God, I miss snowboarding...
God, I miss snowboarding...
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Bootstrap means Power.
Nose shaping is the new reverse camber. Blunted, pointy, asymmetric… whatever, as long as it’s not round its in-Vogue for next winter. It’s not all about aesthetics, a number of brands are increasing nose length and kick radius to increase surface area and improve floatation and following the lead of last year’s K2 Ultradream, which undoubtedly borrowed the concept from 5D ski shaping. The Nitro Uberspoon and Lib Tech Speedodeeps Travis Rice are good examples of snowboards where effective edge has been sacrificed for surface area.
Competition breeds innovation, fact. So while the snowboard industry might be having a bit of a hard time off the back of a terrible winter season for snow in the States and a global recession that the world economy just can’t shake, increased competition for board sales is driving innovation in Snowboard design and construction. It’s a pretty good time to be a consumer right now, with brands taking the brunt of materials, logistic and labour cost inflation but having to pump more and more revenue into RnD to keep their products desirable.
Last February at ISPO Jeremy Jones announced the Ultracraft, a splitboard so light that it skimmed at least half a kilogram off its closest rival. Saving weight is even more important to splitboarders than it is to standard snowboarders because as splitboarding folk law goes, one gram on your feet is the equivalent of three on your back. So mr Jones must be feeling a little miffed that Amplid has released a splitboard a whole 200 grams lighter before the Ultracraft even hit the shop racks. The Amplid LAB Carbon split weighs in at an incredible 2.3kg.