Capita Snowboards preview
A sneak peek at next season’s snowboards.
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The Capita Super Scary Corporation could be the most artistic brand in snowboarding. So what’s the brand got in store for us this coming season?
Since it's inception in 2000, creativity has always been key at Capita. Frustrated with the bland direction shredding was taking, pro snowboarder-turned-K2 Team Manager, Blue Montgomery, quit his day job, bought a house and created Capita – all in one month. With a whopping $50,000 on his credit card – at 18% interest – it was a dream verging on insanity that proved genius.
“Capita started as more of an art project than a snowboard company,” has said team rider-turned-artist Corey Smith. “Blue has to constantly determine the fine line between allowing Capita artists total creative freedom and what will 'sell' in the increasingly conservative snowboard markets. Sometimes I can't believe the things we've gotten away with. He could easily curate art shows for galleries in another life.”
The Charlie Slasher / Green Machine
Human05, Ephka and Dustin Krysak are the original trio of artists who helped carve out Capita’s left field niche. Ephka is still a core creative, creating forty of next season’s decks, including Capita's first 'eco-friendly' snowboard, The Green Machine – a high-end progressive freestyle snowboard for the 'earth conscious' connoisseur, complete with a reforestation certified sustainable core, biodegradable bean derivative top sheet, 'Evo Tech' fibreglass, 95% recycled beeswax base,100% recycled sidewall and Capita’s signature 'Flat Kick' reverse camber technology.
The Mid Life Photo / Indoor Survival
Saturina / Stairmaster Extreme
For 09/10, Schneider (who also produces his Snowboard Realms video podcasts) contributed his own photographs for The Mid Life Photo, a park perfect board for bigger-footed riders: “For Capita we always have to have a story behind our graphics – never just a pretty picture. So I took photos that meant something to me personally. I started thinking about what everyone relies on to get through life, exploring the connection between people and ideas.”
His triptych of boards are embellished with a photo of his grandma, (who died two years ago), a peace sign daubed on a wall in Zurich, Switzerland (“I was inspired by world peace. Something I do believe in.”), and a silhouette of an altar with a cross (“A lot of people rely on religion to get them though the day.”)
Corey Smith follows his usual thread of trashy, pop culture parody with his signature series: the limited-edition Stairmaster Extreme. Warhol-inspired, each deck uses real life headlines and celeb look-a-likes to mock the media's obsession with voyeurism – twisting our culture into a passive sponge of celebrity obsessed, mindless crap.
“In three dimensional time we are all subconsciously becoming who we despise. Life is a cosmic train wreck none of us keep our eyes off it,” writes Smith about his direction. “The time has come to enter psychic wars that unnatural broadcasts send into the hearth of every home. Your 42” plasma flat screen is watching you as you lay limp under it's glow. Reprogram your cerebral circuits to transmit what you receive and embrace quantum interconnectedness. Exalt the new mysticism. Drop out, not bombs. Too much remote, not enough control.”
With mother nature making a return last winter and puking snow, the Capita design-bods thought it was time to add a specific powder slasher to the quiver – The Charlie Slasher. “We've always been a freestyle orientated company,” explains Blue at SIA. “So were always reluctant to do the phallic shaped, surfer bro board with wood grain top sheets.”
With a unique shape – reverse camber on the nose only, to which there's a 20mm taper – it sinks into the deep stuff, but retains enough power to really slice up turns. Thankfully, they've ditched the 'ironic' old-school graphics too – opting for a rotten old witch to help destroy the snow.
Flipping a finger at the recession, The Indoor Survival – Capita's top seller - has also been given a reforestation certified core, with anti-wallflower, acid trip induced art for 2010 – plus a lower price. “The graphics are undeniable,” said Montgomery at SIA. “In these market conditions it would be easy to play it safe and be conservative but from my point our customers come to us for a reason and here it is...”
These snowboards and many more brands, plus bindings and boots, were tested in Kaunertal, Austria from May 1 to 10, 2009. For details, and to sign up for their consumer test in October check out www.thesnowboardtest.com and www.kaunertal.com.
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Capita Snowboards preview (text) by is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Comments (6)
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If there's anyone else here, let me know.
Oh, and yes I'm a real person LOL.
Peace,
True, I think the reaction in the US has been over the top - but I still think the graphics are lame and lazy: a complete obvious ploy from Burton to appeal to mindless, mainstream teenage boys.
It's interesting to compare the LOVE series to Capita's Stairmaster Extreme: while Burton are following a mainstream trend where more flesh equals more sales (from FHM, Nuts, Zoo, Front etc to Vogue), Capita are poking fun at this same type of audience with their tabloid parodies.
Although, I'd be the first to admit, if Burton readdressed the balance and released a series of women's boards emblazoned with hot naked men I'd be the first to quit complaining.... But that's never going to happen.
Anything that Geoff Mc touches is gold! Oh yeah, and that's a fact by the way...