Kickstarter

Our project is to build 25 handmade, wooden snowboards with a recycled plastic base, something that's never been done in the snowboard world.  

I started building PowderJets in 2009 because I couldn't find the board I wanted in the mayhem of the current snowboard industry. I wanted a classic powder surfer that would float me through open powder fields, and turn tightly enough to manage the squirrely trees here in Vermont. It needed a concave tail that would make quick turns even quicker, and have a loose, surfy feel out in the open. It also needed bindings, needed to be light, and it needed to be built as ecologically-minded as possible. The board I was looking for wasn’t being built, so PowderJet Snowboards was spawned. 

 Snowboarding has evolved a lot in the last 30 years, and I wanted to tap into that progression. I took what snowboarders have learned about riding styles, camber, sidecut and flex in the past three decades, and brought it into the wood shop. The result is the simplest, most efficient, highest performance wooden powder board ever...the PowderJet. 

 "...like riding a skateboard with loose trucks through the woods, as fast as possible, with no speed wobbles." 

 Of course the board needs to perform, and it also needs to leave less of an impact on the planet. So I build PowderJets in the cleanest way I can. I use US grown FSC certified maple and poplar, which I laminate together with a super clean bio resin from Entropy Resin. The whole thing is cooked in an industrial press that I designed here in my work shop. The boards are then hand sanded, then finished with a Vermont made, whey based polyurethane developed at UVM. It's got a rocker profile for speed and float, deep sidecut with a tight radius for quick turns, and a set back stance location for stability and nose float. With it's long nose and notch tail, the PowderJet has more actual running length than most boards that are 10, even 15cm longer!  We only make about 150 boards a year, and it's all done here in Vermont, by people who take powder days off. No made in China. No toxic soup. 

Logically, the board has taken another step forward in it's evolution. To allow snowboarders to ride on groomed trails at resorts, I tested out a board last winter that had a recycled UHMW plastic base.  The prototype got incredible responses, from Mt. Baker to Jay Peak.  With a recycled plastic base, the PowderJet can carve up the backcountry and also join you on your next weekend trip to the groomers.  It can multitask.  

This is why I'm approaching Kickstarter: I would like to produce a run of 25 of these new models this winter.  I have the R&D done.  I have the experience to build them.  I have all of the machinery required.  The Kickstarter campaign will pay for the new molds and materials I need to make the new boards.  If the campaign is funded, the boards will be out there this winter.  If you want, you can be riding one of them.

Do more with less.