Heard Rumors..

Various topics, technical questions, announcements, events, resorts, ...

Moderators: fivat, rilliet, Arnaud, nils

User avatar
jax
Rank 5
Rank 5
Posts: 3321
Joined: Thursday 17 January 2008, 21:42
Location: Roma/Abruzzo
Contact:

Heard Rumors..

Post by jax » Friday 9 November 2012, 13:13

I've heard some rumors about Burton getting back to hard.
Anybody knows something?
www.carvers.it

User avatar
pokkis
Rank 5
Rank 5
Posts: 1804
Joined: Monday 1 April 2002, 19:46
Location: Finland

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by pokkis » Friday 9 November 2012, 15:19

That would be very odd, that current clothing company would start to produce hard snowboard stuff.

User avatar
fivat
Swoard & EC founder
Swoard & EC founder
Posts: 3010
Joined: Thursday 21 March 2002, 13:13
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Contact:

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by fivat » Tuesday 13 November 2012, 11:07

Actually it would be good news, in my opinion. There would be more interest in alpine snowboarding.

Did you get more info jax?

Patrice Fivat

User avatar
jax
Rank 5
Rank 5
Posts: 3321
Joined: Thursday 17 January 2008, 21:42
Location: Roma/Abruzzo
Contact:

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by jax » Tuesday 13 November 2012, 12:13

Hi Patrice
I've posted the same question on BOL but nobody knows anything, maybe it was just a joke made me from a semi drunk snowboarder at a snowboarders' dinner.
www.carvers.it

User avatar
Kallo
Rank 5
Rank 5
Posts: 2143
Joined: Friday 26 December 2008, 18:33

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by Kallo » Monday 19 November 2012, 17:07

source is quite reliable. yet, it was a quite drunk (very high level) snowboarder at a quite alcoholic snowboard dinner ... :lol: :lol: :lol:

anyway, just a rumor for now ... let's see
The air carver

User avatar
leeho730
Rank 4
Rank 4
Posts: 90
Joined: Thursday 26 July 2007, 2:39
Location: Freaking Australia, in the middle of desert

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by leeho730 » Tuesday 20 November 2012, 13:56

Unlikely,since Burton is restructuring.

http://www.theskichannel.com/news/featu ... ial-blend/

Besides, burton sold the mould for the race binding.

Any sane executive will realise that

A) Burton will never sell their alpine boards well, they haven't caught up with all the new technologies and it is highly unlikely their boards will win any race;

B) there is no way their bindings will ever be as popular as f2 or even bomber bindings in US;

C) there are simply too few alpine carvers; to make up for the investment;

D) there are proportionally too many snowboard instructors using soft boot configurations, especially in English speaking countries;

E) rental shops are unlikely to stock rental alpine equipments due to very small market and uncertainty.

I'd love Burton to try alpine market, but it is hily unlikely that they will succeed should they enter. Perhaps boots are the exceptions?
Swoard 168M&S / Dual 158
TD3SW /F2 / Ibex
Stratos / RC10 / T700

User avatar
jax
Rank 5
Rank 5
Posts: 3321
Joined: Thursday 17 January 2008, 21:42
Location: Roma/Abruzzo
Contact:

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by jax » Tuesday 20 November 2012, 14:28

It was just a rumor that I want to verify but

A)Why they cannot update?

B) Why? A lot of ladies competetitor are using them an Carve Company are selling a lot of them. Very old Burton Race, the trasparent plastic one , had some problems. Things are changed.

C) That could be a point, but I don't know how big should be the investment. Do you?

D) In Italy to become a snowboard instructor you have to pass an hardboot exam. Don't know other country.

E) In Italy there are few shops that rent hardbooter gear but there are.

The more company are on the market the better gear we will find.
www.carvers.it

User avatar
Abrax
Swoard team
Swoard team
Posts: 422
Joined: Sunday 25 November 2007, 19:12
Location: Cracow, Poland
Contact:

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by Abrax » Tuesday 20 November 2012, 17:36

On the other hand, I've heard that F2 has decided to sell a bit more freely in Poland. This means that simply any shop can now have their accessories (boards or bindings) :-)

This is good, because more and more people will see that these is something like "hard binding" :-) So far, people ask me ( quite often) what is this weird thing on my feet called like? When I reply that this is alpine snowboard they look at me and state that they've never had any idea that something like this exists...
www.carvingskills.com
580km in 3 hours and 5 minutes completely legal!!! I love german highways!!!

User avatar
leeho730
Rank 4
Rank 4
Posts: 90
Joined: Thursday 26 July 2007, 2:39
Location: Freaking Australia, in the middle of desert

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by leeho730 » Wednesday 21 November 2012, 7:45

A) Because it is going to cost money. I do not believe Burton will succeed by reproducing old board such as ultra prime... They were not selling well even before 2003 (the reason they closed down the operation).
And Burton is currently restructuring, which means that they don't have much money to spare for development.

B) Has Burton bought the right to the binding mould yet? If they were even remotely interested in Aline gear, they wouldn't have sold it in the first place. They've given up, simple as that.

C) Don't know, but considering they're firing employees from 4-5 companies, I don't think they have much money at the moment.

D) In all English speaking nations, most of the instructors are on soft boot. Exceptions are Australia where level 4 instructors have to pass hardboot components, and in Canada where carving modules are done in hard boots (but hey, in 2011 they changed so that candidates do not need hard boots for carving module). In New Zealand candidates are told to use soft boot equipment, the reason being that most customers are on the soft boot setup.

E) I only know two shops in entire New Zealand that stocks Alpine gears. But one closed down April this year. Australia is no different. A bit more but not much. Average number of local carvers I see on the weekend is 2 or 3 (myself included). It's pretty dismal here, really. I'm the only Swoarder in NZ as far as I know.

Probably the only things worth selling for Burton are boots and physics binding.... and they actually might.
Swoard 168M&S / Dual 158
TD3SW /F2 / Ibex
Stratos / RC10 / T700

User avatar
jax
Rank 5
Rank 5
Posts: 3321
Joined: Thursday 17 January 2008, 21:42
Location: Roma/Abruzzo
Contact:

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by jax » Wednesday 21 November 2012, 11:03

So you must come to Italy to enjoy slopes with a lot of hardbooters. :)
Last week end we have been in Cervinia and were we met more or less 20 hardbooters.
leeho730 wrote:I'm the only Swoarder in NZ as far as I know.
AFAIK there is Sunsurfers from Wellington.
www.carvers.it

User avatar
fivat
Swoard & EC founder
Swoard & EC founder
Posts: 3010
Joined: Thursday 21 March 2002, 13:13
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Contact:

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by fivat » Wednesday 28 November 2012, 16:08

jax wrote:
leeho730 wrote:I'm the only Swoarder in NZ as far as I know.
AFAIK there is Sunsurfers from Wellington.
And don't forget Rod from Hastings. 8)
In Australia, there is also James from Brisbane, Tony from Wandong, Luke from Gold Coast, Albert from Manyana, Christophe from Cheltenham, John from Surfers Paradise, etc.
Howard (leeho730), you are not alone. 8)

Patrice Fivat

User avatar
fivat
Swoard & EC founder
Swoard & EC founder
Posts: 3010
Joined: Thursday 21 March 2002, 13:13
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Contact:

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by fivat » Wednesday 28 November 2012, 16:17

jax wrote: In Italy to become a snowboard instructor you have to pass an hardboot exam.
I still have admiration for Italy doing this! :pray2: A complete instructor should be able to ride all gears. Being good with hard boots is very enriching for soft boots riding, and reciprocally.
leeho730 wrote:In all English speaking nations, most of the instructors are on soft boot. Exceptions are Australia where level 4 instructors have to pass hardboot components, and in Canada where carving modules are done in hard boots (but hey, in 2011 they changed so that candidates do not need hard boots for carving module). In New Zealand candidates are told to use soft boot equipment, the reason being that most customers are on the soft boot setup.
Same problem in Switzerland now. The candidates are told to use only soft boots equipment. :-( Worse: the vocabulary about carving has been simplified and there is less terms about all the different types of turns. 8O On the other side, they have added many terms about freestyle tricks and jumps. The sport is focusing now mainly on the teenagers... what is a big mistake in my humble opinion.

The same mistake (focusing on the teenagers) has been made by Burton since the end of the nineties. The text in their Web site was (is) clearly written for teenagers. People of 30-40 years or more do not identify to this public, and progressively leaves the sport. In addition, the teenagers are NOT constant customers: they get older or they easily change sport for something which seems new and fashion... like skiing with fat skis!! :silly:
People of 30-50 years are more constant and have more money: they should not have been neglected.
When Burton left alpine snowboarding they gave a bad signal to the other brands... that made then the same mistake.
Diversification is important in all sports. Those brands lost the diversification and different publics. :-(
leeho730 wrote:Unlikely, since Burton is restructuring.
http://www.theskichannel.com/news/featu ... ial-blend/
leeho730 wrote:considering they're firing employees from 4-5 companies, I don't think they have much money at the moment.
I'm not really surprised about this if you consider what I've written above. Of course there are many other factors that explain the situation (everyone has his own explanation). But when you add all the factors, you are facing bad time. :?

Patrice Fivat

User avatar
licarver
Rank 5
Rank 5
Posts: 136
Joined: Monday 6 December 2010, 23:31
Location: Reggio Calabria-ITALY

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by licarver » Wednesday 28 November 2012, 16:37

I'm the only Swoarder in South Italy from Rome in down islands including :) :)
SWOARD PRO2 161M 2154 - 3G 161M 391- DUAL 91- Northwave Old Yellow Boots-F2RT-RC10 Ibrid Tech DGss

User avatar
fivat
Swoard & EC founder
Swoard & EC founder
Posts: 3010
Joined: Thursday 21 March 2002, 13:13
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Contact:

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by fivat » Wednesday 28 November 2012, 17:00

:D Some guys are swoarding the volcano Etna! :silly:

But I'm not sure if they lay down like you, Boris. ;-)

Patrice Fivat

User avatar
WinterGold
Rank 5
Rank 5
Posts: 249
Joined: Tuesday 10 November 2009, 17:55
Location: Austria

Re: Heard Rumors..

Post by WinterGold » Wednesday 28 November 2012, 22:51

About the speculations - the rights for the Physics molds have been sold to the same people who produced the Ibex Speed TC (now owned by the Carve Company). So Burton cannot rebuild those.
And about the boots - the molds are destroyed just like the Northwave molds. They had tinkered with the molds to a point were they were almost unusable (changes for the Speed Hooks of the Race Physics bindings, etc.). The Burton boots also had a problem with breakage.
So there is no way of any of these products making a comeback.

@fivat - I´m not sure whether all the blame can be put on Burton. But I totally agree with your argumentation. I remember when Burton advertised that they had the proper equipment for EVERY riding style. That was also their best time!
About the instructors - it is the same in Austria. No hardbooting there either. I think it is a real shame! Of course you can profit hugely from riding both hard and soft equipment. A very bad development in my opinion.

Locked