July 6, 2008

Dahl's skateboards display originality

Diana Louise Carter
Staff writer

Shawn Dahl's parents blame it all on the aunt and uncle who gave him a skateboard one winter.

Then 8 years old, Dahl shoveled the driveway and created a ramp out of icy snow to try out his new toy.

"Ever since that skateboard, I never went back," Dahl said.

Today, he's a father of two daughters, ages 6 and 3, and a year-old skateboard company, Rustbelt Skateboards.

"I'm doing a job I love," said Dahl, 36, of Rochester, who previously worked as a cabinetmaker and still maintains a side job while his company grows.
"My dad calls me the oldest teenager."

Rustbelt is part of the Mephisto Group, housed in the Hungerford Building. The Mephisto Group is a band of heavily tattooed entrepreneurs who cater to
the consumer interests of young and even younger folks like themselves. They produce customized bike parts, T-shirts, publications on bikes and
skateboarding and, of course, the skateboards themselves, or more properly, skateboard decks — the wooden part of the skateboard.

In Dahl's woodshop, he and an assistant laminate layers of sugar maple and cut and shape them into the decks that Dahl is becoming known for around
the country. He makes sets of decks for skateboard crews — groups of people who skate together — and for national skateboarding or BMX events,
such as one that Red Bull, the energy drink company, recently sponsored.

One resource the Mephisto companies share is artist Aaron Burto, 32, who gives all of their products an edgy, yet classical look. The graphics he's
produced for Rustbelt's Hell on Earth line look like woodcut illustrations from the Bible or Greek mythology, with a bit of Goth thrown in.

"It's kind of what sells the skateboard itself," Burto said. The art is on the underside of the board, visible just when it's upended. It's also vulnerable to
the wear and tear of skateboarding tricks.

"A lot of it gets scratched off really fast," Burto said.

"Their work is beautiful," said Virginia Mazgajewski, owner of Xtreme Wheels Indoor Skate Park in Buffalo. She has bought several batches of 50 Rustbelt
boards to sell as Xtreme Wheels shop decks.

Within two days of contacting Rustbelt, Mazgajewski said she got the custom graphics for approval. Customers love them, she said, for their look as well as performance.

Dahl decries mass-produced boards that come from Asia, where he says different woods produce weaker boards. He has refused to put his graphics on
inexpensive boards some companies have tried to provide with the offer of making a quick profit. He won't share specifics on his financials, but he says Rustbelt
is paying its bills and the business is getting busier all the time.

"We believe in what we're doing," Dahl said.

"I'm just trying to keep skateboards in skateboarders' hands."

DCARTER@DemocratandChronicle.com

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