Handcrafted Boards

This past September we attended Snowboard on the Block in Denver as regular attendees and not vendors.  It was fun to just browse around and see all of the dope brands showing off their cool shit.  Watching the rail jam, drinking beers, and just mingling with all of the good people who are just as involved in the snowboard industry as we are.

One brand that I personally have been keeping my eye on over the past couple of years is Colorado brand OZ Snowboards, who happened to have a booth set up at the Block Party.

I was stoked to be able to get up close and see their boards first hand.  I had heard how incredibly light they were and obviously I had seen how pretty their boards are through Facebook or Instagram.  They lay down the sickest wood veneer topsheets I have ever seen!  I also got to meet Adam Browning, owner of OZ.  Real cool dude who definitely knows his shit.  He gave me some run downs on their boards and yes, I was impressed!  If you don't know about OZ then I will let them explain.  This directly from their site:

The OZ snowboard Company is a Colorado based cutting edge snowboard manufacturer. Our feather weight snowboards are made from aerospace grade tri-axial carbon fiber, honeycomb kevlar and full length laminated poplar core. We use bio-renewable epoxies, recycled sidewall materials and our factory is 100% powered by the wind. We are the future of snowboard design, environmental responsibility and domestically produced snowboards.

Impressive to read but even more impressive to see!  From their site they look to have a park and pipe board, an all mountain board, and two different types of splits.  What's super cool is that when you order your board online they give you the opportunity to pick one of their top sheet designs or you can even customize your own.  

Let me just get to it and attach a bunch of images of their beautifully hand crafted "Wood Veneer" boards and let you formulate your own opinion.

They're not just all veneer boards either.  They also have a pretty solid line up of printed top sheets by talented artists.  Check these out.

NOTE: If you think you have what it takes to throw down a sick design like one of these, email your portfolio to: buildmyboard@ozsnowboards.com and maybe we'll see your work on an OZ board.

So which one would you ride, a wood veneer top sheet or one of the artist driven designs?  They are all so sick it would be a tough choice for us, but all we know is that it'll be a good time getting our feet on one of these gems. Let us know your choice by commenting here on the blog.

Keep up the great work OZ Snowboards.  You do Colorado proud!

 

Fuck Outside Magazine

I am sure you may have already seen this sticker from Rome Snowboards, you know, the one that says "FUCK OUTSIDE MAGAZINE"??  Well I recently came across this sticker and it instantly caught my attention.  I mean, it says the word "FUCK".  That'll do it every time.  To me the word "FUCK" is like using an exclamation point at the end of the sentence.  It's such a meaningful word, I FUCKING love it.  It just makes the conversation peice more intense like I am not bull shitting when I drop the F Bomb.  FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!

Ok, so now that I got that off my chest let me get back to this sticker that Rome posted on Facebook.  I for one don't read Outside Magazine because I am usually outside snowboarding or working on designing new prints/clothes, or whatever.  So of course curiosity won me over and I decided to see what the stink was all about.  Rome had posted the pic and provided a link to the magazine where some dude by the name of Marc Peruzzi had written an article on Jan. 27th titling it, "Can Snowboarding Be Saved?"  My first thought was, oh great, another stupid article about how snowboarding is on the outs.  Blah blah blah.  I have heard this before and I was about to close out and not even read it but then I thought, maybe I should read it.  After all, Rome went out of their way to create a sticker about this mag.  Maybe there is some shit in here I should see.

So I proceeded to read this article and right at the start Marc says:
 "I was a state college kid the first and only time I rode a snowboard. This was in the 1980s and snowboarding was still illegal at New Hampshire's ski resorts. A classmate from New York City named after Dylan Thomas (and who called everybody he didn't like a chucklehead) brought a board to campus after the winter break. It was a Burton Woody. Skegs on the base. No edges. You just strapped your Sorels in and went."
Right there I thought to myself, why is this dude talking about snowboarding when he isn't even intimately involved in snowboarding??  This dude is a skier.  He doesn't know about boarding, yet he seems to think he knows everything about the sport, the lifestyle.  Anyways, right there I knew I was reading something by someone who had NO right discussing the topic at hand.

I continued on with this article and this Marc character proceeds to say how much he has helped snowboarding.  His words:
"Still, I supported my friends in the fight to open resorts to the fledgling sport, hired snowboarders to run nascent board departments in 50-year-old ski shops, helped Olympic snowboard racers figure out their stance angles and tuning, ran photos and profiles of snowboarders in a magazine about skiing, chased powder with snowboarders, climbed and descended Mount Rainier with snowboarders, and cracked many an après beer with snowboarders."
This guy right here, this guy is the shit!  He's hired snowboarders and even showed Olympic boarders the proper stance angles and how to tune a board, or should I say, he helped them "figure" it out.  Well, I guess all of us boarders owe this dude huh?

More reading and some laughing at the contradictory BS I was seeing and then this comes up:  "Many a destination resort will admit privately that snowboarding now accounts for less than 15 percent of total revenue. Others have seen snowboard visits cut in half. Sales of snowboarding gear are down dramatically, too, a whopping 29 percent over the past six years. Where did all the snowboarders go? Many are skiing. Others simply quit."
Oh yeah, the infamous statistics of how snowboarding is on the outs.  15% total rev, sales cut in half.  Notice he says "Many destination resort" and "privately"?  Who are these resort(s) and if they're so private about their stats how do you know?  Where are these figures coming from?  I sure as hell don't see it when I am riding Keystone, Breck, Vail, ABay.  In fact, "Many of times", I see more boarders on the mountain than I do skiers.  What does that mean?  I don't know and I don't care.  Yes, there's a mix but I'm sure as hell not counting boarders to skiers.  Ain't nobody got time for dat!  But I am not seeing the numbers drop like these "privately kept" statistics and I really never feel outnumbered by skiers when I'm riding; at least here in Colorado.

More reading and this part really screams BULLSHIT!:  "The sport was invented by humble folk in the Midwest (by a friend's father) and Vermont (by some older classmates of my wife), but it was adopted by Southern California. Actually it was more of an alien rendition than an adoption. Most snowboarders in places like Maine, Montana, and Colorado have little affiliation with the carefully cultivated image of "action sports." Then there's the ageism. Over 30 years old but still get out and shred? The industry lives in absolute dread of you."
So I'm going to break this statement up in 3 parts.
1) first of all do you like how he throws in parentheses to show his credibility?  He's basically saying that he knows people who knows people therefore the shit must be true!  Fuck you asshole!  Let the dispute carry on with snowboarders and Gapers like you get the fuck outta here.  Your dumb ass is obviously talking about Jake Burton Carpenter and Tom Sims and the dude (Sherman Poppen) who created the Snurfer.  Burton claims he's the man, Tom claims he was (RIP Tom).  If you want the real story click HERE or watch We Ride, The Story of Snowboarding below.  It's a must see!:


Regardless of who actually created the first real snowboard, Tom Simms created and founded style for snowboarding.  He brought the part of snowboarding that everyone today models after, which is that fun factor.  He founded the lifestyle!  If style and fun is an "alien rendition" then I guess all snowboarders are aliens.  I mean, GNU is fucking weird...
2) The second part of that statement that bugs me out is where he says that Maine, Montana, and Colorado have little affiliation with action sports.  I almost don't have words here.... I can't speak for Maine and Montana, but Shift'D Union is from Colorado.  This clothing brand is a shred threads clothing brand rooted so deep to action sports it's ridiculous!  
Snowboarding is a lifestyle and we embrace the lifestyle fully!  MEMO Marc Peruzzi: Action sports does not only take place in SoCal!  It's everywhere people can get down with sports at an action packed level.  In the Rockies we board in the Winter, we downhill bike in the Summer amongst many other activities.  We skate all over the city of Denver.  Colorado has no affiliation to action sports huh??  
3) In the third part he says that anyone over 30 is not about that shred life.  I guess I haven't grown up then because my late blooming ass is 34 years old and I'm all about the shred life.  Guess I should leave it to the tweens and hang up my boots because a suit and tie is best for me...  Fuck that!  I'm in the prime of my life and can shred every day of the week.  Test me bitch, I will shred all over your face!

Well, I could go on breaking this piece of shit article a part but I will let you do that.  He basically goes on to say all brands target teens but then mainstream snowboarding has changed the dynamic of it all by making it lose it's "mojo", therefore the destruction of the sport.  Older boarders move onto back country and leave the park (which that part is true for me), but whatever, here's the link CLICK HERE.  Read for yourself and see where your opinions lie.  Also don't be shy to leave a comment.  After all, us snowboarders are almost extinct...

So now I see why Rome created the sticker and I applaud them for standing up for snowboarding.  Thank you Rome Snowboards for being awesome and taking a stand.  Also, if you want this sticker for free email Rome at FOM@romesnowboards.com and put "Fuck Outside Magazine" in the subject line.

And, if you want to share your thoughts with the editor of the magazine, send him an email:
smoulton@outsidemag.com (Sam Moulton). Let him know he's a dick!

Stand up for snowboarding and live the shred life folks! 

Shred on,
Brandon Bettes
Owner of Shift'D Union Clothing Co.