Will The Skate Banana be your next board? It will if your are not afraid to try something new. It will be your next board if you want break away from the masses, the lemmings. It will be your next board if you want to have some fun. After all snowboarding stemmed from skateboarding and surfing- not skiing. This story starts at the Roxy Chicken Jam in March of 2007. Brian Craighill, the Quiksilver snow team manager, was riding a crazy looking board. I asked him about it. He explained that it had rocker instead of camber and Magne Traction. The rocker allows it to turn easier, gives it pop, rides well in powder and ensures that it does not catch edges on the rails. The Magne Traction makes it all work. I said man "that is just a gimmick" he said No way, "I ride this thing everywhere" Well; Brian is a strong rider so I was intrigued. After lurking around www.mervin.com I was convinced that I needed to ride a Skate Banana. After some begging they sent me a board (159 cm) with the stipulation that "I only write good things" Well I write whatever the hell I want but I will say that I totally dug it and it is going to be my go-to board for next year. I rode it at Mammoth for Memorial Day 2007 and it lived up to its hype in the slushy conditions. It rode well everywhere except maybe moguls on a double black run but it was manageable in the bumps and bumps suck anyway. It carved, spun, rode solid, ollied…everything. I am just a normal rider, mostly all mountain. Danny Kass just won a contest on a Skate Banana shape so everyone from normal guys like me to a 2 time Olympic silver medalist are grooving on it. Mervin (Lib Tech, Gnu, and Bent Metal) co-founder Pete Saari helped me interpret how the thing works…check it out.
Danny Kass - 1st hit, ASJ, 1st place. It all happened in July 2007 on a Skate Banana. Photo by Andrew Miller
SR: Hey, thanks for taking time from your life dominating the world of snowboarding and getting ready to sell every board you make next season to answer a few questions about the Skate Banana. SR: For what fifteen + years now snowboards have been made essentially the same with camber and two curved rails to initiate turns. Of course there have been many variations of the camber and curved rails theme but basically the same idea. Recently Mervin came out with Magne Traction which changed the way we look at the "curves" part of the snowboard. Now you guys are throwing the camber part out the window. This is kind of the first major change in snowboards in 20 years am I wrong? PS: Snowboard geometry has not changed much in the past couple of decades. We are working on what we call snowboard specific geometries that account for the fact that on a snowboard you stand sideways and have two feet putting control and input into the board. Both Magne Traction wiggly edges and Banana Technology snowboard specific concepts designed to focus turn initiation and control into the area between your feet and free the tips and tails to float, climb, and deflect. Traditional radial cambered geometries are based on 100 year old ski theories.
SR: Where did the idea for The Skate Banana come from? PS: We have been working on snowboard design everyday for over 25 years. Our shop is basically a big R&D facility. Banana Technology and Magne-traction solves some problems that we have been working on for years. The skate banana came from a few places, my quest to build a twin powder freestyle board and Olsons' defensemen's ice skate blade concepts. We wanted a powder board that you could ride in both directions and built a full rockered, reverse side cut, twin pow board (The Travis Rice Banana Hammock). We then wanted to improve this pow specific designs performance on hardpack. During these hardpack test sessions we realized the overall potential of rocker if used properly and came up with the skate Banana jib/freestyle design concept... a normal Magne-Traction twin shape combined with a short rocker that runs from one binding to the other and then having the board go flat to the tip and tail. When you stand on the board the rocker is pressed out you still get some solid tip and tail pressure and connection but now much of the control has been shifted toward the middle of the board. The board is pre curved between your feet so you no longer have to work as hard to turn. We have done quite a bit of fine tuning rocker height and length etc...The end result is the reinvention of the modern freestyle snowboard. A quiver killing freestyle board that works better and is easier to ride everywhere from a centered park stance. The future is bananas!
SR: Does it take different construction techniques from the normal snowboard? PS: The Banana requires a different core profile and new formblocks. The core profile is stiffened at the tip and tail for pop, control and the ability to blast through crud/broken snow with out folding.
SR: Would the rocker idea work any snowboard or does it take the magic of Magne Traction to function? PS: Magne-traction helps make it work. The Magne-traction gives it extra edge hold and allows us to fine tune exact control focus points.
SR: The Skate Banana has actual rocker between the legs and is straight (no rocker or camber) towards the tip and tail. How does this help the rider have more fun? PS: The rocker between the feet shifts turn initiation and control to the middle of the board freeing the tip and tail to lift, climb, deflect and float. The end result is the most versatile freestyle snowboard ever built. You can ride every terrain a mountain will throw at you from your centered park stance. The catch free tip and tail make the board great on rails, jumps, jibs, pressing, buttering, etc. The preset rocker between your feet makes it a great turning, carving board and gives it solid edge hold on ice, harpack and in steeps. The entire board floats great in powder in either direction from the centered stance. You can now ride switch pow as well as a powder specialty board. That opens up all kinds of freestyle fun options. The rocker allows you to micro manage your line in steep technical freeriding terrain and it lands really well in powder because the rocker floats so well. Basically one board does everything better from a wide centered park stance. The board is easier to ride, you fall less, you learn tricks faster, and you get away with mistakes. It is like training wheels no one can see. You become a better more confident snowboarder and you are riding a banana. All that stuff equals more fun...
SR: If the board is looser and easier to ride does that mean it is hella loose and un-stable at higher speeds? PS: It is very stable at speeds. When you stand on the rocker the board is pressed flat and there is pressure over the entire contact area from tip to tail. There is more pressure at and between your feet where you need control and the tip and tail free less sensitive to terrain irregularities. Basically the board is easier to ride at any speed.
SR: Would the Skate Banana work as part of a quiver or could riders out there own a Skate Banana as their sole board? PS: The Skate Banana 156 is the only board I need for everything. One board does it all. Jibs, Jumps, park, rail, pow, switch pow, steeps, ice, hardpack, pipe, dork around what ever...
SR: Does the fact that Danny Kass won the 2007 ASJ halfpipe contest and Sammy Lubke won the Holy Oly Revival validate the fact that the Skate Banana is not just a toy? I mean Danny Kass needs some legit solid shit to win a pipe contest. PS: I think that is just the beginning. The Skate Banana is easier to ride so pros can ride better... a lot of our riders were on bananas all winter. Jamie Lynn, Jesse Burtner, Danny Kass, Blair Habenicht, Sammy Lubke, Martin Cernic...
SR: My impression of riding the Skate Banana at Mammoth on Memorial Day is that it is easier to turn less prone to catching the tip or tail, super fun to ride yet stable and fast and it cut through the slushy snow pretty well - kind of like riding a 152 fun wise and riding a 160 stability wise, is this close to accurate or was it the altitude? PS: That describes it pretty well. You can ride a shorter board in all conditions including powder because the Banana's design (rocker between the feet flat to the tip and tail) works better than a traditional snowboard. The Banana is specifically designed to work with your wide park stance and takes advantage of the fact that you have two feet applying pressure to the board. The tip and tail are less catchy and you have better control over the board at your feet. The board is already bent and ready to turn so you don't have to go through the mechanical process of de-cambering it using technique and skill just to get it to turn. The banana works for you. A snowboard is not a ski...
SR: Is it good for parks, powder, all mountain, traversing or does it work best for taking to the X Games in Aspen and carrying around so you look like you have the newest thing, or all of the above? PS: It works better everywhere! It holds a great traverse and climbs and lands through kinky transitions better cambered snowboards. This is one of those rare deals where there is an actual improvement in equipment, kind of like when deep "parabolic" sidecuts hit skiing and all the old skis were instantly obsolete. You can have your Banana and eat it too.
SR: Will other companies try to copy? PS: There have been other rockered boards out there but they were all designed as powder boards with full tip to tail rocker... they don't work well as jib/freestyle boards. Our concept is the replacement for the everyday modern freestyle snowboard. It is a great park and pipe board that also works everywhere else and kills the powder in both directions. We have our design (rocker between the feet, flat to the tips and tails) patented. I don't know if other companies quite understand why they work yet. Most of them have their boards made overseas in China so the R&D process is much slower than ours.
SR: Anything else you would like to add about the Skate Banana or anything un-known bits of info you give to the Danny Kass stalkers out there? PS: The future is Banana's. I don't know what I can tell the Danny Kass stalkers other than be careful... Have you seen Danny lately? He is all grown up "man" Danny these days. It looks like he might bite back... Pete Saari VP Marketing Mervin Mfg. www.mervin.com
Gone Bananas! photo by Andrew Miller
Where the f&%+ did those matching bindings come from?
Sammy Luebke going small - photo by Andrew Miller
Kass Banana madness - photo by Andrew Miller
Ride a Banana and win thousands of dollars - guaranteed - photo by Andrew Miller
Kass in the ASJ slope course 2007 - photo by Andrew Miller. Andrew has been taking some sick photos, wait, this is not about Andrew Miller