Design Meets Function in The Swirl Skateboard

By Ann Binlot Published August 8, 2014

As a wood maker Peter Duncan spends his days at his studio in Wilmington, North Carolina crafting gorgeous tables and more for The Wood Studio. Recently Duncan got into the art of carving skateboards from wood. His latest, the Swirl, uses carvings in lieu of grip tape, making for a skateboard that looks just as good as it works. The Manual recently caught up with Duncan to ask him how he came up up with the idea for the Swirl, skateboard making and of course, wood.

Why did Wood Studio enter the skateboard world?

Recommended Videos

Well, I’ve skated for more than 15 years, and living in a beach town (Wilmington, NC) it was almost a natural progression for the wood studio. It started as just a project for myself, so that I could get around on something that I made. When I took the board to get trucks and wheels put on, the skate shop really gave me some great feedback, which got my wheels turning (pun intended).

How did you figure that the carvings would make a good substitute for grip tape?

I’ve done some extensive carving for other projects in the past, It dawned on me during an engraving project that tight lines created a grip much like whats you’d find with grip tape.

How did testing go before you realized you had enough that was suitable to hold the skater?

I tested all the iterations myself by getting out there and really riding, it wasn’t long before I found a good balance between design and functionality.

Why African mahogany?

Mahogany is known for a lot of things, two of which are its flexibility and it’s beauty. It has been used in boat building for hundreds of years for these two reasons. That’s what made it my first choice. I’ve now made boards out of many different woods, all of which have their good and bad attributes, it’s really about finding the right deck thickness for each wood and the rider’s aesthetic preference.

Will you make more if they sell out?

I really love making these and the design possibilities are limitless so I think I may be in this for the long haul. I’ve already made a few for local skate and surf shops to display and the feedback has been amazing!

The Swirl Skateboard, $200 at etsy.com.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Ann Binlot is a New York-based freelance writer who contributes to publications like The Economist, Wallpaper*, Monocle…

Culture

8 shows like Better Call Saul that will keep you hooked

These crime shows resemble the best parts of famous spinoff

Giancarlo Esposito in Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul started out as Breaking Bad's little brother, the prequel series that was supposed to be a nice companion piece to the best crime drama of the 21st century. After six seasons and a vivid vision executed by showrunner Peter Gould, the spinoff starring Bob Odenkirk became an equal to its predecessor and even surpassed it in some aspects of storytelling, acting, and direction.

The series follows the life of Jimmy McGill, a sleazy lawyer who slowly loses his morality as he evolves into the broken shell of a man we see in Breaking Bad. The complexity of the other characters and the way the show creates a grander universe that ties both shows together is something to behold. Somehow, Better Call Saul never won a single Emmy for its greatness despite being nominated 54 times throughout the 2010s. It often lost to shinier competitors like Succession and Game of Thrones.

Culture

The 8 best prison TV series of all time

Enter the slammer with these TV hits

The cast of Orange is the New Black

TV transports us to places we wouldn't be able to visit otherwise. Other times, it allows us to live vicariously through people who see the world very differently than we do. I can't think of a genre that gives us a peek into a life we should strive never to replicate more than the prison drama. Spending time in the slammer isn't as abnormal as you would think (about 5% of all Americans have gone to jail at least once in their lifetime). Still, the other 95% of us are always a little curious about what happens behind bars, even if we know it's unpleasant.

Many shows have put their characters in prison for a single episode or a small stretch of the plot (it feels like every sitcom from the 1990s had a prison episode), but we're not going to focus on those series. This list is solely to appreciate the niche genre that places its characters in jail as the main setting and catalyst for the plots. These are the best prison TV series of all time.

Culture

How will The Last of Us adapt the structure of the video game?

The second video game requires the show's creators to make some bold choices.

Pedro Pascal in The Last of Us season 2

There's a very thorny problem at the center of The Last of Us season 2. We've now seen the first two episodes of the season, and so far, they have been pretty faithful to the source material. The raid on Jackson Hole was invented to add some stakes to the show, but Joel's death plays out in a remarkably similar fashion to the video game, albeit with some switches around who he's with.

The show's first season was also remarkably faithful to the video game it was based on, but one huge question lingers around the rest of season 2. Namely, will we see Abby again for the rest of the season? Let's break down how the last five episodes of the season could play out:
The Last of Us: Part II is split almost exactly in half
The Last Of Us Season 2 | April 2025 | Max