The resurgence of Flexdex has been like the rise of a phoenix in the past year. Eager to re-enter a market that died on their earlier watch, FlexDex remains under the leadership of "Ebone". Like a South American rebel with no known "real name", Ebone enjoyed notoriety and stoke before disappearing into the bush for a few years. Now, with their new line showing methods not tried much in the mainstream of boarding culture and a ramped up graphic, we thought it would be a good time to drop some Ebone knowledge on you.

This is an interview conducted shortly after a garage bombing session with Nate and Ebone from FlexDex. Just like one of those jungle generals, he's avoided photographs like the plague, so don't look for any clear photos of him. Check it out: the man carves knowledge.

[SF] How did you get into skating, what was your introduction to the sport?

[EB] I remember busting up my sister's roller skates and putting them on a 2x4 with a handlebar setup. My grandpa Lou was a weekend carpenter and helped me.

[SF]Tell us about your first skateboard!

[EB] Dude! I am dating myself but proud that it was a steel wheel red Roller Derby

[SF] Where’d you get that name, “ebone”?

[EB] My good friend Izzy Tihani, the Surf Diva, laid that on me back in the 90's. It's a badge I am proud to have, but have no clue what it means other than it's fun to say and puts a smile on people's faces.

[SF] At what point did skating become something more, what was the process for you towards starting to build decks?

[EB] My dad had bought a small plastics company in the late 60's – and I remember making boards in the early 70's from different materials in the warehouse. We were also supplying foam and fiberglass to the backyard surfboard industry then – and when I went to college I made a lot of surfboards for spare change….. anyway, back then I laminated fiberglass to a bunch of different materials in pursuit of a springy flexy board. My first customer was Mitch's Surf Shop in La Jolla and I drove as far north as HB to sell decks out of my VW Van. There were clear boards, solid decks, and colored laminated ones. Never wood though, interestingly enough, but there was one out of a high performance Masonite material similar to what is now known as Skatelite.

[SF] What do you feel Flexdex brings to longboarders?

[EB] It's really simple. And this statement is even posted on the website cuz it's right on. We make and sell an essential tool to fulfill the boarding lifestyle – in essence, the energy and the stoke that you get on a wave or mountain. Anytime. Anywhere. By yourself. With your friends.

And you can do it longer – countless riders have told me their sessions on a Flexdex are so smooth that they can go hours longer.

[SF] The most common question I have heard when someone first rides one of your boards is “what is this made of?” Can you give us both a layman’s answer as well as a more technical one?

[EB] Flexdex® material is an engineered unlaminated fiberglass composite utilizing 6 different resins and fiberglass. These boards will never delam, break, or die. There is no air – it's solid, waterproof and virtually indestructible. The process takes different strands of fiberglass rovings, and different type of fiberglass matting and cloth in a particular formula. We then pull it through a bath of catalyzed polyester and other "ester" resins where they wet out, the glass gets saturated, and then we run it through a heated mold under compression to make a continuous sheet of Flexdex. It comes out the end of the mold a SOLID composite. All of the materials get intertwined inside the mold. It is NOT a laminate and therefore, cannot delaminate. And doesn't break down over time.

[SF] What other things have you used the “Flex Dex” material for?

[EB] It's a structural material. We have made I-Beams, tubes round and square, channels, rods, and gratings. The Monterey Bay Aquarium just purchased 2 elaborate structures using Flexdex sheet and shapes to hold up their tanks. There are walkways and railings too. It's not really bullet-resistant rated, but I am sure a Pro41 deck will stop some handguns (not that I anticipate having to use one).

[SF] What properties does it impart in the deck from your standpoint, besides of course being bullet and elephant resistant?

[EB] You just get a long lasting product that continues to deliver consistent performance over time. I mean, not matter how beat up the deck gets, it doesn't lose it's flexural properties. A 6 year old deck will feel the same as a new one. Where as, the FiberFlex, Cosmic Rider, and other wood/glass laminates will break down and stop delivering their initial responsiveness rather quickly. Not that they're bad products. Just different and not long lasting on delivering performance.

Laminates have a problem with compression and elongation. Imaging 2 pieces of material like wood laminated together with a glue binder. When you BEND this laminate, one lamination is going to stretch, or elongate, and the other is going to compress. The glue binder in the middle has to be flexible enough to allow this movement without losing adhesion. If you bend it too far, the binding breaks down, and the lamination fails. All it really takes is one bend beyond a point to cause failure. After that, the board loses its liveliness or may become "spongy".

Flexdex is a composite, so all the strands in the deck are working in unison. It's a lot like a bow being taught by an archer. You pull on the bowstring, and the fiberglass bow stores that energy from you throughout the entire bow. When you release the bowstring, all of that energy is transmitted to the arrow. At rest, the bow has no energy, just the capability of generating it upon the archer bending it.

Now, take a Flexdex. Step on it. You are doing the same thing. Transmitting energy from your body to the deck. When you un-weight coming out of a turn, that energy is transmitted to the wheels – and BOOM – you're accelerating! Wood just doesn't do that.

Flexdex takes 30,000 pounds to reach the failure point. Since even Fat Bastard doesn't weigh that much, for all purposes, it's unbreakable.

We like the response of the flat deck and then positive camber during a turn. Slalom decks are traditionally made with negative camber, so there is more pumpabilty (is that a word?). However, and this is big, when you go to turn that slalom deck, it MUST be flat to have the truck turning geometry work right. I reasoned long ago that a flat board, when flexed down, created positive camber and increased the turning geometry of the standard trucks – making them faster turning – and the harder you flex a flexdex, the tighter it turns! People tried to re-create this geometry with angled risers – but the flaw was truck design. With the advent of Randal's reverse kingpin trucks, our flexing Flexdex combined with the rotation of the new trucks, created an even better ride. We started using Randal's in the 180mm width exclusively on all boards 33" and up back in 1998 or 99. I think we put him solidly on the map.

[SF] If you were stranded on a well paved desert island what is the one deck setup you would want with you?

[EB] The 41. I rememeber an old email from a guy named Fonzie from the Pacific Islands of Palau. He went off-roading, got stuck, and used his Pro 41 as a ramp to get his car out of the mud. Since the 41 is so smooth for any condition, and can also offer up use as a push-cart, baseball bat, large flat-head screwdriver and more – I would bring that one. Oh – and then when the rescue plane flies over, I can use deck as a big piece of chalk and write on the asphalt "Send Cold Beer and Box of Wheels" as a message.

[SF] What led to the discontinuation of the line and the recent phoenix- like resurgence of Flexdex. What do you feel is different now?

[EB] Flexdex used to be part of my plastics company –the mother ship. To do business you have to have Product Liability Insurance – I guess so if something really goes bad, you can be sued and someone gets paid. Well, since we made skateboards, we carried a separate policy just for that to protect the mother ship. Eventually, all the insurance companies would not even insure the mother ship as long as skateboards were being sold – regardless of separate policies. That was a pretty tough pill to swallow. But, we figured, let's put Flexdex on a siesta, set it up as a separate LLC when we can, and then move forward.

[SF] What's different now?

[EB] The Web. Our team.

[SF] What have you felt the reception was like now that you guys are back in production?

[EB] People are stoked. Really happy to have the Order of the Flex back.

[SF] What type of pie do you like?

[EB] Pumpkin. Warm. Lots of Cool Whip.

[SF] Where do you see Flexdex in ten years?

[EB] In 10 years Flexdex might be ….. you see there is a word, paradigm, the rule about the way things are. I was challenged by a good friend on where a Flexdex skateboard is the skateboard pie. I said "it's a niche, like longboarding, and the street deck is the main slice". He points out that I always tell him how easy it is for ANYONE to ride our boards, and there is a huge market out there for people who want to skate, but don't because they cannot skate the 32" street deck. But they could skate a Flexdex. And should. If that alternate view of the skate universe is true, then…. Flexdex would be the most popular skateboard in the world.

Longboarding would be a larger niche than street decks as well, since mainstream skateboarders would have 2-3 boards in their quivers: a short Flexdex, a longboard (hopefully a flexdex model), and probably some hybrid made from the old parts of their prior boards….

Based on our business plan, in 10 years the Flexdex brand will be huge. We'll always be keeping it real. Quality skateboards, functional apparel and worthy accessories. We were headed in the right direction before our siesta. We had our own wheel molds, our own deck formula, had grip and bearings manufactured to our specs, and worked closely with several amateur and professional organizations to promote skateboarding. Giving back to charities has always been an important part of our business model. Flexdex was the first action sports company to create a fundraising program based on a product. Flexdex is a lifetime member of Surfrider thanks to the Kelly Slater model which raised about $25,000.

[SF] Where do you see the longboard industry in ten years?

[EB] It going to be cyclical, as usual – I mean, there was a peak in 2000, and we are now coming out of the bottom of the cycle. I think we'll have steady growth for the next 4-5 years. With the building of all the skate parks worldwide, the bottom of the cycles won’t be so hard on the industry. Parks are awesome for the mid-range longboards 33-36" long. Your advocacy of HELMETS is right on. And sooner or later, a skater is going to buy a parking structure and open it to skaters from 9pm to 2am. I can also see an inland longboard skate park where a long paved road is privatized and electric carts give riders a lift to the top.

[SF] What is one of your most memorable sessions.

[EB] Last Wednesday downtown was pretty cool. Top 10. But, you know the part of I-8 that drops down to the desert? Like 7 miles of hill? Or how about the paved road from the top of Mt. Cuyamaca that services the ranger station? Or maybe the session late one night on Dreamhill with the girlfriends driving the pickup truck, lighting up the road, cold beers in the back of the bed, and about 10 of us charging the hill over and over after an ASR show September 2000. That was epic.

[SF] How was surfing?

[EB] Surfing is always just what my spirit and soul needs….. several times a week.

[SF] Are you guys planning any new releases or innovation you can let us know about? Any chance of bringing back the 60”?

[EB] The 60 will be back. Everything else is too sensitive to discuss.

[SF] Anything you want to add?

[EB] Thanks for letting us share the power of the flex. It's all about the ride.