Snurfing the Woods! FREEstyle!

Gabe Blumberg on a PHNX Trailblazer...blazing trails in the woods behind his home in Lincoln, Ma.  And by FREEstyle we do mean FREE, since there aren't any ticket turnstiles or RFID readers in the woods, just snow, squirrels, birds...and yeah, watch out for the trees!

As a skier, skateboarder, soccer player and all around active kid, Gabe is quickly figuring out how to ride a snurfer, and why a PHNX Board gives you more control.

5 years ago or yesterday? Snurfing Boston!

Snow finally arrived in the Northeast and the snurfing has begun.  Frankly, we spend more time snurfing than videoing so until we post a new one, here is one of my favorites.  Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, just outside the city of Boston.  Tremendous hill begging to be snurfed and so few people doing it.  Boggles the mind, really, since once you have a board it's FREE and so much fun.  A LIFETIME PASS for the cost of a PHNX Board!  Great exercise, challenging, and fun.  If you ski or snowboard at a resort, after you spend hours getting there, spend a fortune, and wait in lines, you are lucky to get those precious fresh tracks in powder snow.  With a snurfer you get fresh tracks every time and you can snurf anywhere there is a hill and a couple of inches of snow.

DANG, what are you waiting for?   Snurfing is alive and well, and great for any age.   C'mon and join us!

BTW, this was filmed with a DIY 360 camera rig.  A bit of a balancing act but some cool video, huh?

PHNX Boards Team Riders...waiting for snow!

Say Hello to Josh and Gabe Blumberg, PHNX Boards Team Riders!

OK, so there's no snow yet in the Boston area where these two PHNX riders live, but they're certainly ready to ride when the first flakes fall.  And, as PHNX riders know, it only takes a couple of inches before the "rope drops" on all that FREE terrain!  Pictured here, Josh with a Trailblazer on the left and Gabe with an Unplugged on the right.  Two fired-up guys with some pretty cool snurfers ready to rip the woods behind them!

So, what does it take to be a PHNX Team Rider?  Well, mostly you just have to be psyched to turn off the TV, put down the cell phone, (yeah, and maybe blow off the homework for a bit!) and do pretty much anything outside in the winter!  In addition to snurfing the woods and hills in the area, you'll find these two skating, kite-skating, ice-sailing, playing pickup hockey, and skiing.  Ten degrees outside and a blizzard?  Bring it on!

Once the snow hits, we're looking forward to some action shots and videos of Josh and Gabe.  Do they really have what it takes to take on the PHNX PHounder?

RIP Jake Burton Carpenter, most influential inventor of Snowboarding

(photo from Burton.com, circa 70s')

After recurring bouts of cancer over a span of eight years, Jake Burton Carpenter lost the battle on November 20, 2019.  The world has lost a truly inspiring person.  While there were many inventors of snowboarding, there is no question Jake was the most influential and successful, and most responsible for making it into the worldwide sport it is.

No doubt there were many who tinkered with their Snurfers back in the 70s to make them better by adding platforms, rubber straps,etc. Except Jake stuck with it and in the process changed the world of snow sports forever. He was the rare visionary who sees the future and has the tenacity and courage of his convictions to get us there, for the benefit of all.  Jake may be gone, but his legacy remains: bringing joy to so many people by creating products that help us discover and appreciate the outdoors in winter time.

If you want to know just how remarkable and full a life Jake lived, read his timeline posted on Burton's website:  Jake Burton Carpenter

RIP Jake!

RIP Sherman, Long Live Snurfing!

PHNX Boards is sad to say that the inventor of the Snurfer has died on 07/31/19/

I had the honor a few years ago of speaking with Sherman on the telephone when I was developing PHNX Boards.  Fifty years after his invention, it was like opening a history book and speaking directly with someone from the pages, someone who commercialized such a simple, enduring concept: snow surfing!  No, the original model did not endure more than a decade, as it was mostly displaced by snowboarding, but the original sport of snurfing is very much alive and well, as evidenced by quite a few manufacturers selling copies and variations.

With life being so hectic, complicated, and expensive, the simple act of taking a shaped piece of wood and sliding down a snow covered hill was and always will be an inexpensive, stress-releasing, magical way to experience the wonder of snow and winter outdoors.  Thank you, Sherman!

RIP Sherman, Long Live Snurfing!


Reported on 08/05 on Michigan Live.  Click HERE for the notice

NEW: PHNX UNPLUGGED...only $139...and now is the time to buy!

UNPLUG your phone, UNPLUG the internet, UNPLUG excuses...

...PLUG into Snurfing, PLUG into Adventure, PLUG into Freedom!

PHNX Boards introduces our newest snurfer, the PHNX Unplugged!

In the spirit of Less-is-More, the Unplugged is a modern version of the original snurfer, a wider, stiffer, one-size-fits-all board with the patented PHNX Board-2-Ski design with raised hex-screw foot platform for superior traction.  This is the must-have snurfer for all ages and abilities and the best time to buy one is NOW, even if there is no more snow where you are.  Why?  Because the beauty of a snurfer is that if you have one at the ready, you get FIRST TRACKS every season, every snowfall, because it only takes a couple of inches of snow to ride them!  There is nothing like the very first natural snow of the season, when those beautiful flakes start to fall.  With an UNPLUGGED snurfer, those first flakes ---and all the flakes after them---are yours to enjoy for FREE (no other equipment, no lift tickets, no skied off slopes).

Advanced riders who want even more control and safety can choose the original PHNX Trailblazer with the patented Rip-Cord Binding-Brake System.

The UNPLUGGED is the same handcrafted made-in-USA quality of the Trailblazer, with North American hard maple plys with smooth finish and minimal graphics (just the heat-stamped PHNX and Phyrclops brands) to showcase the beauty of natural wood.

At $139, including shipping, there is really no excuse not to be ready when the snow flies...or to have your 2019 holiday shopping already done!

Snurfing the Northeast Kingdom!

PHNX rider Phil Chadderdon sent this photo (taken by his wife) of a perfect day snurfing it up in the Northeast Kingdom!

Just where is the Northeast Kingdom?  So, the NEK, as it is known, comprises the northeast corner of Vermont, a tri-county area of 2,027 square miles and 55 towns.  The area is "based on a set of long-ago volcanic islands, compressed during collision with the Taconic orogeny".   What?   Let me boil that down for you: what that really means is their northern location and geology provides lots of snow and lots of great snurfing hills! 

(If you want to know more about NEK you can read the Wikepedia entry from which I quoted)

Kingdom or not, people who live up there are RICH!  OK, I don't know how much money Phil has, but if you measure wealth by blue skies, fresh tracks, fresh air, healthy pursuits, and big smiles (uh, and the wife with the camera!), he is clearly loaded. 

As for exactly where in the Kingdom Phil is snurfing, well, all he would say is:

"Danville, VT.  I promised the person who showed me that I wouldn't expose it to others...so I can't be specific".

Of course, this is a bit funny/ironic because at the same time, Phil (like me) says "I can't get people to to go with me."  Yeah, we want to share how awesome snurfing is...but we want our secret stashes too!

OK, maybe not entirely secret, because those other tracks you see in the photo are fox tracks, which Phil saw on both sides of the hill.  It's nice to know someone else is enjoying the snow!

Ride out the storm...on a PHNX Board!

I don't know where you are, but it's been a cold, dark, DRY winter here in the Boston area.  We had one wimpy "storm" that only dropped a couple of inches about a month ago (of course, if you have a PHNX Board, only a couple of inches is good enough!).  Here we are mid-January and I'm dying to get out on my board again, and it looks like this weekend is finally it! 

Last week, I took a walk over at one of my all-time favorite hills, Peter's Hill at Arnold Arboretum.  In addition to the main hill, there is more awesome terrain off Bussey Hill, across the street, but still part of the Arboretum.  It's a heavily wooded area but the trees are spaced way out so there are tons of great lines to be had.  And, as always, there's hardly anyone ever there.  Once the snow starts flying, I'll be heading over!

(Best parking for Peter's Hill is on Bussey Street, but for Bussey Hill it's over on South Street --a couple of spots are usually available at the Public Health building over there- or maybe at the Dana Greenhouses, though I've never tried there)

So, as always when there is a storm and travelling far can be problematic, if you have a snurfer -preferably a PHNX Board Trailblazer- you can ride out the storm in real time wherever you are hunkered down.  Some of us are lucky to have hills right behind our homes, or as in the case of the Arnold Arboretum, there are hills close by hundreds of thousands of people.  You don't have to drive far to get first...and last tracks!