FREQUENT FLYER MYLES

This Summer I have been building skis and snowboards in beautiful Silverdale, WA.  The company I work for, Project Skis LLC, is new.  Very new.  Actually, I was sitting on the couch with the founders (Jakson Clark and Tim Soderlund) back in June when they hit 'send' on their application for the rights to the LLC.  Very exciting.

As a snowboarder my enthusiasm with Project Skis has been somewhat muted due to the fact that I have no interest in using the skis we make.  Building skis as a snowboarder is kinda like working at Chic Fil A as a vegetarian - you know people enjoy the stuff you make, but it's just not for you.  This muted enthusiasm came to a crashing halt this last weekend when the Team finally got around to pressing the snowboards I designed.

Modeled after the Nitro Blacklight, this board is 156 cm, twin tip and tail, poplar core, all mountain board with some sweet graphics!  The really cool thing about this board is that it has been designed to carve sharper toe-side than heel-side.  This is done in the layup process by adding optimally oriented unidirectional carbon fiber for maximal carving effects.  The layup process is time constrained and tedious, making for a stressful time.  It takes approximately five hours per snowboard or pair of skis to prep and press.  With Tim gone during the week at his Boeing internshipm weekends are our only time to get serious about pressing skis.

Last weekend, in a mad push, we pressed two pairs of skis and three snowboards all in 24 hours!  We started at 8am Saturday and didn't stop until we put the last snowboard in the press at 7:50am Sunday.

By the time 3am rolled around we were completely exhausted...

In the end it all paid off.  My board (the black one) turned out beautifully!