Four boards

The early season rush included a number of boards, each with their own tale to tell.

The Burton Custom on the left had been tuned by someone in the past who had changed the bevels from the Burton standard 1 degree base/1 edge to 1.5 degrees base & edge. In itself that’s not the end of the world, and indeed Capita and some other boards come from the factory like that, but it’s a drag to try to copy as no-one makes 1 .5 degree file guides for side edges. So now it is 1.5/2 instead. Jonathan had asked for a base grind but we like to preserve client kit if we can so it got substantial P-tex repairs and a restructure instead. By all means get a base grind if your base edges are really knackered, or you want to reset them to some new angle, but remember that P-tex varies from 1.2mm down to 0.6mm thick when new so there just isn’t much to play with. Techs are always happy to grind as it reduces the amount of filling they have to do but remember that you’re shaving life off your pride & joy.

Les’s RIDE looked innocent enough but someone had fitted tungsten carbide edges at some point. Seriously, I need my files to last for more than one board. Once the base edges were in some sort of order the side edges had another joker to play – not only were they brutally hard to file but they were set at zero degrees. That makes the edge profile 91 degrees – I’ve never seen a profile greater than 90 degrees. It’s easy enough to do if the factory simply forgets to bevel the side edges before firing the boards out of the door, but really? Anyway the edges are now set at 1/1 and I have ordered more files from the shop.

Eddie’s Scallywag exhibits the worst excess of snowboard design – the dreaded white base. It really is the mullet of snowboard bases – never acceptable in any social situation. They get dirty, go orange if your edges rust, never look good when scratches are repaired and you can’t see what you’re doing when you try to wax them. However I soldiered on and got the base into some sort of shape after a base plane, fill, structure, edge & wax.

Finally Ben’s Burton Custom – just a few gouges to fill, 1/1 edges as Burton intended and no machine hardening – a pleasure to work on. Which makes me feel even more guilty for finishing it well after the date I had promised – sorry Ben.