The latest in the seemingly endless parade of DIY Brooklyn products is DL Skateboards. Started by Derek Mabra and Lauren Andino, the duo turned their passion for skating into a business that prides itself on quality.
"They ride incredibly fast and each one is unique and unlike the next," Mabra told iDesign. He describes the boards as a swirl of "classic surf-skate style and the purity of nature."
The first boards the two designers built were for their own use, but things escalated quickly.
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"We made them just for fun for us and some of our buddies we like we wanna have fun too," Andino explains in a sort documentary by CoolHunting. "So we ended up making couple of more boards and more buddies wanted some."
For Mabra, Dl Skateboards represents a return to basics.
"The original incarnation of skateboards that was just a piece of wood with four wheels and maybe a couple of stripes," he said. "They're never the same.... I just feel like I'm screwing it up every-time and trying to fix it."
Although DL Skateboards began in a Greenpoint, Brooklyn apartment and a truck in New Hampshire, the company recently picked up it's roots to resettle on the West coast, leaving behind local business they used to build their first boards.
"We really moved here for us, not for DL," Dabra said. "The friends and connections we made in brooklyn will be missed but we are really digging all this space and fresh air. California is beautiful and hopefully the people here respond well to what we do. So far, everyone we've met out here is awesome."
