Not the Same Old Grind for Chairman of Skateboards : Sporting goods: In freewheeling style, Donald Cassel puts forth products for the pastime.

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.

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 skater who once studied to be an architect. As one of the early grinders, he realized there was one big problem with the new 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.”

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. “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 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, Barry says she expects sales to top $1 million, nearly half of that overseas.

“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.”