ISSA - International Slalom Skateboarding Association

Dear friends and customers,

this is my last posting as a skateboard producer. (from now on I´m just a skater)

Over the last 2 1/2 years skateboarding and building skateboards was the main focus of my life.
My co-partner and me build nearly 100 custom ordered skateboards during that time, which I still think is a great achievement for some backyard workshop.

I assume it helped distracting me from huge problems building up around me.
I neglected solving these problems which led to a really messed up life with a broken relationship and a son which I love more than anything in my life but whom I only can see now and then.
I also neglected trying to get back into real working life.

Yesterday night I had a dispute with my co-partner about how to proceed to do business.
We couldn´t (and can´t) agree on a way to proceed.

I always said that the fun and soul of it was the motor that kept me building skateboards.
I put huge amounts of time and energy in building up the brand and promoting our stuff.
I spent most of my non skateboarding time in forums like silverfishlongboarding.com, cruisin.de and recently slalomskateboarder.com and longboarddirectory.com.

wefunk skateboards never was a business to really earn money with.
It started as a fun thing and we tried to keep it small but fine.

And now the fun and soul died. (at least for me)

I´m really sad about it but I decided that there are really more important things in life.

It took me nearly two weeks to overthink an offer of my father to pay me three months rent for a decent place to live and get my life back into tracks. You really can´t imagine how hard it is for me to accept this offer.
I´m going to call him today.

***

Running custom orders will be fulfilled.

Under the circumstances I don´t feel able to fulfill the initial orders for the US/CAN and UK distribution deals I just made recently at the Paris race. I´m really sorry for that.

Who was just in the process of ordering can try to contact arne@wefunk (dot) de

I´m not quite sure what to do with the "wefunk-skateboards" brand but I´m going to take the wefunk.de domain with me and will use it for my design business. The websites will be changed accordingly next month but I´ll keep up the pics of the decks we made.

***

I thank all of you for the great times I had with you.
I made a lot of friends on the web and in real life. Some of you became like a family for me and listened to me without prejudice when I really was down in the gutter. I am really thankful for having had the opportunity to have met you.

Thank you for your understanding

Alexander Luxat

sorry to see you go

Like Jeff said.

Alex, that's a real shame. The Wefunk boards are some of the best considered decks out there. But it's right to get all things back on track.

Speaking of which, are you still on for a beer in Hannover? (I've gotta knobble the opposition!)

All the best,


Sam

Thanks guys.

Sam, I´ll be in Hannover for sure. I have a hotel room booked already. (as in Munich - sponsored by my sister!)
I wanted to try and race sober ... but under these circumstances ... who knows ...


(The biggest shame would be becoming one of the best educated bums in the city. And I was heading straight in that direction with already no home but a couch in our workshops office.)

WHAT!? This sure sucks. Best of luck getting everything back on track.




You guys are still welcome to keep wefunk.slalomspot.com.

I love your boards!!

alex...
biggest of surprises...
i should have seen it coming though.
doing skateboard stuff with a family can be a tough one,i do have the luck to have an understanding family.
losing a son due to divorce can be one of the hardest things in life.
only a father can understand what this means and how it feels.
for that situation you do have my deepest sympathies.
on the other hand its sad to see a good constructer leave the scene,even though we had our disagreements,i find it rather sad to see you go.
fact.

best of wishes for what happens in your near future,may it be succesful and help you solve a few of your private problems.after our long conversation in paris i do have more insight into your personality and why things between the two of us went wrong.
it happened and we agreed that it is water under a bridge.

stay on the scene-skate don't drink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nooooooooooooooooooooo!

I always loved seeing pictures of your beautiful boards. As I have indicated previously, I'd love to own some of them, too.

Best of luck to you, Alex, and you've always got a place to stay if you're in San Francisco.

same goes for if you are passing through New York any time..............to bad i didn't get there in time to place an order

Thank you all and especially Donald!

The 1:1 talk in Paris was neccessary and a good thing that now all is settled out.


@ all:

Hey, I might take that for granted and knock on your front doors soon!

Please acknowledge that my decision was not made only on financial considerations or Arne´s and my recent dispute but that the building, organizing and marketing just kept me away from doing more important things in my life. If I do something I tend to completely lose myself in the task and have neither ears nor eyes for the things happening around me.
This can be a bless if you do something important or a curse if you put all your energy into something that is not that life-important.
I´ll now have the chance to enjoy skateboarding as what it is and what I should have kept in mind in the first place: a wonderful pastime!

Sad news but right decision ?!
I wish you all the best for the future, for you and your son !!!!!

I'm not going to suggest that Wefunk should stay in buiness with the current personal situation that certainly needs the owner's attention, but...
I rode Karl's board at that last Farm Outlaw, and while I didn't feel as comfy as Karl did on my board (like I said, 'git yer own board,dagnabit!'), I did note that this board felt as nimble as any Ick I've been on, and was still stable, and calm, enough to go hella fast with.

The build quality was very good, and little details like room underneath for preventing wheel rub are quite noteworthy (yeah, been done, but do your wheelwells help your over shape/flex?). The curve under the ball of the rear foot was about perfect, almost as good as the kicktail on my G+S Rockit felt back in the day. This board showed me that the Euros are not 'coasting' in thinking about board design and performance.

Wefunk should be proud of the contribution they've added to our sport, and of course, all Wefunk boards now have extra 'collector value', not that this should be a concern to those who will Race on these boards. Don't EVER own a Maserati and park it in the garage! Run It! Drive that pup, and grin at every turn!

The same holds true with those lucky riders who have Wefunk boards. I hope that the creators of these boards find the means to bring the company and tthe quality products they've offered back to the Skaters at some point in the future. Meanwhile, "retire" knowing that you've made a great product, and have much in that to be proud of.
Peace!

humm, yes ... never say never.

wefunk site relaunch late december. (if you wanna grab some pics of older decks do it now.)
temporary workshop at KISD.
new facilities in february.

so maybe I can finally get one Sir?

That is very likely.

There will be different models with different surface options but no more custommades (shapewise).
But of course I can layup a tough one for you then.

Hey Fatboy just wait till next year's season starts, I've got a new TS model board that is sweet. You'll probably like it.




http://slalomspot.com/video/Wefunk_madness.mov

Alex any chance you guys would build new S-cambers with a similar design but with the new Aluminum construction? That would be siiick.

Karl Floitgraf wrote:Alex any chance you guys would build new S-cambers with a similar design but with the new Aluminum construction? That would be siiick.

Hi Karl,

thanks for your interest.
First off all wefunk now is just me.
I´m not planning to do an s-camber at the moment.
All decks will be less cambered and will have concave or gaspedal-concave.
I´m thinking about also building slalom decks similar to what I did in the speedboard.
You won´t find any decks with more torsional stiffness. There is absolutely no twist at all -- very very direct and fast control.
With this technique they become also very tough but surely not as ridiculously light as the foam-ash decks are. I´m thinking about offering both techniques: The lighter slightly flexy with small camber and concave and the triple-torsionbox not-cambered with gaspedal concave. (So I can use already existing molds.)