About Us

SUPSkate was born out of necessity and nutured by the skateboard company, Hamboards. When Don Sandusky founded Hamboards in 2012 with his cousin Pete Hamborg, he had no idea how to ride those huge skateboards.  Pushing off on those big heavy boards and loose trucks terrified.  Happily, his cousin Pete had a couple 7 foot long bamboo sticks with a T-handle on one end and a rubber dog toy jammed onto the lower end.  That changed everything for Don.  As he said, "All of the sudden, I could actually ride a Hamboards, or any skateboard, and it was really fun."

In the early days of the company, Don and  Pete would meet at the Hamboards shop, grab their Hammy's and poles, and then casually cruise north along the Huntington Beach boardwalk toward the pier.  Those sticks were heavy and stiff, but they totally stoked our flow, like riding a Really long wave.  Yes, it's just like you might imagine; two middle-aged kooks carving up the boardwalk, chatting and laughing about nothing at all. 

While Hamboards focus was on building and selling skateboards, Don harbored a desire to upgrade that bamboo stick into a real piece of performance sports equipment. Don had been the head of product at a world-leading sports equipment company had experience in carbon fiber reinforced composites in  lacrosse and hockey sticks. Even in the early days of the company, he was far more interested in the poles than the skateboards.

Once the Hamboards skateboard business stabilized, Don turned more of his attention to the skate poles. After nine generations of skate poles under the Hamboards brand, the company launched SUPSkate so the poles could have a life of their own 

We say that SUPSkate is the "art of propulsion."