Powsurfing: The De-Evolution of Snowboarding/ Travis Yamada & Ian Barker-Cortrecht

Speaker 1: 0:31

You know it's so fun to do and then it's so fun to share with people too and and to see.

Speaker 1: 0:37

You know the, the looks on their faces and listening to the laughter and the, the stuff that comes out of. You know people's first time and or people's 100th time. You know, like every day we go out, it's just, it's amazing the feelings we get. So it's so much more bang for your buck, writing a powser for like for every step you take, like the turns feel so much better, there's so much more satisfying, like there's so much you've got so much more like so much more of a connection with, with the element and the mountain. You know that you can feel every bump and every lump and you can feel that the different consistencies of snow and it's yeah, it's so much more rewarding.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Even just a handful of turns is like so much more rewarding than than on a snowboard. You know where the snowboard is like basically an extension of your body. On a powser for your, you're actually riding a board. You know it's not an extension of you, it's not connected to you. So it's like everything is just it's so much more involved and it and it in turn so much more rewarding.

Speaker 4: 2:05

In the early days of snowboarding, bindings looked very different than what we think of today, if they were on the board at all. Back in the 1960s and 70s, it wasn't uncommon for the pioneers of snowboarding to ride without bindings altogether Pioneers like Sherman Poppin and Dmitri Milovich, just to name a couple. On episode 42 of Bend magazines, the circling podcast, join me and get to know local board shapers Travis Yamada and Ian Barker-Cortrait. Ian began designing and shaping powservers last year and will be offering them through and with the help of Cubicle brand, where Travis shates both ocean and freshwater surfboards. Think about powsurfing as a sort of de-evolution of snowboarding, snowboarding in its most pure form, snowboarding with no bindings. On this episode, we're joined by friends and fellow powservers as we hear different stories from and about those who have and are helping direct the growth and accessibility of powsurfing and the joy found in the simplicity of turning a board in good snow. Ian Travis, I'm glad the two of you are working together and I'm excited to ride one of your boards. I imagine many of those who own Cubicle surfboards are going to want to add a powsurfer from Cubicle to their quiver.

Speaker 4: 3:29

The circling podcast is proud to be associated with NOTA, since adding show notes to NOTA. Feedback from listeners has been extremely positive. Visit NOTA at notafm and experience how NOTA takes you beyond the episode and makes podcasts even better with visual show notes. The circling podcast can now be found on Patreon. Visit our page and learn how a percentage of your financial support will support local nonprofits and the continued growth of local community podcasting. Become a member and learn about this unique opportunity at patreoncom. Forward slash the circling podcast or see the link in the show notes. Lastly, remember to stay tuned after the show credits to hear from both Ian and Travis, as they contribute to our Blank Canvas community art project that explores the magic found in art embedded with meaning. And now you do mostly Enduro. Yeah yeah, that's getting big around here.

Speaker 5: 4:32

Yeah, I mean, Enduro bikes are fun because you can pedal them still and still take them up to Bachelor.

Speaker 4: 4:41

Have you been on an electric Enduro?

Speaker 5: 4:43

No never, I try it, but they're expensive.

Speaker 4: 4:49

Have you seen that? I don't even know what they're called, but they go like 60 and they look like basically an electric motorcycle Surrons. Those things are insane.

Speaker 5: 4:58

Yeah, my buddy Spencer's really know them and like they technically go 30 miles an hour when you buy them.

Speaker 4: 5:07

Yeah, they have like a governor you clip one wire and then they go 50.

Speaker 5: 5:10

Modern day governor. But unless you like, modify them. They're pretty sketchy at 50 miles an hour.

Speaker 4: 5:17

So I was exaggerating, but not that much. No, they definitely they go fat. Well, what's scary about those things is like if you're on a two-stroke motorcycle going 50, everybody in like a five-block radius knows your comment, those things, it's like you know silent assassin, which is I mean, I don't know, it's just another.

Speaker 5: 5:39

Yeah, people like them because you can go hit like urban jumps and nobody knows who's there.

Speaker 4: 5:48

Travis, you were on episode number four. You're the first repeat guest on the circling podcast. All right, bow down With Ryan and Kate Fitzpatrick. I remember, yeah, it was fun, it was really fun, I think that was. Yeah, that was down at that old place I was borrowing to record. That was a fun studio, it was yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4: 6:13

Well, I mean, we're here to talk about POW surf and you guys are both featured in the next issue of the magazine that's coming out, I guess in a couple of days. It went to print today, but I thought it would be fun for the two people that are kind of, in a way, spearheading kind of the local innovation of this sport or lifestyle to get to know you guys a little bit more. I mean, we could have all gone bowboarding if you would have gotten up early enough on the day of the Jerry Lopez, but it was just Travis and I. So really we could talk about how much fun we had together, but you wouldn't understand because you weren't there. I know, yeah, I missed out. You did miss out too. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad.

Speaker 4: 6:57

Yeah, yeah, it looked good. It was okay. All you need is, I don't know, four inches, four to six inches of snow. You think Probably six, six, yeah, all right, all right. So, ian, you grew up in your Oregonian. I mean, you grew up in Cave Junction and went to high school, and then where'd you go?

Speaker 5: 7:18

Yeah, Illinois Valley High School went to OSU first and then transferred to U of O and graduated. Why'd you transfer? I was in mechanical engineering and had like a gnarly winter term that just like made me realize that that wasn't for me and transferred to product design, which was more of like the artistic side of things.

Speaker 4: 7:43

So you've always been interested in building stuff and figuring out like angles and geometries and materials. I mean that right yeah, how'd you get into that? My dad, yeah.

Speaker 5: 7:57

He was. He always liked to build stuff and anything that we wanted. We just built it Versus buy it yeah, I don't know, and it wasn't always really well executed. It was always like there's a learning curve, like he built me a skateboard. My first skateboard was basically just some trucks and wheels, that he founded a junk store and a plank of white oak I think, like a three quarter thick, just flat plank of white oak that we shaped into a skateboard shape and put slap trucks on it and I rode that thing for probably like a year before I got a real skateboard. How old are you Right now? Yeah, 34.

Speaker 4: 8:38

Okay, so this is like 90s yeah.

Speaker 5: 8:42

This is like 96 probably.

Speaker 4: 8:45

Yeah, like three years after Travis was camping with the owner of Polar at Mount Hood Yup. Yeah. You were negative three when Travis met the guy that collaborated with that beer you're drinking. Yeah, yeah, just fun fact. So why, I mean, did U of O have a better like program? Why did you transfer?

Speaker 5: 9:08

It was just product sign versus engineering. So I was always good at like thought, I was always good at math and all that. But I got into just like the upper level stuff and had like four classes that I would have had a hard time passing. Made you think otherwise On their own.

Speaker 4: 9:26

I remember that realization in college. I got like higher level calculus classes and just decided to throw the towel in. Yeah, because it gets to a point where, like you, need a different level of intelligence, you know.

Speaker 5: 9:38

Yeah. Or memorization wasn't my strong suit, yeah, and if I couldn't like visualize it, then I had a pretty hard time remembering it. Or yeah. You're a visual learner, yeah yeah, so I liked going to U of O. That was a major plus for me.

Speaker 4: 9:58

Yeah, well, I parted getting to know you guys was hopefully other people getting to know you from friends of yours. So you put me in touch with your buddy, derek, and I talked to him today and I just thought it would be fun for people to hear about this kind of time, a life, from him, because you guys are college roommates. Yeah.

Speaker 7: 10:18

So you and I go back a decent amount of time. We actually met in college, at U of O in 2010. And I was living in a house with a few guys and he was a random roommate. They came in and lived with us and out of the four guys that lived in the house, ian and I became the closest. He was actually at groom's room in my wedding a couple of years ago. So, yeah, just grew a pretty close bond. No, it's a great question, yeah.

Speaker 7: 10:46

I studied psychology but I was pretty much in awe of just the way his mind worked with CAD and just that engineering mind that I really don't have. So he was in product design as I was kind of like doing something completely different with liberal arts stuff and he would come home with, I mean, what seemed to me as like really creative inventions of what he was creating in product design and just like innovative things that help him with his snowboarding stuff and shaping and things like that. I just wasn't even aware of the product design degree. So it was pretty unique seeing that come in when most of the people that I was connected with were studying business or psych, like me or other things like that. So he just definitely had a different thing that he was doing, which is cool to see.

Speaker 7: 11:30

I live in Portland and we definitely stayed in touch and hung out a ton, but I always privy to what he was doing. And Ben. But I know he's worked with the cubicle guys and shaping and I thought it was really cool that he was still focusing in on that. Has a day job but also like doing passion projects and connecting with the community of surfers and snowboarders and now power surfers too. So I think that's really cool. But yeah, he's always had that kind of creative mind but still wants to collaborate with people and push the limit and not just say like I need to sit back and make money the more traditional way to differentiate it himself that way and take time to do things outside of the realm that he has made a career in. So I think that's really cool.

Speaker 7: 12:16

But I mean, as far as his personality like he's the guy that I've always looked up to that pushes the athletic limits too. So he could probably get into orthopedic, same way as you do with how many injuries he's had, because he's the guy that's hucking double backflips off the cliff into the water. I filmed him a bunch of times with snowboarding. He's always been maybe the most talented snowboarder, an instigator, that's kind of been in my orbit, so it's always fun to see him do things that I'm just a little bit too scared to do, especially now that I'm in my mid 30s. But he's still the one doing backflips and pulling threes and stuff like that too. He just keeps pushing it and isn't satisfied with the normal things, and I've always respected about him.

Speaker 4: 13:01

I don't think mid 30s is at all number one.

Speaker 5: 13:04

I keep telling people I'm in my prime, yeah.

Speaker 4: 13:08

I think there might be some truth to that. I feel like the 30s were kind of where, at least when my mind caught up with like you, kind of mentally developed to the point where you can at least I felt like I could do you more sustained, challenging things than I could when I was younger, I think technically men peak in their 30s yeah. Well, you and I are in the downward slope Trav.

Speaker 6: 13:37

I peaked at 17. I've been on the downward slope for a long time.

Speaker 4: 13:42

What is your day job? My day job, yeah, like what do you do when you're not repairing boards and you know I'm a technical project coordinator for CAD stuff.

Speaker 5: 13:55

Yeah, we build 3D models of buildings. I used to be a field tech and go out and actually 3D laser scan the buildings and now I just manage the modeling team. Yeah, so I don't have to travel. I used to travel like 3 to 5 days a week and now as long as I have my phone on me and like can jump on my laptop and solve problems, then I'm kind of able to stay home and work on other stuff.

Speaker 4: 14:30

That's sweet, yeah, yeah, I mean. So I mean that skill set just came from your degree or was it more on the job? Was your degree what got you in the door?

Speaker 5: 14:41

I was in Portland, I was actually delivering pizza, yeah, and one of my roommates friends worked at this. He was like an intern at this I guess you'd call him like a geospatial company and they needed somebody to laser scan their whole team and quit. And they knew or he knew that I was good at CAD, yeah, and so he plugged me for that job.

Speaker 4: 15:09

And so a lot of what you've done is on the job learning. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you were building snowboards in college.

Speaker 5: 15:17

Basically, my senior year of college, I wanted to figure out how to build snowboards. It was kind of like always something that I wanted to do. Kind of started out with skateboards, but I never really had built any skateboards and figured out how to build a snowboard, spent like three months scouring YouTube for information and back then, like it wasn't, there wasn't a lot of information that you could find.

Speaker 4: 15:48

This is probably around the same time James was starting snowplanes. Yeah, like in terms of timeframe, but different locations. You guys didn't know each other.

Speaker 5: 15:57

No, yeah, and I kept an eye on snowplanes for sure, and I think like the first time I ever like came in contact with anybody from snowplanes was Will at Pete Alpert's camp out and and yeah, will was like the coolest dude there. Just, um, still is. Yeah, he's like super welcoming and not he's not going to cool guy you like he's. Yeah, he's uh, any rips? Yeah, super friendly, super nice. He'll give the shirt off his back to anybody.

Speaker 4: 17:10

Um, I think he was snowboarding in shorts this year at that, wasn't he? Probably yeah and like, really snowboarding. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, I like Will. He's awesome. When did you first hear about Travis Like? What was your first? What's the first memory you have about hearing about Travis Yamada?

Speaker 5: 17:30

So I was like working at my laser scanning job and had kind of just gotten to surfing. It was like 2014 or 2014. I think ocean surfing, yeah yeah, and I had bought like a Craigslist board and I was like wanting another board. And then I like it's like I could probably like make one of these. And then I like started researching just like how to make surfboards. And, um, I think at some point like I came across cubicle I think I saw it on like Instagram or something, and then I was like looking into river surfing, because there's a lot of like cool rivers out in the valley and just I guess like looking more into that. And I think I reached out to Travis, like when I started making boards in my basement, and like asked him some questions and then didn't really like ever meet him until I moved to bed and he just walked in one day like what's up Travis, I've been.

Speaker 6: 18:37

I, then he was wildly disappointed.

Speaker 5: 18:41

No, not at all. I, I think I was. So I moved to Bend for snow to work at snow planks. And what year?

Speaker 5: 18:51

2019, I think 2019. I was in like a transitionary period, like I had like a long term relationship end and, uh, quit my like highest paying job that I ever had and was like living back home and in Cape Junction. And I was talking to Will one day and he was like, well, come up and run the CNC machine. We need somebody at snow planks. And I was like, all right, that sounds like a good excuse to move to Ben and um. So I did that and I think I was working there for like 30 hours a week so I needed something else to like fill my time and I hit Travis up about like doing dinner. Oh yeah.

Speaker 6: 19:36

Yeah, did somebody bring you in? Did you come into the shop with anybody else? No, yeah.

Speaker 5: 19:40

I think I just like that was on my list of like places to check out and, uh, I think I stopped in like one day just to like hang out and check out the shop and at some point in there, like I was like, oh, I should see if I can do some ding repair. Um, cause I by that point I think I'd shaped like maybe five or six boards, and so ding repair was like something I could definitely you felt confident.

Speaker 4: 20:08

Yeah, were you impressed by his first ding repair.

Speaker 6: 20:13

Probably Um yeah.

Speaker 4: 20:16

What's the how do you? I mean?

Speaker 6: 20:17

anybody that can like build their own surfboard um is impressive to me. It's not an easy thing to do. And one that looks like a surfboard in the end, like that takes some patience that most people don't have. I would say I would agree with you.

Speaker 4: 20:33

Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of ding repair, were you guys busy this summer with ding repair?

Speaker 6: 20:40

Oh yeah, at cubicle. Oh yeah, oh yeah. I think that we do.

Speaker 4: 20:45

We're currently list right now.

Speaker 6: 20:47

We're actually not bad right now.

Speaker 4: 20:49

We're on our cheaper season, yeah.

Speaker 6: 20:51

Yeah, we get a minute out in two weeks max and hopefully within a week now.

Speaker 4: 20:56

Yeah, travis, you've been on the, on the podcast before. I think a lot of people know about you and your history. Um, and rather than having you talk about yourself, I got in touch with Mike McDaniel, who's now a friend of both of ours. You introduced me to, and he owns a startup brand called mile 22, which is focused around prone paddling gear and it's named after the, the Lake Tahoe paddle. He did, I think, like probably a decade ago, at least. That's 22 miles, and he's a cool guy, but you met him when you were a little kid, correct?

Speaker 6: 21:34

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 21:35

Yeah.

Speaker 8: 21:37

And, uh, any skate shop. Um, since the beginning of time you got these groms that hang out right. You got the local groms, the kids who live in the neighborhood, and they hang out there all day, all summer long, because it's a skate shop, right, it's the most interesting thing. And then Nothing's really change. Yeah, these other kids who don't live in town, but maybe they live up in the foothills or some little town nearby and for them it's a big deal, because maybe they live in in a little town with a thousand or 3000 people and there's nothing going on and it's boring as hell. Going to the big city with the skate shop is a big deal. We have these kids who, would you know their parents, literally like they'd come to town and do their grocery shopping, it gas up their vehicles and run all their errands and stuff, drop the boys at the skate shop in the morning and we wouldn't see mom come back to fetch them until the afternoon. And it's not that Travis was one of those guys, but he lived in Sonora, which is a footnil town, you know, an hour or so away from Stockton, and so his dad had come to town and Travis had come by the skate shop and get some skate there. So basically that's how in that Travis is is. He was a grom hanging out at the shop where I was working and you know he's a skater. But we sold snowboards and we rented snowboards too. And at some point he rented a snowboard from us, like him, and his dad came in and they're like you know, travis wants a snowboard. We rented him a snowboard. It's like a Burton Elite 140 or something like that.

Speaker 8: 23:03

Back then I was at Ghost Gate for a few years and then got pulled away to do this thing at Bear Valley. Well, sonora, the town where Travis grew up, is down the hill from Bear Valley, so that was gonna be his home mountain when he was snowboarding. So then I started seeing him up at Bear Valley and I'm doing the snowboard park thing and of course, right away you get these you know rippers who are like they're kind of figuring the park out and ruling at it, and you start to see who's really good and who's just goofing around. And Travis was one of those kids who was like, oh wow, he's really good, he's gonna be ripping so and then that was like two seasons and then I ended up at Avalanche, initially in a sales position, but eventually in marketing and, like I said, they made me the team manager. And so at some point, you know, every season, there was a discussion that was like, okay, well, there's this much more money in the budget, we could probably bring on a couple more riders. We should get a regional rider out in Utah, let's get another California kid that kind of talk right. And at that point I knew Travis pretty well and knew he was riding really solid and I'm like, hey, I know this kid, travis, you bought it, let's put him on the Avalanche team. And so we talked to him and the next thing, you know, travis is getting flow from Avalanche.

Speaker 8: 24:20

You know, I can't remember if those guys were getting paychecks back then. If they were getting paychecks, they were small, but they have photo incentives. You get a photo in the magazine, you get some money and they were getting free gear. You know we'd send them boards, blindings, and we didn't do big with outerwear, but like we had gloves and beanies and stuff that they wanted. So they got their package every year and that was the theme.

Speaker 8: 24:43

You know, one thing I noticed about him, and part of it was just the time and place, but at least in California and I think other places too, riders started to kind of modify their boards Like definitely cutting the noses and the tails down. And in the early 90s, moving into the mid 90s, basically like those D series years that we talked about, like we would send the team guys D series boards Like here's the new boards for next year, go out and get some photos and start riding and show us what you got. And Travis, and there was another kid on the team up in Oregon named Jesse Johnson those guys like took Jigsaw to brand new boards and they're just like oh, this is way too much nose, let's cut this nose off. And so that whole gypsy thing was in full effect and they wanted to.

Speaker 8: 25:35

Their goal was to reduce swing weight and so like they were cutting the noses off their boards and it initially it's kind of like hey, man, that's a extensive board, what are you doing? But then you realize, oh, these guys are kind of like leading the progression, so let's see what you got and tell us why. And Chris Andrews kind of realized, hey, we should bring these guys here, like there was, you know, every year. That'd be like hey, everybody come to the HQ and tell us what you're doing and why. And Jesse had come down from Oregon and Travis would be there, and so, yeah, they were basically reshaping the boards that we made and that had an effect, because I don't know if you recall this personally, but in the season after the D series boards came out, we had this series called the road trip and those things had practically no, no with average relocated from California up to then, so he's been there forever.

Speaker 8: 26:31

I guess I didn't. You know, just like everybody from back in those days, you lose touch for a while and then you circle back and at some point I realized or had learned oh, travis is in surfing, oh, that's cool. And then you know, like you said, I don't know how many years ago he's been doing it, but it's like oh, he's making boards, that's rad, and they've got a standing wave, and then that's super cool. That makes perfect sense to me that he's the guy building the boards or that. Like I get that. That makes sense.

Speaker 4: 27:00

It's funny how, like I listen to that story by Mike and it's like the smallest things kind of shape the trajectory of your life, like just going into that skate shop and like developing that relationship with him and then getting into snowboarding, and then I mean that was arguably a massive like pivot point in your life, but it seems like you know, I mean a lot of what you did, kind of at least bringing you to bend and snowboarding, and, you know, getting into the board sport. I mean maybe skateboarding was the ultimate driver of it all, but it's rad.

Speaker 6: 27:35

Yeah, correct on all those points, right, Like I don't know if I would have ended up in bend if it wasn't for that, you know, and it really started from skateboarding, you know, hanging on the skate shop and yeah, do you remember that skate shop?

Speaker 6: 27:48

Oh yeah, go Skate in Stockton. Right, and Mike was correct. I was a foothill kid and we had zero options to get any sort of skateboard anything right, so we had to go down to the valley. My dad lived in Stockton where Go Skate was. So going there was like going to the candy store.

Speaker 6: 28:09

Yeah, I would try to absorb it all and just like fantasize about buying all of it, right, but get your hands on a little bit and take it back up, yeah, yeah, and you know, I mean that's why I started snowboarding, because once I saw it I was like, well, I know my limitations on a skateboard and there's a lot of limitations, right. Like there wasn't at the time. There was no skate parks, there weren't even ramps in my foothill town, so we were pretty much limited to riding really rough asphalt everywhere but had the magazines and just dreamt of being able to access other stuff. But it seemed unattainable and it pretty much was for the most part. But once I saw snowboarding, I kind of got it.

Speaker 6: 29:00

I was like, oh, I think if I got on a snowboard and it was attached, someday I could do an air like Chris Miller, like that was my North Star, I guess, or whatever, like I can remember it. Still like, oh, I want to do a frontside air like Chris Miller and I think I could do it with a snowboard. I'll never be able to do it at Upland, but on a snowboard I think I could. Yeah, man.

Speaker 4: 29:23

I mean you and a lot of other kids that wanted to emulate their favorite skater, snowboarding, especially kids that grew up where seasonal for sure. What do you remember about that little ski resort, bear Valley?

Speaker 6: 29:38

Oh well, my home mountain was Dodge Ridge and they're pretty close if you had a straight shot right or as crow flies, but it took a little ways to get around there and I'd been there a few times, like as a kid, maybe once or twice, and then I think my dad took me there for a contest when I was in high school and then, once I got a driver's license, I was there whenever I could. Yeah, yeah, I would drive over and spend time there because I befriended somebody that worked there. Yeah, and actually all right, embarrassingly, something I would never do these days, after spending a bunch of time there, one year we met these kids from the Bay Area and would snowboard with them, and one of them worked at King Cows, or no, their buddy worked at King Cows, king Cows, like the old copy store, correct? Yeah, back in the Stone Ages.

Speaker 4: 30:47

Do you remember King Cows? Oh yeah.

Speaker 6: 30:49

Like people didn't have computers, people didn't have printers. You had to go to King Cows for a lot of stuff Don't they still exist?

Speaker 5: 30:57

I think they still exist, right Maybe.

Speaker 4: 30:59

They probably specialize in converting analog to digital, something but one year.

Speaker 6: 31:08

yeah, their buddy worked at King Cows. There was a Polaroid camera, we all took pictures and we made counterfeit passes. So then I snowboarded a lot that year at Bear Valley. Yeah, you did. It's pretty embarrassing, but that happened.

Speaker 4: 31:25

Yeah, I looked up. I was curious what the seasons pass at Bear Valley is right now in 2023. Take a guess, ooh.

Speaker 6: 31:34

We're talking the Momen.

Speaker 4: 31:35

Pop Resort, yeah, so today.

Speaker 6: 31:38

Yeah, what a season pass is there. I'm going to say 825.

Speaker 4: 31:48

You almost said six something. I saw it. It's a little over 650. That's awesome.

Speaker 6: 31:53

That's great, it's so awesome. Yeah, yeah, keeping it real. Man, I've been in Bend Oregon and close to Mount Batchel, so my rate is skewed by Mount Batchel. You know the season pass.

Speaker 4: 32:09

Well, it's rare to find those resorts and Tahoe or that part of California. You would expect to some degree lower rates just because there's more supply of skew resorts. But yeah, I mean we were down in Lake Tahoe a few weeks ago and it's like palisades and all those new, like what used to be Squaw Valley and all those North Star there they're like over 200 bucks, I think, a day for a ticket. It's crazy. It is. That's why we power surf Like joking but not joking. Yeah, I mean, that's one of the many things that this has been fun this last few or a couple weeks, like reaching out to all these different people from different parts of the world that are into this. I mean, I kind of consider, almost in a way, like you have, like the great Todds of Canada and like the Jeremy Jensen's of the United States.

Speaker 4: 33:08

That's this guy. Do you know, jeremy? He makes those grassroots boards. Yeah, he's been doing that for a long time, like the early 2000s and then like Volay in Europe, you know, and he's been doing it probably around the same, you know. I mean I remember him riding those early stage asmos when I was still snowboarding a lot, you know, and that's 20 years ago, oh yeah. So it's cool to kind of see just there's so much benefit to it and just learning about the different influences on shapes and style and it's been super fun and I do it. You know I've been doing it a long time but it's fun to kind of be a student of it again. You know, learn like who started what trends and like when Volay started doing those 3D bases and why. And you know your boards have that right, the ones you're making. Yeah, how many did you bring one with you? I actually forgot. Yeah, dummy, missed opportunity. We'll have to get a photo of it later.

Speaker 5: 34:09

I thought initially you'd asked about just one of my, one of my boards, and I have like a park board that I could have brought no-transcript, but you were talking about the Pouser.

Speaker 4: 34:21

Yeah, yeah, like one of your Pouser first.

Speaker 5: 34:23

Yeah, there's only one currently.

Speaker 4: 34:25

Well, that's all you need to take a photo.

Speaker 5: 34:30

We're working on making some more.

Speaker 4: 34:33

That's good. That snowboard park in Bear Valley sounds pretty ahead of its time that Mike was talking about.

Speaker 6: 34:40

It was way ahead of its time, yeah.

Speaker 4: 34:43

Mike was telling me Blaise Rosenthal is doing like a snowboard camp again, I guess, with high cascades, correct, and he's doing stuff down there. And Mike said that they're having a tribute to that snowboard park in March of this year and he's going to be involved. And I don't know if they're going to try to recreate it or what.

Speaker 6: 35:09

They could probably do some of the things, but not all the things, like the opening or the photo shoot for it. They spray painted it. They spray painted the snow. I don't think you can get away with that these days.

Speaker 4: 35:22

Yeah, that will pass. Jesse Johnson man, when I hear Jesse's name, I think of those militia bags. Do you remember those? He was running for a while.

Speaker 6: 35:33

That's probably at the end, but I don't remember that, but I remember plenty about Jesse.

Speaker 4: 35:40

Do you know, jesse he's kind of an Oregon legend. I think, I think of Jesse and I think of like mid 90s super wide stance baggy skinny kid doing big shifties at Mount Hood.

Speaker 6: 35:54

Spot on. Yeah, our pants were huge, the noses were small, the tails were small, I mean back then.

Speaker 4: 36:04

I remember especially those D series avalanche boards. I remember guys where I grew up cutting the noses Were you guys doing that? Were you unique to that, or did you get influenced doing that elsewhere? Oh, we didn't invent doing that. Yeah, who did it was out of Colorado or somewhere.

Speaker 6: 36:25

Yeah, I mean it was established. It was ridiculous. Right, it was the days of T-bolting. Right, because whole patterns weren't going to accommodate your stupid stance and your stupid pants. Right, like what else? Taking the stickers off of a vending like a Pepsi vending machine, stickering your whole board, that was really popular.

Speaker 4: 36:52

Or like the don't play honor around off the dumpsters as yellow stickers.

Speaker 6: 36:57

It was ridiculous looking back, but also, you know I have fond memories of it. Right, absolutely, man.

Speaker 4: 37:07

That's like the beginning of kind of a. You know I was a counterculture almost in a way. It wasn't so mainstream and there you could be a little mischievous. I don't know. I love that about early days of that time, that era of skating and snowboarding. You know how many boards are you like? Talk more about your boards you're trying to make.

Speaker 5: 37:32

Right now it's just power surfers. I mean I would like to make some. I've got some split boards that I want to make Then kind of like Do you split board a lot Fair amount. What does that mean? Kind of like more and more each year. Yeah, Last year was probably the most that I've. I've split boarded Maybe like 20.

Speaker 4: 38:00

Yeah, so you're out 20 days out of the season. Yeah, cruising around. Do you have a split board? I do. Do you get out there much? No, working all the time.

Speaker 6: 38:08

No, I don't.

Speaker 4: 38:10

Yeah, you're. I saw James Nick all this morning at boss. We were take the same adult fitness class. I think that's funny and I was telling him about this and you know he still like constantly is all like always talks about how hard you work, which is true.

Speaker 6: 38:31

Well, yeah, so I have no desire to build a snowboard or a split board personally, right? No, and I've always thought power surfers make perfect sense for me to build or, and it's been the plan for years and years, but I haven't had much free time to do it because I've been in a constant, you know, cycle of trying to figure out how I can build surfboards better or more, and I felt like if I couldn't figure out how to do it better continuously, then I'd have to go out and get a real job. So it's been all my attention has been focusing, focused on that.

Speaker 4: 39:40

How is it? How many years has cuba, cuba coke been going now?

Speaker 6: 39:45

Well, I guess cuba coal started in 2015 as an idea more than anything else right. So it was a couple surfboards that I made with a logo and I kind of figured out a name, but it was a hobby, maybe not even a glorified hobby. It became a glorified hobby maybe the next year, and then after that I was like, okay, I'm going to, you know, get serious about it and try to turn it into something more than that.

Speaker 4: 40:13

How has it been changing your passion into your profession? What have you learned about yourself?

Speaker 6: 40:20

Oh, I'm my worst enemy, but I already knew that, right. But I think all those things that kind of annoy myself about myself are also I could try to use to my benefit. Right, Like I'm pretty stubborn and, um, perfectionist, I'm pretty meticulous, but I like a challenge. Yeah. I well, if I really put my mind to something, I can do it?

Speaker 4: 41:00

Did you always work with your hands?

Speaker 6: 41:02

and to some degree, yeah, yeah, I grew up on a cattle ranch like having to use my hands pretty much and that's not like. I think people have a misinterpretation that growing up on a cattle ranch, you're like riding horses all the time. But that wasn't my experience and that's not the reality of it. I was like fixing fence all the time.

Speaker 4: 41:25

Yeah, I don't know, doing just normal stuff Totally. You get to learn. You learn how to use tools. Yep, yeah, same as what you did with your dad, yeah, yeah, so there's a commonality. You know, obviously you guys have a life experience where you're building and expose the tools and processes and outcomes and trial and an error, and all that stuff. Yeah, I think you don't have to grow up doing it, but I think it helps because it's all about how many times you do it.

Speaker 6: 41:56

Sure, sure, but yeah, it takes time, right, it takes a bunch of investment to get good with your hands. I feel like, and it's just not for everybody, right. But more than that, like getting back to Ian's story, when he came into the shop, I mean, a lot of people at the shop, right, and Ian was different and he's kind of like yourself at him. That he's just I could tell he was a really genuine dude, right, and I could tell like I liked him right off the bat and the more I got to interact with him I was like, oh, I'm going to work with this guy, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4: 42:34

So, yeah, you guys are a good, you guys work well together. Yeah, you both have like a really easy temperament. Yeah, it's the first time I met you was in cubicle, you know, coming in, and I'm still like that little kid Travis was at a skate shop, except they don't really exist anymore. So cubicle is the closest thing, like I just like stopping in and looking at the different fins and you know rash guards and stuff.

Speaker 5: 43:01

Yeah, it's a fun place to. There's just always stuff going on there. There's repairs going on.

Speaker 4: 43:09

Yeah, there's just an energy and board sports stores with I don't care and other types of stores, but there's certain sports that just have an energy around them in the gear. I mean, obviously, if you're into it, you're biased. But I mean, I've talked to lots of friends about that over the years. You know board sports stores don't exist as much as I used to. But, man, I mean there's a reason why we wanted to hang out there and every town had one. You know, like most towns had Skate shops that were like the hangout. Yeah, yeah, so did you have one?

Speaker 5: 43:45

Um, no, when I first started skating, we had to go to Grant's Pass. There was extreme board shop, um, and then I think, at one point, like when things were going really well, they had one in Medford as well. And then there was one that popped up in Cave Junction and it stayed around for like maybe four, maybe five years, kind of like when I was in middle school. Yeah, there's a skate shop in Cave Junction, yep, wow, they sold skateboards, mountain boards, magic cards.

Speaker 4: 44:19

Magic, the Gathering.

Speaker 5: 44:21

Yeah, it's sick. I just collected them. I didn't know how to play it, but, um, yeah, crystals. Oh, there may have been some crystals there.

Speaker 4: 44:30

I think Magic the Gathering is having like a resurgence in popularity. No, that's Dungeons and Dragons, One of those kind of role-playing, kind of mystical games. Is is like pop-out.

Speaker 5: 44:41

I'm just hoping my collection is going to be worth something, that there's a card in there.

Speaker 4: 44:47

Yeah, my era of that was garbage pale kids. You remember those? No, those things were dope, um. So this whole episode's designed to kind of supplement an article and a feature that's coming out in the Next Bend magazine, like we talked about. But I didn't think that you could really kind of do this sport right without talking about some of the different people who have influenced it. And I got in touch with Eric Trulsen who runs the FNRAD snowboard podcast up in Vancouver, um, who I'm a big fan of and he has created. He's been podcasting for a long time, I think probably like eight or nine years, and he started a show around snowboarding way before the bomb hole and, um, you know, kind of started with his generation, which is kind of like, you know, the late eighties, early nineties. But, as you know, he's into interview. Have you guys ever listened to his podcast?

Speaker 5: 45:46

FNRAD snowboard podcast. No, but isn't it um? Isn't he teaming up with Stony Buds? Oh, he might be, I don't know.

Speaker 4: 45:54

I think he's are, they are, they are they.

Speaker 5: 45:57

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 45:57

Yeah, I don't know the first thing about it, but he has some phenomenal old interviews with different old writers. You know if you have heard some of those, you know, if you like, if that's your era or even if it's not, cause really there's so much history in the sport. But um, I wanted to get in touch with him because I felt like he was a good representation of kind of Canadian snowboarding both past and present. And one of the guys that really seems to have contributed to kind of writing boards without bindings with it was this guy, greg Todds, that lived up in interior BC, I think near Revelstoke, and uh, so I got in touch with Eric and um, he, he kind of he shared the story. So, settle in cause, this is fun.

Speaker 9: 46:45

So I first heard about no boarding before power surfing and I think now that power surfing it has, you know, is the lexicon we forget. You know these kinds of things like um, weight boarding used to be called snurfing and which is we are scurfing, sorry after snurfing, right, snowboarding was snurfing, weightboarding was scurfing, and uh. And then you get a better name and the power surf boards actually were never no boards. No boards had the strap and and that made them very unique. Um, my first hearing about Greg Todds was around the no board pad. So the I actually got one. I don't remember where I got it from, but it was this sticky uh pad that was like a giant stomp pad with exaggerated bumps on it that went over just a regular board and it had a strap over it that you could like a bungee strap that you could hold the board to your feet with, but then you could also let go of the strap and it could just be flopping around. You know what I mean? I didn't really know the people that he was related with, like the group that he was with Um, but it turns out it was. It was the trout lake crew, and when I I mean when I started a snowboard podcast. They didn't want you to even mention trout lake, like they wanted to keep it a secret spot, kind of like surfing, but now they're cool with it being set on the podcast. I got that. Go ahead to say it. Um geez, trout lake, what a special place. It's one of the very first uh cat boarding operation in the world. Was was started great more than cat boarding and the guy picked it for the snowfall and the and the and the fall line and so if you could imagine a group of rag tag snowboarders who came from all over the place.

Speaker 9: 48:50

This community grew around Greg really proselytizing about you can ride a snowboard without bindings. You can do this. This is doable. It was infectious People would ride them. So tragically, greg passed away, snowboarding actually, and I believe Kale Stevens was there. I talked with someone else who was there. There were a couple of people, big name pros, that were there when it happened and so obviously in any fatality in the back country there's a big deal and so I think since before snowboarding back country skiers, when someone would pass away, they would build a memorial back country lodge to these people, and there's several of them around BC and I was honored to learn that heritage. The biggest thing that surprised me when I was doing a snowboard podcast at the beginning was the amount of loss that there is out there Because these boards are inherently in avalanche terrain and avalanche terrain is dangerous and difficult to predict. So when Greg passed.

Speaker 9: 50:21

The Greg Todd's Memorial was the equivalent of the back country cabin and I've seen some footage from several of them and Trevor Andrew was becoming trouble. Andrew the DJ and the musician, and he played at least one, probably several of the Greg Todd's memorials and the people that showed up were just A-listers. So Trout Lake would turn into this huge, incredible party and people would go snowboarding in Greg's memory and over the years it just the amount of snowboarding seemed to grow and it even attracted the founders of shark pal surfers and Pierre E Jensen. He's one of those guys that even in the beginning I think there was a little beef between him and Al Clark, because Al Clark was like I don't give a shit what pal surfers people think, it's snowboarding and it'll always be snowboarding. And I think Jeremy was the first to speak up Maybe having a strap is like snowboarding and having no strap but still having the leash is pal surfing and their different things. But they're talking about common place. Yeah, that beef was settled and Jensen's very smart and well articulated.

Speaker 9: 52:03

On a practical level, I think I don't see the no boards anymore. You know what I mean. I don't see the no board pads and the no board name, I'm not 100% sure who's doing it, where, just like anything, there's pioneers that show you that it's possible. Going all the way back to Dmitri Milovitch, he showed everyone that snowboarding and paddle was possible, like there was a pre-Dmitri and a post-Dmitri. He was the first one to film proper snowboard turns down a mountain. But also he pal surfed like he rode his boards without bindings, before the bindings were really anything.

Speaker 4: 52:53

It's cool history, yeah, super cool. Have you ever seen footage of those GT Memorial races? It's like have you seen it before? I don't think it's gone on for a while. Yeah, I think.

Speaker 6: 53:08

Jake Price has done it.

Speaker 4: 53:09

Yeah, I think he's done well. Yeah, I've seen it.

Speaker 6: 53:14

Yeah, that's been a while since I've seen those. That's killer, that you got that interview. Yeah, good on you, adam.

Speaker 4: 53:19

Yeah, cool man. I just think. Thanks for saying that, trav. I think that I always like knowing the history of stuff and I think when people get into it it adds a layer of coolness to like power surfing. If you realize that those winter stickboards, that that guy, dmitri Milovich I think, from all the winter stickboards I mean, have you seen photos of them?

Speaker 6: 53:47

Yeah, they look like modern day power surfers. Well, here's the. Yeah, it's so strange, right, Like I'm just it's like nothing's really new. Well, yeah, it's de-evolution, right, Like we're like putting a bunch of effort into trying to figure this out, but it's already been done. Yeah, you just have to go in reverse, or more. Yeah. And it's really appealing to me and I think a lot of people not because, oh, it's like you're going to reinvent and have the most technically like badass, newest equipment.

Speaker 6: 54:26

It's more like getting back to the roots of it or, yeah, de-evolved, yeah just the evolution of it and just simplifying it, simplifying it right and the challenge of it and I don't think the appeal is you have to be an old fart like me to really know that or have seen that when you're a kid, yeah. But it just sort of makes sense like oh wow, it's like kind of liberating to have less technical stuff and just kind of rely on your own skills a little bit.

Speaker 4: 54:56

Yeah, I mean it's. You have to hike right, it's always been unique that you strap to the board, right. I mean, there's not another board sport, really, unless it's wakeboarding, which I was never that into. You know where you're in bindings, you know. So it is kind of more of an extension of yourself than like really riding something where you have the freedom to kind of move on it.

Speaker 5: 55:19

Well, and it forces you to make like good turns, like you can't just hack a turn, like you would with bindings. Oh, when you're on a power circuit.

Speaker 4: 55:29

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5: 55:30

So it slows things down a little bit, but makes everything. I guess, more you appreciate your turns, more as you're going down.

Speaker 4: 55:41

I have 100% agree, man.

Speaker 5: 55:43

I remember seeing a no board video. That was the first time I ever saw any of that and it may have been that event. It was big like wide open, yeah, pillow pulley kind of line.

Speaker 4: 55:55

Yeah, looks like a clear cut or something from like an old loggy and there's like 20 people just going ham, it's like downhill madness, yeah, and just carnage and people in doing. But yeah, it doesn't surprise me that Jake won that thing, you know so getting back to like.

Speaker 6: 56:16

I don't think the appeal also is riding like this inferior stuff so you can be like you know, some prehistoric man right, snowboarding or on the snow, but also just being jaded with going to the mountain for so many years, seeing it get more crowded, parking, waiting in line, coughing up a bunch of money, right so doing the opposite. And hiking, and hiking isn't easy around here right.

Speaker 6: 56:45

It's not like Tahoe where you have really good challenging terrain. That's a short hike. You got to go for a while. You probably have to have a snowmobile and you have to have a lot of back country awareness obviously too. But if you're powder surfing you need good conditions. But you can access stuff that's challenging on a powder surf board really easily and very close right, yeah, and safe.

Speaker 4: 57:17

I mean on it's like a storm day, you can go across and I think maybe you know you can get on some of that low angle stuff just at the base of Tummelo and put in a boot pack and have a ton of fun on a power surfer.

Speaker 6: 57:33

Yeah, I agree, yeah, and I think that's a huge appeal to a lot of people that maybe have been doing it snowboarding a long time, like myself and just kind of doing something different.

Speaker 4: 57:46

Yeah, I agree, I would prefer either my grassroots or my ASMO.

Speaker 6: 57:53

Yeah and man, it's tough. I see a lot of families struggling to keep up with their kids wanting to be involved with snowboarding, right, and the amount of logistics it takes and the amount of money that it takes once your kids get into it. Not everybody can afford it, right, absolutely. So a good power board isn't easy to manufacture and it's definitely not cheap. Like, asmos are the gold standard, rightly so, right, they're worth the price tag, in my opinion.

Speaker 6: 58:31

But I know Ena and I have talked about it a bunch of trying to not only build something that is comparable to an ASMO but something that's more affordable, that people can afford. And you know, hey, maybe it's just something I want to do a couple times a year, or I'm really interested in getting something that's more affordable in kids' hands that can't afford to go with them out, right, can't afford to be on, you know like, have a coach, yep. So that really appeals to me, right? It's more like skateboarding, where when you get a skateboard, you just have to have the time. And it's not the same way, because you can do it with a snow skate in town when it snows, right, but you still got to get a ride up to the mountain you do have to have some back country awareness. You certainly don't want to just send your kids up there on their own, but maybe they don't need a lift ticket, right? Maybe they just need to go somebody that can show them the ropes Totally and still get up there and have fun.

Speaker 4: 59:35

Yeah, I mean if you can buy a board for the cost to two lift tickets, that's awesome we haven't really worked out how to do that yet. Maybe three lift tickets. Maybe we'll get $200 a piece.

Speaker 6: 59:49

No we're working on it, though. We're definitely trying to make something that's top of the line, like an ASMO, and we've come very close.

Speaker 4: 59:59

I mean the prototype that I saw, that you made, the one that you have. We'll get a photo of it at some point and so people can see it and talk a little bit about the benefits of having on a pouncer for any way, a flat, kind of just traditional snowboard base, versus some of these more 3D kind of boat. I always think about them like a boat hole.

Speaker 5: 1:00:24

What's that all about? If you try to ride a flat snowboard with no bindings, getting it on edge and holding a turn is more difficult, like digging that edge in, and holding that edge is going to be pretty hard.

Speaker 4: 1:00:42

Well make sure you, because people don't will, they'll think about that on hard snow and it's almost impossible Like this all we're always talking about, like with it in about four to six inches of soft snow.

Speaker 5: 1:00:55

Well, so the 3D base kind of locks in that turn like locks in your edge. The kind of flat base that is below where your rails are, or the hooked edge of the rail allows you to lean it over easier. So as soon as you put any weight on your toes or heels, that edge locks in and you're in a turn. So it just transitions way easier from edge to edge.

Speaker 4: 1:01:30

Yeah, and then when it gets on edge it kind of stabilizes more. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense when people see what it looks like, and that's a good description of it. Yeah.

Speaker 5: 1:01:43

Yeah, I will say the Asmos like ride really well there. Yeah, they are like Travis had the gold standard and you can definitely feel it like how playful it is, yeah, how easy, how agile it is to have around.

Speaker 4: 1:01:59

They have those things pretty well tested at this point. You know they're coming out with some cool base graphics. I was looking at their new lineup. Yeah, it's fun, man. I think the sport's going to get much more popular for the reasons you just said. Yeah, for a lot of reasons.

Speaker 4: 1:02:16

But I think that you think back to when split boarding was kind of first getting going. I mean, I don't know when the first time you went split boarding was, but there weren't that many people doing it. You know, it just wasn't. I mean, like 15, 20 years ago there were not that many people doing it. And now it's very popular and part of me thinks that there is a component of this kind of sport or life's power surfing that the same type of people that split boarding resonates with. At this point there's enough exposure and kind of knowledge base there that this is going to be appeal to a lot more people, because it's already kind of people have been prepped for it a little bit just through the act of split boarding and getting out there and realizing the value.

Speaker 4: 1:03:04

Just from being out of the resorts you know regardless what you're going down. It's fun to get outside of the resort and cruise around in the back country. Oh yeah, it's fun and I think this is going to like when people learn like that there's another option to ride and like do it safely and like they're high performing. And you know, I mean the no boarding is a little different because it's a snowboard with a bungee. But even some of the lines that Jeremy rides on his grassroots boards or that Volay's done up in Alaska, I mean those are like it's pretty sick.

Speaker 6: 1:03:39

Oh yeah, scones on the cone, it's so popular. Right Like you can, yeah, you and me. Yeah, that was fun. Maybe get scones on other you know, scones on the cone.

Speaker 4: 1:03:52

When I thought of people in our community that I associate with with pow surfing that aren't professional snowboarders, I thought of Maddie. What's Maddie's last name? Gatto.

Speaker 6: 1:04:07

Yeah, Gatto.

Speaker 4: 1:04:10

So he pow surfs a lot, you know right, no. Yeah, I bet you do.

Speaker 6: 1:04:14

I may have met him. You've probably seen him at the shop.

Speaker 4: 1:04:17

Yeah, so I thought getting his opinion is like a community member would be insightful, yeah, the pow surfing thing has been.

Speaker 10: 1:04:29

I kind of got into it through those Almadai plates that were part of that whole no board BC crew. They created those things to put on your split board so that you could ride without bindings and that was really cool. But you're still riding a regular snowboard. That has its challenges when you're trying to ride without bindings. Definitely, a flat board surface is not as easy as a good asthma. Three dimensional, you know depth, made for the project kind of board.

Speaker 10: 1:04:57

Yeah no doubt, man, that was a cool learning curve in and of itself. Just kind of seeing how that progressed. And then all of a sudden, yeah, like Voli and the asthma coming out and just being so much arguably better than everything else, that was like, yeah, that's the way, for sure. So once I found that idea I'm willing to ride some more boards, but I really do like that concept and the way that it rides for sure.

Speaker 10: 1:05:24

Yeah, last year was kind of a breakthrough year. It was kind of, you know, one of the best years over a decade for me for sure. And I'd been going up and riding like the asthma on the cone before years prior to last year asthma on the cone. Before maybe I might take it on like red or something one lap if it was really good and then put it away. But last year I had probably half a dozen, eight, 10 days maybe of riding the asthma like straight up. You know, boarded a boarder. I went over the east side a couple times and brought it all the way back to Skyliner and I started at Pine. The only thing I didn't do was drop backside last year.

Speaker 2: 1:06:05

Yeah, I took mine out to Cloud Chaser last year on a really good day and just a lot of that low angle stuff. I mean the traverse back kind of sucked but man, the turns out there on that day were worth it. Hey, that's for getting flat.

Speaker 10: 1:06:19

You got to skate anyway. Yeah, no, I didn't get out there on it.

Speaker 10: 1:06:23

Yeah, we got to give them that, that kind of flat stuff is fun because it's the perfect stuff where, if you get to a spot and instead of worrying about unclip it and getting back into your gear and everything, you just kind of like pick the thing up and push your way over the little hump and set it down below you and keep going and it's just, yeah, it's a little more adventurous. I also just got those drift like social approach skis late last year and I had tried them last year and and I found a pair of those things carbon fiber approach In the skin track and then they pretty much disappear back in your pack and you can ride whatever you want. You can snowboard with them, you can, you know, but you don't need a splitboard, you don't need. You can ride whatever you want.

Speaker 10: 1:07:07

And Super nice, like just kind of going out for a hike with that thing and not having the expectation I've got to go find an exciting shoot. I've got to go and like, go get rad. It's like I'm gonna go and just hike up the three quarters of way up Tumolo and giggle my way all the way back to the car, not put myself in any real avalanche danger, keep out of the zones that could kill me, like, and have a good time on a storm day. It's such a good tool to have you know, it really is.

Speaker 10: 1:07:35

It just makes it so much more accessible and fun and safe. Yeah, and back country, and a lot of the time that I want to go and do stuff and it's like you're right, go in, drive Hiking all the way up there for two turns in Tumolo bowl and risking it sliding and then spending all the time to hike out of there. It's really only so many times you want to do that, like it's on the good days, on the heavy days. You know there's only so much you want to do and and this, this makes all those trips fun, guaranteed fun, yeah there are a lot of options now and in terms of like what you can climb with.

Speaker 4: 1:08:07

You know I use those mountain approach skis for a long time but they're heavy. But I see there's more and more brands that are starting to make like this hybrid, almost snowshoes, Like ski with a permanent, a fixed skin. You know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 5: 1:08:22

I haven't used those. I've seen them. Yeah, I like the verts.

Speaker 4: 1:08:26

Yeah, well, how tell people what those are, cuz they know?

Speaker 5: 1:08:29

they're a light, minimal snowshoe. They're, I think, like 125 bucks and you almost don't notice that you have them on your feet when you're hiking through deep snow and keeps you on top. Super good for putting in a boot pack up something steep, probably a little bit slower, but you can go straight up something that's, you know, steep, steep. Yeah, too bad, we don't have much of that around here, but yeah, like they're, they're super useful and Definitely you're not post-holing with those and I pretty much use those all the time. I just keep a pair on the back of my snowmobile and or my backpack if I'm, yeah, going out, and I've used those quite a bit when's the first time you went power surfing I?

Speaker 5: 1:09:26

Think I think it was last year With you, travis, on a qual, oh, really. Yeah.

Speaker 4: 1:09:34

Wow, I mean I'd like Snow skated before and like like the buy level or like the one with the ski on the bottom.

Speaker 5: 1:09:44

Yeah, I had one of those way, like a way a long time ago and that thing was just so sketchy. It was like before that it was like one of the cheap Burton ones that didn't have metal edges, oh yeah, and so you could really only ride it and like either like a light dusting of snow, yeah, like maybe some slush, anything other than that, and it like just didn't work. Yeah, and it was really sketchy. But I have one of those Hufflin ones.

Speaker 4: 1:10:09

Yeah, those are. I've heard those are good, insane. I taught my two of my kids out of snowboard on it because you could get off and walk and it's more fun, like when You're going with people that are just learning, because it's more fun. Yeah, you know, yeah, those things are super fun.

Speaker 6: 1:10:27

Yeah, did you ever have one of the Solomon powder snow skates? I still have one.

Speaker 4: 1:10:32

Yeah, those, those were way ahead of their time.

Speaker 6: 1:10:35

Yeah yeah, what that was a lot.

Speaker 4: 1:10:37

Yeah, the gun ski, yeah yeah. I think those are cool has a bunch of those still.

Speaker 6: 1:10:41

Yeah, I got one from him way back, yeah, and that it was kind of yeah, precursor.

Speaker 4: 1:10:47

Yeah, they were way ahead of their time because I was like early 2000s, it's like 2002 or three or something, so more of a powder. Well, it's almost the same thing. It was like a kind of a extra large skate deck with with like a foam top and it had a ski underneath, but it was a. It was like a powder gun right, so it was more for riding, and I think they had metal edges, doesn't it?

Speaker 6: 1:11:11

I think it does there. The first ones had none. They were all like kind of prototypes. I don't know how many they made, but I'm pretty stoked. I have one still, and yeah.

Speaker 4: 1:11:22

Since we're talking about like backcountry skiing and side country skiing and snow, people need to go educate themselves about snow science and we're walking around in the mountains in the winter time and learn how to make a fire. And you know, I talked to Jonas that runs Three sisters backcountry ski and they they run those avi classes out there and everything. And he still to this day thinks that it's obviously you need to be educated on, like snow safety. But a lot of people get themselves in trouble because they don't know how to like basic, like how to navigate in the mountains or or like terrain traps or wind loading or, but also just like basic, like how to build a fire, how to like know and how to communicate. Yeah, and if your cell phone is gonna work, you know.

Speaker 5: 1:12:16

I mean things can go like I mean if you go out on a nice blooper day and it starts storming, like all of a sudden things get hectic and you don't, you get turned around, you don't know where you came from, like that's a, that's a big concern. That happens to a lot of people All the time, yeah, and like on terrain that you wouldn't necessarily think that they would get turned around on.

Speaker 4: 1:12:46

You know, like I've talked to so many people Over the years that Just drift a little too far, skewers right coming off Tumolo and end up kind of over in Dutchman flat but don't really know where they're at, because they're and then you know it's stormy and you know it's like you can spend a good three hours walking around like you're not gonna die but like you're bumming. You know, like, so just like landmarks, like I don't know it's just good stuff for people think about. You know, I also think stuff can go bad really quick when someone gets injured. You know. So just having like the right plan for if, especially if it's just two people, you know and nowadays they have a ton of I mean GPS is gonna be a lot of stuff, and nowadays they have a ton of I mean GPS has kind of changed the game. But just being able.

Speaker 5: 1:13:33

I mean Just having a cell phone that you know you can pull up Google Maps yeah, looking at it, but that's not you know what you want to rely on for sure.

Speaker 4: 1:13:44

It was more, just like I'd feel bad if we didn't talk about the importance of people. Yeah, kind of getting some baseline knowledge, going into the back country or even just riding bachelor and, like you know, hiking or riding off the backside or ride Northwest or you know cuz, like I don't know Eric talked about it Like we take it for granted but people die, yeah, for sure. Yeah, you don't want to take things for granted. The last person I was able to get in touch with was Jeremy Jensen, who we kind of know. Jeremy Jensen, who we kind of talked about a little earlier, but I think Jeremy's probably arguably been one of the most influential like Americans.

Speaker 4: 1:14:29

It's done like building power surfers, but also he's created so much content with power surfers that, like when I bought, I bought a board of his in 2011 and I still have it and it rides amazing. I always liked it because I'm a bigger guy and his early boards had some weight behind them and I always thought, when you weren't riding bindings, having something to push against rather than too light, seemed to perform better for me. You know what I mean. But yeah, he he's just, he's done a lot like he.

Speaker 4: 1:15:02

When you Google power surfing your, his websites, what you'll find and he has. You know, his, his product line has evolved over the years and he's it's been pure passion man. I don't, you know, I don't think he's gotten rich doing this. I mean, he only recently quit doing his other job and is just doing Grassroots now, and he's been doing it for like Since 2007. Yeah, so it took a while to get to where he could supplement, and I don't even know if it like with all the competition now His, his sites, one of the best to get verse like they're hard to find.

Speaker 5: 1:15:38

Oh, is that right, and that's probably one of the better places to get him.

Speaker 6: 1:15:41

Yeah, and he's been doing a true like commercial way. Right, there's a lot of people that do it, you know like backyard builders that do it, and they do it really well. Yeah, but he's had product available for sale. So, yeah, much respect on that.

Speaker 4: 1:15:55

Yeah, no, doubt he's a he hustles man but he loves it and you can hear it here. But he started making split surfers. Yeah, I think he might be on one of the only people, yeah, and he he has a binding that he's designed that kind of folds up, and I don't know that. To me this just seems like the natural progression of of where this is going compared to, or when you take into consideration how you get up the mountain right, and then also like the evolution of kind of splitboard design and Technology or I guess, probably more design than technology, but you know engineering and all that. Like think about a pair of splitboard bindings now compared to 10 years ago. So it's only going to get more innovative. Yeah, but Jeremy's got a cool sound bite on on Split surfing is what he calls it.

Speaker 1: 1:16:48

Yeah, so our binding will fit any boot, any type of boot, any size boot, and they weigh a little little bit over a pound I think they're like 670 grams, maybe, off the top of my head that they fold up to about the size of the paperback book, so they can easily fit in any pack, even some pockets. But, you know, anybody who's splitting around is carrying a backpack for their, their skin and their Water, and in this case you're foldable binding. So, yeah, I produced those. There's some people that would try to, you know, pounce or find a snowboard, and you end up, you know, once you try to put a full Size pair of bindings in your backpack, you realize what in the world am I doing? You should just be on my board writing because you know that they won't fit.

Speaker 1: 1:17:33

So, yeah, or just one, one piece of the puzzle that that make these boards pretty amazing and it's yeah, just opens up even more terrain, having a split version, so you're not using, you know, carrying the weight of approach keys, or you know we we also deal in Burt's which are like a snowshoe, that's that's made for Steep ascent short steep ascent and those can be very useful too. But the split surface is really special and it can really get you deep into some good terrain in some really big waves.

Speaker 1: 1:18:07

But yeah, it's been like the passion driving that the whole time that you know it's so fun to do and then it's it's so fun to share with people to and and to see. You know the, the looks on their faces and listening to the laughter and the Stoke that comes out of you know people's first time and or people's 100th time. You know, like every day we go out it's just it's amazing the feelings we get. So it's been super cool to share that with people and that's kind of what's helped Keep it going. So I mean I love split boarding but it's like it's gotta be, there's gotta be some airs. You know her, some gnar.

Speaker 1: 1:18:41

I mean you get so much, so much more bang for your buck Riding a pouncer for, like for every step you take, like the turns feel so much better, there's so much more satisfying, like there's so much you've got so much more like so much more of a connection With, with the element in the mountain. You know that you can feel every bump and every lump and you can feel that the different consistencies of snow and it's yeah, it's so much more rewarding. Even just a handful of turns is like so much more rewarding than On a snowboard. You know where the snowboard is, like basically an extension of your body on a pouncer for your. You're actually riding a board. You know it's not an extension of you, it's not connected to you, so it's like everything is just it's so much more involved and it, in turn, so much more rewarding.

Speaker 1: 1:19:34

So, yeah, going back a snowboarding it's like man, I don't want to hike. For those like I can go take turns at a resort, you know, and there's just turns. Yes, I mean granted, there is granted. When you get to the really cool piece of terrain and you throw down, awesome turn on your snowboard.

Speaker 1: 1:19:48

That is. Yeah, that is all time, don't get me wrong. But but when I'm, when I'm making the effort to summit A peak or get way back into the backcountry, like almost every time, I'm doing it because I'm going for good snow, you know, or I'm in a good line, but nine times out of ten like I've made the call to go out there because I know this, no, it's gonna be good, and so I've nine times out of ten on the pouncer, for you know so much more rewarding for me and just feel so much better. It is funny, the role bindings play changes a lot, man.

Speaker 4: 1:20:24

Alright, boys, I don't know anything we didn't talk about. I think we did it. Where can people Potentially learn more about boards that you might be able to make for them?

Speaker 5: 1:20:39

I mean, they can they can hit me up on Instagram or Coming to cubicle and I'll probably be in there, maybe. All right, yeah, we're gonna have at the shop this winter.

Speaker 6: 1:20:59

I ordered A handful of boards, not just the ones that we're working on yeah right, but yeah you need.

Speaker 4: 1:21:14

I want to get a pair of those. There's gonna be like some as most.

Speaker 6: 1:21:16

Yeah, for sale. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, we got to get some pouncer.

Speaker 4: 1:21:20

You need accessories now, like pouncer, finding or.

Speaker 6: 1:21:26

Leashes. I've got some leashes. Yeah, haven't haven't ordered any boots yet as van boots. You should see if you have some of those.

Speaker 4: 1:21:31

I don't think anybody in town is carrying them. I don't know. I don't know what the laws are anymore. I'm like how many distributors you can have in one place?

Speaker 6: 1:21:42

but yeah, I think it makes sense. Just for you know people that are Interested in surfing and maybe now I've gotten into surfing and enjoy the snow, yeah it makes total sense.

Speaker 4: 1:21:56

It's my, it's my favorite thing to do, and on it in fresh snow.

Speaker 6: 1:22:02

Yeah, I want cubicle to be a little winter. Yeah, yeah. Power source yeah, I think I do too. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4: 1:22:09

All right boys. Thanks for the energy tonight. Appreciate it, no problem. Thanks, dudes. My.

Speaker 4: 1:22:40

Thanks for listening to Ben magazine's a certain podcast. Make sure to pick up the latest November December issue of the magazine. Casey Yana shares about the local nonprofit Bobbinos outside and the amazing work they're doing, and Lucas Alberg highlights some of Central Oregon's bookstores that are thriving in the Didful age. Our theme song was written by Carl Perkins and performed by Aaron Colbaker and Dr Aaron Zerflue of the errands. We love mail, so please send us comments, questions or art to the circling podcast at gmailcom. Support the circling podcast by becoming a member on patreon at patreoncom. Forward. Slash the circling podcast and learn how your financial contribution will help support local nonprofits while also supporting local podcast. Follow us on Instagram at the circling podcast to learn more about past, current and upcoming episodes. Please subscribe to the circling podcast on all major podcast platforms and leave us a review. It really does help.

Speaker 4: 1:23:46

I'd like to say a special thank you to all of those who participated in the making of this episode. It wouldn't be the same without your contribution and I appreciate your trust. Tune in to the F&RAD Snowboard podcast on all major podcast platforms and check out powsurfcom to view all of the offerings from grassroots power surfing. Swing into cubicle and visit Travis and Ian, or learn more at cubiclebrandcom. Don't forget to stay tuned after the show credits for Travis and Ian's contribution to the circling podcast's community art project, and visit markjammetcom to learn more about subliminal story art embedded with me. Lastly, if you know someone who you think would enjoy today's episode, please share it with them today. Hey, thanks for your time. Centro-roman, get outside, we'll see you out there. And remember, the health of our community relies on us Music. So you guys just contributed to the community art project and you wrote up some ideas that came to mind when you think of your local community. Ian, you wrote Skyliner parking lot. I did. I love it. Just a couple words.

Speaker 5: 1:25:12

I don't know. I feel like whenever you roll into Skyliner parking lot, you just see people you know and it's just like Every day is a party in Skyliner parking lot with people.

Speaker 4: 1:25:24

That is true, and it's real convenient to get on and off the lift. Yeah, do they have the new Skyliner lift up? They must.

Speaker 5: 1:25:34

I heard that. I mean I think it's pretty much ready to go. Yeah.

Speaker 4: 1:25:40

Alright Trab, mini ramp session with BBQ. That's the best answer yet, correct, yep.

Speaker 6: 1:25:50

I think when people have asked me, like what's the difference is with the river wave compared to, like surfing in the ocean, sure, it's a little tiny, you know waist-high wave and you kind of feel like you're on the spot and people get all nervous about it and they think that like, oh well, what about the locals, right? So the biggest difference between our little river wave is, once you like take away the hierarchy of like a regular surf lineup, yeah, it becomes this like little mini ramp session out there, right when people are like encouraging rather than like grumpy about somebody getting the set wave, you just take your turn. So, yeah, the difference out there and that's the coolest way I can put it is, yeah, there's nothing better than like a summer mini ramp session BBQ with your buddies after.

Speaker 4: 1:26:49

Perfect man, yep. Thanks, boys Adios.