Monday, November 30, 2009

Eco-friendly snowboards

As I have written in a previous blog about the Green Initiative For Tomorrow (G.I.F.T) from Salomon, I think it is really interesting to see all these snowboard companies trying to use recycled and/or green materials.

In Salomon case, all of the G.I.F.T. boards use structural bamboo veeners, a natural lightweight and lively material. ABC Sandwich maximizes the natural pop and quality board feel of bamboo as basic building block material. It lowers weight and uses 25% less plastic content than traditional boards and ABC Wrapper reduces the plastic content of each board by 40%. 5 boards are under the G.I.F.T, the Sick Stick, the Answer and Answer Magnum with ABC wrapper and the Grip and Ivy with ABC sandwich.


Lib Tech (and Gnu) boards feature recycled bases, soy-based elastomer sidewalls, low-VOC epoxy resins, sustainably harvested wood cores, and no toxic finishing clearcoats. Their new Banana Magic model takes it further, incorporating 100 percent Basalt fiber instead of fiberglass, and a topsheet made from castor beans.

Green Mountain Project with Nicolas Muller being on the forefront of the project, "The Eco Nico was the catalyst to create the most environmentally sustainable board ever produced," Todd King, business unit director for boards at Burton. it features recycled content in bases, edges, sidewalls and Burton's Channel plug; certified wood cores; water-based inks for topsheet printing; and sustainable wax.

Arbor has been using Bamboo since 2001 to enhance ther performance and the aesthetism of the boards. Here is a good article talking about the advantages of Bamboo. 14 boards 2010 lineup integrates bamboo as well as paulownia and Forest Stewardship Council certified cores.

For the 2010 season, K2 has expanded the Eco Conscious and Hybrilight Construction into the Gyrator, all new women’s EcoPop, and new powerhouse Slayblade.

At least Bateleon's Project Green is pretty honest and while I don't think they are proactive on being green, they tried to keep up with the trends, such as FSC wood core and recycled ABS sidewalls, non oil based topsheet material, recycled base material and lacquers are solvent free.


Signal's OG boards feature a Flotsam and Jetsam base, using base material that would otherwise end up in a landfill. "These Flotsam and Jetsam bases are all made from high-end sintered base material. A portion of every Flotsam and Jetsam Rescue Project board sold goes to The Snowrider Project at Surfrider.org"


Capita's Green Machine featuring Reforestation Certified Sustainable core, biodegradable bean derivative top sheet, 95% recycled beeswax modified sintered Speed base and a 100% recycled sintered ABS sidewalls

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