All Prospect Snowboards offer bamboo sidewalls and longer effective edges for better overall control. The Bamboo sidewalls offer multiple benefits. Specifically it is lighter, stronger, and adds stability to the overall ride. Without getting too technical, bamboo is 25% lighter and its tensile "burst" strength is 2 times as strong as regular core material meaning more pop. Being set at the sidewall, the stiffer bamboo offers torsional stiffness and natural vibration dampening, leading to a faster, more stable platform. Bamboo is being used more in snowboarding not only because it of its high strength to weight ratio but it also lasts because it is continuously strong even when temperature drops. Neil Henderson, the owner of Prospect snowboards says "My goal was to make the fastest, hardest carving true twin snowboard available".

To accompany the benefits of bamboo sidewalls, Prospect's geometry stretches out the effective edge, aka contact points as far as it can go. This adds to the ride stability andactually provides the performance of a longer board. According to Neil, "It's like adding 2 to 4 cm of length without having to ride a heavier, longer board." The longer effective edge puts the contact points closer to the tip of the board giving your edges more surface contact to grip in turns. This means less washing out of hard carves and smooth, stable turns for maximum control. Together, bamboo sidewalls and the longer effective edge Prospect's boards offer harder carves and a ride smoother than other freestyle decks. Neil believes this sidewall and effective edge combination are the most underrated manufacturing techniques that contribute to his goal of making the fastest and hardest carving true twin available.

Also underrated in the design of snowboards is rubber dampening, carbon fiber beams, and even more so their placement inside the construction of the board.

Prospect uses rubber in sandwich/sidewall snowboard design to reduce shock and vibration in turns and while landing big hits. According to Neil, rubber stripping is placed around the outside of the board and in the middle sections to act like a shock absorber. He says “Rubber placement is key to a boards ride because it turns the overbearing rigidity into smooth fluid movements.” His smooth ride philosophy on rubber dampening also contributes their boards lasting ride and overall durability. The way snowboards are ridden they are continuously flexed over and over again. Without sufficient rubber dampening the epoxy bonds break down leading to a lifeless board with no pop and it will eventually break. The rubber Prospect places inside the board allows small amounts of flex between the layers reducing wear on the epoxy bonds.

The Carbon laminates Neil puts in Prospect’s boards are common among most snowboards, but he believes his carbon “X-beams” also add to the boards ride. “Our X-beams are placed from the feet to the contact point at the edge. This allows Prospect to have lighter cores with added spring back. The carbon placement also contributes to their tensional stiffness, adding to the overall stability at high speed. Neil’s take on carbon fiber is: “We tried different carbon patterns, stringers, an “A” pattern on each end, Inverted “A’s”; the X pattern is the only thing that directly transfers power from your feet to the edge. There is a small sacrifice in low speed carving, but who rides slow?”

Also on the top of Prospect’s priority list is making bombproof boards. While no one should condone using a snowboard as a bomb shield, the fact is Prospect has developed 2 more ways to ensure Prospect is known as a brand that makes premium snowboards that perform and last. Neil’s philosophy is “I’m a product guy. I believe that the best products are better than the best marketing. Prospect isn’t a statement in style as much as it is a statement in quality.”

There is a few steps Prospect has taken to assure they achieve that quality. First, the Premier Special Edition Models have “Seamless edges”. Their edges are high carbon, hardened steel with no cut seam; a real 360 degree edge. This was developed to reduce edge failures from hard hits against rocks, trees, and rails. Second, the Two-part flexible epoxy serves as a dampening system, increases flexibility, and prevents delaminating. Neil’s take on Prospect’s epoxy system: “Our epoxy mixture adds a rubber like characteristic to the compound. It makes the boards tough as nails. “When we do Prospect Demos we always tell riders Hey, go break this board. We’re still waiting.”

Prospect Snowboards is on a mission to bring some killer decks to the table. They aren’t well known and they don’t dump their cash into marketing. Instead they stick to their mission. To drive home their point they gave all Prospect Snowboards a 2 year warranty and Neil Assures they stand by their warranty; if you break your board riding we’ll fix it free or you get a replacement if we can’t fix it. Good points, and Neil concludes by saying “Hey, ya know, we’re putting up a true effort here to bring out boards that pushes the accountability of a snowboard company. We listen to what each individual rider wants and we work to build that into our boards.”

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We've been seeing some rad ideas coming from independent designers and its important for us to offer. This concept, designed by Lane Lederman remains nameless at the moment, so we're calling it the bush whacker for now.

Lane submitted his design to us through our Co-op and within a few weeks we will publish his board on our site with a chance for people to reserve their board in advance.

The point of our Co-op is to give guys and gals, like Lane, the chance to have their artwork published with a snowboard company.

Screw design competition where you will literally be one in 1,000 to win. Our Co-Op is natural selection. If you design kicks ass people will want it and we are here to help you make it.

If you are interested in creating your own board for our Co-Op then here is where to start.
1. Put together the most rad artwork you can think of, just don't copy other people's designs.
2. Submit your artwork and create a bio. What is your artwork about?
3. Tell all your friends about your board so they want to buy it.
4. Your friends reserve a spot to purchase your board.
5. Once a few reserve orders come it we'll print your design.
6. When it is time to print we'll call to complete the reserve orders.
7. We then invest in your design and publish it into our line of boards.

This is your chance to be a snowboard designer.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The North Face Masters of Snowboarding 2009 Tour Dates Announced by The North Face and Mountain Sports International

The North Face Masters of Snowboarding is the largest big mountain snowboarding tour in the country, with a prize purse of $45,000 and two new world-class venues

Registration is now open on www.thenorthfacemasters.com

Salt Lake City, Utah, December 17, 2008 – Now in its sophomore year, The North Face Masters of Snowboarding (TNF Masters) has become the largest cohesive competitive big mountain snowboarding tour in the country. A three-stop tour, TNF Masters is designed to cater to the motivation, talent and skill of world-class big mountain snowboarders. The 2009 tour visits Snowbird, Utah, Crested Butte, Colorado, and culminates at the ultimate big mountain competition venue of Kirkwood, California.

“The North Face Masters tour is going to be off the chain this year,” said TNF Masters Alyeska, Alaska, 2008 champion Rob Kingwill. “I am excited to be a part of the movement toward giving big mountain snowboarding competition the recognition it deserves. All three 2009 venues are world-class, and I can't wait to see what happens.”

TNF Masters features a $45,000 cash prize purse and serves as a qualifier event to the Freeride World Tour. Winners from the Snowbird and Crested Butte TNF Masters events will have the opportunity to compete in the Nissan Tram Face at Squaw Valley, California.

"Freeriding, the use of natural terrain, fall line, and innovation from riding style is the essence of big mountain snowboarding,” said TNF Masters Head Judge Tom Burt. “The TNF Masters series is designed around this and that is the reason why I agreed to become the head judge. The terrain will be delivered by Snowbird, Crested Butte, and Kirkwood. All have different flavors of terrain so each will bring its own challenges for the riders, and every rider will bring their own style and innovation to each venue. When the two mesh the best freerider will emerge.“

TNF Masters gathers big mountain snowboarding tribes from all around the world. All male and female snowboarding competitors above age 18 are welcomed to participate. Registration is now open on www.thenorthfacemasters.com.

The North Face Masters of Snowboarding 2009 Series Schedule

Stop #1 – Snowbird, Utah.                  January 29-February 1, 2009

Stop #2 –Crested Butte, Colorado. February 12-15, 2009

Stop #3 –Kirkwood, California         March 5-8, 2009

Fans of big mountain snowboarding can catch same-day coverage of the Semi-Final and Final rounds of each TNF Masters event on www.thenorthfacemasters.com where there are complete videos, photos, athlete profiles, detailed event schedules, registration information and more.

For more information please visit www.thenorthfacemasters.com.

Special Thanks To:

The North Face

Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort

Crested Butte Mountain Resort

Kirkwood Mountain Resort

Primaloft

Snowboard Magazine

Mountain Sports International

REGISTRATION INFORMATION AND ATHLETE INQUIRIES CONTACT

Sara Pinsoneault

Athlete Communications

Mountain Sports International

801.349.4650

sarap@mtsports.com

MEDIA INQUIRES AND FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT

Cara Williams

PR, Communications & Media Manager

Mountain Sports International

801.349.4608

cara@mtsports.com

Pamela Bennett

Communications Manager

The North Face

510.618.3654

pamela_bennett@vfc.com

About MSI

Mountain Sports International (MSI) is a private company, founded in 1997, to develop and produce action/adventure sports events and programming in North America. MSI owns and produces the U.S. Freeskiing Series, the U.S. Skiercross Series, and the Freeskiing World Tour, in addition to several other properties and concepts.

MSI provides event management services for Burton, Salomon, and Red Bull and has provided infrastructure and expertise for the NBC Gravity Games and ESPN Action Sports Projects, including the Tony Hawk Gigantic Skatepark Tour. MSI specializes in matching clients with events for brand penetration into target demographics, developing product identification and loyalty. MSI matches brand and culture, company and credibility to create sought-after events that help to define the action sports culture.

About The North Face

The North Face, a division of VF Outdoor, Inc., was founded in 1968. Headquartered in San Leandro, California, the company offers the most technically advanced products in the market to accomplished climbers, mountaineers, snowsport athletes, endurance athletes, and explorers. The company’s products are sold in specialty mountaineering, backpacking, running, and snowsport retailers, premium-sporting goods retailers and major outdoor specialty retail chains.

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Mammoth Mountain, CA – The Town of Mammoth Lakes and Mammoth Mountain Ski Area welcomed the first commercial aircraft in over a decade to arrive in Mammoth Lakes, California on October 14, 2008. Travelling from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the 74 seat, high-speed, twin-engine turboprop Bombardier Q400 operated by Horizon Air safely touched down as scheduled at 10:05 a.m. 

With a snowy Mammoth Mountain in the background, courtesy of an early-season snowstorm the previous weekend, the first passengers exited the plane to be greeted by a gathering of town dignitaries and local residents. This inaugural flight was designed to give Horizon Air staff and special media guests a glimpse of what will come when nonstop daily service from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Mammoth Lakes begins on December 18, 2008. 

“We have been working very hard to get commercial air service back to Mammoth after a 13-year absence,” said Howard Pickett, Chief Marketing Officer at Mammoth Mountain. Pickett continued, “Horizon’s daily flights will make it even easier to get to California’s biggest playground here in the Eastern Sierra. Now winter enthusiasts will be able to spend more time enjoying the slopes, and less time trying to get here.”

Horizon Air will run daily service from Dec. 18, 2008, through April 12, 2009. The 65 minute flight departs Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) daily at 2:20 p.m. and arrives at Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH) at 3:25 p.m. The return flight leaves Mammoth at 4:05 p.m. and arrives at LAX at 5:10 p.m. Introductory fares for select flights from Los Angeles to Mammoth Lakes are available for $79 each way, and standard fares are available starting at $99 each way.*

In preparation for commercial air service from Horizon Air, Mammoth Yosemite Airport recently underwent $12 million in improvements including a new 5,000 sq. foot commercial terminal building, a reconstructed runway and taxiway, new runway lighting, new ramp lighting and a new automated weather system. The last commercial air service to MMH airport was Transworld Express in 1995. 

Photo: Horizon Air touches down at Mammoth Yosemite Airport. Credit: Peatross/MMSA

*See horizonair.com for complete fare rules. All schedules subject to change without notice.

Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is the leading four-season mountain resort in California. With 1.5 million annual skier visits, Mammoth Mountain is currently the third most frequented ski resort in the United States. The company owns and operates a variety of resort businesses including recreation, hospitality, real estate development, food and beverage and retail. Specific businesses owned and operated by Mammoth Mountain include Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, June Mountain, Tamarack Lodge and Resort, Mammoth Snowmobile Adventures, Mammoth Mountain Bike Park and the Mammoth Mountain Inn. Mammoth Mountain also operates Juniper Springs Resort, the Village Lodge and Sierra Star Golf Course in Mammoth Lakes, California. For more information on Mammoth Mountain, visit MammothMountain.com or call 800.MAMMOTH.

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NEW FREEBASE!

Exclusive to the NEW Con-Dom

Freebase features a fully concave top and convex base construction all the way around with scoop tip and tail. When you stand flat on the Con-Dom, the edges aren’t touching the ground until you lean from edge to edge. This catch- free shape lets you jib and butter in entirely new ways and is guaranteed to enhance your video part upwards of 300%. Zero camber adds to the loose and forgiving feel this new design creates, making the board even easier to press, revert, and butter.

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You Can Fix the Xbox 360 Red Light Easy!

Click here: Xbox 360 Red Light Fix

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