What is SIA?


Niche Snowboards – Salt Lake City, Utah
I do have a special interest in Niche Snowboards because I am the voice of their Twitter (follow @NicheSnowboards here) but I would not be doing it unless I believed in their product and the people behind the product. For the upcoming year, they have re-vamped the Aether and included a limited edition Aether. The Aether make-up is the same but because of the acquisition of a magnetraction patent, the board now has magnetraction. Where the limited edition Aether gets different besides the killer graphic is the addition of Basalt to the base increasing the durability/stability. Below are some photos:

The Niche crew with the Aether, Knew, Theme, Minx

Story, Limited Edition Aether, Limited Edition Theme

At the on-snow demo at Winter Park, Colorado I had the opportunity to try out the limited edition Aether. This thing rips hard! It was a sunny, east-like day. The snow was minimal but it was perfect conditions to try it out in high speeds. It held an edge on every hard carve. I could feel the board really digging into the snow and it gave me a confident feeling while on hard turns in high speed. When traveling on flats and bombing straight down, the board never felt like it was going to catch an edge either. Then you got the graphic…siiiick. If you get a chance definitely try out one of Niche’s boards!

Contract Snowboards - Poland
 While strolling the event floor, I made my way to the outside of the convention where all of the newer companies are and spotted Contract Snowboards. I moseyed on in because one of the graphics caught my eye. After talking to one of the reps, I learned that Contract has a new technology in their boards called 3D Snake Transition.

It is a basically magnetraction throughout the entire width of the middle of the board that you can physically feel with the touch of the hand. It feels really cool, but unfortunately I did not get to test it out. The benefits include, better stability throughout, a stronger edge, better pop, and according to them a better fun factor. It was pretty cool to see someone take the magnetraction idea and change it. Pictures of the 3D Snake Transition are below and explained here:




Venture Snowboards – Silverton, Colorado 
I was extremely excited for a meeting with Venture because I had known about them for some time as the leader in Splitboards. I love their style; it is simple yet badass looking. Lots of black with accented bright colors. Their product really reflects on the Splitboard culture.

I ended up speaking with the owner, Lisa Branner, who herself is an avid backcountry snowboarder based out of Silverton, Colorado. It’s great to talk to an owner that actually does what she produces, IE splitboarding. You would be surprised with how many business owners/PR people who market the products that they do not even use.

Venture Snowboards has got everything a splitboarder would need: a few choices in the directional line (Odin, Zephyr, Storm), with a new twist (Euphoria), and yes even a true twin split (Helix). Of course what caught my eye were the “freak” boards in the Zelix and Euphoria. The Zelix is a mix of the Helix and the Zephyr. It’s directional twin that is only currently offered as a solid board. The Euphoria is a powder surfer that will definitely make people do a double take. It is a directional that has rocker, reverse sidecut, and a swallowtail. It is also designed to be used bindingless. Yes, without bindings, like you are actually surfing!

Now Bindings - Whistler, Canada
I am not even sure that words are necessary to preview these bindings.  The only thing that I would like to point out, is that they are the first front country binding that is not completely stupid.  It has an innovative design that is derived from skateboard trucks to give you more control of your board.  Check out the video to see what I mean:

The Blaze

The Burner