It can be traced back to 1887 and German physiologist Adolf Flick. That lens was made of glass and was called a ‘scleral’ lens because it covered the scleral – the part of the eye that is white. Some years later, in 1912, optician Carl Zeiss developed another glass lens that fitted over the cornea. The first plastic lens (manufactured from plexiglass) is believed to be the work of two scientists, who created the scleral lens in 1938. The first plastic corneal lens arrived in 1948.

Besides the best wooden skateboard decks, I have gone through the plastic skateboard decks in recent years. What I found that the quality and recommended plastic material is competing with the maple wood. I’m writing these words on my personally testing. But the plastic has to be made of best of the best material to compete with normal maple wood deck.

Batch making the moulds and then shipping to local markets where the lenses are produced offers greater flexibility and operators have the ability to stop the injection moulding machine and compensate somewhere else in the system.

Why wood aint wood pony for slides anyway (I think you mean boardslides not grinds?)? I mean yeh most slides are done on wood.. cos skateboards are generally made of wood.. but that doesn’t mean wood is good.. I thought wood was too grippy and everything has to be waxed up all the time..

variation in the space thickness between the front and rear of the mould, which dictates the thickness of the lens. There are a finite number of combinations and a standard number of magnifications and variations on the curve. Nevertheless, production still has to be carefully planned and controlled, to ensure the machines maintain the highest efficiency levels possible.

Obs there is also the problem with microplastics, not just with slides but every time you do anything with the deck like try to pop an ollie etc..scraping the tail- microplastics gonna get into the water table.

A good way to tackle this might be one wood layer on the bottom and top. and possible the edge somehow shielded so it won’t grind up and pollute even worse than those big bottles…

And I’d be very surprised if the top coatings of wooden boards are plastic derived too, still going to shed micro plastics as the all natural shellac/wax options etc isn’t cheap enough…

Injection molding is usually focused on high-volume production, but that doesn’t always need to be the case. The Recycled Plastic Skateboard Deck project centers on the use of injection molding for a relatively low-volume production line using open-source tooling.

We have considered this point a lot from the beginning and still think it’s a step in the right direction to get the plastic in to one big manageable block like a deck, instead of lots of little bottle caps e.g. Sure there is a small amount of micro plastic but it’s a tiny % if you look at the overall mass of the deck (~1.7kg), which otherwise would have all ended up in the environment. A single solid piece is much easier to manage at the end of its life. We appreciate the concern though so if you have any ideas about how to solve the micro plastic problem, please share them with us so we can integrate it in to our next research publication!

If you gonna buy one of these I’d strike a deal with Jason first.. like if it breaks..in less than 1 month he has to melt it down again and make you a new deck at cost ‘cos I think these are perhaps still at the prototype stage.

Hey Johnny, thanks for the feedback! We have tested all of the common recyclable plastic types and got validation from skaters say the feeling of PP (Polypropylene) has a very close feeling to Canadian Maple. Its also worth mentioning that our project is not trying to replace the wooden deck completely, we know it will always hold a special place in the hearts of seasoned skaters. Our project is about expanding accessibility, to people who live in situations of hardship, and normally would not be able to afford a deck. For many, having a deck that performs 95% as good as a wooden deck, is better than having no deck atall