Bud Stratford opened The Cleveland Superboard Factory in Concord in the early ’90s, making skateboards for the growing community of kids who skated at Kiwanis Riverfront’s park and makeshift ramps at Concord High.

In 2001, Stratford said he was burned out, so he closed the shop and left Concord.

“In those days, back in the 2000s, to be a skateboarder at 30 years old, like you were old. You were washed up at 30. It’s not like these days, where Tony Hawk is in his mid-50s and he’s still out there, or Steve Caballero in his 60s, or Tony Alva pushing 70,” Stratford said. “Like in the 2000s, that was just unheard of.”

Now, 24 years later, The Cleveland Superboard Factory is back. Last weekend, during a “Hometown Skateboard Market” that turned Feathered Friend Brewery into a skater’s paradise with multiple vendors, Cleveland boards were re-launched with the help of Northern Exposure Skateboard Company, owned by Concord Skatepark Association’s Chris Harrington, and Peace Coast, a skateboard manufacturing and graphics printing company from Fremont, N.H.

While chatting over beer and barbeque, old and new friends talked about the history of skateboarding in New Hampshire’s capital city. The conversation turned to the looming $1 million project to refurbish Concord’s skate park behind Everett Arena on Loudon Road as people immersed themselves in the deep roots of skateboarding in the area.

The city of Concord helped secure a Land and Water Conservation Grant, which requires the Concord Skatepark Association and the Parks and Recreation Department to raise $500,000 as a match. They have two years to raise the funds. 

“The city of Concord should just pay for the skate park. Make a nice facility and be proud of it,” Stratford said.

Even though he will always support the efforts where his business began, he was disheartened to hear of the fundraising mountain ahead.

“I think that the city of Concord would be good to realize that an investment in a skate park is going to build a community of problem solvers, that in 20 years out, or 30 years out, they’re going to be the civic leaders in Concord,” he added. “They’re going to be the business leaders in Concord. They’re going to be the problem solvers in Concord.”

Although the Feathered Friend event was not a fundraiser for the new skate park in Concord, many of the vendors donated their proceeds to the Concord Skatepark Association. Some of the local brands included Every Day Skate Wax; Peace Coast, and a skateboard, surfboard and snowboard art upcycling company called Back Alley Boards.

John McAndrew never saw The Cleveland Superboard Factory at its prime. The 18-year-old from Deering is sponsored by Northern Exposure, receiving boards in exchange for hitting a few heel flips onto a rail with the gear and making video highlight reels. He’s pumped by the thought of a new skate park in the city

“I can’t wait for that when it’s actually opened. I want to go there every single day because of the blueprints,” said McAndrew.  “Concord’s definitely one of the parks I go to the most. It’ll just, dude, there’s going to be so many options to skate.”

Steffan Morgenster, the owner of Peace Coast, was introduced to the sport by his father, but was born too late to visit Stratford’s New Hampshire business. He described the efforts to raise funds for a new skate park in Concord and the re-launch of the Cleveland Superboard as “a renaissance period.” 

He hopes the sport can continue to grow and he’s already teaching his girlfriend’s children how to skate. The event allowed him to connect with the skateboarding community and get a feel for what’s to come.

“It’s really exciting seeing them working with skateboards and being passionate about it, and trying to hand it down,” Morgensten said. “I think the skate shops are really important, supporting the local shops.”

Stratford’s idea for the Superboard Factory started as two end-of-semester papers for a business and a manufacturing class at New Hampshire Technical Institute. He took his love for skateboarding, turned it into a business plan and took it from there.

Between 1991 and 1994 the business grew. He produced board designs in larger and larger batches, built relationships with other local shops and collaborated with bands that spawned from the skateboarding scene like The Dubnicks, Rusted Tricycle and Bradshaw.

In 1997, Stratford started his print shop to manufacture boards in-house. Since then, he has become a successful businessman and attributed his acumen to the lessons he learned through the skateboarding world in Concord.

To prepare for the re-launch, he dug up dozens of designs that were supposed to be released in the early 2000s but never saw the light of day. 

Stratford was unable to attend the event in Concord but made clear that he sees public investment in a skate park as a net positive for the city. Back home in Phoenix, Arizona, Stratford said he has about 24 skate parks within an hour's drive from his house.

He said the lack of support he felt in Concord as a young business owner was part of the reason why he and many of his fellow NHTI students left the state.

“I’m not talking like some little, tiny skate park. I’m talking like these humongous skate parks in the valley. We easily have 24 skate parks within an hour of my house,” he said. “Arizona sees that as investing in kids, investing in the next generation, and I think that they understand that skateboarders are a special group of people, like they’re problem solvers.”

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com