Catch This Deck: Madelynn Mesa’s Debut Skateboard Design

The sport of skateboarding became a subject of interest to me when my friend Madelynn Mesa shared that her first skateboard deck design would hit the shelves in April at Central Skateshop in San Antonio, Texas. Artist and Central’s store manager, Mesa repurposed a collage she made in 2021 and created a *sick* skateboard deck (t-shirts of her design are also available).

Skateboards were introduced in California by surfers in the 1950s. Materials such as wooden boards and roller skate wheels were utilized to ‘surf’ on land when there was a lack of waves in the ocean. As the sport grew, board advancements such as kicktails and polyurethane wheels gave skaters more control, speed, and better traction. Prior to becoming a regular sport in the Olympics in 2020 (the Tokyo games were postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic), X Games and other action sport corporations began to hold events for skateboarding in the mid-1990s.

The process of creating skateboard decks typically starts by stacking and gluing seven layers of maple veneer or another type of sturdy material together. Using a hydraulic press, the layers are then pressed and shaped into a deck. After further shaping and sanding of the board, decks are sealed with a finish and graphics are added, which are generally affixed by a screen printing or heat transfer process.

Opened by Paul Francis in 2024, Central Skateshop has all of your skateboarding needs: decks, wheels, bearings, trucks (the metal components that attach to the wheels), cool merch to wear while you skate. This deck collaboration between Francis and Mesa happened naturally, as he has always given Mesa space to freely exercise her art practice through Central Skateshop and Francis’s other business, Big State Screen Printing. Mesa chose to repurpose this collage/mixed media piece that she made during an undergraduate course at Texas State University. The positive reaction she received about the original work from her professor and classmates impacted her practice, as she continues to use collage as another way to dissect the complexities of how she views, appropriates, and creates imagery as a way to leave a message. After her professor used her collage in a flyer to advertise the class the following semester, Mesa knew that this piece was destined for more. Repurposing the work was not only for the shop, her friends, and the people who walk through the doors of Central, but also for herself. She states, “It felt like a moment to give back to a community that has given me a sense of belonging, where my work may find a place to exist. An opportunity for those to reappropriate the work with their own creativity and skill on a board; another way to leave their own message.” Mesa finds additional inspiration by spending time at Central after her shifts. “I find myself enjoying the shop’s energy, the flow the space creates around you and all the stories with all the wonderful people who walk through Central’s doors. In a sentimental way, we are also in collaboration with one another through time, space and place. You cannot recreate those moments; those marks have energy which holds meaning and I like those tender ideas juxtaposed with skateboarding.”

Women play a crucial part in the sport. Patti McGee was the first female professional skateboarder, winning numerous awards including the First Annual National Skateboard Championships in 1964. McGee’s famous handstand trick remains popular today. Mesa learned to skate as a teen as she, her brothers, and their neighborhood friends would teach each other the basics of the sport. She picked skateboarding back up when she started working at Central almost two years ago. Her favorite trick is a no-comply; this trick has many variations, but the basis of the trick involves skaters stepping off the board with one foot while popping the board tail with the other foot; the board rotates before the skater hops back on.

Keep an eye out for more of Mesa’s deck designs in the future! She is currently working on a few graphics for her friend and former Central colleague Josh Lucio (@space___jockey) who owns his own board company called Signal Life. Mesa says Lucio “creates a majority of his own graphics but is now opening up to collaborations with fellow artists and I’m humbled by the thought of him asking me to work together on a project that involves art and skateboarding.” I am certainly looking forward to seeing the outcome of this collaboration!

Thank you to Madelynn Mesa and Central Skateshop for their contributions towards this essay. Answers are paraphrased for clarity.

Visit Central Skateshop at 421 North Main Avenue, San Antonio, Texas 78205 or on Instagram @central.tx.

Madelynn Mesa is an interdisciplinary artist exploring movement, coding, multi-projection performance, and installation. Mesa investigates an ongoing study of the moving image with an expansive vision while experimenting with multimedia. An aim to create a line of productions and experiences of expression using a camera, Mesa incorporates the essence of impulse and intuition through studies of light, time, space, and technology. Her research includes sound production, photographic imagery, video, intimate performance, and performative documentation with a concentration on movement as an active component. Mesa earned her BFA in Photography at Texas State University in Spring 2021 and has presented and professionally documented artwork throughout Texas. Find Madelynn at https://iicloude.space/ or on Instagram @allwaysawaysaway.

Citations:

MP, Luís. “How are skateboard decks made?”, https://www.surfertoday.com/skateboarding/how-are-skateboard-decks-made.

MP, Luís. “Pattie McGee, the world’s first professional women’s skateboarder, passed away”, October 18, 2024, https://www.surfertoday.com/skateboarding/patti-mcgee-the-worlds-first-professional-womens-skateboarder.

Roth, Minhae Shim. “Who Invented Skateboarding?”, July 24, 2024, https://www.history.com/articles/skateboarding-origins-california.

“Skateboarding Tricks 101: How to No-Comply”, https://www.skateboards.com/blog/skateboard-tricks-101-no-comply.