We would love to show you a new snowsurfing concept that came from all that riding means to us: pure free expression, connecting to the movement of nature, creative individualism and simple ear-to-ear grinning fun. We believe progression comes from the minds of riders so we designed a snowsurfing concept that make this possible.
We call it The Free.
We have built the sandwich construction for you: a vertically laminated wood core, a very extensive insert pattern, camber and nose/tail heights and a p-tex 4000 sintered base which is the fastest, most durable, hardest base material there is.The Free exists in two lengths and has no outline. That is right, no outline. Giving you the total freedom to shape your snowsurfing the way you imagine.
The Free is a soft-snow specific snowsurfing shape that will allow you to shape any outline your mind creates. Choose your length, width, stance. Think of the lines you ride and create a sidecut profile that fits it perfectly. Choose the nose length, tail length and setback balance. Choose which shape is the most harmonious for the terrain and conditions you ride. A longboard or a fish? A wide stubby or a sleek, fast gun? A split shape or a Yuki-ita bindingless shape? A pintail, a moontail, a deep swallow or a tail design nobody has thought of yet?
The Free is a clear concept: created to bring rider inspired change to snowboarding, influenced by the lack of design dogmas in the early days of snowboarding, constructed from the best materials of today, and no metal edges. It is a highly functional soft snow specific snowsurfing experience. Slush, corn, powder: all natural snow surfaces is where The Free excels.
The Free comes with clear instructions and ofcourse we can assist you in the designing and shaping process. We will also offer custom made orders: we have been riding The Free for several seasons, but none of us more than our Moss Snowstick rider Naoto Kotsugai. He has also been perfecting the shaping process and will shape a limited amount of custom designed orders this winter, each one handmade in Japan with attention to detail and a deep understanding of snowsurfing design.
Contact us for more info, prices and delivery dates will be available in the fall!
ROOTS
This summer we would love to take you on a journey to our roots.
We will regularly post our inspirations, influences and stories from the birth time of Moss Snowstick. This is also the time which has shaped us into the snowsurfers we are today and we believe will shape snowboardings future. We are talking about the early 1970's, a radical, freethinking and transformative time.
So keep an eye on our news, gallery and Facebook page, we've got some really inspiring ideas lined up for you. Snowboarding’s future is truly in the past!
12 DAYS LEFT FOR THE 2014 PRE-ORDERS
A new flow is coming: 12 days left for making a reservation on one of our 2014 snowsurfing shapes!
Soon we will start the build of the limited number of Moss Snowstick shapes. The order deadline for the new 2014 shapes is the 1st of june 2013. All you have to do is send us an e-mail at hello@mosssnowsurfing.com, we will require a 50% downpayment at the moment of ordering. Your snowsurfing shape will be delivered in september 2013, ready before next winter's first snowfall.
For advice on the best choice of snowsurfing shape or any other question find us at: hello@mosssnowsurfing.com
PRE-ORDERING FOR WINTER 2014 HAS STARTED
Details on all our new models can be found under 'gallery' on the website!
THE 2014 U SERIES
In the coming days we will show you the new lineup and start our pre-order period. The first series we would love to show you is our U series!
Nearing the end of a long and fantastic winter season filled with shaping, testing and refining we are about to introduce next winter's Moss snowsurfing shapes. Our family of friends is headed in a direction that makes us very, very happy and we can't wait to show you our new designs.
Hope to see you next saturday the 6th of april!
ARE MOSS SNOWSTICK SHAPES FUN TO RIDE IN A SKI AREA?
Yup. They are:
Riding everything in sight at the wonderful little ski area of Les Sybelles in France. Teppei Hirota, Naoto Kotsugai, Sho Shiramizu, Masahiko Sato, Morris and Lodewijk Duijvesteijn all riding the 2014 Moss Snowstick shapes.
Edit by: www.frankvanleeuwen.nl/film
WE LOVE GROOMERS
We love showing lots of powder shots, but very often we get the question if Moss Snowstick shapes can be ridden on hardpack or groomed slopes. Easy answer: yes, and then some. The outlines and sidecut profiles make these early-seventies inspired snowsurfing shapes pretty much better in every way for drawing deep&long carved turns on hard snow than any ski influenced modern-day shape out there. Here is an example!
MOSS SNOWSTICK REVIEW
Here is a recent review of our shapes by the powderchasing guys of WePowder.com. Full of their own brand of humor but a review without sugarcoating we think. Here is the translation!
Review: Moss Snowstick, by Dr. Gear
Bizarre, but oh so good.
What length did you say!? "149,3 centimeters" is what i hear on the other end of the line. A long silence is what follows...I'm on the phone with the distributor for Moss Snowstick in Europe. "And what about the swallowtail?". He answers: "the longest one you mean?...162 centimeters". Another long silence. Why should i test children's snowboards? The last time i rode a board this short was 15 years ago. A 151 cm. The first freestyle fashion wave grabbed me and i just hád to ride a short snowboard. I've seldom been more bummed out. Deep powder everywhere and all i did was sink. Up to my hips. Moreover, 15 years of drinking beer in seedy bars filled with Scandinavian beauties certainly did not make me any lighter. No, this certainly is not going to work.
But the distributor turns out to be one hell of a salesman. "it'll take 2 weeks to get used to". And: "you'll have to change your stance width ánd your body position". Normally any customer would have left the store by now, but my curiosity was provoked. I'm going to need two weeks to get used to riding these boards? I already know we are going to burn these snowboards down to the ground in our review. Why? The magic word useability. How dare you design a snowboard that will take you two weeks to get used to?
So, which models are we taking with us? The distributor gives us several boards to try out. In the boardbag we find the Moss Snowstick Wing Swallow, the Moss Snowstick 62 Swallow and the Moss Snowstick U4. I'm hearing the usual promotional speech and i'm startled when i hear the prices. "How much?" do i ask. "Between 799 and 999 euros". Hmm, this is going to be an easy one. Having to get use to it ánd pay a high amount, this is going to be break instead of make for this review.
I decide to travel along with my Friends Haas and Morris to go ride for a few days. When they hear my story they wish me luck and let me know they will never ever strap one of these children's boards to their feet. There is powder to be found and they've got something better to do.
Untill i force them, with my undeniable charm, to switch their bindings onto one of these 'children's boards'. Mind you, this cost me quite a few beers. I even force them to leave their own boards at home. The first doubts soon appear. "Short, too short. Way too short for us Europeans, let alone us tall Dutch folk." Soon thereafter we hear the usual excuses while in the chair going up: "i'm not in shape today" right up to "i bet they'll overtake me on the kiddy slope".
And then...something happens. The clouds part, the sun comes out and the first turns on a Moss Snowstick turn out to be..not at all difficult. Even better, A Moss rides like a normal snowboard. a nose press here, a 180 there. Time to hit some powder. Where these guys normally can't stop talking to me about avalanche safety they quickly leave me behind and try to ride out of sight, leaving big roostertails of flying snow. They are still letting me know what they think though: their hooting and hollering can be heard as far as the next valley. A Moss snowboard turns out to invoke a pure eureka-feeling in powder. They look a little strange, but they are só much fun to ride. And so we head out to look for limitations, of which we can't find any really. Ok, you are not going to ride switch a whole run, but besides that they are as good as a normal snowboard, dare we say even better: Carving a groomed slope? No problem. 180, 360? No problem. Control and straightlining? Very nice indeed. Powder, powder and more powder? It seems Morris has refused to return his board and is taking it to go heliskiing in Canada soon.
So you don't need to get used to it?
No, because of the long nose the boards are forgiving and leaving out the tail makes the board easily sink in deep snow. A board that anyone can ride instantly but...if you want to get the maximum effect out of this snowboard you need to ride actively. As in: knees bent. Then a whole new world opens up for you.
And then there us another 'but': those who prefer to remain anonymous had best not ride a Moss Snowstick. Absolutely éveryone strikes up a conversation with you. Dude, i feel like a pro..
Dr. Gear end score:
Five stars out of five. Why? Because bizarre can be oh so good..
SNEAK PREVIEW
Look closely and you'll find a taste of the 2014 Moss Snowstick shapes.
SNOW | SURF
A selection of our snowsurfing shapes will be part of an exhibition in our seaside town on all things snow&surf: a photo exhibition exploring where the love for sea and snow meet, we'll be showing classic and obscure snowsurf & surf movies, we are introducing a limited edition shirt by our excellent clothing designing friends from Ongetemd , we'll have music and ofcourse winterBBQ and beer!
ROADTRIP!
We will be touring the Alps next week with our family of Japanese and European snowsurfers and the new 2014 snowstick shapes. A big storm is about to hit the northwestern alps so it looks like we are going to see some amazing conditions.
We'll be riding in the fantastic Maurienne valley of France and after we are off to the one and only queen of the Alps, Chamonix. We'll post regular updates here and on our Facebook page, If you are in the neighbourhood drop by and come ride with us!
TECH TALK FRIDAY
A lot of riders asked us to explain more about the shape of Moss Snowstick, especially the effect of the nose shapes and different tail shapes. So we decided to make a long blog post out of it, explaining our designs in detail. If there is anything else you want to know, don't hesitate to drop us an e-mail.
Moss Snowstick was born in 1971. The early days of snowboarding were filled with free, progressive thinkers who had nothing to copy, everything was new. The grandfather of japanese surfing, Shinzo Tanuma, decided to apply surfing to the deep japanese snow, and so it happened that the first shapes were completely surfboard inspired: long noses, short tails and they were ridden with the weight on the back foot, as in surfing. Besides that the whole way a mountain and its terrain was experienced was like riding a wave. This worked so well that the snowsurfers of Japan have been designing and refining their shapes like this ever since, which nowadays gives us a line of one-of-a-kind freeflowing designs that combine the best ideas from the early days of snowboarding with the best design ideas and materials of today.
The main reason Moss Snowstick shapes ride as forgiving, surfy, flowing yet aggressive as they do is the combination of a long smooth nose and a very short tail (in combination with flex pattern, sidecut, weight and bottom shape ofcourse). To explain this think of the following: the nose determines how the board absorbs and flows over the terrain and the snow, the tail determines how the board releases the same terrain and snow. All Moss Snowstick designs have a very large stance setback and therefore a long nose which also has a very gradual and smooth upturn. This does two things:
It gives a 150 cm shape the same nose length as a 175 standard everyday freeride snowboard.
This means the 150 cm shape will feel and ride as fast and stable as the 175 yet give you all the maneuverability and snappiness of a 150 cm shape. A huge advantage when riding threedimensional terrain, flowing with the natural shape of the mountains. We feel snowboarding was intended this way: in harmony with nature instead of only functioning on manmade flat surfaces and mechanically altered terrain like snowboard parks.
Because of this nose design, Moss Snowstick shapes are ridden around 15 cm shorter than your standard freeride length. Our nose shapes will float in deep snow without you having to lean back, thus giving you back the ability to move your body and flow in and out of turns, and they will smoothly transition up, over and against any three dimensional natural feature you encounter. A true surfing experience!
The second thing this surfboard inspired shape does is it gives you a very short tail that has a specific release characteristic. We'll describe the different tail shapes and their 'feel' here:
U3/U4/U5: a diamond tail that is the most allround shape of all our snowsurfing designs. This tail shape releases in a very predictable and even, smooth way in all situations. On hard snow it has a direct but not too sudden end of the effective edge which means that (combined with the very lively and snappy progressive sidecut) it gives you a clearly noticeable end of your effective edge when finishing turns with the back foot weighted, yet it is a smooth and predictable end point. In deep snow it is a smooth surface with a short upturn which is the perfect balance between a friction-free release of snow yet instinctively noticeable end of your running length (which is great for just knowing exactly how far you can push out your tail on big off-the-lip spraying turns agains threedimensional wave-like formations!). When riding extreme steeps this tail has no catchpoints which can grab the snow on jump turns.
Wing Swallow: This tail shape releases very directly and agressively on hard snow which together with the deep progressive sidecut gives it a surfy yet snappy and accelerating feeling out of turns. It has a clearly noticeable and direct end point of your edge (the wing design) which makes it so much fun to carve hard with your weight on the back foot, keep your edge pressure moving back as you finish your turn and aggressively releasing the edge and switching to your next turn. This shape want to jump out of turns and feels loose and playful, yet is able to carve extremely hard and has no limit. In deep snow the feeling of the swallow shape kicks in: the tail sinks effortlessly and the smooth medium upturn ensures a friction-free release of snow. This tail shape also excels at layback surf turns against snow banks: it is very easy to feel the point where you release your hard bottom turn carve and where the smooth tailslide begins!
Performance Quad: very similar to the Wing Swallow, yet this tail has a feature that snowboard manufacturers overlook: bottom shape has a huge influence on how a board rides. it is expensive and very complicated to shape, but we have been perfecting this design for a long time and shape our boards in small numbers: working this way is the only way to create a unique shape with an no-compromise riding sensation.
The Performance quad has a bottom channel under the back foot running through to the tail, which solves a problem that occurs in snow with a lot of moisture in it, for example in springtime: while riding over the snow your body weight pushes the moisture out of the snow and what happens next is a lot like a water drop between two sheets of glass: they instantly form a vacuum and stick together. If you ever experienced the sudden dragging sensation in corn snow or slush, that is how it feels. The bottom channel o the Performance Quad keeps an air pocket under your back foot, preventing this vacuum.
Besides that it channels the release of snow from the tail giving this shape (together with the rounded concave in the nose) a very floaty, surfboard-like feel. An aggressive, deep-sidecut shape on hard snow which turns into a floaty, superfast shape in deep or wet snow that want to hit every wall you encounter.
Pintail: Hard or soft snow, this tail shape specializes in pure speed. Down-the-line fast riding and flowing in the fall line at high speeds, no other tail design gives you the friction free superfast feel of the pintail. Also, this is the tail design that is the easiest to ride switch of all Moss Snowstick designs.
Swallow series (50 Swallow, 58 Swallow, 62 Swallow) These tailshapes have two very distinct riding sensations: on hard snow they are the smoothest releasing tail shapes of the entire line. The deep swallowtail designs have such a gradual upturn (to ensure the swallow doesn't dig in on steeps, riding switch on edge or on surfstyle maneuvers) that you do not feel a release point. Together with the smooth entry nose, the big-turn stable radial sidecut this gives the board enormous speed and a zero-friction feeling. The design is aimed at wide open flowing turns following the fall line, and this tail design fits that perfectly. In deep snow and most of all powder, a deep swallowtail design is simply the best tail shape there is: the tail sinks instantly, the long nose shape floats regardless of your movement and all this gives you a relaxed, centered body position. No more leaning back to keep your nose afloat and freedom of movement to really flow and style your powder turns.
So there you go! As we said before, snowboarding's past is filled with brilliant design ideas that are sadly overlooked in todays ski influenced snowboard culture. We would love for everyone to try out our designs, it truly is snowboarding at it's unique, individual, feelgood and freeflowing best.
SOULTURNS FEEL GOOD.
Only a few more days left on our Christmas good Karma special: order your Moss Snowstick before 31-12-2012 and you will receive this soulturn by Naoto Kotsugai as a limited edition signed&numbered print with your new snowsurfing shape! Send us an e-mail here and we'll get you set up.
