About a year ago we had Travis Rice out to Mervin Mfg. to check in and talk Orcas. We had the pleasure of setting him up to build his own board on the factory floor. The following Tim Zimmerman pics will give you an inside look of the process behind every dream board we build. Bearing in mind there’s a lot of steps and people involved that come before and after in the process these pictures highlight. For example; sourcing the very best and most sustainable / up-cycled / recyclable materials, creating the core profile in the wood shop for exacting standards needed to preserve each model’s riding personality, dialing in the top sheet and base art to perfection in our non toxic eco sublimation print house… and that’s just naming a few. Every step of the way is crucial to the overall performance of the board and each engineer, artist, designer, craftsperson involved brings their artistry to the process, putting their dreams in to your board.
Every Lib Tech dream board is a collaboration of engineers, skilled craftspeople and Rippers. Here Pete, Cobb, Pos and Travis talk shapes, materials and new dreams before heading to the factory floor to build.
Travis and Pos head on to the factory floor to an Orca building press and get going. After the parts are gathered they start with laying down the Magne-Traction® edges and sintered knife cut base.
From here on out we’re going to need resin, Travis fills up with our safe, non toxic, non smelly (but not quite delicious) bio resin.
Travis lays down the first layer of resin, it’s important here to wet out all the edge key slots and keep it tight and tidy so you don’t get resin under the base.
Time to wet out and lay down edge dampening bond enhancing tape…
Travis carefully wets out the first layer of fiberglass and smooth riding basalt.
Here comes the fast growning FSC certified wood core, already cut to exact Orca specifications and assembled with inserts in and sidewalls attached. More resin!
Another layer of triaxial fiberglass and resin, Travis makes sure wet the glass out evenly over the entire surface. Good squeegee skills are a must!
Now were ready for that beautiful eco-sublimated top sheet. Shout out to the crew working the magic behind the scenes to make those vibrant zero hazardous waste graphics, we’re not gonna show you that room… top secret.
We’re ready to press! Don’t forget that “whale tail” form block.
It’s a board! Still a few steps to go before it’s Rice ready though…
Travis and Steven Cobb do an early inspection on the contour profile before taking it over to finishing.
Travis stoked so far on the build, now time for some master craftspeople to step in.
Tim McCabe on the band saw rough cutting the board to shape. No heavy, hard to repair wrap around edges means it’s up to the craftsperson to recreate that exact Orca tip and tail for every board.
Tim fine tunes the shape to Travis’s perfect shred specifications.
Tim puts a lovely little bevel on the sidewalls for edge hold and tuning access.
A light countersink on the inserts makes for easy binding mounting.
Tim puts a precision tune on the steel.
Tim begins base grinding with a course belt to clean up any resin on the base. More base work and tuning with incrementally finer belts and stones to come…
Tim puts a speedy blue ride ready factory wax job on this Orca.
Final top edge bevel and Tim’s signature on the Mervin Made sticker.
Team work makes the dream work! Travis and Tim stoked on the final product.
A job well done and a dream board brought to life! This exact board went on to ride Jackson Hole river lines and Ak spines.
