The mystery of board shapes with Matthew Bromley

Can you introduce yourself and what you do?

My name’s Matthew Bromley, I drew the mascot logo and started Blast Skates 13 years ago in Brixton, London. I do all the ‘creative’ side of the brand along with a whole bunch more, it’s a bit of a juggling act with all the different roles/parts of running a brand but we now have our production and distribution under one very solid roof at Quarter Distribution in Berlin, Germany which has made a massive improvement to Blast Skates progression!

Most board brands are doing popsicle shapes and that’s it. Why do you offer special shapes and what’s the advantage of shaped boards?

I guess it’s been this way the past 25-30 years. You could argue the popsicle is the ultimate, survival of the fittest shape for functionality as you can skate all terrain with it. However this simplification of function over form, you end up loosing some sole/personality/character I feel. For me, the team and people that connect with what we do, it’s all about playing around on shaped boards mesh nicely with that creative energy.

How do I know which shaped board works good for me? Does it depend on my (shoe)size, preferred style of skating, if I grab a lot or flip a lot?

Ooo that’s a good question. You could get technical on dimensions etc. if that’s your thing but I guess a short answer is; you just know when a shape speaks to you and you make it work. Maybe similar to a classic car or guitar shape it has a character or energy you connect with. They all get the same effective job done, just with different flare, style or energy. I guess a common and typical way is connecting or resonating with one of our team riders way of skating, seeing what shapes they choose or help create. For example we have a signature shape for each rider and these have been developed with their input and my experience so far to make something exciting to the eye and functional for what they need. Take for example Ben Koppl’s and Jake Snelling’s shapes, they are SO extremely different which also reflects their character, way of skating and use of the board they design but are united in their love for skateboarding history and what has inspired them to bring forward.

How does it start when you create a new shape and how’s the process till the final board?

To go a little bit sideways to answer this, I’d say skateboardings history timeline itself is really not that long if you compare it to things like, I dunno, karate or football/soccer. We still have some of the OG pioneers like Alva, fully alive and kicking it which is amazing! So in this short blip of skateboardings history we have so far you can trace this pretty rapid ergonomic evolution of shape design in books like Disposable and a lot of the shape explorations and creations is where I would typically start from, mixing one with another and playing around till somethings looking exciting or different enough to make a sample and test it out!

Do you do scientific testing as well or do you do it with experience?

No real deep scientific stuff, but there is a lot of details that are taken into consideration of course but ultimately we just skate them and if it feels fun then we’re good!

What is the biggest mistake you can make when designing a board?

Hmmm, it’s about balance and flow. So if you make a shape too skinny; firstly it’s not going to look right and secondly it possibly won’t skate too great or be strong enough in key places too. For example if you squeezed a 10” wide extreme flared out fish tail shape into a 8.5” it would look so wrong to any untrained eye and when you try skate it the tail would probably snap off due to the skinny tapered in parts leading to flared out tail for example.

What is the most important thing you learned from working on shapes?

I guess its less from the process of making them but seeing people choose to skate our boards and to have fun with our shapes over all the choice that’s out there. To me it shows we are connecting with other likeminded creative folk that arn’t too bothered about what’s the ‘coolest’ or most popular thing right this second.

How much input do team riders give for their shapes?

For their signature shape they had all the input! I helped of course with putting their ideas into a usable CAD file but yeh it’s either bouncing images back and forth or in some cases sitting at the computer together till it was right.

I’d say if somebody feels good with a board, then it’s a good board. But are there objective criteria that make a board a good board?

It’s tricky to say as it’s so personal, maybe as time goes by and you get comfortable with a deck shape/concave you’ve skated over and over – you’re less likely to switch things up, kinda goes for most things in life not just skateboarding. We get it into our minds that change will throw off your comfortable cosy baseline. I know so many people that only skate anything BBS presses because of all the Deluxe decks they’ve skated over the years for example. I really do believe there’s a mind over matter psychological comfort that comes with this. Really all that psychology is down to all the amazing videos, adverts, branding and energy that the amazing skateboarders from those brands have done to make you think the boards from those woodsheds are the best which in turn influence your idea of a ‘good’ board.

A lot of people chose their board only according to the width but what are the most important factors that influence how well you can skate with a board?

I think that’s correct with popsicle as the rail is so uniform, there’s also the wheelbase which can effect how you feel on your board. However with shaped boards it’s widest point might be 10” but the width by the trucks might go down to 8.75” or something for example so it’s just up to what excites you to skate. I think the size of a board becomes irrelevant when you see others having fun on whatever width it might be, for example if you watch some old video like Rubbish Heap and dig their style and way they skate their boards and want to recreate that feeling for yourself, this can be a big influencing factor!

You use the Blast all terrain concave. What is that exactly and does that mean concave is not that important if you use the same one for all of your boards?

A lot of misconceptions about shaped boards is that they are ‘cruisers’ or ‘old school’ decks with attributes like super flat concave, really long wheelbases or short/flat nose kicks etc which could make it tricky for people that are familiar with a modern popsicle concave. However our custom mold and concave is more close to a modern concave with some adjustments that make it more versatile: it’s somewhere in the middle concave wise, not too steep with smooth transitions along the rail to nose/tail and usable wheelbase area from 14.25” up to 15” so our ‘All Terrain Concave’ expresses its functionality to skate street, park, vert – EVERYTHING with any of our shapes.

How do the shapes influence the range of possibilities? Are certain shapes especially good for certain tricks?

Yeh sure, if you’re skating a steep walled pool and your nose is shorter you’re less likely to get stuck on the way down or way up and I guess there might be some boards shapes that flip better due to a certain shaped nose. Again anything is possible with any deck shape, it’s down to your mindset of what you want to achieve coupled with your inspirations and what you want to bring to the table.

How the fuck is a tail like Snelling’s good for skating?

Jake’s shape is fully inspired by all the 80’s vert shapes it goes without saying and I guess you can get away with more outrageous silhouettes as you’d be blasting from wall to wall on vert rather than scooping treflips. However due to our ‘All Terrain Concave’ you can skate his shape no problem as demonstrated by Snelling himself.

I didn’t see cut-outs for wheels on your boards. So I guess you don’t think they help preventing wheelbites?

They look cool and can definitely help prevent wheel bite especially if you don’t use a riser but again it’s all down to what you personally like to skate and there’s no right or wrong.

Do you think skateboard shapes are going to change in the future and if yes in what direction?

Ha it’s like stocks & shares or something. When I started Blast Skates I started with a 8.75” wide shaped board which was considered on the wider side back then. Sure you could find a 9.5” shape maybe but it wouldn’t nessasary be on a more modern mold pressing. Every few years people have gotten more comfortable with what you can do on a wider board and want to push it wider and wider! It’s almost inflated with the bagginess of peoples jeans and now we are seeing board widths up to 13” wide haha. If it’s taught me anything, skateboarders, or just humans for that matter, love a gimmick and I think instagram has been the fuel for this fire. The only risk I see is how quickly people tire of the gimmick and want to play with the next new fun thing.

And last but not least the most important question: What shape do you skate yourself?

Like any proud parent, we don’t have a ‘favourite’ it’s nice to switch it up though each time I set up a new deck and just see what happens and have fun!