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On 11/29/2006 PSR
wrote in from
United States
(75.68.nnn.nnn)
John, what Vertical Laminate refers to is how the wood is cut and laid up in the board when it's pressed.
By comparison, Horizontal laminate (which resembles plywood in appearance) is what you see in most laminate sk8boards, as the cost is minimal, but strength is decent, and contouring (such as kicktails or concave) can be be done with little risk of warping. These full-width layers are thin top-to-bottom, and bend fairly easily before the glueing takes a 'set', making this an obvious method for making skateboards.
Vertical lamination takes the wood in strips that are as thick top-to-bottom as the the deck is (or nearly so), but that are glued together edge-on to complete the width of the board. They can be as thick or thin width-wise as you want (which you can see in some Surf-Styled longboards with different wood types,light+dark, in strips running lengthwise), but thinner-width strips create more strength. (just stand on a suspeneded 2x6 flat, then on it's side. On it's side,it flexes less) However, with vertical lamination, the glue between strips is crucial, as that's where breakage is most likely to start.
Vertical Laminates are used extensively in Skis and Snowboards, often wrapped in layers of Fiberglass or Kevlar for added strength. Not that long ago, Snowboards were made like today's 'average' skateboard, using horizontal laminates, maybe some fiberglass,too. Sims, then Flite, then Burton, took the Ski technology of using Vertical lamination, and put that into boards around,oh, 1987 or so. They've never gone back to horizontal laminate(neither did skis after 1983!), though some companies kept making horizontal laminates into 2002. Skateboarding has been reluctant to change, and use vertical lamination overmuch, due to costs, and due to the shaping that many skateboards require.
Currently, though, you'll see it in boards for carving (like Loaded), cruising/longboarding (like Comet or DeweyWeber), and in racing(Fatboy) ocassionally. As far as I know, currnetly only Comet is actively making boards with Vertical Laminates, combined with Fiberglass, carbon fiber, choices of wood, and kicktailed concave decks.
Historically, if one looks at Skiing or Snowboarding, this puts Comet way ahead of the pack by taking the next logical step in developing the skateboard deck technologically and structurally, but really, only time will tell if the evolution will follow the paths previously taken in similar sports
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