today

Today

STARFISH Mike Olson Article

I have read and re-read the Mike Olson article published in Starfish Magazine a number of times. Starfish Magazine did a great job of getting Mike's personality onto paper. Starfish is a chill snowskate dedicated magazine, and is really worth checking out. Its like reading Big Brother even if you didn't skate. fun stuff...

Mike is one of the c0-founders of Lib Tech. and Gnu.... developer of real state of the art, cutting edge equipment. Mike comes across as a thinker and a true individual, a real inspiration to anyone in his industry. As I kept reading I couldn't help but daydream about a Gnu I had back in 1993-4ish? The thought of that board brought up such great snowboarding memories, stuff I haven't thought about in a long time, (i didn't even really remember having a Gnu until half way through the article) As i continued to read I recalled having a photo of that board, so i searched....quite amped i rummaged through a big shoebox full of pictures and then I found it. The photo was exactly like I remembered...Memories came flooding back.... I was happy and satisfied at the same time with no idea why. I had a professor once tell me that the brain can make great connections with even the lousyiest image. (Our imagination's can connect the missing dots). He said sounds and or music not so much. If sound cuts out in the middle of a clip its hard to imagine what sounds are next. He was totally right. Looking at this photo I remembered everything, the correct colors, that cheap fleece burton jacket (wind would just whistle through it, loved that jacket tho), the comradrie of my friends, and how damn proud I was of that Gnu board.... It was a great couple minutes...check the photo if you like, probably will look like crap to you...haha



Thanks Mike O. it was a great board...

Experimental Projects

We will always try to think outside the box. We will always look back at the past as we aim for the future. This we believe will improve the present december snowskate. We love how are single snowskates work, but as a team we have always believed that there is more potential for a single deck on the slope. This experimental model that was tested with a ratty prototype is currently in the works. We believe this is the board to have in your quiver, a board to keep in your truck just in case, a board that can do some technical moves, but also can be a throwback to a more aesthetic era, something that just searches out a natural line, with style....This board may never hit the market but it will hit our local backwoods spots: wait until you see the bottom.....

top deck gets a photo shoot

squarish tail

sleestack nose

...a quick sysnopsis of this topdeck..

it was shaped for a real street skater who is crossing-over to snowskating, the dimensions have been kept pretty small for fimilarity but the kicks are longer then normal and have a very very slight triangluar shape almost reminds me of a "sleastack's" head (pointed). The tail is more squared shape then the nose, stuff we found from testing and from various surfboard design....the team december logo is a very rustic woodshed design made from a 1/16 piece of maple stained red and sanded down to about 32nd of an inch thick .....This is a team board but any size is currently available... we have a few blanks that just need to be shaped... few good waves yesterday..

cheers

*SINGLE* DIMENSIONS 8.75" x 36" RED sintered base

.... our single decks are hand crafted and pressed using 8 ply Canadian Maple , engineered with five glide-lock channels that have been "skinned" with the latest technology in snowboard base material; 4000 "Red" Sintered Base with Gallium, to give today's rider tomorrow's speed and performance, now.....

Our SKATE style deck for a Bi-deck snowskate

just needs to be sealed...straight from the shed version

8..25 x 33 with nice concave (3/8)

Product Post

Finally have some product shots. 

our december snowskates SINGLE model, with red,five channel, 4000 grade ski base with Gallium (=fast)

Monster surf this week

...just checked all my surf shots and all have some kind of identifying landmark, so I'll post a pick of our lastest single snowskate....

more photos to come

top deck 30% done

what you make of it

the swell has gone, but there was a tiny clean wave coming in with some consistency, so i went in. It was empty and real satisfying. It was the equivalent of taking snow from a snow bank and shoveling a narrow path down a grass hill with a hit or wall at the bottom.... just practicing, focusing, and having a ball, wondering why no one else is out doing it.. all the snow has melted locally, but tuesday/ wens. is setting up nicely..viva snowskating...

....board building update:

sintered bases have arrived. three different models will be posted by mid-week...i am real excited, its a real pleasure making these boards by hand. I hope to stoke anyone who rides one...cheers

...not that silly looking anymore

i have watched so many snowskate videos, I just love the control and style that snowskaters have... I believe that this board ("backyard" in picture, thank yoo to the person I grabbed it from)is not that for out of the realm for talented snowskaters, or snowsurfers... but the aluminum skegs might have to go..
...my gut has always told me that surfers and more so skateboarders had much better style then snowboarders.(I might be wrong) I feel the reason is the ability of the surf or skate rider to adjust their feet to make corrections. Snowboarders cannot shuffle the feet to correct a sketchy landing. The only thing to gain balance when in a awkward position is to counterbalance with their upper bodies. Now really great snowboarders have always made it look easy and smooth, but skaters take the cake when it comes to stylish recoveries. Just look at 51 year old TA skate a pool......

my brother sent these 7:20 am today

usually we dont play who's state is better, but he won hands down today especially if we compare today versus yesterday

fun stuff surfwise yesterday

grab a couple pics before i went in yesterday... pics dont translate the glassy smoothness of the walls.....sent these one of these pictures to my brother who doesnt like to lose...

december channels 1/8 deep on edge sides

alternative designs

work day

Learned a couple things today:
....if I pre-cut the veeners before pressing I use less glue ( however i then have to cut deck twice...)
..and wearing a full mask respirator when ripping any type of plastic on a table saw, makes it a thousand times better experience
old way

new pre-cut veneers (shown here with only two plys, checking concave)

if you follow this blog

...you would know that good waves will always get our attention. And today we had some real classic waves, the kind that were plenty big and super rideable with plenty of room to bank some turns. Matter of fact we knew this day was going to happen before the first snow flakes fell the day before. But reflecting back on the past two days, my heart feels better thinking about the snowskate session we had yesterday. The snow fell steady, the wind was blowing, but inside the tree line was perfectly clean and quiet. We rode our snowskates down fluffy slopes chopping it up making it faster. We challenged ourselves; who could pick the best line... just relaxing and having fun.
...prior to the hike we even set-up a box using a neighbors' door and rode that until the snow got deeper.
We have been plotting swell heights and swell period for days, everything happen as planned, even got to surf with my brother (we can't use his video he shot of the session because he exposed the spot to much) which was great BUT that "door" box and backwoods hike stick out the most ...I hope everyone else got some fun riding in this week......viva snowskating

...we got a good day in

....the snow came down good today, so we got a chance to ride...hiked in and made a kicker, then rode our prototype singles in some fresh snow (R&D)... just a classic no one around winter day. I'll post pics tomorrow...waves should be offshore, a foot overhead and perfect tomorrow. My brother (who has a flip video recorder)is coming surfing with us so we might have some footage to post...

.....minimalist Snowskate box

got to love bansky (no connection to snowskating whatsoever but still fun)

Superbowl