Custom Snowboard

After too many years riding the same K2 board and clickers, it was time for something new. Boot and binding technology has improved greatly, and my wife may or may not have bribed me to “hit the mountain” more frequently by giving me a set of Burton Step OnĀ® bindings and boots for Christmas. Rather than mount the new bingings on my old K2, I took the opportunity to bring back some of what I loved most about the snowboards in the 1990s. The art!

Lib, Gnu, Burton, and others used to produce fantastically creative works of art on their boards. Although some boards still show off unique creativity on the slopes, modern boards tend to the abstract or act as just vehicles for the manufacturer’s logo. You can still, however, have a custom board made.

Mahar — a boutique board manufacturer in Michigan — is one such builder who will combine your artwork with one of their board styles. You pick the board, provide the art, and six weeks later your finished board arrives in a box.

My favorite snowboard artwork tends to the irreverant. This surely has to do with my belief that snowboarding was and still is an outsider sport. When I took a photo of our chihuahua lifting its leg on a cactus, I knew that I had something to start with. Combined with a few other photos I took in the Coachella Valley and nearby Joshua Tree National Park, a bit of digital artwork manipulation, and I had my order with Mahar placed.

Nothing prepared me for how well this journey would turn out.

Pintxo + Cactus
La Quinta Road Runner
Full Board

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