DEMO DAZE

Stratton Mtn may not exactly be the birthplace of snowboarding but it sure has deep roots in it. This was the big week where all the retailers in New England converged on the quiet little Vermont town to demo all of the latest boards, boots, bindings, goggles, and more, that you'll be seeing in shops next winter. Stratton has been host to the demo days many times over and it's always nice to go back to where I learned to ride when I was a kid again.
The big hype of course is usually the boards and this year was no exception. It seems everyone is on a tear to reinvent the snowboard again since the success of Libs Skate Banana a few years back. Change is good. Not that snowboards were really missing the main ingredients like good wood cores, edges, and p-tex, but they were however in a little rut when it came to truly reshaping the board profiles and just spicing things up. Not to disappoint, every company has offered their version of banana, rocker, reverse camber, flat base, whatever they wish to call it ...and still offer "reverse rocker" boards as Mark Wakeling claims will be the new rage again soon (aka cambered boards). If we go back in time, flat and rocker boards were all there was with classic decks like Sims T. Kidwell, Switchblades and other boards of the past. Back then improving a board meant the addition of "camber." Camber made a board come to life, gave you ollie power, edge grip, and helped you accelerate out of a turn. Just like disco and classic rock the past becomes the future once again and rocker is hot. For how long though? Other old and odd fashions have been chewed up and spit out again and again to hype the market like baseless bindings, low backs, canted plates and pads, channel systems, highback wings ...the list goes on and on. After testing multiple boards and having the blogging power to offer a personal opinion which you may think is word or complete verbal diarrhea, I am actually somewhat stuck in the middle. Left sitting here scratching my head and torn between the past and present....to banana or not banana? I demo boards and bindings with a very open mind. I found some rocker boards to be way more responsive than one might expect, and found some that might have been better off on the cutting room floor. Same goes for more traditional boards too. The evolution of snowboard equipment is at a full on frenzy. Boots with laces, speed laces, BOA's, combos of all of the above. Bindings of plastic, metal, carbon fiber, rubber, wire mesh, denim and leather, rear entry, straps..blah blah blah....ahhhh! Every rider has their own personal opinion and expresses themselves in a different way on the slope. Now more than ever riders need choices and they sure as hell have them. Nobody is going to reinvent the wheel here but companies are sure experimenting again and that's refreshing.
Next winter more than ever before, we'll be making critical decisions on how to spend our money as a shop, and you of course will as a consumer too. We had a huge crew up at Stratton this year and will be gathering input from everyone and trying to narrow down what we feel might be some of the best new equipment for your dollar at all levels. We'll have some board reviews and photos up at some point too. Stay tuned.