Winter is Here
November 18th, 2009
Winter is here in Whistler and there is a lot more snow in the forecast.
Resorts all over are opening with great snow so far this season. Whistler opened two weeks early which is a pretty darn good sign that this winter will be a great one.
Whitegold is off to a pretty good start with a nice little write up in the new issue of Mountain Life magazine. Thanks Feet Banks and the Mountain Life staff for the article.
I also got a nice double page spread in the latest Transworld Snowboarding Magazine. This was an insane bomb drop and contrary to what it says in the article, the truth is I didn't land it. That's why it isn't in the new Shine On movie. I will have to go back this year and try to land it, it's near impossible but if we get a lot of snow in Vancouver, I will try it again.
We have some really cool stuff in the works for this season. We are going to tweak your brains a little with some of the designs we have coming out. We have some samples here now but Johnny won't let me show you guys any pictures yet... super top secret still, but we'll have some photos up soon.
Heli Shoot
June 6th, 2009
Day 2 of our spring heli shoot went a lot better than our first attempt. A much better jump, perfect weather and an amazing helicopter pilot made for some great shots on our final day of shooting. We had the doors off the heli with Clayton hanging out filming once again. We also got to use the infamous Cineflex camera mounted on the bottom of the heli with the same camera operator they used in That’s It That’s All. Mixing helicopters and cool cameras with snowboard filming is pretty damn fun.
Special thanks to everyone who helped make this day such a huge success.
Check out the 30 second heli teaser video and enjoy these photos from John Scarth and Brian Hockenstein.
John Scarth Photo
Brian Hockenstein photo
John Scarth Photo
John Scarth Photo
John Scarth and Brian Hockenstein photo
Great Start
March 10th, 2009
Well it has been a great start for Whitegold so far this season. I want to start off by saying a huge thanks to everyone involved and supporting this project and of coarse a big thanks to everyone who is riding a Whitegold right now.
It's been a crazy year here in Whistler. Bad snow and avalanche conditions have made it a bit of a challenge. But we have had a few really good days this year on the mountain and in the backcountry. Some good travels and good times.
I always said Whitegold Snowboards are the fastest snowboards in Whistler. Josh Lappo proves it by winning the Second Annual Westbeach Peak to Creek Chinese Downhill on a Whitegold 158 Rocker. You start on the peak of Whistler Mountain and race full speed to Creekside. I think the times are around 4 minutes top to bottom, that's insanely fast. Then you have to run to the bottom level of the underground parking lot and chug a beer. It's so intense because by the time you get to the parking lot, if you make it that far, you can't even breath let alone chug a whole beer. It's pretty comical. Rumor has it, Josh drank two beers by the time anyone else got down there. Good job Josh, Congrats! Check the video footage of this years race.
I got a interview on Push.ca about Whitegold Snowboards and Sandbox and my little circus juggling act. Check it out on Push.ca
I want to send out a huge thanks to our very first Whitegold customer, Takamasa Inomata from Japan. He was the first one to get into it and order a board off the website. We packed it up nice and got it out to him pretty quick, all the way from Whistler. Check out these great photos of a very stoked Taka enjoying his Whitegold 158 Rocker.
I was fortunate enough to be invited on a really cool heli trip to Bella Coola Helisports last week. We had an epic week with a ton of new snow just as we arrived and then three days of absolute blue bird skies. The first day was a little bit on the chilly side at -29C, but it warmed up after that. We got about 75,000 vertical feet of untouched blower pow in three days. The snow was amazing and the crew was great. Special thanks to Brad, Beat and our guides - Neil, Chris and Jen. Check out Bella Coola Helisports. Check out the photos here.
For two days of the heli trip I rode an experimantal Whitegold board that I was calling the Pickle, but then I heard that GNU has a similar board and they are calling theirs the Pickle, how crazy is that? So we are trying to think of another cool name that fits the shape and style of this board. One name we liked was 'The Stogie'. Johnny Q calls it 'The Glide' and man did it glide in the pow. It ripped everything and was really fun to slash and shred. This board is a Johnny Q original design. It's pretty much flat camber with a really nice rise in the tip and tail. The tail is narrow and sinks nice in the pow but still hold you up. I dropped cliffs, slashed and even hit a couple jumps with it. Let me know your comments on this shape and style of board.
I am very excited to introduce you to my latest project, Whitegold Snowboards. These boards have been spawned from over 20 years of snowboarding experience. In this time I have been involved in every aspect of snowboarding; from the early days of acceptance on the local ski hills of North Vancouver in the late 80's, to contest wins, world travels, signature boards and as of late, directing and producing snowboard films.
Before Whitegold I had my own pro model board with Option Snowboards for over eight years, from 1998 - 2006. We had a factory in Vancouver BC where we could build our own boards and test shapes and materials. We would make a bunch of boards and take them up to Mount Seymour or Whistler to test the new features. It always felt so cool to have the latest designs or experimental boards that no one else could have. This is where I met Johnny Q, snowboard design guru. Johnny also cut his snowboard engineering teeth in this Vancouver factory from 1995 - 2000. Johnny has now designed boards for brands such as Forum, Stepchild, Arbor, Sapient, Santa Cruz and DC. I have been fortunate to have Johnny design the new Whitegold boards and they are being pressed at one of the most respected factories in Europe, Global Sports Technologies or GST in Austria. GST has been in business for over 50 years and pride themselves in making quality, hand made snowboards. Austria is also one of the most highly regulated countries in the world
for factory emissions and environmental processes.
Whitegold snowboards are made from the best materials with the most innovative designs. No gimmicks or frills here, just solid all mountain freestyle boards. We have been prototyping these boards for two years now and have tested them in every condition from the terrain parks to big mountain backcountry. These current models were just recently finished on October 15th, 2008. These are our latest designs, hot off the presses.
Whitegold Snowboards is a high-end, limited edition brand. There are only 50 boards available this season.
The graphic placement on the top sheet is a metallic hot stamp. The small Whitegold logo and signature authenticate this classy minimalist look.
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The 153 & 158 sizes come in both rocker or reverse camber as well as regular camber. The 163's come in regular camber only. We have been hearing a lot of hype about the rocker designs lately. Some people like the rocker for powder as it helps the board float and helps the nose stay up in deep snow. Some people like the rocker for park and jibbing, as the nose and tail are less catching and the boards flex and press nicely on rails and boxes. I personally like both styles of boards for different types of terrain and snow conditions. For detailed specs on the rocker and camber check the 'specs' section of this website.
One of the key features of these boards is the unique insert pattern. The jumped back two inserts on the insert pack is called 'Slam Back'. The purpose of this is diversity. This allows you to 'Slam' your stance way back on a deep powder day without committing to riding a pure powder specific board. Who knows what the day will bring. I often ride powder on Whistler in the morning and then go ride park in the afternoon on Blackcomb. With this stance option I will just switch it up depending on the terrain, instead of switching boards.
The single insert at the very back of the board is for a Noboard set up. This is specifically designed to allow for a really wide Noboard stance. If you don't know what a Noboard is check them out at: http://www.noboard.ca.
The Structurn Base is a textured sintered 8000. This is the highest quality base material.
The base graphic comes flip/flop in two colors to minimize material waste.
Five stringers of carbon fiber run tip to tail down the center of every board. These carbon stringers add pop and life to the boards flex. They also help the board maintain its pop over time without breaking down.
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Here is our recipe.
