by Alan Hodge

An exciting business partnership is underway in the Lake Norman area – and it’s the brainchild of Bailey Middle School eighth-grade students 13-year-old Adam Edwards and 14-year-old Alex Call.

Known as Tweek Skateboards, the enterprise is the result of the teens’ love of skateboarding, as well as a desire to plunge headlong into the business world.

The product Adam and Alex have on the market is a special skateboard wax they’ve dubbed “Chunx.” The wax goes on curbs or rails and lets a skateboard glide more smoothly across.

“Some wax is cheaply made,” Adam said. “If it’s too soft it will melt, if it’s too hard it will flake. We didn’t want to pay top dollar for it so we made our own.”

Just exactly what Adam and Alex have in Chunx that makes it special is a closely guarded secret. They did say that it contains five ingredients to give it the perfect consistency. The boys boil the concoction at home on the stove.

Another cool thing about Chunx is its container. Wanting to be “green”, Adam and Alex collect donated, empty glue stick tubes from elementary schools to pour their product in.

“They plan to do an incentive program with schools to see what grade can collect the most tubes,” said Adam’s mother, Sandy Adam.

“The winner will get something like a donut or pizza party,” Adam said.

In addition to Chunx, Adam and Alex are also in the process of having their own skateboard designs turned into a ready-to-ride product.

“Skateboards can’t be too stiff or they will break,” Adam said. “We want to make ours out of Canadian maple. We might try carbon fiber, too.”

They already have one prototype with an original design and the Tweek Skateboards slogan “Don’t Eat Your Friends” across the top.

“It stands for don’t be mean,” Alex explained.

Other ideas Adam and Alex have for their company includes T-shirts and selling products online. They already have a website www.tweekskateboards.com that has information about the company and its products. On the storefront retail level, Chunx is being at Davidson Cycle Center, 109N. Main St., Davidson.

“They have spent hundreds of hours on the business end of getting their company going,” said Alex’s mother Tonya Smith.

Don’t think that Adam and Alex intend to keep profits all for themselves. The guys will be donating a portion of any money they make to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Adam had cancer when he was 5 years old and took a Make-A-Wish trip to Lego Land in San Diego, Calif.

“A typical Make-A-Wish trip costs $6,000,” he said.

Adam and Alex will make a Tweek gift basket containing their products that will be auctioned off at the Make-A-Wish annual dinner next year.

The teens even have some advice for their fellow boarders and customers: “No rail skating on public property,” Adam said. Rail skating is where a skateboarder “slides” the board along a handrail.

“If we are with some people and we see them doing that we leave,” Alex said.

Besides imagination, drive, and lots of hard work, Adam and Call have also made good use of knowledge they gained in their Business Computer Technology and Exploring Business Technology classes at Bailey Middle School. They give a lot of credit to teachers Mrs. McHale and Ms. Pulley for their help.