Thursday, January 18

Snowskates Blowup

By Glen Seelenbrandt

Don't even tell me you haven't seen a snowskate. I know you have. Well if you have not let me give you a little description. Imagine if you will a piece of hard plastic resembling a skateboard deck, yet slightly larger with a soft padded foam deck and a slick, channeled out bottom. Now imagine kids riding these things like wheeless skateboards on the snow. Don't get me wrong, these kids are not just standing sideways on a piece of plastic and falling all over the place, rather they are riding these things like a real skateboard and are pulling flip tricks and crazy rail variations. Its pretty unbelievable considering these things lack the two engineering advancements that make things at all rideable on the snow: metal edges and bindings.

Snowskating is blowing up. There have been pictures in all the snowboard and skateboard magazines. There have been clips in MacDawg's snowboard videos. There have also been some pretty hefty pro snowboard endorsements of these little wonders. The man behind this after riding craze is none other than former Nitro pro rider, Andy Wolf. The idea came to him around the time he began considering retiring from the pro ranks about 5 years ago. For Andy, it was a natural progression of ideas that came out of the first wave of jibbing back in the early 90's. Back then kids were cutting their snowboards down and avoiding resorts to ride handrails and city streets. Since then Andy has been toying around with the idea, refining designs and bouncing his thoughts off friends who have ridden his boards. He's had rideable versions of the snowskate for the past 3 years or so, but only last year did he begin to fully market his rides to a bigger population.

Since his original offerings things have taken off in a hurry. Last year Andy's company, Premier Snowskates sold about 5,000 boards and this year sales have already reached 50,000. For those of you who are not good at math or economics, when your business increases by ten, you're stoked. With this sort of explosion the future likes bright. In this glow Premier has a few things in the works next year like an expanded board line featuring 6 models including signature rides from team members JP Walker, Nicolas Droz, and Shaun White. Also in the works is a line of after snowboarding boots made in conjunction with Soletech. So keep your eyes peeled.

All these products will hopefully keep the sport on track as levels of riding continue to progress. While it seems that big name snowboarders are doing the craziest stuff right now, you'd be surprised. As Andy points out it, its kids in the areas of the country without consistent snow or vertical drops that are pushing the limits of snowskate progression. Regardless, Andy is quick to add that snowskating is not about trying to figure who's the best, rather it's about hanging out with friends and having fun. Amen.