Freeriding 'fats' are driving the ski industry

By Matt Boxler

Next time you’re sucking air through that huge grin on your face because you just hucked off a  cliff, shmeared a perfect landing pillow to scrape off excess speed before ripping perfectly tight powder turns through a treeline that you dream about … thank a snowboarder.

Thanks to a steady dose of new snow throughout the season, Jay Peak is an eastern freerider's dream (photo courtesy of Jay Peak). They’ll probably look at you like you’ve lost your mind but do it anyway. Those fat skis you’re on with the rocker in the tips and tails? Those mixed cambers, mid-fats and twin tips everybody else is bringing to the mountain these days – even on the East coast? Snowboarding brought you those, thank you very much. It’s an industry evolution that has reenergized skiing after a period of stagnancy.

Yep, skiing is cool again and fat boards are driving the market. According to research by Leisure Trends Group and published by SnowSports Industries America, sales of skis with waist widths 95mm or wider increased 162 percent in 2010/2011 to 33,763 pairs sold. Reverse/mixed camber ski sales doubled in one season. In fact, alpine equipment sales across all categories jumped 17.6 percent compared to a scant 0.1 percent rise in snowboard equipment sold.

“I love it,” says John “Spoon” Witherspoon, ski instructor and head freeskiing coach at Jay Peak who is enjoying the resurgence first-hand. “This new style of ski makes it easier to get into more extreme situations than it used be on those skinny skis. In the old days you had to be really strong. Now, intermediates can be out in more advanced zones – woods, parks, rails, cliffs. Fat skis are great for all that.”

Even the most basic rental packages at resorts are going fatter. Witherspoon says absolute beginners are benefitting from wide-waist skis because they pivot easier and the earliest skillset requires steering more than carving.

As youths advance, Witherspoon’s approach is to teach multi-turns, including carving and “shmearing” (imagine a knife scraping warm butter across a piece of toast), which is more versatile in the bumps and the woods because skiers can “butter over” the imperfections and crust, giving them the tools and the confidence to go places they otherwise wouldn’t dare.

“I tell kids carve when you can but when you can’t, shmear your turns, and hop, and do the whole scope in between.”

Witherspoon knows a thing or two about excelling in extreme situations. Raised Jay, he started skiing the northern Vermont resort at age 6 and became an instructor there as a teen. He moved out to Colorado and competed on the pro mogul tour, the Freeskiing World Tour, and raced skiercross events.

During those competitive years, he moved to Lake Tahoe to quench his passion for backcountry terrain, which he did primarily at Squaw Valley before finally returning “home” to Jay Peak about four years ago, where he now teaches in the ski school and launched the Freeskiing Team. Now in his early 40s, Witherspoon has had time to reflect on how skiing culture has evolved to greatness again, thanks in large part to snowboarding.

Skiing popularity is surging again thanks to cultural and technological breakthroughs made by snowboarding (photo courtesy of Jay Peak).“When I went out west, skiing trees was illegal,” Witherspoon says, “and it was really difficult on skinny skis. We had no jumps, we couldn’t practice. Then snowboarding came along and now there were terrain parks. Skiers would go in and get chased out. Then there was a little bit of a bend and skiers got in a little bit more. Then everything turned.

“The cool thing to me is I like the way snowboarding brought all these things to us but I feel that the skiers are now the ones who are crushing it.”

Witherspoon was among the throng of skiers to push the limits of the sport back in the 80s and 90s. In fact, he’s never met a boundary he wasn’t inclined to cross. His extreme swan song was an 8-month journey across borders by bicycle, riding 15,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina. So when it comes to going extreme, he knows good technology when he rides it.

“Kids now don’t know any different,” he says. “They’ve only known fat skis and twin tips and terrain parks. It’s a little bit of a Catch-22 because the wisdom and skills that you once had to have are not in demand now so you find people with less ski savvy out there doing things that maybe they shouldn’t quite be doing yet. They can be getting in over their heads.

“Now you can go anywhere and the feeling is that as you get farther out, deeper in the woods, other things now come into play – survival skills, navigational skills – which wouldn’t have been as much a factor before because generally only the most prepared backcountry athletes were going that far out.”

Case in point, on a Sunday last January, three Rhode Island skiers had to be rescued after venturing into the backwoods area known as Hellbrook at Stowe Mountain Resort. They ended up going out of bounds on the western side of Mount Mansfield and had to be guided down by police sirens. They finally stumbled upon someone’s house at 9 p.m.

On the exact same day, three other skiers from New York spent five hours in the woods after getting lost at Pico Mountain Resort. The trio skied out of bounds off the Fools Gold trail at around 3:30 p.m. and weren’t found until 10 p.m. near the Pico Pond Road where they were eventually hauled out by snowmobile.

Fortunately, all six skiers on this day were rescued from the mountains uninjured.

Resorts are working to strike a balance between opening new side- and backcountry terrain while taking measures to keep everyone safe. Freeskiing programs, backcountry tours, lessons and clearly stated policies are all an important part of resort landscapes these days.

Witherspoon has taken it a step further, using his connections with the International Free Skiers Association to help launch the Ski The East Freeride Tour, which debuted last season with event stops at Mad River Glen, Magic Mountain, Sugarbush and Jay Peak. Winners of the series earned automatic qualification to the Freeskiing World Tour. Wouldn’t you know Jay Peakers Ashley Maxfield and Dominick Malaussena won the inaugural titles.

“I’m really into our backcountry, off-piste skiing,” Witherspoon says. “When I say ‘hey let’s do some cliff-jumping, kids perk up! Deeper in the woods, natural terrain parks … that’s where I’m hoping to go and that’s where I’m pushing.”

Instead of maintaining trails and building parks, Spoon is out in the woods trimming takeoffs from cliffs and logs, thinking of the kids in his ski classes.

It’s no surprise he’s the resort’s primary terrain explorer for its proposed expansion into the West Bowl. Not yet developed, he’s been nibbling away out there, finding some really good stuff. “I’m psyched for what’s out there,” he says. “One of the drawbacks now is I’m working on a sliver. I can only go so far because I need to get back to the existing base. Once they really set me loose, I’m psyched to see what new natural terrain we can find.”

Spoon marvels at all this positive change ushered in by snowboard technology and culture. It makes one wonder what the next big change on the horizon will be.

“If I knew that, I’d be an investment genius,” he says. “It will be interesting to see the big stuff that happens next but you get the feeling that was the big shift that happened and now it’s just going to be the subtleties … smaller changes within that.”

Yep, it’s a good time to thank a snowboarder.

(Story first published in New England Ski Journal.)

High-tech gadgets drive form and function

By Matt Boxler

We who embrace winter sports love new technology as much we love rocking the latest trends and styles. Fortunately for us, designers in the ski and snowboard industry have a wonderful knack for combining the two, providing a constant stream of new products that not only make us look and feel good, but function even better:

Burton Imperial boasts 'shrinkage' technologyImperial downsizing

In this era when ski resorts are paying considerable attention to reducing their carbon footprints, why not join the movement and consider reducing your own, actual, footprint? Don’t worry, this will not require ancient binding practices or even amputation. It’s as easy as sliding your foot into the Burton Imperial and the benefits are immediate.

Burton’s shrinkage technology removes one full size from your typical boot length by custom-molding the liner and shell together at the factory, thereby eliminating all gaps. Thinner materials in the boot’s toe and heel add up to a subtraction in overall volume, hence, a smaller boot.

At the very least, a smaller boot will provide your foot, and your attached body, a closer union with your board. It will also help with your après-ski maneuverability. At the most, your smaller boot will open up a whole new line of narrower-waist boards to give you one giant leap forward in performance without having to worry about the dreaded toe drag.

The Imperial may be a smaller boot than you’re used to, but the fit is the same. And it still contains everything else you’d want to take riding with you – a Vibram outsole meshed with an EST midsole, the consistent flex and bulletproof durability of S4 shell paneling, and SpeedZone lacing to dial in ultimate control.

Salomon's BBR 8.9 shape is inspired by surf boardsSurf’s up at Salomon

For many surfing and skiing bums out there who work late hours tending bar or waiting tables in order to fund their daytime habits, it’s all about the tips. If you can keep the tips up – both day and night – things are looking good.

Keeping those tips up on a deep powder day has never been easier or more fun than it is on a radical new ski shape design from Salomon – the team that brought you the Pocket Rocket and X-Scream. Salomon’s new BBR 8.9 ski, a shape inspired by surfboards, boasts a massive 147 mm V-shaped shovel the designers say simply cannot sink, no matter how deep the snow. Combined with an 89 mm waist and 110 mm tail, far narrower than any backside powder ski on the market, the BBR 8.9 provides a surfing-like feel in the snow. The tight-radius turning capability made possible by its narrow waist and tail gives you the edge control needed while traversing the whole mountain in search of its deepest stashes.

Oakley Airbrake shifts on the flyLightning quick

Constantly changing light is one of the most challenging conditions Mother Nature throws at us out there on the mountain. What looks like a clearly defined tree stump in the morning might resemble a silver-toned pillow in the afternoon, which is why selecting the right goggle is so important. The only problem is that packing five different goggles to suit five different lighting conditions simply isn’t practical.

With SwitchLock technology, Oakley’s Airbrake turns one goggle into multiple goggles by introducing the fastest and easiest way to change lenses on the go. An integrated lever releases the currently mounted lens so an alternate can be installed instantly. And the system doesn’t require a PhD in patience. Once the new lens is mounted securely in place, there are no stresses to distort the frame’s shape and thereby affect vision.

The Airbrake comes packaged with two lenses, but Oakley offers additional replacement lenses to suit every conceivable lighting condition. Whether you need a high contrast lens for flat light or an HDPolarized for high altitude glare, the Oakley line-up offers the best combination of filtering, color balance and visual contrast.

Unconditional lifetime guaranteeDarn good idea

When you live in New England and ski in New England, you know how to order the latest generation of seamless Italian knitting machines in order to make the perfect socks for New England conditions.

That’s what the folks at Darn Tough Socks have done in their Northfield, Vt. hosiery mill. The result is a news sock this season – the Ultra-Light ski sock that uses True-Seamless knitting technology. 

The new knitting machines allow Darn Tough to knit ski socks with a virtually undetectable toe seam, eliminating seams that cause hot spots and blisters. They use the highest density knitting in the industry to make Merino wool socks with unsurpassed moisture wicking, comfort, fit and durability -- all without added bulk. Just like every other Darn Tough sock, the Ultra-Light comes with an unconditional lifetime guarantee.

Columbia packs 'Omni-Heat'Heat on demand

By introducing Omni-Heat technology in many of its products this season, Columbia is giving consumers on-demand, electric powered thermal technology built right into their jackets, footwear and accessories.

The Omni-Heat system (which combines Thermal Electric, Thermal Reflective and Thermal Insulation technologies) allows skiers and snowboarders to get warm at the push of a button by activating a patent-pending, battery-powered array of heating elements located strategically throughout select Columbia styles – like the Men’s Circuit Breaker Softshell Jacket.

Multiple heat levels and engineered breathability mean you’ll never get too hot. The Circuit Breaker Softshell Jacket provides 30 percent greater heat retention per gram than the leading competitor but is still able to maintain a lightweight, sleek and streamlined construction.

Head's Adaptive Fit maximizes 'tweakability'Head of the class

Skiers interested in dialing in fit and function to generate a quantum leap in on-the-snow performance will benefit from two new technologies that are featured in HEAD products this season.

The first is KERS Technology, included in skis like the iSupershape Titan, which smartly gathers energy and releases it when you and your skis need it most. The system works like a turbo charger that provides additional power and acceleration by stiffening the tail of the ski at the end of each turn, catapulting you into the next one. The technology does not influence the torsional rigidity of the ski, only the longitudinal flex.

The second is Adaptive Fit Technology to help consumers tweak their HEAD ski boots into the best combination of fit and performance possible. This technology allows you to change the width (last) of HEAD boots from 104 mm to 102 mm, and vice versa, with the turn of a screw. Narrow lasts increase the precision of power transmission; wider lasts boost riding comfort.

Smuggs debuts Riglet Park for youngest of rippers

By Matt Boxler

It’s that magical place where Romper Room meets Winter X, where Winnie the Pooh gears up in his treehouse for a day of ripping up New England slopes.

Where else but Smugglers’ Notch, Vt. – where a new park for kids ages 3-5 will debut this season and build on the resort’s award-winning focus to perfect the family experience. That’s right, kids as young as age 3 will be learning how to snowboard in the Riglet Park, an age most instructors had previously believed too young.

“When we launched our all-day snowboarding camp for 4- and 5-year-olds in 2002, we were one of the first resorts to begin teaching snowboarding at such a young age,” said Harley Johnson, director of Smugglers’ Snow Sport University.

Now, with specialized support from instructors and with kids-specific Burton LTR (Learn-to Ride) equipment, that bar, err, age, has been lowered even more. “Last year we began teaching 3-year-olds because we were confident that the instructor/child ratio and LTR equipment would help these little ones excel on the slopes,” Johnson said. “The Riglet Park is the latest indicator of our commitment to promoting the sport of snowboarding to even the youngest little rippers.”

The signature feature of the Riglet Park at Smuggs is the treehouse, crafted by terrain park features builder Dave Van Houten of Snow Park Technologies. Much like a whimsical Pooh story, it’s not your ordinary tree. This one has an elevated platform with ramps that children can ride down, a balance area inside and a lift chair that swings to help kids practice getting on and off an apparatus they will undoubtedly run into later (or sooner) in their snowboarding careers.

Other elements include small, rolling hills, miniature box-style rails, pyramids and a mini-halfpipe. The Riglet Park is located at the resort’s Sir Henry’s Learning Area with conveyor lift access.

“What this park will do for us is get more peoples’ attention to check us out and sign their kids up for our great programs,” Johnson said, “Having this park as a permanent feature will be helpful to our staff so that they are not out trying to build features every day. We will have more features to accommodate more kids.”

This magical park playground is only part of the recipe for success in teaching such young children. Also key in the process are a low child-to-instructor ratios and, of course, Burton’s specially designed youth equipment.

Children can start indoors on a balance board and quickly alert the muscle memory required for them to begin sliding and making turns on the snow. Once outside, they benefit from the ease of sliding on LTR boards, boots and bindings.

The 80cm boards (the size of a standard skateboard) are tortionally soft so kids can twist them easily. The base is convex, giving kids a big balancing point and keeping the edges up off the surface. The boards also feature a three degree base edge bevel that allows kids to drag their downhill edge and not catch, eliminating the most common cause of falls.

A “riglet reel” retractable strap is attached to the nose of each youth board, allowing instructors to pull a child around on the snow, turning every which way through park features and enhancing the quality of repetition. The LTR boots and bindings flex softer, making it easier for children to guide the board into a turn. Youth bindings feature one strap with simple ratchets, and for the youngest riders, boots are secured with easily adjusted Velcro straps.

“We have been focused on building kids specific products that make learning to snowboard faster and more fun for kids,” said Jeff Boliba, Burton Global Resort Director.

The Vermont-based company introduced its newest children’s learning equipment and the Riglet Park concept last season during the Riglet Park Tour. This mobile product demo and mini snowboard park made stops at Killington, Okemo and Stowe, as well as The Canyons in Utah.

Mike Chait, Snowboard Program Supervisor at Snuggs, was impressed by the Riglet Park concept when he saw it at Stowe. In talking with many parents at the venue, he learned that many of their misperceptions about youth snowboard instruction were being dispelled on the spot. Among the eye-openers: you don’t need to teach children how to ski first before you introducing them to snowboarding; and children are ready to strap in as young as age 3.

At each of those Riglet Park Tour Stops, families had the chance to meet Olympic gold medalist and former Burton pro snowboarder Ross Powers, who did more than simply sign autographs. He got out there to help kids make their very first turns.

“Building off the momentum we created last year with the introduction of the Riglet Park at selected resorts, this treehouse concept will take the Riglet Park to the next level,” Boliba said.

“What this Riglet Park allows us to do is give kids a quick introduction to standing sideways,” Boliba said. “We can strap them in and in a matter of moments have them getting the sensation of getting sideways, sliding a box, pumping the transition and really in the hopes that they will take a lesson and become a snowboarder.”

Access to the park is primarily for customers in the resort’s Snow Sport University Snowboard program.  Depending on volume, Smuggs will allow 6-9-year-old beginners that are in the program to utilize the park as well. 

The Mini Mite program (ages 3-5) is an 8-week program starting Jan. 8-9. Smuggs also offers a “Mom or Dad and Me” 5-week session.  This program is for parents who want to learn how to teach their children.  The adult must be an intermediate snowboarder and the child a beginner.  Instructors will teach parents how to teach their children. 

Smuggs’ boasts custom-crafted programs for children ranging in age from six weeks to 17 and guarantees that each family member will have fun, learn how to ski or snowboard, or will improve their technique or the resort will provide a refund.

The resort has been voted Number 1 for family programs in North America by SKI Magazine for 12 years.

(This story was first published in the November 2011 edition of New England Ski Journal.)

Parks and reclamation: Sugarbush style

By Matthias Boxler

When darkness settles into the Mad River Valley and lulls most who were out on the hill that day into a sound sleep, Trevor Borrelli finds himself obsessing with flaws.

Not his own flaws so much, but the flaws only an impassioned terrain parks crew leader sees. It could literally be three inches of snow in the wrong spot, pushed down the hill a bit below a jump.

“It drives me crazy … I mean crazy,” Borrelli says. “Everyone else comes into the park and says ‘this is amazing’ but all I’m thinking is ‘this is wrong … and this is wrong … and this needs to be better.”

A decade ago, no one in the Valley was losing much sleep over the Sugarbush terrain parks situation. It seems if snowboarding’s freestyle prime time had come to one of the East’s premier resorts in the early ’90s, it was mysteriously long gone less than a decade later.

All that has changed in the last three years thanks to a new philosophy instituted by Mountain Operations Department Manager Tony Chiuchiolo. With park ridership and customer satisfaction at an all-time high, Chiuchiolo today openly laughs at his crew chief’s obsession with perfection. He knows more than most that the bar wasn’t always set this high.

“This is my mountain; I’ve been riding here for over 20 years,” Chiuchiolo says over a cup of coffee in the Mt. Ellen base lodge. “It’s personal. I love this mountain. It was important for me to try to bring it back.”

In the early 1990s, Sugarbush was a freestyle mecca. It was one of the first mountains to feature dedicated freestyle terrain (at Lincoln Peak) and many pro riders – including some with their own pro model boards – called this mountain home. Chiuchiolo rode among them for several years as a member of the American Skiing Company pro team.

“But something happened and everyone jumped ship … and this place kind of lost its identity for a long time,” Chiuchiolo says.

Since assuming ownership of Sugarbush in 2001, Win Smith and his Summit Ventures enterprise recognized the importance of offering a quality terrain park for the overall success of the resort. Despite investing tens of thousands of dollars in terrain park products, those efforts struggled and the prospect of a viable Sugarbush terrain park continued to be elusive.

That pattern of inconsistency changed four years ago when Smith hired Chiuchiolo and basically gave him carte blanche to manage the brand.

“The challenge for us was not just taking a mountain that didn’t have a reputation and building it up, but taking one that had a negative reputation and re-building it,” Chiuchiolo says. “I wanted to take the Sugarbush parks and develop it as its own brand. I wanted to stick to the core values of Sugarbush, but give it its own identity.”

His hiring couldn’t have worked out better for the resort, as Chiuchiolo brought far more than professional park riding experience to the table. The other ace up his sleeve was the eight years he worked at Fuse Sports Marketing in Burlington. Many of the business contacts he made while working at Fuse are paying dividends today as terrain park sponsors, credible brands like Cabot Creamery, Rome Snowboards, Rhythm Snowboards and Bern, among a growing list of others.

“Kids started to see Rome on the hill, or Electric Goggles or Vans,” Chiuchiolo says. “The year before, we couldn’t get anybody at our events because no one supported them. The year I took over we had $16,000 worth of product to give away to kids. I mean, everyone was walking away with something. My office was like a retail store!”

Corporate sponsors boosted the park’s credibility among young riders and Chiuchiolo’s skills in marketing the new “Sugarbush Parks!” brand, particularly to youths, was gaining momentum. But none of that would have been possible without a quality build-out on the snow.

“The one thing we did have when I came in was an amazing inventory of rails and boxes that would knock out anybody in northern Vermont,” Chiuchiolo says. “It was never utilized. The year before I came on, half that stuff just sat in the boneyard all season.”

Today, the terrain park on the Riemergasse trail at Mt. Ellen boasts more than 40 features. Skiers and riders can turn laps efficiently on the park’s dedicated Sunshine Double chair. And the crew, in line with the resort’s emphasis on customer service, grooms it meticulously, maniacally, so it rides consistently and safely no matter what Mother Nature brings.

“You can hit 15 features in a row and get up the ‘Sunny D’ every seven minutes,” says Borrelli, who is responsible for the bulk of the park design. “By the end of the day you can get 600 tries. Your practice rate goes through the roof. As far as training goes, you can get real good real quick here. There are technical lines that you can make really hard or you can just go through it and make it easy too.”

The park features two lines, top to bottom: a rail line to skiers’ left and boxes (1-foot and 2-foot widths) to skiers’ right.  Some of the boxes are flat, some banked and some ‘down.’ There’s also a ‘C’ and a rainbow.

The rails range from 3-inch pipe to 13-inch pipe and the lower section includes a 30-inch pipe. There are two wall rides set up in a street style, one with a banked rail behind it. The “Spacecraft” is a re-creation of street spot in Montreal and features a 28-foot rail with a banked plywood landing. An old 900-gallon air compressor serves as a giant bonk and the Guru rail is a 30-foot double-kink. The park also features three jumps that come in small, medium and large.

“We have the ability to build a 65-foot jump but that caters to less than 1 percent of our customers,” says Chiuchiolo, who also took a calculated risk upon his arrival by removing the resort’s halfpipe, which resulted in a grand total of one complaint. “The last thing I want is to see anyone get hurt in this park. That’s the worst.”

Chiuchiolo has also emphasized creating a park community where everyone who uses it – skiers and riders - belongs, they look out for one another and poking fun at others is not tolerated.

“We want it to be a very enjoyable experience for everyone,” he says. “The respect factor goes back to the roots of the sport. Skiers included. If you ride our park, you’re one of us. Everybody’s invited in our park. We encourage families to come see what’s going on, it’s not intimidating.”

Park freestyle lessons are also available, which Chiuchiolo says parents like because they know their kids want to go in the park and the lessons give them some control over what they’re doing in there. And the park vibe jumps through the roof when a Sugarbush pro like Yale Cousino – one of the most decorated and well-known East coast rail riders ever – or Luke Haddock – winner of the ‘Best Trick’ at the U.S. Open last year – drops in.

For a resort that doesn’t host a major event and doesn’t have a halfpipe, the park scene has never been better here. Not everything needs to be done at the level of the X-Games and the Dew Tour, Chiuchiolo says.

“The way the sport is going now with big corporations and big business, it’s nice to know there are places that stay true to the roots of the sport, where you can enjoy them for their purity and their fun, and that just don’t take themselves real, real seriously,” he says.

His three-year goals for Sugarbush Parks! comfortably met, Chiuchiolo and his crew are giving thought to the future.

“I think we have our niche figured out. Incorporating more to it would be good but there’s also a level where we don’t want to get to,” he says. “We can be revolutionary in the customer service aspect. We can also be revolutionary in looking at what the parks can do for everyone on the mountain. We can be very relevant for the ski and ride school, for instance.

“We want to get to the point where we can boost Sugarbush overall, where we can say, ‘This is Sugarbush. This is the full package. We have a ton of vertical, we have great woods and we have a knockout park.”

(This story was originally published in New England Ski Journal. Matthias Boxler is a member of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association and the Eastern Ski Writers Association.)

'Craig's Door' opens to snowboarding's soul

By Matt Boxler

If there were a magical door somewhere in the mountains that opened up into the pure soul of snowboarding, it would have Craig Kelly’s name on it.

Photo courtesy of Burton Snowboards.Everyone who has ever strapped on a snowboard and – no matter how fleeting – experienced the harmonic union of cold mountain air, soft snow and the joyful freedom of dancing with earth’s gravitational forces has had the privilege of passing through this door.

Leave it to Burton Snowboards to honor this hallowed spiritual entrance by building a permanent physical tribute to everything Kelly represented. In January, next door to Burton’s global headquarters in Burlington, Vt., employees celebrated the grand opening of the most sophisticated snowboard proto-typing facility ever built.

The name on the front door, quite simply, is “Craig’s.”

“I owe so much to that guy about teaching me how to listen to riders and just what he did himself – pushing our board designs – there’s no other name that should be on the door than his,” said Jake Burton, founder and CEO of Burton Snowboards.

Kelly’s life was cut far too short in 2003 when, at the age of 36, he was killed in an avalanche on the Durrand Glacier in the Canadian Rockies. In his relatively short time as a snowboarder – he started at age 15 as a founding member of the seminal snowboarding posse, Mount Baker Hard Core, near his hometown in Mount Vernon, Wash. – he revolutionized the sport.

Turning professional at age 18, Kelly’s early years were spent dominating the competitive circuit. He amassed four world championships and 3 U.S. championships, gaining wide acceptance as the best snowboarder to ever ride. He led the fight for snowboarding to be accepted during a time when most ski resorts prohibited this obnoxious “fad” from sharing its slopes.

At the peak of his competitive success and popularity, Kelly turned his back on the growing prize money and endorsement opportunities for competitive riding by choosing to take his pursuits into the backcountry.

“There’s just a feeling you get from certain things you do in life that just kind of feel pure and independent of what’s actually, physically, going on,” Kelly told MountainZone in 2000. “All of a sudden you have this feeling of clarity. Backcountry snowboarding has really done a lot to boost that feeling in me.”

His legend grew as he appeared in countless films and photographs, his fluid riding style on awe-inspiring backcountry lines stretching the concept of what was possible. He was also pushing the concept of what was possible in equipment design and development.

“Craig was a guy that I always had a good relationship with, even before he rode for us,” Burton said. “I remember him coming to visit and we had just built our first, sort of higher-end factory where we were making molded boards with steel edges and all that. It was very similar to what is going on in this facility right now, and it was really what made Craig convinced that he wanted to ride for us, and partner up, and get involved in working with us.”

Kelly was responsible for the design and development of many of Burton’s signature model snowboards, including The Mystery Air, The Craig Kelly Air, The CK Slopestyle, The Cascade and The Omen.

“[He] was an engineer at heart, and one of the big reasons he chose to ride for Burton back in the late eighties was because he saw how committed we were to R&D and taking snowboard technology to the next level, Burton said. “During the 15 years that he rode for Burton, Craig had a huge impact on snowboard design, technology and the sport as a whole. So it was an easy decision to name the new prototyping facility after him. I think that Craig would be proud that every new board that comes out of our new R&D space reflects his spirit and legacy.”

Craig’s is “the” place where the company can get ideas from riders and from engineers. It’s the place where the company can get feedback from the market and the dealers to make sure its products are heading in the right direction. It’s the place where R&D can translate into a completely new board or plastic binding with new specs being built in a matter of hours.

The new facility is more than 10,000-square-feet and houses the best of Burton’s high-end, custom-built machinery. Although capable of producing thousands of snowboards, Craig’s is purely dedicated to R&D and will only build a handful of experimental snowboards a day.

Craig’s also features a machine shop where engineers can create and test custom tooling parts and manufacturing processes, which is critical to evolving Burton’s manufacturing techniques around the world.

The best part is that Craig’s door is always open.

“We want to set it up so there are a lot more tours at this facility so people can come up and check it out,” Burton said. “So if you’re wondering about the soul of this company, come check it out.”

Craig’s is located at 152 Industrial Parkway in Burlington and is open to the public for scheduled tours. During these tours, visitors can check out the whole R&D facility by following ‘Craig’s Trail’ to watch Burton development in the making.

Craig’s Trail will also lead visitors to “The Barn,” where people can take a self-guided tour of archived photos, products and videos from the first 30 years of Burton’s history. Inspired by Burton’s original Burton Manchester offices and featuring its actual original sign, the Barn is a key hallmark of the new facility.

Finally, Craig’s features a walk-up warranty window, where riders can bring their gear and interface directly with Burton’s warranty crew.