The Daily - January 30, 2020 - 34

Ideas
B I G

T R E N D S

Shaping the Future

Clockwise from right:
Weston Pow Slayer
Japow, Never Summer
Harpoon, Jones
Stratos, K2 Alchemist

Snowboard manufacturers charge full-shred ahead into 2021. By Mike Horn
From designing the future to
rebooting products of yesteryear,
snowboard brands continue to let
riders lead the charge and drive
innovation as they build out their
lines. K2 reintroduces its Clicker
step-in binding and boot system,
evolving the 30-year-old product
for a new generation. Meanwhile
Jones, Never Summer, and Weston,
are developing shapes never seen
before on snow. Artwork and
graphics remain key in establishing
unique identities for products.

SURF'S UP...AND IN

Jeremy Jones and crew are channeling surfboard geometry into
new 3D Contour bases, available in
the new all-mountain Stratos.
"I've been on a quest to design
a snowboard that offers the free
friction glide and edge-to-edge
fluidity of a surfboard for years,"
Jones says. "On a surfboard, the
subtle shaping of the nose is what
makes the entry into a turn so
smooth and fluid." The feeling
of an effortless surf turn is what
inspired the development of the
brand's 3D Contour Bases. Instead
of having to abruptly tip the board
into a turn, this base tech lets you

roll your edge into a turn. "3D
Contour Bases cracked the code
on how to achieve this next level of
board performance."
Never Summer's Shaper Series
lights it up year after year, and the
new mountain surf-inspired Harpoon is no exception. It's generously tapered (13mm) with a lightly
buoyed nose for ease-of-turning
and max flotation.
"Tapered, shaped, short-tailed
boards for surf-inspired carving will
continue to be a dominant trend
going forward," says Vince Sanders, Never Summer's "Chairman of
the Board." "Extra-wide boards for
deep carving with moderate stance
angles will also be trending."
Weston's Pow Slayer series paddles into the surf lineup, too. The Japow, Hatchet, and Backwoods models are stout and shreddy. The maple
topsheets feature John Fellows fine
art, which makes them wall hangers
as well as soft-snow slayers.
"John has a gift for weaving nuance and storytelling into his art,
from backcountry moonscapes to
surf-inspired Japanese mountains,"
says Sean Eno, Weston marketing
director. "Each board we're creating with him tells a little about us."

/ OUTDOOR + SNOW SHOW 2020

CLICK IT OR KICK IT

With step-ins, step-ons, and related strapless systems making a bit
of a comeback the last few years,
K2 debuts a new Clicker X HB
men's and women's step-in system
built off the original Clicker that
debuted three decades back.
"We've been building step-in
bindings for years, so when we saw
the recent uptick in demand, we
knew we could put a binding into
the marketplace that would exceed
the performance expectations of
your typical step-in system," says
Dan Sayers, K2 Snowboards marketing specialist. "Our goal was not
just to maintain, but to increase
performance and power transfer
while adding the convenience of a
step-in, step-out system."
Ease of use paired with increased performance is a theme
year-in and year-out. NOW
Bindings founder JF Pelchat recently introduced what he calls the
"Kingpin" system, which enables
riders to swap NOW bindings from
one board to another without the
use of a single tool. The Kingpin
system is compatible with all NOW
bindings from 2015 on, including
the customizable Select Pro.

"If you have a quiver or just want
to swap your NOW bushings [the
bindings allow for three levels of
stiffness/response], this is the setup for you," Pelchat says.

SUSTAINABLE & FRESH

The Capita Super D.O.A. is back
for its second season with some
fresh tech and a core you can
feel good about. "For 2020, we've
integrated post-consumer recycled
Polyethylene Terephthalate into
ultrathin strips of poplar and paulownia to form an advanced hybrid
wood core known as the FSC Certified 3D Thermopolymer Hover
Core," says Mark Dangler, Capita's
marketing manager. "That's tech
talk for saying we've found a way to
redirect discarded plastic bottles
out of the recycling bin and put
them into our snowboards."
K2's new Alchemist is its latest
foray into freeride. "The freeride
category is perhaps the most important category in snowboarding,"
Sayer says. "Most of the snowboards that move off the shop floor
are directional freeride shapes, and
the Alchemist is K2's opportunity
to stake our claim as a leader in the
freeride space."

The Daily - January 30, 2020

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