It’s getting hot in here. Screenshot from video
The web series “Every Third Thursday” from Signal Snowboards takes a creative approach to snowboard innovation. Each episode, they build a new and novel board from unconventional materials. While most of their concepts—such as a snowboard made of glass, one that becomes a station for solar power, and one that doubles as a surfboard—are fun, they’re not exactly functional. (Don’t look for people to be shredding fresh pow on glass sticks anytime soon.) Their latest idea, though—a battery-powered deck with a heated bottom that promised to cut through snow at faster speeds like a hot knife through butter—seemed to have potential. We caught up with the host of the show, Dave Lee, to find out more about the potential for super-fast heated snowboards.
What do you enjoy about creating unconventional snowboards?
I love the challenge and I love how the concept of the show brings all types of people together through snowboarding and snowboard manufacturing. Equally, it’s amazing how much you learn about alternative processes, materials, and many other things when you push outside of your comfort zone regularly.
What types of snowboards have you made on the show?
We’re four years in, so I think we just built our 39th board. We built a board completely out of glass, a snowboard that’s a solar-powering station, a snowboard that you can surf, and one of my favorites: an adaptive snowboard for a friend of ours that had a serious spinal injury. There’s so many and it’s been a blast making them. You can check them all here: http://ift.tt/18F3cCu
Test runs on the heated snowboard showed slightly faster movement versus a regular setup. Screenshot from video
How did the idea for a heated snowboard come about?
It was just one of those ideas that we added to the list when we started getting comfortable putting electronics into boards. It made sense to us, especially on cold days. We weren’t sure if it was going to work, but we had to try.
What were the challenges involved in making it?
Finding the materials was the biggest challenge. It’s always tricky to find the right element you need for a build that works with our lay-up process.
How did it feel different than a regular snowboard when you tested it?
Once the temperature hit 80 and then 100 degrees, it just started moving faster. We all were riding regular boards and would switch from the regular to the heated and you could easily feel the difference.
Do you have plans to do timed speed tests with it to prove if it’s really faster?
Yes. That was a bummer we couldn’t get it done for the show. We are definitely going to time some runs and get some real data.
Do you think we’ll be seeing heated boards in the future? Does the idea have promise?
These are concepts. Much like concept-car shows. It’s all about playing around with ideas that make people think differently, and hopefully you discover something usable. The heated base may have promise, but technology will need to catch up to make it functional for a daily shred.
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