Area Couple’s Skate Shop Bus is Rochester’s Hottest New Business

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ROCHESTER — Past the cow fields and chicken coops of rural Rochester, tucked inside a stand of pine trees, sits a dark blue, 1990 International S series bus.

Though the diesel bus has not moved since at least March, it’s not broken down or needing repaired. The seats have all been removed and the interior has been transformed into a skate shop, named Backyard Boards Skate Shop, owned by Jay and Jai Boiselle at their property on Furman Street.

The husband and wife also own Twisted Monkey Skate Shop in Kelso, and their skate shop in a bus was borne from the COVID-19 pandemic. When their store at the Three Rivers Mall in Kelso was shut down on March 15 due to the pandemic, they started getting mass calls for skateboarders looking for gear. So they pulled their inventory and brought it to their home in Rochester and put it inside their 30-year-old bus that was originally meant to be a party bus.

“People do not expect, when they’re driving by cows and chickens, to encounter a full-on skate shop that would rival anything in any of the big cities,” Jay said.

Their new shop opened in April and soon customers were arriving from as far north as Everett and as far south as Portland because so many skate shops in Western Washington were closed. There are currently no skate shops in Lewis County, and the closest ones to Backyard Boards Skate Shop are in Olympia to the north and the Boiselles Twisted Monkey store in Kelso. Not only that, gear was becoming difficult to find.

“There’s actually a skateboarding shortage in the world right now,” Jay said. 

It was fueled, Jay said, by the state’s stay-at-home order that ran from March 24 to May 1. Skateboarding is basically a free hobby once a person buys a skateboard as skateparks and cruising around town costs no money. More people than ever began trying out skateboarding and using it as an outlet to get outside and stay in shape.

“There are more women, girls and new people getting into skating,” Jay said. “We’ve had guys in their 50s getting back into skating. It’s probably the cheapest hobby around.”

The shortage of gear has also been due to the bulk of skateboards being manufactured in China and Mexico as overall imports from China to the U.S. dropped 14 percent by May 7, according to marketplace.org.

It created a backlog for inventory for the roughly 4,000 skate shops in the U.S., Jay said. One skate shop in Korea ordered 1,000 boards from a single supplier. Shops are now being limited to ordering one or two boards per style, and sometimes even trucks, which are metal, T-shaped pieces that mount to the board and anchor the wheels.

“And it’s been like that all over the world,” Jay said. “Once something becomes available it’s gone in literally minutes.”

Now, their Twisted Monkey Skate Shop, which has 10 times the inventory the bus shop has, is open again at Three Rivers Mall. But the Boiselles have been getting so many calls and customers at their bus shop that they’ve decided to keep it open as well.

“We were thinking of doing a temporary store here but now we’re going to keep it,” Jai said. “The customers love to take pictures.”

The Backyard Boards Skate Shop’s Facebook page is filled with kids, teenagers and young adults posing with new boards and gear they bought from the bus. All the materials are quality and an entry-level setup for someone new wanting to start out would run about $120 to $225 for a full skateboard.

The skate bus carries all the major brands of decks, trucks, wheels, bearings, hardware, grip tape and so forth. Pretty much everything a skateboarder needs. It carries 30 different deck brands, everything from the most well-known popsicle-style boards used at skateparks, to the increasingly-popular longboards and the old-school wider-styled boards. Some of the more well-known brands included are Powell-Peralta, Bones, Santa Cruz, Boulevard, Creature and many more.

“No skateboard that rolls out of here is ever the same,” Jay said.

It’s been a rewarding gamble for the Boiselles, who also have their skate technician, John Villarreal, living onsite just yards away from their house and the skate bus. Villarreal is an expert at tearing apart and putting boards together and can construct one in about 45 minutes.

The skate bus is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. The Boiselles say to call ahead of time just to make sure they haven’t stepped out to run an errand. They even will accommodate customers who are unable to stop by the store during regular hours. Backyard Boards Skate Shop can be contacted by phone at 206-859-8363 or through its Facebook page at facebook.com/TwistedMonkeySkateShop.

More Information on Backyard Boards Skate Shop

Owner: Jay and Jai Boiselle

Location: 17414 Furman St. SW, Rochester

Phone: 206-859-8363

Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., daily

Facebook: facebook.com/TwistedMonkeySkateShop

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Reporter Eric Trent can be reached at etrent@chronline.com. Visit chronline.com/business for more coverage of local businesses.