Words by Emma Dixon-Cahn and Ilan Abikhzir

From skateboard to canoe with Andrew Szeto

“Nature is pretty important in the sense that it's where we live. The raw materials for what I use, it's mostly maple trees that are then veneered and made into skateboards. After a skateboard dies, it comes to me. I'm able to take that, recycle it, upcycle it into a product that goes back into nature.” 

Somewhere in the heart of the forest lives an unexpected creative character. He wears his heart on his sleeve and a Smartwool beanie on his head. He loves spending time in the great outdoors and crafting things with his hands. And no, he’s not a recluse. 

His name is Andrew Szeto and he’s best known for giving skateboards a new life through his whimsical woodworking. 

Early last summer, we set out to Wakefield, Quebec, a small rustic, charming town near the Ontario border, to visit the skateboarder’s home, studio, and recently opened store in hopes of uncovering his approach to making truly unique stuff. 

But the creative approach wasn’t our only raison-d’être. We didn’t come all this way to meet a skateboarder—we came to meet an upcycler who uses skateboarding as an outlet and nature as inspiration. We wanted to find out why nature had such a big impact on his work and hopefully learn a thing or two about staying outside, beyond just sport performance.

Crafting with nature 
It’s no secret: spending time outdoors is good for the body, soul, and environment. You heard it here first, we should continue to appreciate our forests for as long as we can. And awareness is key. But what if you’re not an athlete looking to beat your PR? What if you’re just a person who loves to be surrounded by trees and to use your hands? 

Andrew Szeto is someone who needs to be outdoors to create. Not only in the literal sense because his tools are big enough to call for a front yard; he needs that connection with nature to make his stuff flow. 

“Being out in the woods and doing things like canoeing, and playing cribbage with my girlfriend—I like that kind of stuff, it really inspires me. My animals are all a big part of my life, and just being able to even work outside with them is mega fun. Skateboards, frankly, in any of my wooden products that I make, all come from trees and they all come from nature.” 

His main technique is to repurpose broken skateboards from shops and parks and turn them into basically anything he can. From his very own sauna to a chessboard-nightstand hybrid, Andrew embodies what creativity is all about: Having the guts to try something and see if it works out. After all, tackling new tricks on a board is essentially the same thing—try, try, and try again until you break an ankle and wait another three months to try again and succeed.

“Having come from skateboarding, I saw a total creative side of life. You're able to really create tricks and try things on different obstacles that people can't even necessarily imagine. Being able to come up with the craziest of concepts and to make them a reality—I know it's definitely what fuels me and keeps me going for sure.” 

You know it’s an Andrew Szeto original when you can spot colourful lines or psychedelic patterns from a mile away. But each line represents someone’s board. Someone’s first kickflip. Someone’s last ollie. Someone’s story. Not unlike the rings inside a tree, the sum of all the lines paint the picture of a community that is as deeply ingrained as it is diverse.

Paddling to the beat of his own drum 
Making things with his hands may be a side hustle, but it’s still one helluva hobby. We’d even go so far as to say it’s a lifestyle—and his home and studio can both testify. Everywhere around us, pure chaos. That being said, we also spotted the familiar stacks showing up on random objects throughout his space: bookshelves, cutting boards, knife handles, mirror frames, even espresso tampers and cribbage boards. Andrew evidently learned how to make this unique and relatively simple piece of wood and gradually went through every object in his house going “I bet you could make that out of some skateboard decks.” 

Woodworking for Andrew began at the Ottawa City Workshop, where he met his mentor, Richard, in 2017. A quirky character with a heart of gold, Richard taught Andrew everything he knew about the trade. “He was a great man, and taught me a ton! I'd have questions and he had solutions. It was fantastic.” Together they worked on a variety of projects from building Andrew’s A-Frame cabin, to carving out canoe paddles, which were then tested out on the many lakes of Ontario. 

Richard passed away in 2021, but Andrew’s always kept the machines running and the sawdust flowing. 

“I love furniture, and I love being outdoors. So paddling is a big, big inspiration. Oftentimes I'll be making paddles and I'll be working away on a canoe bookshelf, but being able to create things that fit my lifestyle, like functional art, I think is pretty huge.” 

If art can sometimes serve a function, then why not find a functional way to make it? A technique Andrew has taken to heart by upcycling leftover boards. 

“Understanding where your materials come from and having that respect for all of it, frankly, it just comes full circle. Especially having a store, I'm able to really just describe what it is I'm using way better and even talk about the cycle of all my products. Nature's kind of everything, if you think about it.” 

Andrew’s incredibly proud of Miam Miam, the store he and his partner Amber opened just five weeks before our visit. It’s clearly been a challenging and rewarding process for them, both creatively and mentally. Every other object in there sports the familiar multicolour pattern, from a massive and unique rocking chair to a metal epoxy display table.

An artist’s lifelong quest: finding freedom 
Being in nature is very freeing. You can let go of city perceptions, take the time to listen, reconnect, and feel more grounded. And that’s precisely what Andrew likes doing: Finding inspiration in nature for the freedom to create. 

“I feel like the whole point of my work is kind of like finding freedom. You come up and you cook up and dream about these weird ideas until you actualize them. Having the freedom to even be able to do that, it's pretty key.”

To pursue this so-called “quest to freedom”, you would need a vessel, right? Perhaps a self-driving technological marvel with the capacity to travel at the speed of light? Think again. Take the canoe: A humble piece of wood passed down from generations for travelling great distances and flowing with the river, generally speaking. Canoeing is the perfect metaphor for Andrew’s natural state: crafty, light on its “feet” and ready for just about anything life can bring. It’s also one of his favourite ways to wind down and reconnect with the outdoors in his Smartwool base layers.

“So when you go canoeing, your whole world is just... you have this responsibility. You have your job, you have life, and you want to build this thing that you have no idea how to do. And then once you get in the boat, it's quiet. You're just out there enjoying nature and everything slows down. Being in a boat that I built, paddling with the paddle that I also built and just getting to experience and live what you've created—that just makes everything kind of worth it.” 

Overall, Andrew’s life is guided by authenticity and passion. He’s truly in his element, engulfed in his work, supported by nature, with an outlet to express it—an artist's dream. But don’t tell him we said that. 

Overall, Andrew’s life is guided by authenticity and passion. He’s truly in his element, engulfed in his work, supported by nature, with an outlet to express it—an artist's dream. But don’t tell him we said that.