Saturday, May 9, 2009

Noboard Interior BC

After 16 years of snowboarding and enough progression-related injuries, I finally got the chance to remember what it felt like the first time I strapped in. The trigger to my reminiscence was a strange combo of an abundance of snow and the absence of bindings. In the deep, steep and snow-slathered backcountry of Nelson British Colombia a new breed of old schoolers have re-invented snowboarding by going back to the days of bindingless boards. That being said, the new Noboards are as high tech as any snowboard today and built with a specific purpose; directional, deep prestine powder-slaying.
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Had you asked me a year ago about a Noboard, I would have called it a sled and wrote it off as a tree hugger's eco-friendly love child. But after riding one in some sweet sweet snow my mind has changed. Now, I'd gladly walk past the hecklers into my own private dirty dirty powder sesh with a Noboard slung under my arm. It comes down to this, Powder is great for huge backcountry kickers. It is awesome to rip long steep lines, just hauling ass, hearing your jacket flap and snap in the wind. But it is a pure joy to take a slower line that takes advantage of every inch of powder. A Noboard allows you to feel and surf so much more.
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In regular snowboarding where your own progression pushes you into faster lines, bigger jumps and more spins, it is hard to get stoked on the the slower things and all the little things that made you feel that snowboarding was IT the first time you strapped in. Noboards make me want to get out away from all the BS that comes along with popular snowboarding and take it back to the feeling I first got. Noboarding is the shit, and you won't know until you try.

1 comment:

  1. Sweet Timon!! I've been eye balling these, but hey, they don't exist here. It's cool to see things like this and wille's homemade slashers on the steep and deep.

    hope it was a blast.

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