Lighting up longboards - Temecula man invents flashy skateboard accessory

By: NICOLE SACK - Staff Writer | Sunday, July 15, 2007 9:38 PM PDT ∞

TEMECULA ---- When David Flecha lit up a cigar last year, he also ignited the idea for a new product.

Flecha was sitting poolside at his home last June getting ready to fire up a cigar. His wife, Karen, had bought a tacky gas-station lighter that lit up with LED lights when it was sparked. She playfully gave it to her husband, not realizing the effect the novelty gift would have.

"So, I was lighting my cigar and thought, wouldn't it look cool if I could put that on the bottom of my skateboard?" the Temecula man recalled. "Sometimes, ideas come out of weird corners of your mind."

And that's how it began and when "he started taking everything that blinked apart," said Karen Flecha.

From there, Flecha was on a mission to create illuminated risers for longboards. Risers are installed between the board and the trucks, which hold the wheels, to give extra height and to keep the wheels from biting into the board on turns.

Flecha is calling his invention SK8Vision Riser lights, which he said are for both style and safety.

The LED lights can be seen from 700 feet away, he said, and though the six lights alternate blinking, there is constant light emitted from the 2 1/4-inch-by-3 1/4-inch devices made of high-strength plastic. The risers get 45 hours of light time from two AAA batteries.

"It was a struggle to get this far," Flecha said. "I had to figure out how to approach someone who does injection molding and knew something about LED lights. When I finally found a company that knew how to combine LEDs and the molds, it turned out they didn't know anything about skateboards."

After a series of prototypes and revisions, Flecha developed a product he was satisfied with and began marketing it in April.

"I didn't want to put something out that didn't work. I designed them so they would be indestructible," Flecha said. "We've been testing them since October. I had some big kids, 180- and 200-pounders, testing them out. We haven't had one break yet. If you don't try something, you'll never know if it works. If it doesn't, at least you tried."

Flecha, 44, grew up in Huntington Beach and has been a skateboarder since he was 9. He and his wife moved to Temecula in 1988. He has been a contractor for 20 years, building a variety of well-known chain restaurants in Southern California.

"It's hard to get into the skateboard industry. What hasn't been done?" Flecha asked. "I'm trying to make this my little niche."

Flecha's risers are being sold online as well as locally and cost about $16 each. Jay's Boardshop, at 40810 Winchester Road, has been selling the product for about a month and so far, sales are "so-so," said Jay Austin, owner of the store.

"It's a brand new product and is just getting off the ground," Austin said. "While the pricing will have to work itself out, the product is valuable. For those longboard (riders), it is a good thing for safety."

Flecha said that if his lighted risers are successful, he would like to continue with marketing footwear and apparel as well as sponsoring riders under the SK8Vision name.

"I think skateboarding is a great sport. Kids should be outdoors getting some exercise and socializing instead of inside playing video games," Flecha said.

Contact staff writer Nicole Sack at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2616, or nsack@californian.com. Comment at www.californian.com.

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