I swear, I think that I have the very best job in the world. I am truly, an incredibly lucky guy. As a writer, I have access to some of the biggest movers and shakers in the skateboard industry, today. So what if putting together a blog/'zine/whatever this is takes hours and hours of nerding out in front of the 'puter, and doesn't pay zilch...?! The perks kind of pay for all of the hassles, at the end of the day. Seriously.
In this case, the "perk" was getting behind the scenes, and into the mind's eye of Dave Scherer, one of the founders of Miramar Longboards. I've gotta tell ya, the first time I saw a Miramar ad in Concrete Wave, I was instantly intrigued. There's been a rash of these thinking-outside-the-box brands coming down the pike, lately... hell, I said the same sorts of things about Goldcoast, just last month... and to that, I say, "Well, it's about time!" Personally, I'm getting a little tired of "longboarding" being defined almost exclusively by boards with breaking waves on the bottom, and seaside resort towns overlooking the beach. Longboarding is now, a global phenomenon. Therefore, I'd say that it needs a correspondingly global outlook and perspective, too. Companies like Miramar are at the forefront of this much-needed perception-widening. And longboarding will become far more diversified, and that much more interesting, because of their efforts.
That's why brands like Miramar are so vitally important to the longboard scene. And, that's why I'm so lucky to get to interview guys like Dave:
The man with the plan makes a stand. Dave Scherer, living the beach.
Let's start here: Who are you, and what's your position at Miramar?
My name is David Scherer and I am one of the three co-founders of Miramar.
Can I get a quick bio? Age, years skating, inspirations, where you're from, and where you're at, today?
Well, I am 27 years old this June and I am from beautiful Pomona, California. I got my first skateboard when I was in the 7th grade. It was a World Industries deck with Flameboy dressed as a pimp. My mom was pretty cool to buy her 13 year old son that deck (laughing!). As for where I am today, I moved back to Pomona from Dana Point a year ago to open the Miramar gallery.
Here's an important one: Why "Miramar"? Why does the world need another longboard company, when there's about 10,000 of them already....?
When I bought my first longboard, all I could find in the stores were Sector 9 boards and nothing else. None of their decks or designs appealed to me, so I ended up ordering one from ebay that someone made. It was just a blank deck with griptape and I put some Trackers and Kryptos on it. When Nick and I started pressing our own boards and painting them for friends we could see there was a gap in the longboard market that wasn't being filled. We have worked hard to be the brand that offers decks with the best art by the best artists. We were tired of how BORING longboards were! For so long, everyone just copies Sector, even using the same Artists! Did you see Palisades has a Drew Brophy board? What is the difference between Palisades and Sector at that point? Everything is the same. We wanted to be different. We're are bridging the gap between longboards and skateboards, creating a brand that appeals to skaters, surfers, longboarders, college students and punk rockers alike. That's where Miramar fits in to this world.
Miramar is probably best known for their "art presence" in the longboard scene. That's obviously intentional, as Dave's whole reason for starting Miramar was to change the aesthetic of longboarding. Judging by this ad for the Spectrum Series, it looks like they're off to a damn good start.
What's the significance behind that name ("Miramar")...?
When we started the brand, we wanted to give it a name that we were all emotionally connected to, looked nice when its written and has international appeal. Miramar is Spanish for look to the sea and it is the name of the street that I grew up on. When Ryan and I were teenagers we fixed up a house on that street with my dad and I lived there with Ryan until I went to college. When we started pressing our first boards we were making them with C-clamps in my dad's barn on Miramar, so it just seemed to make sense to adopt Miramar as our name.
How long has Miramar been around? How did it get started?
Miramar really got started in 2003 when my room mate Nick Brown and I started pressing and painting boards for friends. After we finished school in 2005 we jumped straight in to the skate industry with an old friend of mine named Ryan Welch.
Miramar's very first ad in Concrete Wave Magazine... this is one of the few things that can remember seeing in the mag that really stuck out, made an impression on me, and begged my feeble mind to recall it for quite some time. Strange, beautiful, and engaging. The hallmarks of all Miramar projects.
That's Dave on the right, with artist Nick Brown on the left.
Who does those outstanding graphics and ads?! I swear, those ads are some of the best-designed things in the entirety of Concrete Wave Magazine every month. I seriously look for those ads... so, whoever does 'em: Good job.
Thanks, Bud! We are really glad that you like them! The designs are by my buddy and Miramar co-founder Nick Brown. We actually have a new one coming out in the next issue of Concrete Wave. This time Nick painted on a photo of our friend Ben Cortez skating our soon-to-be-released deck the Freshmaker.
I like the fact that Miramar has everything buttoned down tight. Like, their web presence, for example. These multi-view photos are something that I wish every manufacturer had. Without the head-on shot, you might never know that this board is, in fact, a tail-mounted longboard... which is essentially an overgrown SkateKings Axe slalom deck, stretched out to longboard proportions. I'd have to imagine that speed and maneuverability are it's fortes. I want one...! Note the Sasquatches mounted up to this one. Gorgeous...
Is "Sasquatch" your proprietary wheel brand? When did that come about? And, again: Why another wheel brand?
Ever since I was a kid I've had a mild obsession with Bigfoot... Sasquatch is our wheel, yes, and when we started that project we did envision it as a new brand, but you're absolutely right; "Why another wheel brand?" There is absolutely no reason for another wheel brand, especially one as homogeneous as Sasquatch. It's a 70, 78a, standard longboard wheel. The truth is that Miramar is always looking for ways to lower our costs so we can pass those savings on to our customers. If we branded our own wheel we could really bring down what it cost to build a complete without having to go overseas. We made the wheels at the same California manufacturer that makes Loaded's Orangatang wheel. So, this is how Sasquatch was born! They are great wheels for cruising, really sticky at 70mm and 78a duro. 35 bucks off our website! I'll mail you a fresh set to try out if you'd like, Bud.
Where are your products sourced from? The USA, or overseas...?
When we founded Miramar we sought to build a company that was truly made in the USA and we have stuck to that. When we got started we pressed our boards in Ontario, California but we were never really happy with the service that we received there. Last year at the ASR I was riding up an escalator with Mike Mahoney from Honey Skateboards and he told me he liked what we were doing and offered to press our boards for us. Miramar is the first brand Mike started pressing boards for besides Honey and everyone at Miramar are huge fans of Mike's work so I felt really honored when he made that offer. This year we released our new Spectrum series and every board in the new series is pressed by Mike Mahoney at Honey in Grand Junction, Colorado.
I see that you guys recently opened a museum/board shop. What was the inspiration behind that? How's it working out for ya?
Yeah this month marks 1 year that we've been running the Miramar gallery in Pomona. Miramar reached a period of growth where it was time to take the business out of the garage and into the public eye. Being the Arts brand, we decided that the best way to present ourselves to the world would be with an art gallery. Ryan and I are both from Pomona and actually met each other on 2nd St. where the Gallery is now. Its always been a dream of ours to come back to Pomona and give back to the city. It's basically an office with a showroom. The gallery has given us the ability to hold art shows for artists that work with us like Nick Brown, Vince Brown or Fernando Sucre and to really dig our roots into the art and skateboard communities. We have now linked up with a Pomona non-profit called the dA Center for the Arts and are developing a community center where at-risk youth with community service hours will be able to do their time pressing boards, learning screen printing, basically running an in-house skate brand. It's called dA skAteboards, watch for it.
Scenes from inside The Gallery Grand Opening, May 2009. These guys clearly don't fuck around when it comes to making, and showcasing, their art. That sort of dedication is all-too-rare these days.
Here's a fun question: What inspires you guys? With art like that, there's gotta be a good story there, somewhere.
Well, I can only really speak for myself about inspiration. I have always been inspired by my family and the people I love. With love you can accomplish anything. I grew up a punkrock skater making my own clothes, never wearing labels, just raging against the machine. I'm inspired by music, bands like The Clash and Rancid. Tim Armstrong is a grassroots hero of mine, everything he has done in his life comes from the heart and I really admire that.
Your website alludes to a "new and improved printing method" that is superior to heat transfers... that "method" looks like the long-lost art of "sublimation", to me. Am I wrong, or am I right...? If I'm right: What's the benefit of sublimation (or, whatever you guys are doing over there)...
Good question. Well, it's not sublimation. Sublimation has been around and I've seen some boards printed with sublimation but its still really only any good for solid colors. What we use is a high resolution printing process that can print on any surface; tile, metal, wood, anything really. The technology is pretty new and we are the first to innovate a way to apply this high resolution process to skateboards. Basically, our printing looks more like a tattoo on wood than a silk screen or heat transfer. The colors are bright and vibrant, but there is no white in this process, so all the white tones are wood. We can get millions of colors and can print any gradients. If you look at say, our "Shellin'" design, Vince Brown fades orange to yellow to blue and we can print that without any loss in the quality of the color. Heat transfers are limiting in the color and detail you can print, but our process can do anything. We're working on some designs using photography right now and they are unlike anything you've ever seen before. We're really happy with this new printing process and it is exactly what we needed to truly reproduce art as its meant to be seen and set Miramar apart from the rest..
If you check out the Miramar website (like we did several times over the past few weeks or so...), you'll eventually find the "custom one-offs" section, where you can buy one-of-a-kind creations for what is really, a pretty affordable price. Here, I pasted up a selection of my personal faves.
I noticed that Miramar, along with numerous other brands (Loaded comes to mind) are using Paris Trucks as their standard equipment. Why is Paris so popular these days...?
To be honest, I used to be a big hater on Paris for no reason at all really. I think a lot of people were. Randal trucks are great and as I'm writing this I'm actually wearing a Randal shirt, but I love how Paris feel too. Like I said before, Miramar is always looking for ways to lower our cost so we can give our customers a more affordable product and Paris trucks have a better price than Randal and I think they ride just as good, sometimes better. But everyone has an opinion, right? I love the new Paris ad in the most recent Concrete Wave where they show an email from someone who loves them and an email from someone who hates them. Great ad.
I asked Chris from Goldcoast this question, but it's so good that I thought I'd get your take on it, too. Here it is: How do you respond to all of those closed-minded shitheads that insist that "Longboarding Is 'Gay'..."? (That's their words, not mine.)
Yeah, I agree... longboarding is pretty gay. Next question.
What does the future hold for longboarding, generally... and Miramar, specifically...?
Longboarding is the fastest growing part of Action Sports. Sector 9 is the biggest hard goods brand in skateboarding, bigger than any skate brand. Skaters are becoming much more open to longboards in addition to their popsicle skateboards and skate brands like Element are bringing out longboards. The future of longboarding and Miramar lies with bridging the gap between the two disciplines.
If you're in the mood... and, take my word for it, you damn well should be... take a quick trip over to Miramar's website, and check 'em out for yourself. Trust me, you'll be glad you did:
www.miramarlongboards.com.
