a three-ply deck with high kicks with the assistance of a mold I made from Bondo. I decided to call my "company" River Wood.



October 2008

Seeing my first Prete Kura, a metal bottom-ply fingerboard, I got super stoked and decided to try it myself. Once again I was assisted by the Bondo mold I had made previously. 

March 2009 

After getting my first pack of rip tape in July of 2008, I was completely infatuated with everything about it. Not just the tape itself, but even how it was packaged and sold. So I decided to try a rendition of it myself by brushing rubber cement on craft store foam. 

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    I spent 2011 playing Call of Duty: Black Ops and MW2. What else can I say...

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May 2012

Having broken my pelvis, and unable to skate, my parents bought me my first Berlinwood, Elias's pro model, and I was hooked once again. At this time there were new deck-making methods that I was experimenting with. I started selling boards from my locker at school under the brand name Maki Fingerboards.


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     2013 through 2016 was not filled with much fingerboarding and skateboarding. I played baseball heavily and wondered if I would ever skate again. Little did I know this fire was not out, but rather a smoldering ember, ready to reignite.

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April 2017

During my freshman year of college, I decided to dust off the machines and get back to board-making. I would press the decks in my dorm room, and drive home on many weekends to cut and sand them.
      I had a goal to make as many boards as I could to sell them in the fall at the student vendor's row. I was using waterslide decal graphics and direct print graphics. I decided to call the brand Aurora Northwest.


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      The years from 2017 to 2020 were filled with a lot of schoolwork. Majoring in Mathematics and attending graduate school required most of my attention. However, All of my free time was spent skating with the Unknown Boardshop Crew and snowboarding Mt. Baker

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October 2020

I had spent a recent summer at a concrete yard where I learned a lot about the trade.  So while hearing lectures over Zoom during graduate school, I decided to build some miniature concrete transition pieces and bowls and the spark ignited once more.



September 2021

I was constantly repairing and maintaining the pool coping seams and other cracks at the new Lake Stevens Skatepark. People started calling me CreteDoctor. I had also just started selling recycled skateboard rings at Unknown Boardshop. 
      Towards the end of the month, The owners, Zac Garza, and Craig Louthan, convinced me to make some shop fingerboards since they knew about my past with deck making. Within one week, they needed a new batch. 



November 2021

By now, the hype train at the board shop was at its peak and I was creating new product renditions just about every week. More local shops got word of the demand and I started to sell in more and more shops around the area, all the way to Riverton, Wyoming. 
 
    


January 2022

At this time, I knew that I was in it for the long haul and people wanted more, so I took all the steps to establish myself as a business. Everything you see now is the momentum that was started during this time. 

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    Since then, we have been on a nonstop tear, trying to push the limits and stay true to what the Pacific Northwest scene offers. We take pride in our craft, as it has been fine-tuned over many years.
     We have no plans to stop as we consider ourselves the heavy hitters from the top left corner of the lower 48. We are excited to see what this hobby, craft, and purest form of dumb fun and expression, will bring us next!







Thank you for your support. This stuff fills my soul. And knowing that I have your support continues to motivate me to share my passions.