...just a couple feet past the bar I came across a small nondescript Burton logo/sign,...strange...inside the the brick building was burton's flagship store (it said "flagship" hard to believe) upon entering I was blown away...they had every piece of Burton equipment I've ever seen, absolutely stocked and it even had a Alien Workshop store inside. I was dizzy! ....If I can find half inch angled risers where I live I get excited!!
All over the store was museum pieces of Burton's first snowboards, at least four pristine "backyard" models (which go for in the k's on ebay). whenever I see Burton's original stuff, i get a funny feeling in the gut. I've been working on bindingless powderboards since the end of 2008 and tinkering with snowshoes that you could descend on downhill since the late ninties, and looking at these boards makes me cringe, its like being completely aware of the past and the future, I can see Burton's thinking when he design those first bindingless boards, and after testing a bunch of mine, we all know why Burton started to add bindings, everytime you lose an edge on a snufer you either slide with it or lose your ride. So making these things in the 2010's seems silly, why go backwards, I've already seen the wizard behind the curtain... its not even reinventing the wheel, its more like throwing the wheel out!!!
Burton did all the painfully hard work evolving the snowboard into one of the most fun boards on the sliding planet. So why is it worth bothering with?
The only thing that makes a small amount of sense is this example; after many moons surfing thrusters at a favorite pointbreak, I surfed a singlefin there...on the initial couple of drops, I was losing the board a bit, feeling like my toenails were saving me from total cartwheeling wipe-outs, but after time the ride was different and the difference was the fun part, much like snowskates, however this was always a weak argument in my own mine for passing on bindings...until this NIGHT... After leaving the shop and meeting up with SWS and Mike we headed into the watch STOKED and BROKE.
The climax of the movie for me was watching Ryan Burch surf a chunk of foam that had no fins, resin, cloth or rocker, nothing modern about the rails, and surf it as well as anyone I've seen, not only was his style impeccable, but he was traveling in directions that are impossible for Kelly Slater to do on his favorite three fin stick.
What does it mean? Are surfboards just a monster placebo? Is everything "talk"?, does it mean snowskates are the future?, toss out your snowboards?
My personal take is it proves two things: One: I suck at surfing, and Two: ride what ever you want, even if you know better...so I'm gonna keep pursuing powdersnowskating, because nothing beats hiking up a peak, and dropping a 'finless mini wooden surfboard type thing' into deep fluffy snow just two feet off the trail you just hiked, and 'surf' the trees until you run out of vertical, never changing shoes or sitting down to strap in..
The night ended listening to Kenvin talk about his projects, so damn interesting, he's such a real guy, felt like the clash, like he has seen some stuff... great night!! like to thank surfmovie 2nite for setting it up, and Kirk for giving me the heads up!!!
www.foamandfunction.com
thanks for all your hardwork, Cyrus, RK, and Burton (he is the man)
kenvin on the m-i-c
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