Donek

We will honor the intent of the original contest and extend it to a $630 credit. Sorry it's taking so long to make a decision on this. I've been busy and just returned from a week long trade show. I'll be getting with everyone this week and making our final decision.

Just give us a little bit longer to make our decisions. It won't be long.

Just had to post this one of Claire. Oh. By the Way that's Don McKee (He's on the Dewar's bottle).

The aluminum isn't necessary. There are a lot of manufacturers who choose to use it instead of plastic. I use plastic tail extensions in part because I try to minimize my contact with toxic chemicals. If designed and finished properly, you won't notice a difference between the aluminum or an ABS extension. Etching aluminum gives off toxic fumes and requires you store acid (can't remember the type). There are some aluminum primers available too, but I've never investigated them.

I haven't done it in years, but my friend and I used to skate the DCPA garage from midnight to 3 am on friday and saturday night. It's great cause you have a free ride up in the elvator. Who knows if the security guards still let you do it, but it would be worth a try.

We're north of Watkins about 8 miles. Probably 15 minutes from the track. Send me an e-mail and I can get you a map.

If you're training with Sean McCarron, you'll have access to all the prototyping we do with him. I'm sure any of the other riders will be willing to let you test the boards they are riding as well. Although demoing with Sean will help, if you're training with him, you'll be working with him and myself to develop the correct specs for your needs.

Dave's right. I used to be very relaxed about it. When shipping a demo I felt very secure in that I had a shipping address and all necessary contact information. On the boards that dissapeared, the phone numbers and e-mail addresses no longer work. I'm sure that if we hired someone to look into them, they could track the individuals down, but we had no contract with them indicating they had to return the board or that they would have to pay for it if they didn't. As a result, we don't really have much legal recourse. Lesson learned and time to move on. We'll have an official agreement with someone wanting to demo in the future. At this point I believe most of the demo fleet will be housed with Bomber next season and we'll work on a good mail order program for the future. I've already e-mail the assignment to my intern.

I'm sure we'll start up the demo program again in the next couple of years. We just need a better way to run it and someone who can dedicate the time. It's a logistical nightmare to tell you the truth. We need a good system for tracking where each board is and where it needs to go, so we can figure out the best way to get it to the next guy. When there are 4 to 5 boards in the demo fleet, it's no big deal but when you have 20 to 30, it becomes difficult to keep straight. I guess it's something I can assign to the engineering intern I have starting in September.

Starting Gate is your best bet for demoing on the East coast. We did stop the mail order demo thing this last season primarily due to the new baby and not enough time to run it. There is a chance we could start it up again, but we would have some policy changes regarding payment and shipping. We had some boards dissapear and never come back during the 0405 season and want to ensure that doesn't happen again.

The assessment is accurate. The Axxess is designed as a Carver that can go anywhere. It's a bit stiffer than the Prior. You're a big guy, so you may need something a bit stiffer. I can always tame it down a little if you need though.

e-mail me about this and I can send you vector artwork.

Monitor calibration may be necessary. There are a number of devices out ther for doing so. There are usually adds for them in the photo magazines, but a google search will probably yield some results. Most important is probably your color space you're shooting in. sRGB will give you better results typically. Once you're sure you're in sRGB you can do a bit of manual color calibration of your own if you're on a budget. Print a color swatch on your printer and then try to match the colors on your screen to those printed using the controls on your monitor. You can probably get a lot closer this way. My monitor is very close, but I do so much printing that I'm able to make mental adjustments for the small inconsistencies. Another speed tip for your machine is color quality on your display settings (windows users). It's tempting to use the highest quality, but most monitors will show such a small difference between 16 bit and 32 bit that it's not worth the extra processor time to bother. I set all my machines to 16 bit and they run dramatically faster.

It looks that way.

I'm very amazed at how few people want a free board. So far I have only received submissions from one individual. If you have e-mailed me graphics and not received a response, I did not get them. I am opening this up to a wider crowd as well. I have always wanted to offer custom graphics to the non-computer graphic literate artist. I spent the better portion of this morning working on the ability to digitize a hand drawn graphic. The prototype process worked, so I will proceed to a permanent fixture. So those of you wishing their drawings, graffiti, or doodlings could be put on a board, it should now be possible. This involves submitting a full scale (life size) drawing. If this interests you, send me an e-mail or give me a call and I will give you more details.

I have some ideas with respect to hole patterns and inserts, but I really want to see some sales first. It will involve a lot of work to develop a system that allows ski bindings to be mounted via an insert pattern. Unfortunately Line has stopped making bindings, so there is not currently any ski company supporting such an effort.

I believe the ski at the top of this thread is an old Duret Monoskiing has tremendous potential in the adaptive market because it is so easy on your knees. There have been one legged individuals who could ski a monoski with a prosthetic and you didn't even know they were missing a leg. Many people with bad knees choose monoskiing. When I tore my MCL, the first thing the doctor allowed me to go back to was a monoski. With both knees tied together, you have a great deal of support.

Probably Lee Dube. I'm trying to provide a more modern shape and look to the skis. The twin series has taper more comparable to a twin tip alpine ski and the freeride is closer to some of the shapes I did in the 90's. We'll offer a pin tail (extreme taper) by next season as well.

Twin series 168 - 10.67m 175 -11.75m 182 - 12.8m FreeRide Series 171 - 14.7m 177 - 16m 185 - 17.65m

We're actually offering a line of monoskis next season. It's a small niche market, but I do get requests for them every year. I built monoskis for 3 different companies from 1995 to 2000. We'll see how it goes. We have them posted on the web site; take a look. Monoskiing has a really bad rap for neon one piece suits. Those who monoski are usually fanatical about how much they love it. I did a couple days at Heavenly Valley this year. I had a good time, but my ski boots hurt so bad it sort of ruined the trip.

Send over the rest. I'll file them with any subsequent submissions from you. I'm blind and can't see the bird.

I have attached a template. It includes the basic shape of a 171 FCI and a 161 Wide. I advise leaving the shapes as a separate layer or group so they can easily be removed from final artwork. 161w171fc.pdf

I have been busy developing processes that will allow us to completely bring our digital dye sublimation work in house. This means we now have the ability to print full color photographic quality images on boards and turn it around within our normal 1 week lead time. This will simplify and expedite custom graphic production and it also provides us with the capacity to expand our stock graphic offerings. As a result I am asking for graphic submissions for a variety of new styles and themes. I am looking for submissions in the following categories: Woody Surfboard Girly/Flowery Skate Lifestyle Retro Neon Euro Snowboard Cartoon Anime Pin Up Death Metal If you have some other ideas, please feel free to provide the submission. I am also playing with the idea of a tasteful layout that would allow customers to "place their favorite digital photo here." For resolution reasons, a typical digital photo can not be blown up to cover an entire board, but a 4 Megapixel image can be effectively blown up to about 10in by 15in. When choosing artwork, I will look at certain criteria. Vector artwork is preferred. Artwork that works on both freeride and alpine shapes is desirable. Highly linear artwork that requires precisely centered location makes production very complicated. I prefer a design that is intended to be placed off center. Total compensation for selected works will be one snowboard valued up to $600 with your artwork on it. Selected submissions will become the sole property of Donek Snowboards. The deadline for submissions is July 31, 2006. Please do not e-mail me any large files when submitting artwork.The best way to submit files is in a web-resolution/PDF preview. Submissions can be sent to info@donek.com or smartin@donek.com.

Had to share a couple more shots. I went to purchase my macro lense yesterday. They don't have the new VR 105mm in yet, so my sales guy lent me a 60mm until they come in. It really pays to establish a relationship with sales people. I won't even go to the camera store anymore unless the guy I work with is there. Anyway, I went on a miniature safary this morning playing with the new lense and got these. <br> A couple of regular chatty Cathy's <br> Not quite the tail gate party I was anticipating. This guy was dining on the back of my Pickup.

Better is such a subjective term. I always try to avoid it, because everyone has a different scale upon which they measure things. Since we're on a snowboard forum, lets look at base material. One person might say that P-tex 4000 Electra is the best material on the planet because it's really fast (when tuned properly). Another rider might say that Durasurf 2001 is the best because its super tough and performs very admirably without any wax. I think the best thing here is not to argue better, but look at peoples criteria and try to assess what's most important to you as a buyer. Optics, rugged design, speed in a race course, all mountain performance when you're not near your tuning equipment. I've said it many times, every engineering choice has consequences. Nobody really has the right to claim best, just best for these circumstances.