Enjoi Skatboard Decks by Craig & Karl

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“Ghetto Bird,” “Stale Fish,” “Roast Beef,” “Saran Wrap”… We know what you’re thinking. But alas, the aforementioned aren’t buffet items. They’re skateboarding tricks. And evidently enough, it doesn’t matter how many sweet tricks you have up your sleeve, or tucked into your shredded skateboarding kicks rather, unless you have a custom deck designed exclusively for you. Big talk? Perhaps. But wait till you see the boards that Craig & Karl are churning out.

No one is more stoked than the pro team at Enjoi – a SoCal based skateboard apparel and accessory company. Why you ask? We’ll tell you. The team got hooked up with their very own decks designed exclusively by Craig & Karl. Co-founder Karl Maier explained that they created “custom artwork for each of Enjoi’s riders that celebrated their individual loves, loathings, artifacts and most importantly, bad habits – from lube to guns to chicken wings.” (We’re crossing our fingers the three are not used in tandem).

In a nutshell, Maier and his agency partner, Craig Redman, initially worked with the riders to glean info on their personal obsessions, objects they felt connected to, or just stuff that best summed up everyday life. Then they graphically translated the good, the bad, and the ugly, into separate boards for team riders Jose Rojo, Jerry Hsu, Louie Barletta, Nestor Judkins, Wieger Van Wageningen, Cairo Foster, and Caswell Berry, and illustrating it all onto epoxy resin constructed decks.

Enjoi chose a resin construction over the standard 7-ply because resin is proven to be significantly stronger and consistent in weight. Along with the boost in strength, the epoxy finish is more aggressive than the “industry standard” water-base glue, and as a bonus, since epoxy is so strong, less of it is used yielding a lighter, stiffer deck that keeps its pop longer.

We caught up with professional skateboarder Jerry Hsu, (who just so happens to be our all-time favorite character to play in the skateboarding video game EA Skate) who explained the objects that composed his likes, dislikes, and bad habits. Hsu divulged that his list to Craig & Karl looked a little something like this: “kitty litter with poop, pile of unopened bills, dirty laundry, lotion and tissues, Ray Ban’s (half frame), film cameras, naked Greek statues, animal skulls, steamed dumplings, soy sauce, broken Blackberry phone.” So basically it was a matter of sifting through all their obscure objects and translating the hot mess into an interesting composition, while still keeping the riders personality present.” Karl added, “the filthier and more chaotic the lists the more fun they were to do!” Nothing like having a side of steamed dumplings with your “Stale Fish”, and “Roast Beef.” Don’t mind if I do!