Lost is branching out beyond its surfboard roots to make skateboards.
I spoke with Lost co-founder and famous surfboard shaper Matt Biolos about the new skateboards at Surf Expo.
Matt told me people had always asked why he didn’t make skateboards. He had resisted until now because he had felt he couldn’t make them in an authentic way because he was not from the skateboard world.
Then he noticed how many surfers were buying the longer cruiser boards, and realized he could branch into skateboards in a way that felt right by making skateboards that are similar to his surfboards.
Matt teamed up with Paul Schmitt, owner of PS Stix, on the project. Matt describes Paul as his skateboard “sensei.”
Matt spent a lot of time with Paul, and experimented with his sanding machine. Matt bought tons of trucks and decks and wheels and spent two months skateboarding down his street testing different products. He learned how to design wheels.
“It’s like switching from water colors to oils,” Matt said of the design process.
The result is six styles of Lost skateboards that replicate successful Lost surfboard models. Matt calls them surf/skates instead of cruisers. He doesn’t make long surfboards, so he’s not making extra long skateboards either, he said. The graphics are mostly surfboard graphics that have been shrunk down and put on the skateboards.
The wheels offer a little more performance that a typical cruiser, he said, giving the boards one foot in the skate park world and one foot in the street cruising world.
The new skateboards are an extension of the surf brand and take skateboarding back to its roots when some surf brands like Hobie were some of the early makers of skateboards, Matt said.
The boards are being launched globally, are not licensed and PS Stix is the sole manufacturer.
Matt said the reaction from retailers so far has been “phenomenal” and everybody who had seen the boards at the time Matt and I spoke had placed orders, he said.
The boards are due to arrive in stores in May and will retail from $140 to $175.
