St. Thomas-based Immortal Skateboards an industry innovator

Necessity is not always the mother of innovation.

Sometimes you find a product that keeps breaking and think: There must be a better way.

Thats how it was for Paul Hallett, who birthed an innovative skateboard company in St. Thomas out of the wrecked skate decks his son Byron had when Byron was growing up.

It's one of the pieces of sporting goods that takes the most abuse, said Hallett, 62.

Anything that comes in contact with concrete and asphalt on a regular basis has to be really tough.

Most skate decks are made of plywood but Hallett wondered why no one made them out of carbon composite material.

He saw a natural fit.

Skis had gone to composites, snowboards have always been composites, he said. There's very few sporting products that are actually made of wood anymore.

So Hallett worked with Diamond Aircraft in London and the engineering department at Western University back in 2000 to design a carbon composite board.

He called the original company Bulletproof but found after awhile the original boards developed slivers around the edges, back and front.

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St. Thomas-based Immortal Skateboards an industry innovator