Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.08.2017, Page 58

58 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 15 — 2017
The Infection Is
Spreading
Mold Skateboard’s Bright Muddy World
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photo: Ísold Braga
Amidst the shots of Harpa or
selfies with those wooden Vi-
king statues on Instagram, you’ll
find plenty of pictures of people
skateboarding. Yes, Reykjavík is
a surprisingly skateboard-y city.
From the cement ledges of Harpa
to the benches of Grandi, Reyk-
javík has a ton of great places to
jump over stuff or slide down
things. And just imagine cruis-
ing down Skólavörðustígur from
Hallgrímskirkja to Laugavegur
on four wheels without a helmet.
That’ll give you a rush.
It seems natural then that Ice-
land should have a skateboard
brand of its own, and does. It’s
called Mold, and it’s growing fast-
er than your bruises did the first
time you tried to skateboard.
What are you doing?
Mold Skateboards was started
around 201 4 by Hau k ur Már
Einarsson. At the time, he was
teaching carpentry at Lækjarskóli.
“Haukur started making skate-
boards in his garage,” Kristján
Gilbert, who does everything from
the social media to the finances
for the brand, says. “Everyone
thought he was crazy.” he says
laughing. “People were like, ‘What
are you doing?”’
To a layman, making a skate-
board might not sound difficult.
But to build one from scratch,
you need to go through a complex
process involving gluing together
layers of thin wood, putting on a
mold–which Haukur handmakes–
and pressing and jacking, which
Haukur designed. And that’s only
the wood—then there’s the pro-
cess of sawing, sanding, polish-
ing, etc. It takes obsession to get
it down to a science. But Haukur
kept on, trying different woods
and models until he found the
perfect combination.
To English speakers, “Mold” con-
jures up images of green things
on bread and getting lung cancer
from your bathroom walls, but in
Icelandic it actually means “mud”.
The Ora contagion
With time, Haukur’s skateboard
fever became, like mold, conta-
gious. Local artists submitted art-
work for the decks and he joined
up with Sigurður Grímsson, Hau-
kur Færseth, and Kristján, from
tattoo parlour Memoria Collec-
tive, to form the Mold team.
“At first, Haukur was just hand
making every skateboard, so there
wasn’t much quantity. Different
artists designed them, so there
were maybe five of each kind.”
Kristján says. “Now it’s a lot big-
ger. Our last shipment was one
hundred and fifty skateboards.”
To get this increase, Mold started
working with builders in France,
but Haukur still makes special
editions by himself.
The latest decks feature art-
work by Ómar Örn Hauksson, a
graphic designer from rap group
Quarashi. Three are brightly co-
loured with cartoonish monsters,
while the fourth is a spin on the
Ora label—an Icelandic green pea
brand. The boards are so intricate
and aesthetically pleasing that
you’d probably want to hang them
on your wall rather than rub grind
them on a steel pole.
Grindin’ on green
To see Mold in action, I ask
Kristján if he could show me some
tricks. He immediately laughs. “I
actually don’t skate.” He says. “I
really like the sport, so I tried and
for the first few days it went pretty
well, but then I fell badly and that
sort of spelled the end for me.” It’s
a familiar story for anyone who
has tried to skate—the sport is
hard and the falls are harder. “I
might be too old to start, but I’ll
try again.”
Instead he asks Mold team rider
Sigurður Rósant to show up. Siggi
was asleep, but ten minutes later,
he arrives a little foggy. He shows
off his impressive tricks, and I
was amazed with how beautiful
Mold’s artwork appeared when
the board was spinning in midair.
Even Siggi’s board—which was
scratched to hell after a grind-
ing session the week before—still
maintained it’s bright colours.
So, next time you want to In-
stagram, find a Mold rider. The
colours and designs will look per-
fect on your pics. And if you want
to buy one, the only place is Mold
Products is at Memoria Collec-
tive on Grettisgata. And if you’re
bold enough, you could get also
get their logo tattooed on you at
the same time.
Yes, Reykjavík is a surprisingly skateboard-y city.
I C E L A N D I C R E S T A U R A N T & B A R
Tasty tapas and dr inks by the o ld harbour
T a b l e r e s e r v a t i o n s : + 3 5 4 5 1 7 1 8 0 0 - w w w . f o r r e t t a b a r i n n . i s
Certificate of Excellence
———— 2016 ————