Ski Press World Inc. - Index

Ski Press World Inc. - SIA Day 1 - Index

top trends/snowboard
WOMEN’S BOARDS
Next season women’s-specifi c products are fi nally being
developed for specifi c riding styles. The last few seasons
have brought a park-specifi c board or two per line, but this
season is the fi rst time that tech features and riding stylespecifi
c shapes will be integrated into women’s boards,
giving the girl her fi rst true quiver.
“I think the trend is moving in the same direction it has
been for a couple years now and women are finally getting
the necessary products for everywhere they want
to ride,” says Danielle Hambleton, K2 International
marketing manager.
Driven by the needs of their team riders, Roxy, Rome, Ride
and Burton have pushed a women’s-specifi c twin tip board.
For 2009, board designers take the park and jib boards for
women one step further, with the addition of new tech
features and more rider-specifi c board options.
Burton is launching a full women’s Park Collection with
extra-meaty edges and softer, poppy fl exes. The brand’s
‘Scoop Tech’ shapes the tip and tail like an ice cream scooper
to make sure there are zero rail hang-ups and effortless
recoveries on sketchy or surprising landings.
When asked the biggest news in women’s snowboards for
next season, Luke Edgar, VP of Snowboards for Rossignol
said, “One word — Magne-traction!” Torah Bright took
home X-Games and US Open gold in pipe on the Roxy
Envi featuring Magne-traction last season. Her publicly
crediting her wins to the new technology is sure to increase
Rosignol Storm
Arbor Roundhouse
32 SNOWPRESS DAY 1 skipressworld.com/snowpress
demand with girls for future seasons. Rossignol, Gnu and
Roxy are counting on it and will all feature Magne-Traction
on women’s-specifi c boards in 2009.
Banana technology, the reverse camber shape introduced
in Lib Tech boards this year, comes to women’s-specifi c
Gnu boards next. “Banana technology is the future of
snowboard geometry. It is an especially great geometry
for women,” says Pete Saari, VP of marketing at Mervin.
A choice of either Banana technology or Magne-traction
will be available for all of the Barrett boards, including the
mini Banana for little girls.
The other major tech advancement in snowboards on
shelves this season, Burton’s Infi nite Channel System, is
introduced for women in 2009. Working with Burton EST
bindings, the system features only two mounting screws
and a channel, giving riders unlimited stance options and
on-the-fl y stance adjustability.
On the graphics front, the ‘80s trend that will dominate
girls’ apparel over the summer carries through to hard
goods for the winter. Popping colors and edgy graphics
can be seen throughout the spectrum of brands, especially
in the park and jib-specifi c models.
With some stores now doing up to 25% of their snowboard
sales in the women’s market, board manufacturers
are upping the ante. Buying girls’ product will take a closer
look at tech and the most varied board options ever.
— LORA BODMER
Hard goods are making strides to catch up to apparel
on the race to be ‘green.’ With snowboarding’s future in
the hands of global warming, board manufacturers are
taking on the climate trend with recycled, natural and
less toxic materials.
Many board manufacturers, with Arbor notably leading the
pack, have gravitated to natural wood and bamboo top
sheets for both environmental and aesthetic reasons over
the last handful of seasons. Starting next season, Salomon,
Lib Tech and Rossignol will introduce new material innovations
that allow these companies to take ‘green’ snowboard
positioning far beyond the top sheet.
Rossignol’s Jeremy Jones Experience is the industry’s fi rst
complete eco-driven hard good offering. The boots feature
hemp, bamboo and recycled rubber. Look for recycled
materials in the snowboard base, reclaimed sidewalls and a
bamboo top sheet in the Storm Series boards. Bindings are
made less toxic by trimming unnecessary plastic features.
One percent of sales of Jones Experience products go to
Jones’ Protect Our Winters effort.
Lib Tech is expanding the use of the brand’s non- petroleumbased,
organic Poly Castor Bean, PCB, top sheet material.
Salomon Lily
K2 Fling
Gnu B-Street
In addition to the use of PCB top sheets, Lib Tech is using
faster growing, renewable woods for core materials and
factory waxing with soy-based One Ball Jay wax.
The Green Initiative For Tomorrow is a new construction
process patented by Salomon. In the ‘Sick Stick’ and
‘Answer,’ Salomon replaces layers of fi berglass and resin
involved in traditional board production with structural
bamboo veneers. Less resin-fi lled glass saves weight, reducing
both toxins and waste. ABS sidewalls are replaced with
durable, waterproof bamboo rods.
“Bamboo veneers are used as structural component rather
than just aesthetics like many other bamboo boards
you’ve seen,” says Alex Warbuton, product line manager
for Salomon Snowboards. “Our process lowers the
petroleum-based content by 20%. Now we are working
to eliminate the need for any petro-chemicals. We also
happened to shave about 10% off an average board’s
weight, in the process showing that you don’t have to
sacrifi ce performance for a board that you can feel better
about buying.”
(For more on Eco Boards, and Flow’s new Quantuum series,
see the Boards-plus story on Day 3) — LB
VOLVO — OFFICIAL CAR OF
Gnu B-Pro
ECO BOARDS
Burton
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