For those of us that don't have Fuel TV Signal was cool enough to upload their segment from season 2 of built to shred. Check them out sessioning what Jeff King had to offer at the Shred Ranch. There's a few interesting combo's off the phone booth to the down rail.
What's there to honestly say about a board you've owned since its inception? Realistically nothing has changed but the graphics so I guess here's just a rehashing of what I said last year when I got on it.
Board: Never Summer Revolver
Size: 161
Bindings: K2 Formulas
Stance: 22.5
Angles: 18 negative 15
Boots: K2 T1 DB's
My Weight: 165
Resort: Copper and A basin
Conditions: Sunny Bluebird to overcast and slightly snowing
Mindset: Why did I get a 161 I asked for a 159.
Preconceived Notions: I've had this board since they started rolling out the ones with white top-sheets for pre-production. Other than the fact I haven't jibbed on a 161 in a while there really wasn't anything to think about it.
Flex: Super flexible right between the feet right where the reverse camber starts. The camber in the tips gives it a bit more stiffness for pop.
Stability: You can charge on this board with no problems for it being a wide park deck. Chatter is super minimal, I only really notice anything when I get into super rutted out choppy terrain.
Ollies/Pop: Having a micro camber just past the inserts in the tip and tail gives it exceptional pop compared to a lot of other boards out there.
Butterability: Buttering on this thing is like second nature to me. I just learned how to flex it in all the right spots and you can get it into any combo you want.
Cruising: The Vario power grip lets you lock in and carve the crap out of it. If it's your first time trying out Vario understand that where you initiate turns from will be moved in and be more under foot. The kinks in the sidecut give a more locked in secure feel through hard carves, but unlike Mervins magnetraction where you're locked in till you ride it out, this lets you just play with it as you see fit.
Jibbing: It was a little big but the R.C. Tech is so much fun for locking into presses and just getting jib nasty.
Rider in Mind: Even though it's classified as a park stick you can ride all mountain on this. Right now my buddy Jay has it and he's using it as his every day board.
Personal Thoughts: Other than the fact it was a 161 and I wish they had sent me the 159, I've owned this board for a while now. R.C. Technology is so good Mervin had to do it with C2.
What They Say: A wider version of the Evo-R, this deck crushes pipe, park, big kickers and is extremely stable at high speed. The Revolver-R's shape reduces toe and heel drag and is perfect for bigger, technical freestyle riders.
Here's a solid teaser from some kids out of Michigan who definitely kill it. Saw shots from my friends Joe Mango and Scott See in here, look for Joe's double backflip late 180 and Scotts 1080 Double Cork and crazy boned out Japan spins.
Catalyst Snowboards are completely built in Australia making them one of the true little guys in the Southern Hemisphere. So what's it like for them being located off the typical grid of manufacturers? Here's their take on some of the issues they're facing and what they're doing for snowboarding.
Being a smaller brand and from Australia do you find that it's more of a struggle to branch out into other countries or are you concentrating primarily on the markets in your vicinity?
Yes to get sales outside Australia is difficult most of the time, without distribution and with a more competitive market in the northern hemisphere it makes it hard to get sales there, that said we have regular sales into North America, Canada etc.
In general we concentrate on business here in Australia and its certainly where our majority of business comes from.
With the general woes of the global economy how has that effected your company in regards to building your product and finding raw materials for production?
The economic situation has made very little difference to us as yet, in fact sales are up this year on last. Since we are only small it may be due to some increased awareness of our product resulting in extra sales. This year our OEM work has been significantly greater than the last few also.
As camber theories have changed with the reverse/rocker revolution are you guys offering up any decks with this? If so how does yours differentiate from the others? Also do you view this anti camber trend as a passing fad or a technical revolution?
At the moment we don't have anything available in reverse camber/rocker style boards, we are in the process of thinking up some ideas to use sometime this year. Its very hard to say where this trend will go or finish, I think there is a advantage to both styles of board camber, obviously dependant on your riding style
Whom is your ideal target market and what image in snowboarding do you try to attach yourself with?
Our target market is the informed rider looking for a quality hand-built ride, generally advanced riders, but we also provide product for beginners and everyone in between. We offer a customization service, where we build the board to the desired flex of the rider when ordered in advance for no extra cost. We don't try to portray a image as such, we are more interested in our product, and will let the performance of it do the talking.
I noticed that for every board you make you plant 1 tree. How many Trees have you planted so far and is this part of your companies green initiatives? What are your thoughts on the current trend of companies using green in marketing?
Yes we believe that initiatives like tree planting are the best way to put something back, after all the majority of the snowboard is constructed using wood. We have planted many thousands of trees to date. We would much rather know that our efforts are useful to the local environment than put money into schemes where corporate management controls this, often with no transparency. You only need to look at schemes like windfarms where emission savings are promoted, but on closer inspection it's found that none in fact exist due to them being backed up by coal 100% of the time. Its important for us to do something we believe in and that works.
My personal opinion of a lot of green marketing today is that its more spin than substance, sure there are some genuine environmentally friendly companies, but a lot of the pay for schemes operated today are not worth the paper their printed on.
Accessibility is the biggest issue in snowboarding right now, are you guys doing anything to get more people involved and keep people involved?
As far as accessibility is concerned we try to offer a high quality product for the same price as what you will pay for a Chinese made board. In Australia the price of a days riding is very expensive compared to just about anywhere else, lift tickets go for around $100 AUD, plus you will have to pay $30 to even get on the hill, unfortunately it doesn't help the industry progress here as it really limits the numbers who can get involved simply due to the high costs.
In the next five years what levels do you see your company progressing to?
Our company is really just interested in building quality boards and where that leads us in 5 years is any ones guess! But we'd really like to be able to help out young riders and help them progress. Try new ideas in our boards and keep enjoying what we do.
If people get one thing out of what Catalyst Snowboards is doing what would you like that to be?
We'd really like for people to be able to enjoy our product, know they have a quality board under their feet, and get on the snow as often as possible
Another Euro teaser with some guys straight up crushing it on their boards. Check out the abundance of reverse camber and rocker in it as well.
So if you didn't party hard enough this past weekend on the 4Th or you some how managed to get away unscathed from playing with fireworks and you're able to get to the Niagara Falls region of Western New York do it! Watch 50 invited snowboarders butter the muffin and have some summer stoke.
The first of its kind in the region, Snow Park Niagara Falls is located on First and Main Streets in downtown Niagara Falls. Red Bull Butter Cup takes place on the bottom of the Snow Park Niagara Falls snow hill.
Red Bull Buttercup is a contest series that takes place on East Coast. It’s all about how much style Snowboarders can spread onto the custom-made board features also known as a “butterpads.” Jib, bonk, tap and slide your way across the multi-featured pad, however you like, just make sure you lay it on with a lot of smooth buttering.
50 of the top East Coast Regional riders will go head-to-head in a jam formatted event, carving and spreading the snow like butter for $5,000 in cash and prizes. Overall style and creativity will help the cream rise to the top. Only tricks that include buttering will count for judging, so be ready to spread it on in this purely pasteurized competition!
Snow Park Niagara Falls is a premier outdoor winter sports park located in downtown Niagara Falls. The Park consists of a tubing hill, snow play area and a NHL regulation size synthetic skating rink. Check out Snowmagic and Snowflex for details on how snow will be made this summer. Snow Park Niagara Falls has the ability to produce snow in all weather, making fresh snow everyday! The skating rink has a unique synthetic ice skating surface allowing blades to glide as smooth as if they were on ice. It is a true skate-like-ice surface allowing outdoor skating in all temperatures.
The intro to this teaser reminds me of some of those cheesy late night 70's movies Joe Bob Briggs used to host when I was a kid. The riding is super solid with a nice mix of jibbing, jumping, and straight up killing it. Check it out.
What's the hardest part about launching a high end technical outerwear brand in this economy? Lots of things but John Pew from Trew Gear gives us his take on all the challenges they face right now with the launch of their brand. He also gives us their take on traveling around North America in a GnaRV for the winter and getting in touch with the people. Check out what they have to say.
This fall your line will officially launch, at the same time the economy is hurting a lot of businesses. What challenges are you expecting to face and how are you going to overcome them?
When we first started working on TREW, in the early planning stages, the economy was more robust and hadn’t quite gone down the flipping shitter yet. So a lot of the initial planning did not figure in the current retail landscape, especially launching with our first full line when manufacturers and retailers are cutting back. So long story short, the biggest challenge for us is going to be actually selling product. We are only in a couple retail stores so we are going to be pushing online sales and pro-form. The goal is to be able to make enough sales to keep the TREWth rolling for another season and essentially ride out the storm. We’ve found an effective way to utilize the economic downturn to our advantage is with grassroots marketing. Other companies are cutting spending on marketing which has created an opportunity for us to get our name and gear out there.
Hailing from the Pacific North West your gear is heavily influenced by the adverse weather conditions up there. You're producing high end technical outerwear with a flare for fashion. This ultimately puts you in a slight niche market, but who would you say you're ideally catering too and what is the image of your brand? How hard is it catering to both skiers and snowboarders?
We all love the climate and culture of the Northwest so much and are stoked to try and incorporate that into the gear we make and the identity of our brand. For one thing, if your gear isn’t highly waterproof it isn’t going to make it up here. The Northwest actually embodies a lot of what TREW is all about in the gear we make: the climate here requires superior waterproofing and breathability, the rugged terrain calls for a thicker, bomber and more durable fabric, and the artistically progressive culture highlights the desire for style and individual expression. We are catering to the person who wants all of these things and doesn’t want to sacrifice function for style or vice versa and from a small, independent company whose values they would be proud to support. Basically, TREW denies no one and loves everybody who shares our passion for enjoying life in the mountains. We don’t care if you ski, snowboard, tele, sled, snowskate, as long as you are having fun and have a positive respect for others.
Product Testing
Your gear is coming with a hefty price tag. Is that a result of where it's manufactured and material quality?
Exactly. What makes our gear so expensive is the materials and being manufactured in Canada. We could make our jackets in China or use cheaper fabric, zippers, cord locks, etc and sell them for under $400. But there is a lot of extra value to being manufactured in Canada, i.e. proximity to Hood River makes it easy to oversee quality control and deal with production issues, higher work standards ensure that our product is being made in a positive work environment, etc.
What better way to speak the truth?
Living in an RV with a bunch of guys for that long traveling from resort to resort there has to be some great tales of the road. Spill some dirt? Pick up any sketchy hitch hikers or random run aways?Any late night run-ins with Johnny Law?
Oh boy. We had some crazy insane times on that bus that I’ll remember for the rest of my life, some memories I straight up wont remember and some that ill choose to forget. Not too many clashes with the law, Tripp got the only speeding ticket of the Tour going 36 in a 25. One time we had unknowingly parked the bus right outside the police station in Revelstoke, BC and were having a little late night partay. People were spilling in and out of the bus drinking, people were lighting fireworks in the street, people were going crazy and then knock knock from the Canadian Mounties with just two words “Parties over, eh?”. They were so nice, God bless Canada! There are going to more stories for sure, but you’ll have to check them out on our blog.
Giddy Up Partner!
Doing the RV tour definitely brings you right to the people and makes snowboarding look more accessible by allowing people to approach the RV. Other than doing the tour and being there to meet the people what are you doing to get and keep people interested in snowboarding?
Showeth the people the TREWth and it will set them free! It was not hard to get people stoked about what we are doing, it seemed to be pretty contagious and then hopefully it leads to people getting stoked on snowboarding in general. At TREW, we try to have a positive attitude about sharing our passions with others. There is no “fuck you if you don’t snowboard”, “look at how cool I am, fuck you you aren’t as cool as me” attitudes and I think people really appreciate and get more excited about things they feel like they are a part of. So instead of trying to be all exclusive, we try and remain open to everything and include everyone.
The GnaRV has Landed!
Being "green" is a huge part of a lot of companies marketing right now. Are you taking part in any green initiatives and what is your take on everyone jumping on the green bandwagon?
Its true a lot of people jump on the green bandwagon these days cause it seems like the "in" thing to do or companies use at as part of their marketing strategy. TREW is not going green just for the sake of going green, but instead we recognize that protecting the environment is an essential part of our snow passion and an essential part of our business. We try and focus on the little things for now and realize that as our business grows so does our potential for a larger impact on the environment both positively and negatively. Positively in that we will have more capacity to support causes like 1% for the Planet (which we already joined) and Protect Our Winters.
If people get one thing out of what Trew is doing and its message what would you like that to be?
Be TREW to yourself and have fun in whatever you are doing. Oh yeah and we have the best gear out there right now, buy it at your local retailer (if they don't have it tell them they should carry it) or at the TREW website!
Snowboarding was founded on the basis of the do it yourself mentality. Honestly who were the people before our founding fathers like Tom Sims, Chuck Barfoot, and Jake Burton? Realistically these guys had no one to look up to yet they made snowboarding what it is today by taking it into their own hands and doing it themselves. Now look at where snowboarding is, how many people are out there doing it themselves and not being told how to do it?
While others have succumbed to being ready made or cookie cutter, I've stuck to that founding principle of doing it yourself. Ten months ago under the urging of a friend this blog was created. She believed that what I had to say needed a broader voice than doing it on forums run by other people.
Is this site for everyone? As much as I try to cover a broad spectrum of snowboarding, it honestly isn't. There are strong opinions and beliefs expressed here that not everyone will agree with. One thing I learned over the many years of being in the trenches slinging product, is that you can't make everyone happy. I know that by offering reviews I have people that don't agree with them, but hey it's a review which is nothing more than a tool for people to use when buying a product. Not everyone is going to get the same thing out of it and that's fine, if you don't agree with it don't use it plain and simple. There's a reason I title them as being "a closer look" or "my take", it's just that, my take! It's just like everything else I write which is just one persons perspective on it.
Recently there's been a lot of expanded growth and more people are taking notice of how things are done over here. Which is awesome because without you guys there would seriously be no reason to do this. Whether you like what I'm doing or don't, your reading this is what effects it. I've never wanted to make this a site about me and what I'm doing or if you will a "look at me" blog like so many others. Honestly who would want to read about me going riding daily? Anyone? That's what Twitter is for.
With growth comes opportunities and I've utilized that with the Their Take series of interviews and show casing as much 2010 product as I could. The newest opportunity I've had is people asking me about advertising, which is something I have particular beliefs on. Will I be offering advertising? Yes, because getting paid to do something you love gives you a career verse doing something that gives you a paycheck so you can survive is just a job.
Does this mean the Angry Snowboarder is selling out? No, last week I received a couple emails from an advertising company that wanted to place some banners on the site. Now I could have taken the easy route and just accepted whatever they were offering and made some cash, but that's not what I represent. I like to know who I'm doing business with so I hunted around their site and saw they represented a few big box online retailers. So I followed up their inquiry with some questions asking them about what they had in mind, who they represented, what I could expect in terms of commitment. Their response was appalling in the fact that they sent me back their mission statement straight up cut and pasted from their website. Well if I had wanted to know that I could have looked it up myself. Then before I had even agreed to anything they were already making suggestions about putting up a "shopping" section or a recommended "shops" resource. If I won't shop there why should I recommend it to people? Is it so wrong to ask questions of people inquiring to advertise? I believe that there's a level of commitment that needs to be brought back to the community.
Take a look at all the current snowboard magazines and you'll see ads for The National Guard, Army, Navy, Target, etc. etc. What are those advertisers doing for snowboarding? Do I really care that some guy was a snowboard instructor when he was 14 but then joined the Guard and now races on a hard boot set up? No, and that's the difference between me and them, I won't prostitute myself out for the almighty dollar or be a slave to advertisers. Whomever makes the final cut does it because they represent something that stands for what I believe in.
As cliche as this sounds, I do this because I love it and want to give back to snowboarding. If you have something to tell me or are going to be out here in Summit County and want to ride shoot me an email angrysnowboarder@gmail.com, leave me a comment, send me a message on twitter or facebook.
This European teaser has some an abundance of urban riding with one guy getting broke off. Check it out and see what's going on with people you've never heard of.
This is Flows entry into rocker and it was pretty solid. Their bindings aren't for everyone but they definitely have their place. Check out how it rode.
Board: Flow Era
Size: 155
Bindings: Flow NXT AT
Stance: 22.5
Angles: 18 negative 15
Boots: K2 T1 DB
My Weight: 168
Resort: Keystone
Conditions: Sunny slush
Mindset: So metal it hurts..JPG)
Preconceived Notions: This thing had better rock since it's got Eddie on the top sheet.
Flex: Right around the middle of the road with a little stiffer torsional flex.
Stability: The board was super stable when flat basing I didn't notice any real problems with it. Typical flapping you get because of rocker but that's it.
Ollies/Pop: It could have popped better but it was still really solid.
Butterability: The rocker made it really playful for doing all sorts of variations.
Cruising: The edge hold wasn't as good as I would have liked. It felt like it was skipping out on a few harder turns.
Jibbing: It locked in perfectly when pressing and was playful when spinning around on stuff.
Rider in Mind: Jib kid that demands slightly more from his deck.
Personal Thoughts: Other than it not popping as well as I would have liked and skipping out on turns the deck was solid. Plus come on it's Iron Maiden inspired that right there gives it some credibility.
What They Say: Unfortunately I don't have a catalog.
Binding Compatibility: The NXT AT matched up fairly well, probably should have gone with the FS though.
Binding Adjustability: Typically flow bindings take a bit of time to get dialed in. The rep did OK getting it done but it still wasn't 100%
Straps: The power flex strap relieves any pressure you might get on the top of your instep and disperses it across the boot evenly.
Highbacks: Had a bit too much forward lean for what I would have liked but did its job.
Binding Flex: Past mid flex more towards being on the stiffer end of the spectrum.
Ratchets: The locking mini ratchets work well for adjusting on the fly and I had to use them once just to dial the binding in a bit more once on the hill.
Rider in Mind: Someone that wants an all mountain binding with easy entry.
Personal Thoughts: Flows do their job and have their place. I owned a pair of these a few years ago and they were solid and the upgrades are noticeable and do well.
What They Say: Unfortunately no catalog.
Two years ago I met Tony and Mark, the guys manning the Ellis Snowboard booth at SIA. Just a little company coming out of Southern California and doing boards and bindings. Chances are you've probably seen their ads in Snowboard Magazine. Check out what they have to say about the hardships of being a small brand, team riders, and being green.
We all know the economy blows and it's putting a real damper on how things are going for all of us. What issues are you currently facing and how are you dealing with them?
-As a younger smaller company, we have many disadvantages but also a few advantages considering the state of the economy. One of the advantages is that we were operating on a smaller scale to begin with, so there was no need to worry about multi-million dollar downsizes in order to stay alive. Many of the bigger companies are currently dealing with these downsizes and with their drastic cuts, come serious sacrifice to their products, staff, and overall brand integrity. With that in mind many vendors are looking for new brands to take there place which gives us a significant advantage right now.
-As far as current issues we are directly dealing with and currently facing.. Like most, we have followed the typical cycle of a rookie company (and some bigger companies) finding ourselves dealing with overspending and under collecting. Besides that this year we have dealt with some extreme circumstances due to the economy. Primarily with our vendors. It seems like some of the core- corporate vendors are some of the most hurt due to over-expansion and trap tactics from bigger corporate brands. We had serious issues with vendor closures and/or extreme downsizes this year. Some of the more economically informed shops dropped orders early this year due to the economy while the others just disintegrated as the season went along. We had shops that virtually disappeared overnight (icon board shop). No notice, just closed the doors right in the dead middle of winter. We were lucky to still be able to move a substantial amount of product this year due to the growth of our direct support from consumers. It seems like lots of our previous marketing ventures are starting to pay-off. As far as vendor re-orders, not so much.
How we are dealing with it...
-So we have decided to follow the others companies lead and downsize. Many might ask how does a smaller company downsize in a time like this. We asked ourselves, with only a fraction of the expenses and departments of a bigger company, how can we streamline our operation even tighter to maximize our productivity? Our simple solution is to completely automate our system of operations. Everything, from all of our sales correspondence to our marketing and communications. So next year we will be selling directly online to both the consumers and the vendors. Many might ask, "what about the sacred supplier vendor bond?" well we will still be supporting our vendors that have supported us. They will be able to purchase product directly from the site at whole sale prices. The product sold on the site will always be listed at the full retail price, only vendors and proform codes will be given discounts. This just simplifies our work and tracks and traces all our orders. We had so many consumer inquires via the web this year, automating our communications for sales transactions dramatically reduces our work and keeps track of our transactions.
We had a decent amount of consumer inquires this last year even without e-commerce, with it we could substantially increase our output and maximize our accessibility.
-The other more simply solution that we will implement next year due to the economy is the reduction of our product line. Primarily the higher end models ( supreme, newberry or deco). Right now with the way the economy is, the typical rider isn't demanding a high-end board with all of the newest, craziest materials. Many don't even know or care to know what's inside their own board or how it's made. Most get stuck on a purchase based on 1 of 3 things, what company it's from, the design or what strikes home the most right now, and the price.. (we got 2 out of 3). So with the consumers looking for some serious deals, the high end models are a thing of the past. Along with the model cuts, we will be presenting more economic solutions to our vendors.
At just over 7 minutes I wouldn't consider this a teaser but more of a mini movie or a webisode. Check out the beginning with the whole dry slope set up, this is probably going to be the future of snowboarding with this whole climate change thing that's going on. If you're from Utah here's some love for you.
So this past week has definitely sucked for celebrities with that whole death flu that's going around and what not. Seems that old washed up singers and actors weren't the only ones to be afflicted by it, but that it has mutated and attacked super pitchman and reality TV star Billy Mays. Does his death mean we'll now see a company stepping up to capitalize on it and do some shameless promotion?
There will definitely be a rise in the Enjoy The Ride infomercial parodies that DC did last fall. Perhaps we'll see a deluxe edition paying homage to the man that invaded television sets world wide slinging his $19.95 priced wares. Would that be in bad taste? The fact that the whole parody infomercials were done with that in mind, I'd safely say that it's a proper honor to the man. Now if they were to reuse or do a new mix of these in the next few days it could be considered bad taste, although it looks like they had scheduled to do this long before Billy's demise and we can bare witness to the extended version near the end of July.
Going along with the theory of bad taste is what some people claim NEFF did with these shirts.
Frankly I've always thought of NEFF as an unoriginal company that sells itself as being original. Basic concept of if we make people believe their original in having our stuff than we are original regardless if everyone wears it. Lou G over at Deserts Don't Snow has his take on it.
Do I agree and feel they're selling out snowboarding by capitalizing on this? I think they found a quick way to turn a profit and jumped on it, which shows some serious initiative on their part and I will never fault someone for finding a way to make money. But at the same time they'll be another snowboard company that people that don't snowboard will wear which in my opinion lends itself to the whole snowboarding has sold out theory.
Now if they are just about doing a quick capitalization will we see a silhouette of Billy on a t shirt with TV outline and a saying like King of Sales? Or perhaps it would be Billy's face and say Smooth Talker! Yes the potential is ultimately there for someone to jump on the bandwagon and exploit the situation and if anyone uses my ideas just send me some a shirt.
The big thing is would we as snowboarders have cared if some other company had done this or even been remotely surprised? I doubt it but hey we live in a celebrity obsessed culture and that's how things roll. What's your take?
There's a lot of urban in this teaser and I mean A LOT! From the looks of it I would say it's Quebexico and these kids are showing off what they do best up there. Check it out.