Check Out Jeff Lusk and Jason Coon’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Lusk and Jason Coon.

Hi Jeff and Jason, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Cycloptic Vision Skateboards was founded in the Spring of 2022 by Jason Coon and myself. We skated together a lot and often discussed our favorite skaters and skate brands. One day we met up to skate and Jay showed me some drawings by his son Zander. Jason wanted to create a board company and he based the name on characters his son drew. He wanted to incorporate them into some board graphics, so we contacted a mutual friend who is a graphic designer. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts prevented us from collaborating, so I told Jason that I wanted to take a shot at designing the graphics.

After creating our first run of boards, I became the DeFacto Art Director for the brand. developing graphics, filming our team riders, editing videos, designing merchandise, and maintaining our social media presence on Instagram & YouTube. As Brand Manager, Jason oversees operations, coaches the skateboard team, manages events, film dates, and road trips, sets up contests, and maintains relationships with skate shops. We currently have boards in six skate shops in three states. We owe a big debt to our local skate shops: Cecil’s, Compound, and Blue Flowers for being so supportive of us and the skate community. We are also extremely fortunate and grateful to have boarded at Skyview skate shop in Madisonville, KY, and Change skate shop in Tupelo, MS.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Juggling family, full-time jobs, and a small business is a lot of work, but it has been both fun and rewarding. Funding the brand and scheduling time can be difficult. Getting our boards into shops went well for us right away. The local shops and skate community were welcoming and supportive. Managing a skate team presents its own distinct challenges. It is a joy to support local skaters and they bring a great deal of value to the experience. The team riders are a great source of inspiration and product feedback.

We adapt our products based on their evaluations as well as our own opinions on the performance of our boards. We are very proud of the skateboards we make, but we also recognize that there’s always room for improvement. We taught ourselves every aspect of running a skate brand and that has required patience and the willingness to learn and push past temporary failures. As skaters, we are used to falling and getting up to try again.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Jason is a master carpenter, skilled musician, talented skateboarder, and ramp builder. He designs and constructs wooden and concrete obstacles for our DIY spots, and contests. He also builds miniature fingerboard ramps, skateparks, and obstacles for competitions and on commission. Our new endeavor is constructing scale replicas of famous street skating spots, ramps, and bowls. The fingerboard endeavors have been very well received by kids in our area. Jason hand-pours Cycloptic skate wax; films skaters and oversees the pop-up shop that we set up in skateparks to sell boards and merch.

I am a recording engineer and sound designer for Warner Chappell Production Music. I work on music for film, TV, video games, and advertising. I also teach audio production and guitar at W.O. Smith School of Music where I have volunteered for over 10 years. I play multiple instruments, but guitar and voice are my preference. I enjoy photography, graphic design, and other arts and crafts including silk screening, stencil art, and block printing. I design and print all of our shirts, hand-pour skate wax, and design stickers, stencils, product labels, flyers, and posters. We prefer to do most everything ourselves and truly embrace a handmade/DIY ethos. We strive to make the best products we can with a focus on giving back to skateboarding. We enjoy helping to support and grow our local skate scene/community.

Our boards are made by Woodchuck Laminates in Oceanside, CA, and Point Distribution in Las Vegas, NV. Our manufacturers are a huge part of our success. They both make amazing boards using North American hard-rock maple. They made the manufacturing process easy and worry-free for us.

What makes you happy?
Creating art, making music, enjoying shared activities with friends, and spreading the pure joy of skateboarding. Seeing folks ride our boards is amazing. We love hosting contests and events. Seeing the looks on the kids’ faces as they participate and compete for prizes is the best!

The board brand is a wonderful creative outlet for us as well as a meaningful way to give back to the sport/lifestyle we love so much. We are proud to be a sponsor of the Little Free Skate Shop which gives skateboarding equipment to kids who might not be able to afford a setup otherwise. They would make a great interview for you as well. It is run by my dear friend Mike Mitchell who is an art teacher at McGavock High and also runs the school’s skateboarding club.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @cyclopticvisionskateboards
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cyclopticvisionskateboards5194

Image Credits
J. Lusk, J. Coon, and E. Brackenbury