Not the Same Old Grind : Design Innovations Have Made Him More Than Chairman of the Board--He’s King

There is royalty in Marina del Rey.

The monarch in question is not the king of beers or the king of burgers.

He’s the Grind King, and his castle is an industrial warehouse on Glencoe Avenue.

A revised map of the world hangs on his wall, with dozens of stickpins indicating outposts of the Grind King’s domain. He has subjects throughout Europe and in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, even in Africa.

So who is the Grind King? To understand the answer, you have to know a few things about skateboarding.

According to local experts, there was a spot in Venice and Santa Monica in the early ‘70s that was a hotbed of street-style skateboarding, the form that’s still popular today.

Known as Dogtown, this area stretched from the top of Venice to Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica between Main Street and the beach. (There was also a short-lived skateboard manufacturer named DogTown.) “Dogtown skating” became the underground term for the curb-hopping street riding that spread across America and to other skate havens around the world.

Then came a new generation of urban street skaters in the ‘80s and ‘90s, even grittier ones who prefer huge, baggy shorts to tight pants.

No longer “sidewalk surfers,” these skaters literally crash their boards into curbs and “grind” them against the concrete edge of the street. In fact, the dubious goal of this exercise is to create a piercing metal-on-concrete screech.

Enter the Grind King. Donald Cassel, 33, is a Dogtown-era skater who once studied to be an architect. As one of the serious early grinders, he realized that there was one big problem with the new skating technique: It was murder on skateboards.

Taking the brunt of the abuse was the kingpin, a bolt that holds the axle assembly, or “truck,” together. Often, the kingpin would break after it had been weakened by abrasion, and the board would become unusable. Or the hexagonal head would get so battered it would be nearly impossible to remove or adjust with a wrench.

Something of a tinkerer, Cassel in 1986 designed a hardier kingpin for his own skateboard, one that could withstand the wear and tear of grinding. The new bolt had two distinguishing features: extreme hardness, because it was made from a special alloy; and a rounded head with a recessed socket designed for use with an Allen wrench. The hardness gave the bolt long life; the different head meant it could still be adjusted even after extensive grinding.

The bolt worked so well that Cassel decided to put it on the market. This “grinding kingpin” was named the Grind King; before long, the name transferred to the company Cassel formed, and soon became attached to Cassel himself.

Lance LeMond of Venice Xtreme skate shop talks about Cassel as if he were Henry Ford.

“What (Donald) brings to the industry are new ideas he adapts from architecture,” LeMond said.

Cassel prefers the informal title Grind Boss, but the kingly term just won’t go away. “I guess I am the Grind King,” he admitted. “I’m always grinding.”

Along the way, Cassel has paid a price for his escapades. “I’ve had surgery on every limb of my body: knees, skiing; ankle, skateboarding; thumb, surfing; elbow from something,” he said. “But then again, if I had to do it all over, I’d do it again. Those are the dues you pay.”

Skaters pay a royal price for Grind King bolts, which retail for about $13; conventional kingpins cost about 60 cents in the hardware store.

But the skate monarch wasn’t one to rest on his laurels. Later he developed something called the Bridge Bolt. “These started selling more than the Grind Kings did,” Cassel said.

The Bridge Bolt is a U-shaped bolt used to attach the truck to the deck (the actual board). The job requires four conventional bolts per truck, but only two Bridge Bolts. Among the advantages is that installation or repair of trucks is made much easier.

The product line has continued to expand with additional hardware and, more recently, with stickers, clothing, skateboard decks and even snowboards.

The clothing division includes a winter and a summer line, featuring logo caps, an array of T-shirts, outrageously big shorts, jackets, and a fleece overcoat.

Grind King has no factories of its own; the work is contracted out. Most of the bolts and other hardware are made by a nearby machine shop. The skateboards are made in Santa Barbara and the snowboards in Seattle. The clothing is made by a variety of companies.

Just a few years ago, Cassel did all the packaging and shipping himself. Now the payroll has exploded to include three other people. Peggy Barry, formerly of LA Gear, is the administrative manager; Kevin Sullivan is the shipping manager, and the product manager is Jeff Hewitt.

Hewitt, a fellow skater, is a longtime friend of Cassel’s. “When we were kids, we’d be modifying our bicycles. Then we moved on to motorcycles and skateboards. Donald would always be changing things,” he said.

The atmosphere at Grind King is decidedly non-corporate. The only time a suit is in evidence is when a copier salesman or similar visitor wanders in. There are no meetings at Grind King; Cassel and Hewitt, generally dressed in shorts, hang out in the office. The complaint department is a hand grenade on Cassel’s desk. The boombox is generally on--loud.

The chaos may be more apparent than real, however. Last year the company posted sales of approximately $726,000 for hardware and $121,000 for clothing, and made a profit of “around $100,000,” according to Cassel. This year, administrative manager Barry says she expects sales to top $1 million, nearly half of that overseas.

It is estimated that there are 11 million skateboarders in the United States, and 16 million worldwide. Grind King may be a tiny operation, but it enjoys a buzz generated by its innovative reputation.

“We’re the biggest little company there is,” Hewitt said. “I don’t think (big companies) are shaking in their boots, but I think they are watching; they’re listening. I’ve seen changes in all of their products since we debuted our first truck.

“Testing the products is something we are very serious about,” he said. “If we get in a new product, we’ll put that on 10 very hot skaters’ boards. I’ll say, ‘Come back when this board is destroyed.’ We’re real serious.”

Six months ago, Grind King set up a new division called Haz-Mat--short for hazardous materials--which has a signature line of skateboard decks.

Professional skateboarder Eric Dressen, a world champion, recently switched from representing Santa Cruz, a leading manufacturer, to Haz-Mat. He rides for the Haz-Mat team along with respected skaters Gershon Mosley and Jimmie Young.

At this point Haz-Mat is pushing the extremes not only in its products but in its advertising.

Under the heading of “Hazardous Material,” product manager Hewitt’s unadorned derriere is the centerpiece of the June marketing campaign.

Hewitt is somewhat apologetic about it. “I’m in the ad, but it wasn’t my idea,” he said. The ad was skater Mosley’s idea, he said, and reflects a determination by the company to give skaters “more input into how the marketing is going to go.”

Grind King’s innovation does have some limits. “There’s shocking stuff on boards: naked ladies, kids doing what looks like drugs. We don’t put that on our boards,” Cassel said. “We think it gives the sport a bad name.

“We’ve got to stay hard-core, but yet tone it down to where it will appeal to older people. We’ve even been discussing codes (of behavior) for skaters. We want to bring the sport up.”

Michael Stipe, the lead singer for R.E.M., wears Grind King clothing on the cover of the band’s latest recording, “Automatic for the People.”

At Thrasher magazine, one of the leading skateboard publications, publisher Kevin Thatcher, while not endorsing Grind King products, praises the “grittiness” of the enterprise. (He ran the “See Jeff’s Butt” ad in his latest issue.)

“The . . . ad was definitely a highlight,” Thatcher said. “Companies like Grind King keep some of the original (Dogtown) soul intact in skateboarding, but their products are designed for the modern street skater.”

Cassel seems determined to stay on the throne for years to come. A new “top secret” truck is due out on the market next month, and Haz-Mat has just introduced a moderately priced snowboard.

“Instead of me designing buildings, it’s all going into these simple products,” Cassel said.

“To me, it’s second nature to try and improve, and tinker, and make prototypes.”

A Grind Glossary

What? You’ve never popped an ollie? Well, here are a few skateboarding words that could keep you from looking like a kook.

Hardware: * deck--the actual board; modern skateboards are made in the “double kick” style, i.e., with an upturned kicktail at each end. * kingpin--the bolt that holds the truck (see below) together. * truck--the axle assembly; usually consists of two pieces: a “hanger” or baseplate, which is attached to the deck with bolts, and a pivot, which rests on rubber bushings and permits a turning motion. The two pieces are held together by the kingpin.

Street tricks and other terms: * grind--to abrade any part of the truck or board against a curb or other hard surface; an essential street trick. * ollie--a trick invented in the ‘70s by Alan (Ollie) Gelfand in which the skater pops the board off the tail and flies through the air with feet still planted on the board; the maneuver is the basic trick of modern street skating. Usage examples: “popping an ollie,” “how high can you ollie?” * noseslide--sliding on the nose of the board; usually done on the railing of a stairwell (no kidding) or similarly perilous spot. * shove-it--popping weight off the board long enough to “shove,” or veer sideways; the trick is done in 180-degree and 360-degree variations.

* impossible--an aptly named freestyle trick, rarely executed: The board pivots around the foot in midair, with the foot acting as fulcrum; to complete the trick, the rider remounts on top of board. Usually an ollie is popped first to gain height. * mongo foot--an unorthodox technique of pushing the board with foot planted near the back, rather than the front, of the board. * ripper--a hot skater; someone to emulate. * kook--a skater who can’t hang with the rippers.

With thanks to former pro skater Kevin Thatcher and others at High Speed Productions, publisher of Thrasher and SLAP skateboarding magazines.