Slash Snowboards Custom quiver
Gigi Rüf talks HUCK through the ins and outs of his new snowboarding company.
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Recognised for his consistently creative and lofty backcountry lines and killer video parts, Gigi Rüf has risen to the upper echelons of snowboarding over the past decade or so.
Now, the 30-year-old from Vorarlberg, Austria has stepped into the business arena having recently launched his new snowboarding company, Slash Snowboards.
Taking inspiration from the world of surf shaping, he's taking the opportunity to experiment with new shapes in pursuit of the perfect quiver.
Here he talks HUCK through the ins and outs of the new venture.
The Name
"Slash...it comes from the ultimate of snowboarding – and surfing a little bit, I guess. That feeling of breaking free: to ride powder and not rely on the groomers. It's the ultimate thing you seek in snowboarding: to slash. Everyone is wanting to slash with any set up. I really cracked up over the logo and I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted it to be iconic, not bland."
The History
"I was always involved with snowboard development programmes at Burton from 1998 onwards. It really took off with Burton offered me to start their Un Inc boards. We had the opportunity to show off our personality though our boards and my take was always to think of the snowboard as a medium for expressing yourself.
Once it was discontinued, it was hard but I didn't want to start anything from there. [...] Volcom got me engaged with their board programme. It was a lot of work to get the boards developed but it never really got my pro model.
I have to be grateful to Volcom as they bought me to Slash. I got my Volcom boards through Nidecker. I was always asking them for the newest thing and the best boards and giving my feedback to them. After two years, I gained their trust and they offered me the opportunity to redesign their NDK line so I'm not just taking up more space on the snowboarding market."
The Design
"I spent all summer planning up the concept, presentations and connecting with friends for art ideas. […] I sketched out the shape. I really wanted it to have an identity with its shape, not just a plain board with my graphic on it.
Nidecker gave me 12 board moulds so I can be experimental and make special boards and maybe even fuck up somethings.
It's a fun process. A lot of thought goes into each board. […] It should definitely have character. This is the masterpiece I want to create. I can get anything I want [in a board] and it's like being a kid in the kitchen with a full fridge."
The Concept
"I want to have a quiver of boards that I can ride until I'm old and grey. The idea of Slash is taken from surfing where there is a boardshaper that other riders come to to have their own pro boards shaped for them, and can have an assortment of boards for all kinds of terrain.
The whole concept is driven by personalities who lend the board their expertise. Whoever can come in to help me with a new idea is very welcome. Ideally every board I will want to make is attached to be a person so it will just be pro models like Johnnie Paxton's where I get to learn and exchange ideas with other people. Â I wouldn't go and extend the line to rental boards."
The Business
"I broke through to the other side; the business. I had to do is go to trade shows [SIA Snow Show in Denver and ISPO in Munich] and connect to people and get feedback. Maybe it was awkward and I was a little bit nervous. It really hit me that it's real and accepted so I need to put the pedal to the metal. At least I'm not going to be bored in the summer any more. It's quite exciting to build something up from scratch. It's like raising a kid, I guess. The love you put into it will come out."
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Slash Snowboards (text) by Ed Andrews is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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