SAN DIEGO — The Flexdex division of Ridout Plastics Co. Inc. has created the girls-only Wahine polycarbonate skateboard with color wheels, color trucks and a pack of pre-cut grip tape in floral and butterfly shapes.
``Girls can place these pieces in their own unique patterns across the boards,'' said Elliott Rabin, president of plastics distributor Ridout Plastics Co. of San Diego.
Flexdex displayed the Wahine at the Action Sports Retailer expo, held Sept. 5-7 in San Diego.
Ridout makes the Wahine using PC from Cyro Industries and AtoHaas Americas Inc. Custom molder Strongwell of Bristol, Va., pultrudes boards using a combination of polymer matrix composites.
``We continue to modify [and] come out with new thicknesses and different rovings and mats,'' Rabin said.
As created in July, the formulation contains polyester resin and five different kinds of fiberglass.
A complete Flexdex unit sells for $130-$165, which puts it at the high end of the skateboard market. Rabin anticipates 1997 sales of more than 30,000, and possibly as many as 40,000, units.
``I see growth to $3 million to $5 million in a couple years,'' he said.
By January, Ridout will spin off Flexdex as a separate subsidiary in an effort to ``plan for the future,'' Rabin said.
Another Ridout unit, Clear Presentations, placed its custom brochure holders, acrylic displays and magazine racks at the expo. Rabin said other exhibitors were more amenable to doing business with a skateboard-related firm than an independent stock display house.
