Dear winter,
Come faster.
Love, Snowboarders – and yes, we mean candlelit dinner kind of love.
In the meantime, snowboarding web designers, let’s learn a lesson from the greats who get their work forever encapsulated under your feet on the bottom of a board. Until you scrape it all to crap on rails, trees, and probably a road you thought for some reason you could clear.
Top 10 Snowboard Designs of all Time* – Do I have the power to pick out the top 10 of all time you ask? Why yes, yes I do. But I’ll gladly hear your favorites in the comments.
The Original Skate Banana (Lib Tech)
Oh – you think your little cousin could have designed this? Well then, put her to work because she’s a genius. It’s a board shaped like a banana that looks like a banana. If that’s not good design, then I don’t know what is. (PS. This photo isn’t the original all yellow one, but it’s cool too).
Lib Rippers (Lib Tech)
Yes, little ripper, this is the board for you. It’s the goriest child’s snowboard design that still makes me smile and think of youth and hot chocolate with marshmallows. Oh wait, I still drink that, no wonder the memories are fresh. Seriously though small one – snowboard your heart out while girls still have cooties.
The Romp (Rome)
This may be a shock, but us ladies don’t actually have a strange addiction to little birds. Okay, maybe we do, but on-mountain, we’re bold %&#$##%$#. That’s a word you don’t even know, that’s how hard we ride, we need our own vocabulary. This design has fun bold colors and manages to camouflage their brand enough girls won’t feel like a walking catalogue.
Lowdown (Jones)
Is this board just cool because Jeremy Jones is cool? Maybe. But aren’t iPhone designs just cool because Apple is cool? I mean really, it’s a rectangle. Anyways, the Lowdown is the simplest intricate design on the bottom of a snowboard (the left image that is, the one on the right is just downright simple in a snowboard superhero kind of way).
Sick Stick (Salomon)
Chainsaw, squirrel on wheels lighting dynamite – there’s some deep art on this thing. Rock it like you’re Picasso. Plus it’s eco-friendly without bragging about it.
Burton Performer (Burton)
It’s a classic. The mountain on top is rumored to be the view from Jake Burton’s window. Every designer can learn a lesson from that.
Trouble (YES)
It’s hard to go wrong design-wise with a snowboard from YES. They’re just inherently cool. Insect showcase? Oh yes, YES can make that worthy of purchase.
Great Dudes of History (YES)
So this is more than one, but that only means you get to pick who you deem is the greatest dude in history. It takes great design to remind the world that yes – snowboarders do care about politics, science, and history. We are smart dudes.
Balance (Burton)
This one’s really only for you old timers. From the back of the vault – the Burton Balance was a Terhe Haakonsen model and was just downright fantastic. It’s simple but seriously eye catching, a wonderful use of movement through design.
Fury (Morrow)
I don’t know. I just think it’s pretty.
*Turns out I showcased a lot of 2012-2013 season boards, mostly because they were easier to track down pictures of, they rock, and it’s more fun to make lists when you can actually click through and pretend you’re going to buy something. Moral of the story: There are way too many great artists and designers out there creating fantastic snowboard designs.
Article contributed by Roy K works for Design Pax. The company provides web site design services in high quality all over the world.
