deck tech

We think there’s too much marketing in most snowboard company’s tech sections. They never tell you what anything does, why it’s important or better than the last fading trend. They just seem to hype everything up and make it sound like the best thing to ever hit the sport. Instead, we thought we’d let the engineers write the tech section, which wasn’t hard since 3 of the 5 of us are Engineers. We don’t want to come up with crazy names for stuff, we just want to tell you what it is, what it does, and why we use it.

Base Material

Our base material is made of UHMWPE. That monstrous acronym stands for Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene, and basically means each little plastic molecule in this stuff is stronger and hard wearing than most other plastics on the planet. UHMWPE is standard base material in the snowboard industry, and the only big difference is whether it’s sintered or extruded. Extrusion is the cheap way to go and was probably used on your little sister’s My Little Pony snowboard that she won at the mall. Bean Snowboards only uses sintered base material, and the sintering process (melting lots of microscopic plastic pellets together to make one big piece) makes little pores in the plastic that hold wax to keep you riding fast for a long time between waxes.

Edges

All Bean Snowboards have hardened Stainless Steel edges. As you probably know, Stainless means it wont rust. This is done by adding a little chromium and some other elements to the steel when its made that prevent it from oxidizing (joining with Oxygen molecules to make rust). The downside to normal stainless steels is that they are softer than high carbon steels, so they are hardened by heating them to about 1900F, and then cooling them really quickly. This changes the molecular structure of the steel, making it harder, but maintaining its resistance to oxidation.

Fiberglass

Whether a fiberglass, basalt fiber, hemp, etc. is used, the composite layer is the key to a snowboard’s strength. A composite is defined as something being “made up of disparate or separate parts or elements.” What this means is that its structure is made up by two distinct components. Think of it like a Rice Krispies treat, where the two components are marshmallow and Rice Krispies. Individually each component would be weak, but when you combine the two you get a structure that becomes a jaw tiring yet delicious snack. In snowboards, boat hulls, aircraft bodies and wings, and race car bodies, the fibers are the Rice Krispies and the epoxy is the marshmallow. At Bean snowboards we use two layers of triax fiberglass. The triax means it has fibers running in three directions. The first is along the length of the board and the other two are 45 degrees off of the first one, giving the board structural rigidity in all directions. Fiberglass is basically thin strands of Silica, which is the same stuff that makes up windows, quartz crystal, and sand.

Carbon Fiber

Carbon Fiber, which comes in our Commonwealth model, essentially does the same thing as the fiberglass except it’s much stiffer, so you need less of it to make a stiff board. The less composite you add, the less the board will weigh. We basically add a 1″ strip of the stuff along the length of the board to stiffen it up for more all-mountain riding without adding any noticeable amount of weight.

Core

Our full wood cores are made with two different species of wood, poplar and maple. Because maple is stronger than poplar but also heavier, we only put it where it’s needed, like under the bindings to hold you securely to the board. The poplar makes up the rest of the core to give a nice poppy but light feel to your ride. While the wood core contributes a lot to the feel of the board its main job is to keep the top and bottom composite layers apart. Have you ever had a board that broke at the tip or tail right near the widest part of the board? Usually this happens because the board is cheaply made and the core doesn’t run full length of the board. When you take the core out of that area you basically just have the two composite layers close together with maybe a thin piece of plastic between them. This might be a little bit lighter and cheaper to make, but the closer the two layers are to each other the more likely they are to fracture during a nasty tail block. At Bean Snowboards we use full length cores in all our snowboards so they are as durable as possible.

Epoxy

The epoxy is the marshmallow in our Rice Krispie treat. It holds everything together and combines with the fiberglass to define how the board will flex. To get scientific, epoxy is a thermosetting polymer, but what’s important about it in the snowboard business is its flexibility and resistance to cold and moisture. We use epoxy that is specifically designed for use in snowboards.

Sidewall

Our sidewall isn’t made from the same material used in skateboard wheels. Why would it be? We don’t roll on it. Skateboard wheels use urethane because it’s cheap and easy to make different levels of hardness so you can have wheels for every type of surface. For snowboard sidewall the most important thing you want to look for is impact resistance. After the base and edge, what part of the snowboard hits the most trees and rocks? Our sidewall is made from the same material used for base material because it’s extremely tough and hard wearing

Reverse Reverse Camber

We don’t make reverse camber boards. We also don’t like to give skiers credit for much stuff, but we do listen to physicis and there’s a lot of research that says camber is an important part of what makes a ski or a board turn. Some people say a snowboard isn’t a ski, and it isn’t, but they operate under the same basic principles and camber has been used for centuries with good results. When you transition off one edge and onto the other, camber is there to push back and make it easier, and camber creates really solid contact points to help initiate turns and hold an edge in any conditions. Reverse camber works great in powder and for jibbing, but we build boards for the “Ice Coast” where scraped corduroy is the norm.”Reverse Reverse Camber” is our take on marketing mumbo jumbo, to have the “first of its kind” technology. Clearly, we took this as an opportunity to poke fun at the situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tut7p9rIWGw

Wax

When you ride down the mountain the wax comes off your board and onto the snow. When the snow melts it takes the wax with it into the ground. Then it makes its way into streams and rivers and eventually into Bambi’s stomach killing her slowly. Sad, I know. To prevent this from happening we use a non-petroleum based wax. We use Green Snowboard Wax because it’s all natural and won’t harm the environment.