BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:

The first time Frank Davern got an order for a girl’s skateboard, he didn’t have one quite ready to ship. In fact, he had never made a skateboard in his life.

The Balboa Island resident, who founded the Cool Girl Decks skateboard company four years ago, stumbled upon his enterprise through a happy accident. In the late 1990s, Davern launched the website Coolgrrrls.com to spotlight female musicians around the world. One day, a German magazine devoted to youth culture ran an article about the site — and since the magazine covered sports as well as music, a number of readers assumed Davern made both as well.

“I got e-mails from a couple of people saying, ‘I can’t find your Cool Girl skateboards anywhere on the site,’” he said.

Davern found the idea intriguing, though, and began doing research into the world of board manufacturing. A skateboarder friend introduced him to a factory in Montreal, while Davern interviewed girls at the local skate parks to ask for their suggestions. The ultimate fruit of his labor was Cool Girl Decks, which offers all-maple boards a few ounces lighter than regular models, a pink-heavy color scheme and logos that blend the macho and the feminine.

The company sells boards at sport shops around the region and has its own team of girls — and women — to represent it at nationwide competitions. Davern reached another breakthrough this year when Skelanimals, a Calabasas-based designer, called on Cool Girl Decks to distribute its own line of skateboards.

Devin Briggs, the assistant manager of the Jokers Skate Shop in Huntington Beach, said he often got female customers looking for skateboards before his shop began stocking Cool Girl Decks last year. Often, he said, girls ended up browsing through the regular boards for their favorite colors.

“It’s always hard for a girl to find what kind of skateboard they like,” Briggs said.

Image is important as well to Davern, who got the idea for his favorite logo — a “pirate girl” with an eye patch, a headband and two swords crossed behind her — when he drove behind a truck with an Oakland Raiders sticker colored pink. The design, he said, inspired him to put a twist on another popular symbol of male youth culture.

“We’re kind of making fun of the dead and the crossbones with a pretty girl smiling,” Davern said.

FOUNDER: Frank Davern

HEADQUARTERS: Balboa Island

SPECIALTY: Skateboards for girls

WEBSITE: www.coolgirldecks.com

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com.