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My Blog: Tech Roundup: Prospect Gets Deep About the Tech They are bringing in 2009/2010
By: Prospectsnowboards

www.prospectsnowboards.com

Snowboard tech, it draws excitement for the season and like a new supercar, everyone wants the newest developments. The reality is most of us have limited funds so buying a snowboard is a big deal because dropping $300, $500, even $1000 on a deck is a something we have so save extra cash for. We all want the board that makes us honestly say "This is the best snowboard I've ever owned" Here is what the guys at Prospect have concocted and where their board construction fits into a long line of snowboards.

Reverse Camber "Tangent Tech" and Concave Base

Reverse camber has been established as boards that are great for park riding, powder riding, and great beginner boards. Although, just because beginners will like reverse camber it doesn't mean a hardcore thrasher won't like the same board. Prospect's "Tangent Tech" is a park and powder friendly board. The main factor is the camber height. Prospect's Tangent tech is designed for an optimal ride with the nose and tail raised by 5 millimeters. Boards with more reverse camber are great in powder, but unstable with any other riding. Less reverse camber improves riding stability, but reduces float in the powder and doesn't have that catch free ride.

Prospect's Concave base construction takes reverse camber to the next level. The base on the Tangent Tech lies deeper down the middle for the length of the board. With the edges sitting slightly higher it offers a catch free ride in the park. This means you won't stick to rails or catch a random edge. The goal of Tangent Tech is to offer a mellow reverse camber that performs well in both powder and park. Tangent Tech and concave base construction make Prospect's boards appealing to an audience that wants a "go to board" for all parts of the mountain.

Bamboo Sidewalls and Longer Effective Edges

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.

Rubber Dampeners and Strategic Carbon beams

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?”

Seamless Edges, great construction, and great warranties

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.”

Published On: 11/17/2009

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