Skater takes broken boards on second ride

WOODWORKER and skateboarder Colby Brown is giving a second life to what many people would consider rubbish.

His business, Seven Ply Co, creates brightly coloured and handcrafted pieces of jewellery, homewares and furniture from upcycled and broken skateboard decks.

Having grown up in the UK and spent time living in Canada, Brown said he was always been around the snowboarding and skating scene from a young age.

“Started off snowboarding when I was 11 and then skateboarding fell into that, as a part of the culture,” he

said.

“A lot of my friends had broken decks so I asked if I could borrow them.

“They started giving me a few and I first made a key ring which was super simple, it was in the shape of a surfboard and I thought it was awesome.”

From the very first key ring, Brown continued to hone his craft through simple trial and error to find out what would work.

As an apprentice carpenter on the side, Brown said he found it was hard enough using stable wood, let alone a broken skate board.

“Working with something that is broken and put it back together and break it down again, is a massive challenge,” he said.

“You start with a broken board, you then take the grip tape off and sand back the graphics and the glue and then, you can either press them or I cut them into strips and re-glue them together.

“It’s a three-step process until you have usable wood but with the amount of carves and concaves, it takes hours just to get a block of wood.”

Not only does he use his own and his friend’s old boards for his creations, Brown said he has enlisted a bit of help sourcing the wood from a couple of skate shops in the region.

“I got in contact with Skin Ski and Surf and FSC Skateboards in Geelong and they both save all of the broken boards that are brought in for me,” he said.

“A plus side is that it doesn’t cost me much, I mean the tools cost a lot but the wood doesn’t.

“It also helps me to feel like I’m doing my part, millions of boards go into landfill each year and if I can take ten of those and build them up then that’s great.”

After his business was shared to the Buy Local Ballarat page, Brown said the response from the regional community has been surreal.

“Once I got the shout out, it really just went from there,” he said. “As of recently, the response has been massive.”

Currently still learning the carpentry trade, Brown said he would love to take this project full time.

“I definitely enjoy it so much, it would be silly to not do it full time,” he said. “At the same time, I want to

learn still before I dive fully into it.”

While he enjoys the challenge of working with recycled materials, Brown said the greatest thing about working with broken down skateboard decks is the history each of the pieces of wood holds.

“We all know skaters definitely get up to things, I’m sure these boards have been some places,” he said.

“All the boards have done thousands of tricks, if they could speak, the stories they would tell.”

To purchase one of Browns recycled skateboard creations @sevenplyco on Instagram or visit sevenplyco.bigcartel.com.