The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!

Snowboarding 2016: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!

If you think it's been a long time since the last PHNX Boards newsletter, well if you lived on the East Coast it was an even longer time between snowfalls this season! By all accounts it was an UGLY ski and snowboard season on this side of the country, but apparently pretty GOOD, and even GREAT, in parts of the West. Now, that's not to say it was all ugly, since Eastern resorts with snow making capability cranked up their guns and there was some great skiing and boarding to be had. But natural snow was limited to a few inches from a few storms, so unless you had a PHNX Board, your chance of scoring first tracks was very slim. Now, the BAD news for snowboarding, or rather resort snowboarding, is the continued overall decline of the sport, as noted recently in the New York Times. OK, so is it all grim news out there? Well, not for off-resort riders, as noted in a recent write-up on the SnowSports Industries America website ...featuring several PHNX Boards photos and quotes!

Two new PHNX Boards and Four new inches of snow!

As RT readers know, the PHNX team has been working behind the scenes on a longer, wider PHNX Board for deeper snow. Well, the photo above is a sneak peek showing the two prototypes, including a modified stainless steel version of the patented Rip-Cord Binding/Brake system. Despite a rough Eastern winter that provided few opportunities to ride, the snow gods looked favorably upon the new boards and dropped 4 inches of snow in the Boston area on the second day of spring, just enough for us to test the two prototypes. My friend Joe Santosuosso also took advantage of the snow to test his new DJI Phantom lll drone. As you can see in the video, we got to the hill after it was pretty tracked out, but were still able to find some fresh snow on the sides and record a couple of cool drone clips! Cool, huh? From stationary helmet cams to 360 rotating cams and now drone cams, the future of snurfing photography is really exciting. Thanks again to Joe, and welcome to the new PHNX Board Phree Ride! (more details later).