American Made: Postal Snow, POW & The Splitboard Revolution

Postal Snow

Airmail, America (Shred White and Blue)—Shred White and Blue is heading to the Olympics this week, ready to hand out stickers, deliver a few t-shirts and mail some missives about how our homegrown shredders are handling the scene north of the board. To that end, the new Shred Mail stamp should come in very handy.

The U.S. Postal Service is commemorating the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games with the issuance of a snowboard stamp created by Illustrator Steve McCracken. In Wiki-scoop fashion, it’s not the first time stamps featuring Olympic themes have been invoked to help ‘send it.’ During the first modern Olympiad in 1896, Greece issued 12 commemorative stamps. And since 1932, when the Olympics were held in Los Angeles, U.S. stamps have honored the Games.

Jeremy Jones and POW Ride Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill (SWB)—Jeremy Jones (8-time Big Mountain Snowboarder of the Year!) along with a coalition of winter sport filmmakers and industry representatives shared a new perspective on climate change with lawmakers on Capitol Hill: the economic, social and intangible values of winter.

Jones represented Protect Our Winters (POW), the environmental non-profit he founded in 2007, and was joined by Chris Steinkamp, Executive Director of POW, big brother Steve Jones, Founder of Teton Gravity Research (TGR), Elysa Hammond of Clif Bar and Elizabeth Burakowski from the University of New Hampshire.

The two-day agenda included a screening of Generations, a film about climate change, to a theater of Congressmen and environmental leaders, and a meeting with key lawmakers from US mountain states to discuss how climate change effects winter sports culture and the $6 billon winter sports industry. Said Congressman Jared Polis, (D-CO). “The ski industry is the lifeblood of my district and climate change is already taking a toll.” FOMO on POW, check here http://protectourwinters.org. (you can find the Generations move there as well). Or watch a clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPCObLVislY

The Splitboard Revolution

The Backcountry, Colo. (SWB)—Longtime SWB buddy Mike Horn – when not riding deep backcountry pow in the mountains around Crested Butte – keeps a keen eye on the latest developments on the snowboard scene. What does he says is the next big sensation?

“Splitboards are going to go mainstream,” says Horn. “The companies like Never Summer and Venture that have been honing this market for years are going to see brands like Lib-Tech and the new Jones Snowboards introduce their own big mountain boards for backcountry stash skinning.”

In the SnowPress Show Daily, the official magazine of the SIA Snow Show (just held in Denver for the 1st time), Horn writes, “Not only are there at least eight snowboard manufacturers producing splits—Jones Boards, Lib-Tech, Atomic, Burton, Never Summer, Prior, Venture, and Voilé—but two big mountain heroes named Jeremy Jones and Travis Rice will have their own signature decks.”

These guys at Spark are making very cool splitboard bindings – check out their how-to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuiTKdFVttc

American Made – The Legendary ‘Birdos’ of Switzerland

Andermatt, Switzerland (Shred White and Blue)—On a recent trip to Switzerland with longtime SWB friend Chris Denny and Matt Hansen of Powder Magazine, we drove up to Andermatt in the dark and snow.

On the switchbacks our headlights would beam out onto sheer faces and hanging fields of blue ice; onto those dreams of untracked powder and tomorrow and the tram in the light, and that fear of just how big it really could be.

“Damn,” CD said. “I thought we were going to have to drive out on that cliff.”

We went through a tunnel, crossed a bridge and then we were there, in the little town of Andermatt of four roads and a co-op, a train station and a post office and couple of sports shops, a couple of bars, a pizza place and a couple hotels. There was heavy snow on the roofs and snow on the roads, white-walls and wood-framed windows, and the lights all sparkling white and gold.

“Beautiful.”

At the Hotel Kroner we had big plates of rosti with an egg on top like Swiss Heuvos and grand bulbed glasses of wiesse bier. And we met the legendary Birdos himself, ski maker Dan Lauterle, formerly of Boston and now gone native and married to a Swiss woman, Heidi, with a baby on the way.

“Where are you from?” CD asked, because at first we all thought that he was Swiss, too.

Birdos had slept on a landing between two floors when he first moved to Andermatt in 2004. And every day he rode the tram up to ski the giant relief of the Gemsstock, the thigh-shaped powder faces and plummeting ridgelines of almost 6,000 vertical feet per run. Then he met his future mother-in-law. Then his wife. And then he started building skis.

“It’s something that’s in direct response to skiing here – to skiing mountains this big,” says Birdos as we drink more beer, and he sips tea. “The wood is so resilient, and the edges are the biggest I could find, so that they match up to what people here are going to ski.”

He is mountain climber thin and bright-eyed with a thin mustache and beard like a kind of red-haired George Harrison on skis. He shows us the map of the Gurstchen-gletscher off the peak, the yellow marked ‘Descent/Freeride route’ on one side, and the B-Russi-Run, the ‘Pista Dificile’ besides.

It makes me a little nervous without any reference point as to how exposed we will be. “Are those the only ways down?”

We wake to bells in the morning, every half an hour until 7 am when they suddenly ring more than 100 times, and CD and I wonder if the bellringer has lost his mind.

“Dude.”

We drink espresso and eat meat and bread and cheese, then meet Birdos in his shop to see the Fat Bird, the famed Puder Luder (‘powder whore’) and the Ghetto Chicken skis, with the 132mm tips which are what Hansen and I ride.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go fatter?” Birdos asks.

“Maybe after lunch,” I say.

There is a space heater and red walls like a little art studio, the river out the window that rages with run-off in the spring but is quiet as ice, and the pizza place right across the road. There is the tram where we rise up into the peaks through the clouds to the top of the world.

“Are you kidding me?”

It hasn’t snowed in a week and there is still plenty of powder everywhere to see. Plenty of peaks that seem unclimbable except for angels and goats, mountains after mountains that roll away in great waves, and that stomach floppy thrill of vertigo.

“Wow.”

In three runs we burn half a day. We are thrilled and terrified from moment to moment, exhilarated and exhausted, sweating through our base layers as we traverse over ‘Pucker Ridge’ to the giant bowl of snow, to the couloirs and chutes as steep as skyscrapers, then linking turns down the ‘Fitness Gully’ to our long traverse back to town, over the river and past all the white hay houses waiting for the summer cows.

We are in the little Birdos factory down the street, with ski presses, a wall of cores, and the outlines for customization of each ski. We are in the pizza place, the River House for more wiesse bier, and waking up in the morning again to the bells. We drive the car onto the train and go over the mountains, trying to remember and point to everything we got to ski.

Thanks, Birdos, for being Shred White and Blue’s expat American guide.

Birdos Skis: www.birdos.com
All sorts of Wiki scoops on Andermatt, its whopping 1,200 locals, and even a photo of the church from whence we heard the bells: Wikipedia
The lovely Activ Kronen Hotel
The River House
And keep an eye on Powder Mag online for Matt Hansen’s video interview with the Birdos himself.

3 Cheers for Powder (& More American-Made Decks that Scorch the Soft Stuff)

Shred America (Shred White and Blue)—Yeah, winter is finally here and we’re back on board with another round of decks made by fellow shreds in the U.S.A. There’s been a lot of Colorado coverage, I know, but home is where the heart is… and where lots of killer snowboards are made.

Never Summer SL-R Snowboard

$499.99
Sizes [cm]: 151, 155, 158, 161, 164
neversummer.com
Made in Denver, Colo.

Never Summer’s Colorado-crafted SL-R features rocker & camber (R.C. Technology) and Vario Power Grip sidecut. It’s an extremely agile, all mountain freestyle deck that offers quick edge-to-edge response and maintains a forgiving tip and tail for smooth takeoffs and landings. NS retained the bomber construction but buttered things up with the right amount of rocker and a medium flex. This board excels from the park and pipe to the steep and deep.

Testers’ Take
• “Classic Never Summer battle-ready construction, great flex for freestyle.”
• “Floats in pow surprisingly well for a freestyle board.”
• “Freestyle? I call it fun-style.”

Venture Storm

$985
Sizes [cm]: 148-182.5
(available as a solid version or a split)
venturesnowboards.com
Made in Silverton, Colo.

Emblazoned on the Storm, as well as the rest of Venture’s boards is a photograph of an actual snow crystal taken by Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley. That is the only delicate component of their bomber-built boards, handcrafted in Silverton, Colo. Buttressed by p-Tex sidewalls and a poplar / ash bookmatched core (Venture slices vertically laminated blocks of wood in half and reassembles them to make full cores with consistent edge to edge density and stiffness) the Storm is available in a split and solid version, and waist widths from 24-27cm.

Testers’ Take
• “Very fun to ride—be the star in your own slasher film—REE! REE! REE!”
• “This board moves like a disc jockey’s hands at a rave; super quick.”
• “Don’t be too pushy or you’ll end up on your ass.”

Voilé Mojo

$895
Sizes [cm]: 154, 161, 166, 171
voile-usa.com
Made in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains

Sized for men and women, the Mojo cast a spell on testers this year, dominating in powder and earning high marks for ease of turn initiation with the same directional shape, dimensions and traditional camber as last year. Testers of both sexes succumbed to the Mojo’s magic.

Testers’ Take
• “Springy, sprightly; picks its way down steep slopes and is most responsive to short radius turns.”
• “Gets the Mojo flowin’ in wide-open pow.”
• “The Mojo is light underfoot and has a smooth torsional flex; it’s tough to beat for technical terrain where quick, reliable turns are a necessity.”

American Made: Telluride’s Wagner Custom Skis

Telluride, Colo. (Shred White and Blue)—High in the Colorado mountains in the storybook shred town of Telluride, Colorado, Pete Wagner is quickly building his own legend with a bomber brand of custom-built skis and snowboards.

In a craftsman-centered workshop powered completely by wind, sun and soul, Wagner Custom Skis and Snowboards are built to be tough, fun, and customer-centric in that every ride is built to the exact needs of the buyer. With fresh snow falling across the Rockies and the stoke starting to steamroll for the season just begun, we caught up with Pete to talk about his own personal mission to create a uniquely American ski and snowboard brand.

Shred White and Blue: So how did this whole custom ski idea get started?

Pete Wagner: While working as an engineer in the golf industry, I developed a custom-fitting system and software platform for designing, analyzing, manufacturing high-tech golf equipment. During this time, I bought a new pair of skis which received great reviews from various ski buyer’s guides, but never worked well for me. With so many choices when buying skis, how does one know that they’re buying the right product? I realized that I could apply my fitting system knowledge and design insight to help skiers find their perfect equipment.

SWB: With the big brands putting so many great skis on the market, why would I want a custom-built pair of boards?

PW: You want a custom-fit pair of skis because, like custom-fit ski boots, you’ll be more comfortable. This translates into skiing with better balance, control, power, and efficiency. Wagner Custom skis are ultimately about skiing your best and having more fun on the snow.

SWB: What role does Telluride play in the kind of skis you make?

PW: Telluride plays a big role in the durability and craftsmanship that is found in every pair of Wagner Custom skis. The terrain around Telluride is notoriously tough on skis because it’s steep and boney with lots of natural obstacles and features. In response, Wagner Custom skis are built by expert hands, in small batches, to precise tolerances from tough hardwood cores, oversized steel edges, and extra thick base material.  The results are incredibly durable, workhorse skis that can hold up to the abuse of the San Juan mountains, maintain their liveliness and energy over many seasons, and take more repairs and tunes.

SWB: Do you foresee a time when every major mountain or range has its own custom brand, as they seem to in Microbrews and often even apparel?

PW: My guess is that we’ll see a cycle similar to the shakedown of boutique snowboard factories in the 1990s. Many small custom companies will emerge and, overtime, the cream will rise to the top.  The best-managed companies will survive and the weaker operations will disappear.

SWB: By listening to what your customers are asking for, what have you learned about what skiers want most from a pair of skis right now?

PW: Simplicity is king right now. We talk to a lot of people who want one ski that can do it all over a broad range of terrain and conditions.  People don’t want to second-guess themselves about whether they’re on the right ski that day. People don’t want to travel with several pairs of skis. Many people are looking to simplify their quivers and fall in love with one ski that will work well in any situation.

SWB: What kind of boards do you build for yourself?

PW: I have 2 pairs of skis. My powder/AT skis are lightweight and floaty with a 172cm length and 110mm waist. My resort/hardsnow skis are versatile and nimble with a 175cm length and a 90mm waist.

SWB: What’s happening in the market right now that has you believing that you’re well positioned for the future?

PW: These days, people are being more thoughtful about the items they purchase. People want to be on equipment that will help them ski their best. People want to know where their products are coming from and they want to feel good about the companies they’re supporting.   Wagner Custom tries to be very transparent about who we are, what we do, and how we can help people have more fun skiing.

SWB: Bonus Question – Can I visit the factory?

PW: Yes! We’re proud of what we do and are happy to show it off. Because we don’t use molds, we truly create a new design for each customer (that’s a unique length, width, sidecut, tip/tail shape, camber, flex pattern , stiffness, materials layup, and graphic.) People are always impressed when they see our high-tech computer-controlled equipment, our ultra-premium grade raw materials, our solar-powered factory floor, and our precision-crafted products.

FOMO: Check out WagnerSkis.com

Hit the Deck! Domestic Decks 2010 – USA-Made Boards, Round 2

Here it is Shred Nation, part two of the All-American star spangled snowboard test. This week, three more great reasons to put your money where your mountains are, and get some certified USA-made carve beneath your feet.

Unity Dominion

$480
Sizes [cm]: 159, 164, 168, 180 / 160wide, 165wide, 170wide
unitysnowboards.com
Made in Silverthorne, Colorado

Unity’s Dominion surprised testers with its ability to be nimble quick, but with a bulldog’s tenacity after tearing up everything from untracked steeps to blown-out crud. It’s stiffer in the tail than nose for better float, and features a carbon fiber wrapped core, creating carbon “X’s” under each foot that are aimed at increasing responsiveness. The Dominion had testers feeling downright subservient to its mountain muscle after a couple runs. They couldn’t believe how well it slashed powder up high, and then handled the crud down low.

TESTERS’ TAKE:

• “This board did almost everything better than expected.”

• “Very lively for a p-Tex sidewalled board, quick turning, even in the trees. Not the lightest because of its construction, but you’ll forget that after one turn.”
•“The board gets Ginsu in the crud, and is awesome in powder,” said another.

Gnu B Pro C2BTX [Women’s]

$499
Sizes [CM]: 146, 149, 152, 155
gnu.com
Made in Sequim, Washington

The B-Pro C2BTX (C2BTX=a new version of rocker, where there’s camber at the tip-and-tail but not between the bindings, paired with Magne Traction [serrated-like edges]) is an all-terrain machine. It’s also on the planet kinder side (which should make you smile), featuring a Bio-Plastic topsheet made from castor beans, and Mervin’s “Eco” aspen core. Barrett Christy donates of portion of the proceeds from her pro model’s sales to “Boarding for Breast Cancer.”

TESTERS’ TAKE:

• “I’ve never ridden a board with such an easy flex that holds up in the steeps.”
• “Holds a very solid edge, and keeps magnet-like contact with the snow.”
• “This board was like a mountain lion in the crud and variable conditions—great stability!”

Venture Euphoria Splitboard

$985
Sizes [cm]: 146-170.5
venturesnowboards.com
Made in Silverton, Colorado

Fully rockered for the first time, Venture’s Euphoria splitboard scored off the charts for soft-snow performance, due to a soft flex between the bindings and a fat nose and tail. Venture’s boards are tested in the sacred steeps hunting ground known as Silverton—even the local bar is named POW (Pride of the West). The results are meticulously manufactured decks built to endure.

TESTERS’ TAKE:

• “Strap in, put the iPod on Lionel Ritchie’s ‘Easy Like Sunday Morning’ and slash every piece of powder you can find.”
• “One thing is for certain, this baby needs some room to roam. For wide-open terrain and powder bowls it can’t be beat.”

Domestic Decks: 2010 USA-made Snowboards

I don’t know if this is the “first ever” American-made Snowboard Review. But let’s just say it is anyway. There are a lot of things to like about these boards—from bomber, detail-oriented construction to eco-smart design. Not to mention they’re built in our backyards. If a product makes the cut for this review, it has earned the SWB stamp of approval.

These aren’t just arbitrary grab-bag picks based on graphics and gratifying advertisers. Truth is, this past March we had a crew of testers romp and stomp on over 70 boards for a week at Crested Butte Mountain Resort as part of Backcountry Magazine’s Annual Snowboard Test. I’ve managed and written BCM’s Snowboard Review for the last 4 years as their “Rider in Chief”, and we have hyper-intelligent, ripping testers that make selecting the best decks easy as… riding pow.

We’ll post three boards per week until we run out, or it takes too much time away from snowboarding. Let us know if there are any American-made boards you want to see reviewed, and we’ll do our best to put them through the paces. Ride on… —Mike Horn Read more

Mavericks: Where the Legend Meets the Brand

The single name spots that are the legends of U.S. surfing – Waimea, Pipeline, Jaws, Swamis, Rincon – have been building their myths for almost half a century now. And as far as the giants go, a disproportionate gallery of the most massive waves are to be found on Oahu’s North Shore.

So when Mavericks, the massive Northern California break just north of Half Moon Bay, was collectively “discovered” by the surf industry in 1990, it was as if NASA had announced that the earth had a second moon. (Think what that would do to tidal patterns. The mind boggles). The fact that local Jeff Clark had been surfing there by himself since 1975 was like discovering an astronaut already living on that moon.

The freak freight train-sized rollers of “the wave beyond” quickly made their own reputation among surfing’s elite riders. And when iconic Hawaiian wave master Mark Foo was killed the first time he came to surf Mavericks in 1994, the mainstream media painted a picture of a kind of deadly surfing Everest just off the western mainland – an image that still holds.

The truth is somewhere in between, encompassing the singular passion of Clark’s stoic soul pursuit, the deadly realities of competing at the highest level of natural sport, and the absolutely off-the-chart cool factor of something that big breaking off the California coast.

The ensuing contest – heralded as the “Super Bowl” of big wave surfing by Sports Illustrated – was inevitable, and has already been the scene of some of the sport’s most epic showdowns (check out the prep work for this year’s event). The next Mavericks-fueled inspiration was to put a brand behind it. Celebrating something that is part tribal, part mystic pursuit and part edge of your personal limits, we asked Mavericks Surf Ventures CEO Keir Beadling to give us his own explanation of Mavericks colossal sense of “It.”

Shred White and Blue: Talk about how a wave that 99.9 percent of the surf world didn’t know about 20 years ago has so quickly embedded itself in the culture, folklore and identity of surfing.

Keir Beadling: I suspect that it’s a combination of a variety of factors:  First, Mavericks is a remarkable natural phenomenon.  It has existed for tens of thousands of years, and will hopefully exist for tens of thousands more.  In many ways, we’re just passing through.  Second, in a world where so few things are meaningful and “real,” Mavericks is about as authentic and inspirational as it gets.  The gladiators who surf there are calculating extraordinary risks in the blink of an eye, and when they go, it’s full commitment to take on something that almost seems physically impossible.  And I might take your question a bit further, as every day it seems we hear anecdotes that Mavericks as a phenomenon has gone far beyond the sport of surfing itself.  People see Mavericks and think, “If they can drop into that and face it with such courage, what limits can I blow through?”  Folks tell us that experiencing Mavericks has helped them cope with the loss of family members, inspired them to take on second jobs, and even to tattoo our M-Wave logo onto their bodies or name their newborns “Mavericks.”  That’s incredibly humbling stuff, and we’re honored by it. And last, we as a company remain steadfast in our own commitment to what Mavericks stands for—courage, authenticity, respect and integrity—and things like webcasts, broad television distribution, and heavy news media attention over the last few years have really helped Mavericks penetrate the public’s consciousness and spread the Mavericks “gospel.”

SWB: Is there any other pursuit in sports – or sporting competition – that you think compares to surfing Mavericks or The Mavericks Surf Contest?

KB: That’s a great question for Mavericks surfers, but I’ll add my 2 cents.  There are a couple other, pioneering big-wave surfing events that have helped pave the way for us.  I’d like to think, though, that Mavericks is maybe in a class by itself.  It’s hard to think of a sport that offers up the challenges of Mavericks:  freezing water, house-sized rocks, treacherous currents, the occasional visit by, um, large marine life, and waves that have crested with 50+ faces.  The Contest, with its spontaneity, utter dependence upon the good graces of Mother Nature, remarkable feats of athleticism, and big promotional platform—that seems like icing on the cake.  In talking with the guys who surf Mavs, some of them say that Mavericks is awe-inspiring in a way that an iconic place such as Mount Everest is.  But I suppose we won’t know how tight that analogy is until we find someone who has done both.  Maybe someone already has?

SWB: What were the biggest challenges in translating this iconic force of nature into an actual brand?

KB: I actually think that we’ve been given a gift by Mavericks the place.  I say this because the single most valuable aspect of any brand in my view is authenticity.  If it’s not real, well, then you’re facing an uphill battle in building a brand.  But Mavericks inherently offers up such a rich history, every season gives us an opportunity to add a new chapter to the legend, and the amazing human beings that surf there add an accessible, human element—it’s just magic.  Our biggest challenge—and we’re 100% committed to it—is remaining laser-focused on the core values of Mavericks and resisting choices that are just not on-brand for this special thing we have.  For example, we recently launched a real line of Mavericks™ brand apparel, and we’re dedicated to making this available in the core surf shop channel first, and forever.

SWB: How does this translate, or relate, to your environmental mission?

KB: Being environmentally conscientious has been a core part of our little company’s DNA since day one.  We are dependent upon Mother Nature for our very existence.  Ours was the world’s first climate-neutral surf contest a few years back.  More recently, we elected not to extend the waiting period for the last contest season due primarily to the fact that we are just one of thousands of “citizens” that have a stake in the Mavericks ecosystem.  And one of the things of which I’m most proud on this front is the fact that at our 2008 Contest, 50,000 fans produced only 20 bags of trash.  Our dedicated team worked hard to educate visitors about composting, recycling, and landfill.  For the upcoming Contest season, we’ll power our land operations with solar energy—I think that will be a first as well.  I recently cracked open a pretty influential book in this space titled “Cradle to Cradle.”  It offers a stark reminder that every action we take as individuals can have a negative impact on the world in which we live.  That can be pretty intimidating.  But we at Mavericks are committed to thinking seriously about this, taking incremental steps to do our part, and encouraging folks all over the world who care about Mavericks to do the same.

SWB: What has kept the 2009 competition from occurring?

KB: Mother Nature either delivers up contest-worthy swell during the contest window, or she doesn’t.  Our job is to be ready if she graces us with something incredible.  Our contest window last season didn’t match up with Mother Nature, and we fully respect that.  We also have made some modifications going forward so that we’re ready for her earlier than ever before.

SWB: Heading into the fall, what are you most stoked about for the coming season?

KB: I’m stoked that surf shop owners are welcoming our new apparel line with open arms, and that we can finally tell Mavericks fans that they can go to their local shops to pick up our gear.  That has been a long time coming, and it’s a very rewarding experience to see the hard work of our team here paying off.  But I think that perhaps the most exciting development is that—as I’m answering this question—we’re only about 100 days away from the opening of the 09/10 contest season.  We’ll have a ton of exciting pieces to announce as the season approaches, but I’ve got to keep my lips zipped on those for the time being.  In the meantime, www.maverickssurf.com is the best place to stay up-to-date on all things Mavericks.

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// Mavericks Photo by Seth Migdail // Surf and skate photographer Seth Migdail was kind enough to bless us with the absolutely outstanding feature image for this story. For more of his incredible action sports photography, check out his website. And keep reading ShredWhiteandBlue.com for an in-depth look at what kind of eye candy Seth is hoping to find when he packs up his cameras to head for the beach.