LIB TECHNOLOGIES: Bringing Innovation to the Snow
A friend once told me his vision of a harmonious relationship between skiers and snowboarders where meaningless bickering was shelved for the sharing of ideas and concepts. Lib Technologies, a super innovative snowboard company, has bucked the trend and fulfilled my friends’ fantasy by dipping their talents into the ski realm—actually, not skis, but Narrow Ass Snowboards or NAS for short.
“We don’t want to make skis,” says Peter Saari, the VP of Marketing for Mervin Manufacturing and co-founder of Lib Tech. “We want to make NAS,” he says in a halfway-serious voice.
The NAS technology is not uncommon for this pioneering company. Formed in 1977, the two founders, Saari and Mike Olson, were originally skiers until they realized the flotation that a snowboard provided them. Becoming frustrated with a snowboard’s performance on the hard pack, Olson pioneered the first snowboard with deep sidecuts.
“We were really the first brand to promote sidecuts way back in ’85,” says Saari. The revolutionary sidecut or parabolic design has likely had the most significant impact on the ski and snowboard industries still to this day. In addition to the original snowboard sidecut design, LibTech has dabbled in the designs of skateboards, surfboards, and even snowskates (a skateboard deck with a ski mounted on the bottom). Indeed, labeling them as just a snowboard company acts as a major understatement.
“They [LibTech] really are a true R and D company, who just simply have fun thinking up and designing new stuff,” says Mervin R and D and main NAS tester Tory Bland.
The most recent and noteworthy design from LibTech is Magne-Traction. Introduced last fall, Magne-Traction is LibTech’s solution for the dead spot between the two bindings on a snowboard. Essentially, Magne-Traction is seven bumps on each edge of the board resembling a serrated edge of a knife and provide more edge contact points than just the tip and tail. According to Saari, Magne-Traction increases edge hold and control on icy conditions, power when initiating turns, and fun. “You can really focus where you want the board to contact the snow than just focusing on your tip and tail,” asserts Saari. “Magne-Traction provides better edge hold and longer, tighter arcs and decreases the chance of blowing out on turns.” Sounds weird, but so did deep sidecuts.
“They have great edge hold and feel pretty normal otherwise,” says Jay Moore, the owner of World Boards, a hip snowboard shop in Bozeman, Montana. “The edge hold is a bonus when you are in firm snow.”
Then how did skis fit into the equation? According to Bland, he and his ski patrolmen buddies at Mt. Baker have been “annoying” Saari and the Seattle-based company for years to make skis. “We’ve been wanting to do this forever and we wanted to grow our brand,” says Saari.
Like the snowboards, the two models of NAS—a 176 and 188—will have the Magne-Traction technology. Tested at Baker and Whistler, Saari claims there are 50,000 ways to orient the Magne-Traction bumps, but after three revisions NAS is a go. Notable highlights of NAS besides Magne-Traction include a sintered 9900-carbon base, double sintered UHMW sidewalls for added durability and beefiness, and an aspen core sandwich construction allowing for pop and torsional stiffness. Furthermore, with the addition of the Magne-Traction bumps, a skier can de-tune the edges for park and rails and still have just as much edge control if the ski was tuned according to Saari. And yes, despite the bumps, the edges can still be tuned Saari affirms.
As for specs, the 176 is being dubbed an all-mountain park ski with a sidecut of 129-93-113 mm, and the twin-tipped 188 checks in at 139-98-122 mm. “I wanted to design a ski that floats well but also turns well,” says the Bellingham, Washington based Bland, who was initially motivated to design a ski similar to the European Freeride and Telemark ski, Zag, which has developed a cult-like following amongst Europeans.
“Some of these big skis out there are losing their functionality because of their size. So after testing these things to find the right sidecut, the 188 is basically the ultimate Baker backcountry ski with a pretty powerful, round flex with some backbone in it,” he says.
Adding to LibTech’s wittiness, NAS are sold in single. “We’ve only built 400 units this year to just see the feedback on these things,” says Saari. “We’ll always be a snowboard company, but we threw this design out there to the ski world to get them thinking and expand people’s awareness.”
“And we wanted to have fun,” he concludes.
Due to the innovative minds at LibTech and the Narrow Ass Snowboards my friend’s dream is slowly becoming a reality.