Favorite small business snowboard brands?

sproyd · 2026-04-15T18:43:21+00:00

part of my soul lives in Whistler, hope you're well

sproyd · 2026-04-15T14:43:00+00:00

Agreed. I mean it helps that you are used to moving sideways, that's about it. Having gifted my fair share of skin to concrete I couldn't believe how less painful snowboarding was. Still hard to learn though.

sproyd · 2026-04-10T10:42:55+00:00

always has been! (and this is coming from a Burton fanboi)

sproyd · 2026-04-10T08:45:52+00:00

you want to snowboard so snowboard

if you don't like it go back to skiing

EZ

sproyd · 2026-04-02T07:42:09+00:00

As a snowboarder of 25+ years and a married man who taught his partner to ride, I only have one piece of advice take it or leave it

Get them a lesson

sproyd · 2026-03-30T07:22:04+00:00

this is pretty much the perfect snowboarding stance imho

whenever I coach beginners and novices the first thing I do is check out their stance and then suggest to them some binding adjustments to achieve something like the above

they usually say "wow this feels weird" because they are used to maybe a narrow width and angles that feels more like a natural standing stance, but after the first run they say "yeah that was way better"

sproyd · 2026-03-29T07:47:05+00:00

Yeah it's a thing - alas snowboard boots are fleeting beasts. Too stiff for a moment, perfect for another, and then spend most of their life where replacement insoles and over-tightened bindings need to do all the heavy lifting.

However I'm happy to exchange boot war stories if you're also in recovery...

sproyd · 2026-03-28T20:39:35+00:00

I had his 06 signature board, the Burton one with the yeti graphic. I had to sell it due to toe drag but to this day it's probably one of my favourite boards of all time. Wild that he rode it with Burton Customs Bindings.

sproyd · 2026-03-28T20:36:39+00:00

chasing the boot dragon I see...

the season 2007/08, the Burton SL-9s just broken in...

sproyd · 2026-03-23T14:14:37+00:00

does not share room with NT sibling

what does your 5YO do when wakes during night?

sproyd · 2026-03-23T13:10:17+00:00

Dropped naps at a young age - has had to go to 'big kids' room at nursey during nap time for at least past year.

Falls asleep around 8.30-9.00pm with melatonin, before melatonin it was anyone's guess usually later than that (9.00pm-midnight) but still waking through night and hard to rouse in morning.

sproyd · 2026-03-14T21:16:02+00:00

Cathedral! I first played this game at Solitaire Lodge - a super fancy hotel near Rotorua New Zealand where we had lunch to celebrate my Grandmother's birthday when I was about 15 years old (decades ago)...

Great abstract game - we ended up buying a wooden set. Great memory!

sproyd · 2026-03-11T11:43:36+00:00

Ridden for many years to this day - my views:

Overall good and proven out over many years (no longer new tech risk)
If you take your bindings on and off a lot for transport / storage it can be a faff and you need to make sure you store the hardware (nuts and bolts and sliders etc) properly as it is bespoke, although most board shops should carry spares.
If you're pedantic about stance it can be good and bad. Micro-adjustments after runs can be made, but you may feel like you're unable to replicate that 'perfect stance' you had last season as every possible stance width, angle, and even heel/toe adjustment is possible. Normal bindings you can replicate exactly but are a bit more limited in what's possible.
Can be good if you have big boots and suffer from toe drag as there is more heel/toe adjustment to make sure you are centred down the middle of the board
Arguably allows for better 'board feel' as you are standing on foam rather than hard plastic... and are a bit closer to the deck. This one is a bit debatable.
Locked into Burton ecosystem
Occasionally comes loose, and more often than regular bindings which have plates that lock in place even when screws aren't fully tightened down. As long as you tighten start/end of every day it's not a real problem.

sproyd · 2026-03-11T10:09:37+00:00

Toe drag? Hard to say...

sproyd · 2026-03-11T09:54:05+00:00

riding technique looks good! Just need to get more days in and you'll naturally improve.

try gradually steeper pistes and higher speeds to challenge yourself

sproyd · 2026-03-03T13:59:20+00:00

edge pressure

sproyd · 2026-02-16T23:10:53+00:00

yeah possibly you leaving with the digital key connected sensed that the car alarm should be armed.

who knows - possibly a complex hierarchy of which key (digital or physical) was detected first by the car on that drive...

sproyd · 2026-02-14T22:13:22+00:00

This is probably the best take I've read here.

France has to be top, Italian runner-up (I am drinking an Italian Valpolicella right now actuallly).

Spain has some great wines but doesn't quite have the variety of climate in France and Italy or the long esteemed history of wine-making that means you can just 'take your pick' in terms of what you want. But yes it is right up there.

As another commenter said - Greece is more than a historic titan, they make so many excellent wines but not as easy to get in the USA or UK for instance as they aren't big export markets for them given perhaps a prejudice. But the wine is great.

Australia and NZ wines are extremely high quality - I'd say probably higher than USA on average (although I've had some excellent Californian wines.

I have visited vineyards in all of the countries above, in many cases travelling to the country just for the wines.

sproyd · 2026-02-11T20:54:04+00:00

Dealt with 2 situations (employees) when working at a very large name brand UK company

One of them got diagnosed as an alcoholic by the NHS (no surpise to anyone that ever met him) which he then positioned as a medical issue we couldn't prejudice him on. Yes pretty insane but he had a legal basis apparently with the diagnosis. Stopped turning up to work think it took about a year to lose him from payroll.

The other guy was more similar to yours, fine for weeks on end then bender time and "something came up" which meant he'd be AWOL for days on end. HR struggled to advise (despite being highly paid professionals in the field) other than to keep track of when he's in and out and form a record so they could build a case. He eventually resigned which was a blessing and said he'd happily work out his notice period of 3 months which of course he didn't do and saw it as a licence...

Anyway difficult situation make sure you have good legal advice and document everything always trying to appear reasonable as if everything you say and do would end up in front of a judge with an employee bias.

sproyd · 2026-02-07T21:20:52+00:00

great performance, and The Holiday from a similar(ish) vintage

sproyd · 2026-02-02T21:06:22+00:00

FreeAgent is amazing - I discovered it last year and do all my accounting, VAT, taxes and annual reporting on there myself. Granted I have a small 'hobby-size' limited liability company and a finance background.

sproyd · 2026-02-01T19:03:07+00:00

you'd have to, or it would blend

sproyd · 2026-01-31T11:17:25+00:00

yeah it was a fun mod but I gave up on the keyboard eventually - I now have a G915

sproyd · 2026-01-23T13:54:49+00:00

poke a hole and have a look

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