A few thoughts on the snowboard industry.

[Alaskan Rover]

While I do not wholly agree with the trajectory that Burton is taking...they have apparently become the GM of the snowboard industry (or perhaps maybe worse: the Toyota!!), I have nothing but respect for Jake Burton Carpenter himself.

Along with Tom Sims and many others, he managed to stick to his guns and meld a company and a product in a time when snowboarding was just thought of as a fringe sport with little merit...a time when 90% of the areas didn't even want riders on their mountain at all, except MAYBE in their off-mountain snow-park, and even THEN with many reservations. Snowboarders at that time were thought of as ruffians, as misfits, and "ner'-do-wells"..and were NOT to be associated with by the mainstream ski-oriented resorts. Little, by little, by a combination of good product development, luck, a LOT of perseverance and business acumen, he and others were able to change the path of snowboarding forever.

Given all that, though....I still don't like it when a company gets so prolific that they are able to both rest upon their laurels and STILL continue to dominate market forces. As snowboarding has become a multi-billion dollar corporate industry, it has become an entity where matters of the "Board of Directors" have eclipsed matters of 'Riders of the Board", to the detriment of innovation and a certain innate synergy with the riders.

That said, and while I have become quite chagrined by the 'corporatization' of the snowboarding industry, NOTHING diminishes the fact that snowboarding is still fun as hell...and I wouldn't turn down a chance to ride for a day with jake Burton Carpenter.

I can see, in the mere week since I have been on this board, that companies like Bomber Industries and other small companies, STILL embody a grass-roots spirit and the needed synergy with the riders and customers that ensure a dynamic market. I salute that spirit....may it never wane.

Gravity IS life

Ideas are free...will is sometimes taxed. :)<O:p</O:p