No More Compromise

My other love, is surfing. I've been riding waves for over 35 years. I want certain things from my board. And what I want has changed and refined over the years as my competency and character have grown and matured.

When I was in my teens, I wanted to slash and hack everything on my shortboard, today I want a more connected experience and ride a longboard on peeling right handers.

As you move through your life, your choices change.

So when that time rolls around and I hear a new board calling my name (usually every 18-24 months!), I don’t go into the nearest surf shop, talk to the guy or gal behind the counter and pick the coolest looking board on the rack. I’m not interested in something everyone else has, or what the so-called ‘cool kids’ are riding.

No, I go to my trusted surfboard shaper.

I have not bought an off the rack surfboard in the last 20 years. Instead I choose to work with trusted shapers to create boards that are designed just for me. And they nearly always work ... I never have to compromise my ride or my experience.

The shapers GET me and the experience of the board created just for me makes me feel like I’m one with the ocean AND the board, and when that happens, it’s total connection.

So when I go looking for a new snowboard, I want the same experience.

Too often I’ve been in snowboard retailers getting fed what can only be described as BS by company trained teenagers who are just regurgitating the industry ‘spin’ they’ve heard at ‘product training’ nights.

Outrageous sales pitches with no substance.

I'm told I can have an all mountain board that will handle the ice, the crud, the wet, the powder and will work for me in Oz, Canada and Japan.

Well, I CALL BULLSHIT!!!

So I think to myself, ‘why not find a designer/builder in the snowboard community who can do what my surfboard shaper does for me and build me a snowboard that’s just built for me?’

I've searched the world and had boards made for me in North America, China and other places which have been what they call "Custom" e.g. choose, length, profile, artwork and that's about it for the customisation.

Nothing worked for me....everything was a compromise.

Why should I compromise? Why should ANY snowboarder have to compromise?

I want in my snowboard what I’ve had in my surfboard for decades: a board that is designed by a skilled designer, built with commitment and passion by a dedicated builder who both gets me and what I am about with my snowboarding, one who’s approach to ‘customisation’ isn’t a ‘once over lightly/length/width/profile/artwork’ attempt, but who has a total commitment to my board, my ride and my experience.

That’s the relationship I have with my surfboard shaper, we discuss what I want, he knows how I surf and we talk a lot about where I’m going to surf.

Only when this is done, does he start the process of ordering materials, shaping the blank by hand and finishing my board.Having searched the world and not been able to find this option, I decided to do something about it.

A bit like the guy who ‘liked it so much he bought the company’. . .well. . . I didn’t like it so much I decided to start the company.

A company that would change the compromise paradigm in this industry and build snowboards that are truly customised and bespoke.

A company that is only about snowboards; not snowboards plus ski’s, plus wakeboards, plus skateboards like so many.

A company that doesn’t offer anything ‘off the rack’, and one that understands that snowboarding should be about the individual as a snowboarder and which does everything in its power to give that rider a board and a ride that truly matches their DNA.

That’s Savage Panda Snowboards, and that’s what we stand for.