A Makboard is a clear plastic 100 percent recyclable snowboard that rips a fall line unlike anything you’ve seen on the slopes. Molded out of a high density polymer called Makrolon, the Makboard 157 Clear is built out of the same material as jet fighter canopies and bullet proof glass.
Different? Definitely.
But as wacky as it sounds, surfing the frozen ocean on a Makboard is actually quite fun. With a dense edge, plenty of sidecut and a flex pattern that begs to carve, the Makboard offers a ride and performance different from any other snowboard out there.
DREAM REALIZED The Makboard is also local ingenuity at its finest. For the last 14 years, Truckee resident and Makboard inventor Bob Candler has been painstakingly sculpting Makboards out of solid bricks of Makrolon using hand tools. Riding his creations around local resorts, Candler has been bombarded with questions, all the while wishing he could share the Makboard with the world.
This February that dream was granted as Candler and his cousin Bob Ryan completed production on the first run of commercially produced Makboards at a factory in Charlevoix, Mich.
THE LOWDOWN Curious to feel the Makboard phenomenon under my feet, I caught up with the two Bobs late March at Squaw Valley. Riding the Funitel before our first run I got the lowdown on the gruesome labor of hand-making a Makboard.
“Each board took about 60 hours and a billion passes with a hand grinder to produce,” said Candler. “It was extremely hard to force myself to go in the shop and make them. Each one I made was a miracle.”
About two years ago, the Bobs started to get serious about finding help bringing the Makboard to market. For Candler it was a do-or-die situation.
“It was either get the boards produced commercially or quit making them,” said Candler. “They were just too exhausting to make by hand.”
Teaming up a combination of private investors, the project finally came to fruition in a Michigan factory that specializes in automobile parts. The factory can now produce 500 boards a day.
STRAPPING IN Strapping into the Makboard, the noodley flex immediately grabbed my attention. Turning felt solid despite the slowly softening conditions, but leaning toward either nose or tail required calculated balance. I could tell that too much back seat driving would throw me.
Ripping with Ryan and Candler the rest of the day I quickly grew comfortable with the softness of the board, especially when we sought sunny snow. The Makboard excelled at arching turns in the butter. The soft flex allowed you to rail on an edge and spring out of it into the next turn.
Back on the chairlift, Ryan echoed my feelings.
“I look forward to every turn on the Makboard,” said Ryan, “It makes each turn feel like a carve.”
Candler’s original design intention was to build a snowboard that captured the sensation of surfing a never ending wave. Powering through turns, feeling the g-forces whip me around, the watery likeness was indeed there. One look at the snow roosting head high out of the flow-thru holes in Ryan’s Makboard also reminded me of peeling into roaring wave, water spraying every which way.
HOW IN THE POW? Despite the day’s nicely corny conditions one chairlift conversation inevitably turned to the real goods — powder.
“Everybody loves their Makboard in the powder,” Ryan said while lapping the Belmont terrain park. “The width, the flex, the flow-thru holes — it all comes together to make an amazing powder board.”
While the conditions were not fresh enough to form an opinion myself, I can attest that springing in and out of tight tree pockets of fresh snow did have a distinguishable liveliness. The Makboard had energy to harness.
FUN IN THE SUN Wrapping up the day we went back to the demo truck and talked shop. Hearing about the Makboard recycling program and the green commitment of the company was further evidence that the Bobs were on to something. No question, any toy that never hits the landfill is a definite win-win.
Though I had only been makboarding one day, before I took off I made sure to find out how I could ride one again. While the Makboard probably wouldn’t be the top gun in my board quiver, it would surely get some serious days when the number one priority was fun in the sun.
Check out Makboards locally at Taits Boardshop in Squaw Valley or go online to www.Makboard.com.
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