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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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KNOCKOUT 'the tenth round' is now available for purchase in our online store.

With ten years under our belt, Alterna Films hits you up with another instant classic.
Knockout ‘the tenth round’ stands out from the pack with highlights that include an exotic journey through India to the Himalayas.
This film is a quenching blend of inventive freestyle snowboarding with a cinematic punch.
Locations: India, Japan, Aspen Colorado, Mammoth California, Whistler Backcountry, Mount Washington, Grouse Mountain, Montreal Quebec, Austria and Slovenia.
Riders: Matt Belzile, Chris Dufficy, Seb Toots, Takaharu Nakai, Tadej Valentan, JF Fortin, Matt Beardmore, Greg Maxwell, Craig Beaulieu and friends.

Here is the link for the Alterna Store

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Whistler recently hosted the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival from April 11th to the 20th. In what has become an annual event for me, I made my usual pilgrimage to Whistler to attend; an attempt to escape the concrete, mortar, metal, and glass wilderness for the snowy peaks of British Columbia.

Upon unloading at the bus loop in the main village, I came to the realisation that my accommodations were actually in the upper village. This meant that all my gear had to be hauled to the proper location. I guess the gods wanted to make sure that I was properly warmed up and exposed to the nature I was so fervently seeking, so I ended up rolling my wheelie locker through Fitzsimmons trail (a failure of my geographic knowledge of the village indeed) to the condo. When I finally got myself and my gear to Glacier Lodge, it was time to ring up the peeps in order to exchange greetings, hugs, hi-fives, and tall tales. I tracked them down at the Longhorn and joined them up for a little après (après bus trip for me, après snowboarding for them).

The amazing thing about the Telus World Ski and Snowboard festival is that, although it only happens once a year, there's a sense of familiarity when you run into friends you haven't seen since the last festival. It was as though last year's festival never ended and everyone just picked up where they left off (with the possible exception of the new faces which were promptly integrated into the group of dirtbags).

Saturday morning finally rolled around and it was time for the long awaited first runs up Blackcomb to hold congress with the mountain. In keeping with my usual modus operandi of deep metaphysical self-discovery on the chairlift (not self-exploration you perverts), I got to thinking about the struggle between the physical and the divine. I was cogitating on the true nature of the connection between the body, soul, and the mountain. The physical connection is obvious (this was on my mind due to a knee injury sustained the week prior in Banff), but the spiritual connection was a bit more difficult to pin down.

I went snowboarding everyday that I was in Whistler resulting in my body being in various states of "ache and pain" throughout, but I felt content. The crew I was riding with was also changing daily from groups as large as twelve to being by myself. The same sense of contentment, however, was always there regardless of how large or small the group was. This led me to remember a quote from a famous Jedi master in the movie "The Empire Strikes Back." When Luke asks Yoda what might be found in the cave, Yoda's answer was "only what you take with you." This is significant in many ways and is especially evident on those solo freshie manoeuvres that I often partake in. It led me to realize that whenever I'm snowboarding, all my loved ones are there with me in their purest essence (without any noise caused by things so caustic as cliques or inter-personal drama). This I believe is where the spiritual comes in. Although Whistler/Blackcomb, the resort, is itself a morass of steel, concrete, cables and glass, when the p-tex hits the snow, none of that really matters, all that's there is what you brought with you. Although the sensations are dramatically physical, the exileration is just as dramatically spiritual and this is what drives me, and I'm sure many others, to pursue this congress with the mountain.

Between the crazy parties, the jokes about shi*t-tickets (toilet paper), the drinking, and the general shenanigans, the occasional runs on mahogany ridge, the important part of Telus seems to have been coming together with people we care about in the nature we all love. To borrow a phrase from a loved one, I left Whistler with my body having that used and abused feeling, however, I also left Whistler feeling enriched from revisiting old friendships and making new ones. With that, I can honestly say that I can't wait until next year's festival. I hope to see you all there. Until then...

Keep Shreddin' the GNAR!

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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Office Booyz Bear Mtn 08!

Well the tradition of crappy weather followed the Office Booyz contest all the way down to California this year for our first ever Office Booyz event held south of the Canadian boarder. Bad weather boarding isn't out of the norm for the local mountains of Vancouver but for it to happen at Bear had us a little worried. Despite the weather we had an amazing turnout and an ever better time. Here's some highlights of the action that went down during the contest.




Chris from Drop with the big point to the judges!




Burton's ICEman with the one footer.




Reverse taco!



Eric from TWS skateboarding keeping it skate with an indy over the donut.

A big thanks goes out to everyone at Malakye.com, Bear Mountain, Future Trade News, Jager and everyone who came out for making the event a huge success. Next years gonna be bigger and better!

Thats it for now!

Keep posted for Office Booyz Vancouver details. This is the year we'll be eating donuts and drinking coffee in the sun!

Monday, February 25, 2008

tickle me emo

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This last Saturday was unreal. Monarch had at least 10-12 inches of fresh. There are no bad lines when the snow is that good. I took a few hits and made a few runs that are reserved for user friendly snow days. the crew on board consisted of the Mr, Mrs, and LBP. It was nice to see everyone relax upon take off and before I knew it there was a party in the car after stopping in Hartsel. The smell of Vodka and RedBull filled the air as we approached the final climb up the pass. I'm walking in a spider web so leave and message and I'll call you back... It's all your fault I screen my phone calls. So word of a 7 day 4 resort road trip has surfaced. Wolf Creek, Purgatory, Crested Butte, and of course Monarch have been put on the table. Trip of a lifetime for anyone really. I like to think I will train for this B-Day Blowout because it sure would make things easier to be fit. Mid season training I AM getting a bit conservative in my old age.

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