Sword Gives Me Hope

[SidiasX]

I started snowboarding in 1981. I was 9 when my dad and Chuck Barfoot put together my first board. After being involved with the sport and working so hard to get it excepted by the main stream I saw it change and go (in my opinion) in the wrong direction. You see the people that started the sport were surfers and what we where trying to do is draw surf style lines on the mountains we rode. Well after watching the sport go in a different direction I quit for ten years in discust. Now im riding again and focusing on hard styled carving. Your board and the way you guys ride gives me hope. It (in my opionion) is what the sport of snowboarding was ment to be. I look forward to trying one of your boards sometime in the future.

[fivat]

I started snowboarding in 1981. I was 9 when my dad and Chuck Barfoot put together my first board.

Wow! Impressive!

I saw it change and go (in my opinion) in the wrong direction.

Money, marketing and some errors (for example: alpine boards made too narrow, made for the racers, not really for the common riders) gave bad directions. Now in most of the shops we have less choice than in the past: soft boots... or soft boots
(note that we love frestyle and freeriding too, but we dislike the absence of choice!)
Anyway the things are beginning to change: alpine snowboarding could come back. It is maybe already coming back! We get many e-mails from people who think like you and us, who support us or who wish to learn carving with hard boots! In some countries (Japan, Austria, ...) and some resorts there is still a significant hard boots community!
Moreover some brands are making new models of bindings (Bomber, Phiokka, ...), new boots (Deeluxe) or new snowboards (Swoard ). All this stuff is better than what was made before in the alpine discipline. This sport is still evolving and there is a real hope!
Skiing has come back though many people said it was dead a few years ago. The future is not predictable and will be interesting! Swoard wishes to influence this future (even slightly) and defend our passion...

Patrice Fivat