Friday, January 23, 2009

"Cheetah Ultra Sports"

So over on Core77 I saw a post for a "Radical new snowboard design"  Core 77 says that

"The thing we most like about this product--or news of it, anyway, since we haven't ridden one--is that it was clearly designed by an enthusiast combining direct experience with a clever understanding of materials. The Whip is made from a combination of wood, plastic, steel, and carbon composite."

First off, about every single snowboard is made from wood, plastic, steel, and carbon composite.  The snowboard industry is a beautiful thing with a lot of innovative minds behind it.  There is a reason why people enjoy flat based boards and things like Palmer Plates never stuck around.  Is this concept "CLEARLY" designed by an enthusiast, or some lame old man with too much time and money, and not enough real snowboard sense, so he tries to develop a completely new snowboard concept titled "The Whip"

That name, "The Whip" first of all is referencing fast zippy cars that get all kinds of corny modifications just to make a lame person feel better about themselves.  Does that belong in the fun, no bullshit, progressive sport of snowboarding? No sir.  I know the cost of snowboarding generally attracts a lot of yuppies, who may HAVE corny desires for things such as 

"Our artistic inspirations-
F-117 Stealth fighter, Leonardo de Vinci, Batman, and the Lamborghini Reventon."


I can appreciate the de Vinci refrence, and the Batman refrence.  But what relation does the military and the Lamborghini Reventon have with snowboarding?  I'm a huge fan of a new design concept bringing on it's own life and creating it's own lifestyle apart from anything else which the snowboard industry is finally doing.  Of course it had to rip off the skaters for a while, but the skateboarders had to rip off the surfers.  Now each sport has it's own lifestyle and different images that are unique to each discipline.  A skateboard T-shirt, a snowboard t-shirt, and a surf t-shirt, while of course have very similar roots, the inspiration and love of their sports all will graphically represent the differences between the sports and their communities as they evolve.  


They attack the snowboard industry with 
"No urban graffiti. No Andy Warhol. No Playboy Magazine"

I'm the first to call out how dumb those things are as well, but snowboarding has a vast youth sort of "rebellious" and "artistic" following and that is what appeals to them.  And all three of those concepts can be found almost exclusively in Burtons lines.  Here here and here.  K2 is even doing collaborations with Claw (nyc graff artist) and Mishka (Brooklyn based, graffiti influenced streetwear company.)  Those things are probably just as irrelevant to the snowboard world as a F-117 stealth fighter, but at least they mean something to the youth market that grows up actually pushing and innovating the sport!  Snowboard is young, maybe about 30 years old now, and it's been going through very obvious and sometimes awkward changes throughout those decades. 


It all started with a single snowboarder's desire for a better snowboard. Eventually, that desire, plus the appalling lack of innovation in snowboard manufactureing business, led to the invention of The Whip and finally to the establishment of Cheetah Ultra Sports in early 2008.
Our Philosophy-
Functional, innovative, technologically advanced design over pretty graphics

Our design direction-
Form always follows function. The resulting form, however, must stand alone as a work of art, rather than a platform to showcase other people's works of art.


If this man had any knowledge he would realize all the changes happening in snowboarding.  From Gnu engineering trees, urethane sidewalls, reverse camber, and Magne Traction.  The graphics on the snowboard are 2-D representation of the culture that pioneered the snowboard in the first place.  The interior composition of the board is what the rider notices as they pull in and out of turns, ollie, or press the board.  The sidecut as well is a very important factor which decides how easy the board will go on edge, stay on edge, and make an easy transition into the next carve.  I feel this company is very naively trying to shift snowboarding in a very terrible direction... 

As scary as this new concept may be, i'm pretty confident it will flop.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Tappan Bowl




Bowl I recently carved for my girlfriends parents... I don't generally do "nice things" out of "nice wood" so I feel like this is a somewhat sophisticated change for me.  The spoon in the last shot is courtesy of Nick Foley

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Augor's Website

Augor has a new website.  This guy is such a champ and has such amazing control over graffiti.  Handstyles,  throwups, bombs, pieces, Eastcoast, Westcoast.  He's nuts and it's awesome to be able to see a website that can showcase the process for such a "Secret" Artist/Outlaw.

Friday, January 9, 2009

more bathchair conception!


I think i have finally found an answer for the treatment of my legs, and i'm pretty happy with it.

Friday, January 2, 2009

bathchair render


a sketch of my prototype bathchair for Graham feild/ Lumex... it's a transfer seat to help disabled and/or injured to arrive safely into a bathtub! i'm very happy with this render