Snowboarding
These are the top 8 snowboard graphics for 2018
Celebrating the fine art of snowboard design, these shred sticks look as good as they ride.
As with its elder sibling the skateboard, the art of snowboarding and art on snowboards are inextricably linked. While some obsess about carbon stringers, triaxial weaves and urethane sidewalls, others are more interested in the really sexy part of board design – the graphics. So, especially for the more aesthetically minded, here’s what caught our eye from the 2018 snowboard crop.
1. Gnu Mullair
Gnu Mullair
© Gnu/Jason Horton
Pro models are something of a rarity in 2018, but what about a pro model with a graphic that was hand-drawn by another former pro snowboarder? Pretty much just this one. Nicolas Müller took a long career of riding the best snow in the world and put all that knowledge into his pro model with Gnu. Next, he got Danny Larsen to create one of his pointillism masterpieces to grace the topsheet. Does it get any better?
2. Triaaa Custom
Triaaa Custom
© Triaaa/Jason Horton
If your idea of a dream snowboard is something unique and personal to you – shaped to your own specific style of riding and dimensions, with a graphic you've either created or commissioned yourself – you need a custom. Unlike surfing, where the majority of boards are hand shaped, custom snowboards are rare. But Swiss surfer, snowboarder and yacht designer Andi Abel makes beautiful custom boards that are fully dialled in to your preferences and can have the artwork of your choice sublimated into the bamboo topsheet.
3. DWD Wizard Stick
DWD Wizard Stick
© DWD/Jason Horton
Besides being a punk rock classic calling for the extinction of the music industry, Dinosaurs Will Die is the love child of Sean Genovese and Jeff Keenan, two sick riders in their own right and co-creators of the iconic Think Thank video series. If you’re loving the pedigree and philosophy already, you’re going to lose it when you see the boards: creative shapes and epic, lo-fi graphics are standard with every model. With its crazy pointed nose and awesome '50s sci-fi inspired graphics, the Wizard Stick is one of those boards that will cast a spell on anyone who sees it – and it rides magic too. Transworld magazine awarded it one of their Good Wood awards in the all-mountain category.
4. Burton Deep Thinker
Burton Deep Thinker
© Burton/Jason Horton
This is one for the true graphics nerds out there: Danny Davis’s freeride model features a topsheet designed (sketched on a napkin more likely) by legendary pro skater/artist slashie Mark Gonzalez, aka The Gonz. It features his 'Gonz Ghost' – a throwback tribute to his 2002 Michi Albin Burton pro model graphic, a true classic in which the dyslexic artist managed to miss-spell Burton as ‘Burtin’. There’s a fun little edit on YouTube where The Gonz perfectly defines the difference between skate and snow. "Skateboarding is maximum effort, minimum pleasure… And with snowboarding it's minimal effort for maximum pleasure." he says. True Dat!
5. Capita Kazu Kokubo
Capita Kazu Kokubo
© Capita/Jason Horton
Taking control of the production, Capita bought their own factory a few years back and they've been making some of the best snowboards ever since. With Kazu Kokubo, they’ve also got pretty much the most stylish snowboarder on the planet so put the two together and you're looking at one of the most desirable chunks of Ptex, wood, fibreglass and carbon on the market. The graphics have it all: a beautiful Ash wood topsheet veneer with subtle circle design, and underneath a traditional Japanese nature scene in watercolour – delightfully zen.
6. Lib Tech Ejack Knife
Lib Tech Ejack Knife
© Lib Tech/Jason Horton
Eric Jackson's a big bearded, banjo pickin' powder powerhouse who's been representing Lib Tech his whole career. Just like his older brother John, Jackson's a diehard fisherman and this beauty features the fine art of iconic Alaskan artist Ray Troll, who shares E-Jack's obsession with the fishier pursuits in life. As for the board, it's designed for high velocity backcountry destruction, with a stiff-ish flex, wider, powder-friendly nose and Magne-Traction edges for supreme edge hold on the ice. Definitely a fine catch.
7. Salomon Gypsy / Rome Kashmir
Salomon Gypsy / Rome Kashmir
© Salomon/Rome/Jason Horton
Two different brands, two different women's boards. Both medium flexed, park-oriented sticks with a hybrid rocker/camber profile. Both of them good enough to score Transworld's Good Wood award. And both, possibly featuring a topsheet graphic by the same artist? Or is this just a coincidence and we're really just seeing a mirror image of mirror images? Something to reflect on, surely.
8. Arbor Terrapin
Arbor Terrapin
© Arbor/Jason Horton
Arbor's Terrapin is a short and fat little powder surfer that's heavily inspired by the funky hot dogging surfboards of the 1970s, which is why it's doubly awesome they managed to convince C.R. Stecyk III to design the graphic. In case you're wondering who that is, he's the writer, photographer, filmmaker, artist and gonzo '70s skate journalist who originally documented, and later co-wrote, Dogtown and Z-Boys. His skulls-and-bones art style kickstarted the anti-establishment aesthetics of skate culture, which makes C.R. Stecyk III probably the biggest deal to have ever produced a snowboard graphic.
