Travis Parker is back filming and has gone back to K2 Snowboarding in the newest video from the Airblaster crew. Respect Your Elders looks to be about what Airblaster has always been about, having a good time with friends and making snowboarding a passion instead of just a paycheck. Check out this trailer and look for the video to drop at Pathfinder later next week.

Respect Your Elders Teaser from Resourceful Gnome on Vimeo.

Just in time for the biggest rain storm in months, Pathfinder of West Virginia has received our latest shipment of Crash Pads and other bouldering accessories. We have everything that your looking for from chalk, to pads, to an excellent selection of Five Ten Climbing Shoes. So here's what we got in.

So this year marks the second year that Mr. Rice has been on a board featuring C2 Power Banana. This wonderful concoction of camberness and reverse camberness has been unleashed onto the snowboarding populous and has been doing some major damage. It always seems like Mervin MFG (Lib-Tech, GNU, and ROXY) invent it, and then it winds up on everyone else's sales radars. But in all honesty this thing is ridiculous. Allow me to explain.

First: The board is handmade in the USA! Billy Joel and The Boss hand press every one of these things, and then Clint Eastwood sharpens the edges with his teeth. But seriously, the fact that everything that goes into the board is put there in Sequim, Washington means something special.

Second: The board not only has C2 Power Banana (if you don't know what this is read the article below), it also has Magne-traction! Mag is the technology that helps you grip, and is easy to see. Just look at most Mervin MFG boards and you'll notice that the edge is "wavy". There are seven different waves on each side. On a traditional "straight" snowboard you flex the board and it makes an arc into the snow. This only gives you two contact points at the base of that arc. With Mag, the "wavy" edge turns to a straight edge when flexed. So, that not only gives you a full edge contact from tip to tail, but then it also gives you a pressure point underneath each one of those little waves. The result is a board that grips (even when you tune down your edges) amazingly well and You Will Never Slide Out Again...

Third: This board has soooo much technology in the core. Three layers of wood, at least 6 carbon stringers that run tip to tail, and a cool newer material called Golden Fleece. Golden fleece is basalt (yup 8th grade Earth Science all over again) that is heated into a liquid and then cooled into a thread like shape. They then take the basalt strings and weave them into a sheet. That sheet becomes impregnated with epoxy and is then used under the top sheet of the board instead of fiberglass. This not only makes the board perform way better in and out of turns, but it makes it lighter and sounds really cool when your talking to your earth conscious buds because your doing something for the environment.

Fourth and Lastly: The last bit about this board is that it rides amazingly well. I will admit that I was a little scared to ride this board in the past, I mean the guy uses it to do double corks on 100ft, gapped, backcountry jumps in powder. But it's actually really forgiving, and super fast. It only took me a couple of turns before you understand how the board wants you to react. Once C2 and Mag are under your feet the board literally does most of the work for you. At Snowshoe this year this board was easily the fastest and most stable board I have ever ridden, and it could handle all of the really stupid things I usually do to a snowboard. Its just really nimble and fun with a big scoop of speed and durability.

So get yourself some good ole' American Pride and pick yourself up a Lib C2 T. Rice Soon. Because others already have your's in mind.

Andrew

This new tidbit from the VideoGrass crew is truly special. Especially the Justin Benee bit at the :28 second mark. Pretty spectacular, I mean Mikey Leblanc, come on! Should have all our videos, including this one in beginning of next week. Get One or Two, Or What the hell buy em all and make me order More! These guys from VideoGrass are excellent!

This past weekend Zach Fowler and I headed into the Roaring Plains to do some backpacking. The Roaring Plains is a Wilderness Area that is located in the Monongahela National Forest on the opposite side of Forest Road 19 from Dolly Sods. The weather was great and everything was really dry, but the dryness sped up the turning of the leaves in the area so it left us with some really spectacular views.

For a long time the only shape that snowboarders had to choose from was Camber. This magical core bending process was brought to snowboards through technologies harnessed within ski manufacturing. Camber was good for many reasons. For all of you out there that would like a little visual, cambered basically means that the board sits flat on the tip and tail and the center of the board bows up off the ground in the middle. When you go and stand of the board, your weight pushes the center of the board down towards the ground, thus storing potential energy. When you put the board into a turn that potential energy is transfered out to the edge and then you release it when you come out of the turn. The more energy you put into the board the harder, faster, and more edgy your turn can become. This was the promise of Camber.

However there were negatives to this shape. The most obvious is the fact that your nose and tail are flat on the ground at all times. This puts your edges directly in line with the snowpack while cruising at speed. One little bump, nook, cranny, or undulating snow pack, and it would give you an uneasy feeling. Like you were stuck between two walls bouncing your board around and making you feel uncomfortable. Also, when turning your board it became essential to pick up the nose and tail before turning so that you didn't catch your edge and end up on your backside. I know I can speak from experience that you get lazy every once and a while and the boards edge would surprise you by bucking you around.
So four years ago, along comes Reverse Camber or better known by its sub-company names of Banana (Lib Tech), V-Rocker (Burton), Rocker Technology (K2 Snowboards), and Chili Dogg (Forum).  For a lot of people the rise of Reverse Camber was a long awaited and amazing thing. Lib Technologies released their Skate Banana and the world of snowboarding changed forever. It made snowboarding so easy! But not just for beginners, even the pros and everyday peeps were riding this new shape and loving it for everything from backcountry powder to urban rail gardens. The key to Reverse Camber's secret is that the core bends in the opposite way a Camber board's does. There is a slight pinch in the very center of the board and then the board rose gradually out towards the nose and tail. Think of a V or a Banana.

  The positive of this shape is that it keeps your nose and tail up off of the ground when you shift your weight on the board. Cruising at high speed and wondering where your edges are? On a Reverse Camber board as long as you shift your weight around naturally those edges of yours will be up giving you a free feeling that won't leave you boxed in like a Cambered board. For beginners it was like bowling with bumper guards, since most beginners have no idea where their edges are. Now, they don't have to worry about where their edges are and the learning curve is that much easier. For experienced riders it was amazing because now you had all this extra play in the board. You could ride switch easier, learn all those elusive tricks and not worry about catching an edge and paying a huge price if your edge caught. It also allowed for more float in deep snow and more room for error on rails and boxes.

But there was a downside to Reverse Camber. Cambered boards allowed the rider to put pressure into the board and have that spring called "pop". Since Reverse Camber boards were already flexed in that direction, it was hard to store energy into the core and get a lot of "pop". Reverse Camber boards almost had a noodle like feel to them when you were carving on them or getting ready to power off a jump. You just couldn't get the snap out of them like you could with a Cambered Board.

Now enter the next generation of snowboarding. If Camber is good for some things and Reverse Camber is good for others than what if a company made a board that had both. What do you know, They Have! Now we have boards from Lib Tech (C2 Power Banana), Burton (Flying-V), Never Summer (Rocker and Camber), and Forum (Combo Platter) that use both of these technologies in a harmonious blend. They are pinched like a Reverse Camber board in the center, however they rise and fall with Camber under the bindings, and then back to a Reverse Camber shape in the nose and tail. The Best of Both Worlds! Now you can lean back and get all that float that you love from a Reverse Camber board, but still have all the power and stored potential energy right underneath your feet.

So there you have it folks your three major Cambers within the Snowboard world; Camber, Reverse Camber, and both at the same time! No matter what your looking for in your next board make sure to check out all the options to figure out which version is best for you. See you all soon.

Andrew

This morning, fresh from Massachusetts, 5 boxes of Vibram Five Fingers arrived at our store. We received KSO, KSO Trek, KSO Trek Sport, Bikila, and Performa Jane models. I will tell you that the number of sizes are limited, but for the most part we have received size runs in all the models mentioned above. Also I should mention that it is extremely important to have a Pathfinder employee measure your foot to determine the correct size. The chart on Vibram's website can be very confusing, and also EVERY model fits differently. That being said, unless you already own a pair of VFFs in the size and model you are looking for, we would strongly urge you to come in and allow us to fit you. Other than that we hope to see you soon.