How Faltown skateboards started.
After watching college workshop technicians (Tim Lake
and Mark Squire) sliding on the precarious hills of Falmouth,
Cornwall surfer, skater, biker, hiker and 3D Design undergraduate
Alex decided to “skip [his] lectures to get some
chopping board and gardening gloves”.
A newly attained passion for horticulture and vegetables
were not responsible for this development. He then hid
in the college workshops making slide gloves and designing
a new skateboard. Two days later, Alex - an experienced
skater - was out learning to slide around Falmouth and
Cornwall, which supplied the perfect curves and gradients.
Fellow housemates and Falmouth College of Arts students,
Chris and Pat, soon joined him.
“We never intended to start a company we just could
never afford new skateboards. We loved our boards and
we kept making more, experimenting with different shapes
and wheelbases, and then a good friend of ours Dom offered
to sell some for us in his skate shop, Random Rides.”
With their enthusiasm for the sport, and respective product
and graphic design skills, Alex and Chris continued producing
boards for the local skating community. “Our skateboard
designs became more informed and better developed as our
skating grew and blossomed and before we knew it we were
swapping decks for new wheels so that we could keep sliding.
Skateboarding became a lot cheaper for us and the sport
of sliding began to blossom in the UK.”
Tragically, Pat was involved in a horrible skating accident
and obtained a head injury. He and fellow broadcasting
student Andy, also his carer, began filming Falmouth’s
slide community, and Alex and Chris became a bit more
concerned about which brand of board everyone was riding
for the cameras. Footage for a movie and nightclub visuals
for a launch party ensued
“It was a tough year as we were both finishing
our degrees, we both almost failed because of our passion
for Faltown. We basically spent our days skating, filming,
designing and making skateboards. It was a dream job making
skateboards and movies and it provided a much-needed escape
from the pressures of the 3rd year of our degrees.”
Today Faltown's boards are made at the famous Madrid
factory in California. The clothing range is supplied
by Toney, a friend who runs a fair trade clothing company
in Indonesia. "Like us he's trying to make a go of his
dreams."
Alan.
