Watson Laminates owner Tod Swank, left, poses with longtime employee Jim Johnson, who holds a 1950s-era plywood deck made with steel wheels. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
A Watson Laminates worker positions adhesive coated wood veneer in a press that will apply tons of pressure to form a skateboard deck. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Sergio Lopez presses white ink through a silkscreen onto a skateboard deck at Watson Laminates in San Diego. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Watson Laminates workers add adhesive to the machine that coats each piece of wood veneer that will become a skateboard deck. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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An employee at Watson Laminates puts a Sector 9 logo on a skateboard deck. The company makes custom shaped boards for a variety of skateboard brands using wood and composite materials. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Skateboard decks customized for different brands hang in the Watson Laminates factory in San Diego. Watson Laminates customers design their own boards. “They do the engineering and then they come to us,” owner Tod Swank says. “We make the boards. We’re like their partners.” (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
