www.youtube.com/watch?v=-92lmOjqczE

Molly from Evo filmed the Pillow Fight weekend at Stevens Pass this past February and the video weekend recap is up. Take a look and, ladies, be sure to come next year!

We started out touring the front offices. When we walked in the front door it was easy to see that we were surrounded by people that loved to ski and snowboard. There were skis and boards hanging on the wall that showed the progression of design that’s happened, there were old advertisements and posters everywhere. One wall had snowshoes. Here, Molly was checking out the bike pictures.

Molly getting the perfect shot.

Cubes were lined with boots and bindings.

Ride snowboard boots.

Then we checked out the marketing and development offices for K2 and Ride. The K2 office was definitely going for the old west vibe.

K2 marketing and development office.

One thing that was really cool to see was all of the design comps hanging for board graphics. Here you can see the light box and a rack of designs. There were two racks like this.

Snowboard design comps for the top sheet and base graphics.

Once we were done in the front offices, we headed down to the production area. Ride is set-up so they can design and create prototype boards in house. Once the boards are ready for blind testing, they head out to the Summit for some riding.

Rolls of different types of fiberglass.

The best part of the whole tour was seeing how snowboards are made. Paul made a complete, ride-able board while we watched. In one board there are 20-30 different layers all held together with epoxy. Each layer is different and certain combinations of wood and carbon make boards that have varying degrees of snap or stiffness. The board we saw being made had three different types of wood. Certain wood was chosen for its lightweight quality and others were used for their durability. Each layer was so thin. Watching a board in production it was easier to see how a poor coating of epoxy can make a board delaminate.

Paul showing us how a snowboard is made.

Once all of the layers were added to the board, it was sandwiched in between fitted metal plates. The plates hold the layers in place as it is heated and pressed together by the machine below. You can see the curve of the press where the tip and the tail of a snowboard are. They use air pockets to make sure the board stays smooth throughout the entire pressing process.

Doug, our tour guide, explaining how the press works.

Once the board was done, we headed over to the printing room where we got to see how graphics were made. Ride has both a screening processes as well as a digital printer.

Sample of a board graphic.

Ride also tests durability in house. One of the ways they test their boards is to see if they can hold up to -4 degrees F. The freezer reminded me of restaurant freezers but it was about the size of a trailer. It was, obviously, cold.

Testing boards for cold durability.

After seeing the manufacturing section of Ride we walked through the cavernous warehouse they use for storage. All of K2′s US products are stored here. The picture below is about 1/4 of the space. Despite the amount of room needed for storage, they were still able to squeeze in a bowl and a basketball hoop.

Ride's warehouse

Thanks to everyone at Ride for inviting us out, especially Doug , Paul, Casey, Angie, and the rest of the design and development crew.

]]> http://www.girlgetssocal.com/2010/04/02/touring-ride-snowboards/feed/ 0 http://www.girlgetssocal.com/2010/03/07/day-17-more-speed/ http://www.girlgetssocal.com/2010/03/07/day-17-more-speed/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:48:58 +0000 Bekah http://girlgetsboard.com/?p=700 Note: I am having the best winter I have had in a long time since I decided to get back into snowboarding. I’ve realized how much I missed it and how much happier it makes me. I hope you’ve had some epic days on the snow too and have had a fun season riding with friends.

A couple weeks ago I was saying that I felt like I had reached a point where I wasn’t progressing. Well, riding with Mercedes at Pillow Fight and then riding with Frank (also an instructor) on Saturday changed that. Now, I can’t go down a run without my head feeling like it’s going to explode with all of the things I am trying to remember. (Really a good thing, I haven’t felt like this with snowboarding for a long time.)

Since I know you are dying to know what goes on in my brain…

When going down a run, groomed:

• turn with the front foot, then follow with the back foot
• when further into the turn, pee like a girl (heel turn)/pee like a boy (toe turn) (thanks Mercedes…that is burned into my head)
• when doing a heel turn, really bend your knees and squat low
• stay light on your feet and absorb any bumps/random snow piles

When hitting a jump:

• keep your knees soft
• on the wedge, keep your board flat and knees bent
• do a little pop off the jump to stay in control
• in the air–do a grab, do a dead man–just stay stable
• land flat with soft knees

I could keep going. But my biggest problem is doing way too many speed checks before I hit a jump. With everything else, I can just remind myself and fix when I start to turn with my back leg, or ride too straight, or whatever, but the speed checks is all mental. The thing is, is that I know that speed is my friend, but I don’t know it, really.

I’m ready to land, but look how much more I could clear if I got more speed…

I was talking to Mitch about it in the car ride home from Stevens and he suggested I work backwards in my head. He said he used to do it when he was trying to get over the fear of speeding through a turn while racing motorcycles. So, he said, where do you want to end up? I said, on the down-slope, riding away clean. So, he said, work backwards from there. How do you get to that point?

So I worked through the perfect jump in my head, backwards:

Land flat on the down-slope, riding away clean; in the air do a grab; at the apex of the jump, pop; approach flat with knees bent; and (gulp) get enough speed approaching the jump. With the vision of a clean landing and a smooth air (no crazy window rolling or leaning to far back and landing on my tail), it started to feel a little safer to go faster.

Looking at the size of just the wedge, it’s small, right? But to me, the approach makes it seem huge!

Then he suggested that I just focus on doing one or two jump really well. Hit the other jumps, but for one or two, get really comfortable on the approach doing it right with lots of speed. Then, when I’m good with those, start focusing on doing the others right too.

Tuesday, when I’m back in the park, I think I’ll pick one or two jumps where the approaches aren’t huge and long (giving me too much time to think) and work perfecting those. Before I hit the jump, I’ll run through it backwards in my head and allowing myself only two speed checks, then one, then none.

On Saturday we also hit up the pipe a couple of times. I’m still working on smoothing out my turns, riding up the wall, bending my knees on the flat. I’ve also started trying to do a little pop at the top of the pipe, but that still feels a little weird and awkward. Just more to think about…

Having new stuff to work on and (hopefully) get better at makes a day out snowboarding so much more fun. Instead of just cruising around the groomers day after day doing the same laps, same kind of turns, upping the game makes the day a challenge. So when you do land a new trick, the stoke comes back and you remember why you started riding in the first place.