Rome Snowboard Design Syndicate

Hey Paul here – one of the guys who started Rome and, among other things, the person who designs our snowboards.  I’m going to chime in on the blog from time to time with the intent of shedding a little light on some of the design and development stuff that we do here but might not be covered in a lot of detail in the catalog or on the website.

So to start off I wanted to write a little bit about the Pusher.  The Pusher might best be understood by thinking of it is as the fun loving offspring of a ménage à trios involving a Mod, an Agent and, for a little extra spice, a Postermania.

The Mod’s shape influence on the Pusher is the most immediately recognizable characteristic you’ll notice when you first pick up the board. The nose and tail are a modernization of a shape I designed back in the day with one of snowboarding’s great talents. While this type of board shape is a personal favorite both aesthetically and admittedly a bit nostalgically, they are definitely more of a challenge to “shape” and get perfect on the computer than the more traditional radial nose and tail shapes.  It takes a bit of time and massaging to get it just right but with this board being a true twin, once I get the nose dialed the tail is already done – and when it is executed right – it just feels good to look down and see this board under your feet.

The guts of the Pusher are where the Agent influence comes in and are the primary drivers of the price point that the Pusher falls:

The Superpop core matrix with it’s alternating laminates of select Poplar and Paulownia woods give the board a great blend of pop, lightness and dampening. This along with our StraightTriax 30 Carbon laminate make for one of the best freestyle oriented constructions out there.

Our Impact Plates and Impact Edges add a ton of strength where you need it – the Impact Plates resist all the compressed landings and all the (i.e. not Rome’s) sharp edged bindings you can throw at it while the extra thick profile of the Impact Edges stand up to far more box and rail abuse than normal profile edges.

The last characteristic borrowed from another board in the line is the Reverse-Free camber profile that the Pusher shares with the Postermania series. The Reverse-Free camber line consists of a mellow reverse camber profile through the middle of the board to just outside the binding mount area and straight camber profile from there to the end of the running length of the board. The reverse camber center section of the board allows for a playful, loose freestyle feeling while the straight camber sections provide for positive edge pressure and control throughout your turn as well as a solid platform for ollieing and of course just all around positive and fun tail pop. The addition of the Carbon-V stringers in the tip and tail work with the straight camber to enhance this control and ollie boost.

The combination of the geometry and technologies really make a difference you can feel and appreciate over a full season of hard riding. While you can certainly spend less (and more) for a snowboard, in my experience the materials we are able to spec at this price point result in one of the best balances of performance and value for the versatile true twin freestyle board that the Pusher is.

So that’s a little background, and a bit of editorial, on the Pusher … or rather the “Mogentia”  as I am starting a petition to re-name it.   Damn catchy right?

Stop by your local shop this weekend, ask to check out a Pusher, get one under your feet and let us know what you think.

[p]

p.s.  I’ve got plenty to blog about that you may or may not find interesting so would be stoked to know what you are interested in so if you do have any questions or tech topics you want to hear more about, leave a comment below or email us. Put “Blog topic for Paul” or something equally clever in the subject line and we’ll get back to you on it one way or another.

Ron is moving upstairs!

and I got a new office!

Here’s another quick (and possibly the last) board graphic tease for you guys from the 2011 collection. This time, I’m showcasing a variety of base type. Enjoy!

I wouldn’t normally post up a ‘guy in the sky’ photo, but in this case I’ll make an exception. I spied this photo of Davy Zyw of Britain rocking an old Agent in the London Frieze festival in one of the NY Times photo blogs, and now you can, too.

A couple pages for you this week…

“Death From Above”

“All or Nothing”

My friend Mike Horn sent me this shot from the Butte.

Some more samplings from my Do Something EveryDay sketch book.

“In-transit collage”

“Hippy Rorschach”

“NY Daily News front page headline” Seriously?

“Fireworks, and their effects on a sketchbook page”

Captain Al came by the office yesterday to put the finishing touches on his new Addictive Collection graphic (his current 152 can be seen here). All I can tell you about it is that when the photo session was over, the studio stunk like hell, and I got some mystery juice on my hands that is causing a rash. This graphic will be worth the wait.

The creative cycle here at Rome comes and goes with the seasons. For several months straight, it’s a nonstop barrage of pixels, paper cuts and everything in between. But once that last file is sent off to the factory, there is some time to recover. Not much time, but even a few days seems like a month long vacation.

Now don’t think I’m complaining about this lack of deadlines right now – quite the opposite. Things are still busy as ever, just in a different way. Approving samples, shooting product for the new catalog, and researching the next line is all happening right now, so the term ‘down time’ is relative.

Regardless, it’s been a couple weeks since I made something new. In an effort to keep the creative wheels spinning, I’m starting this new personal project called Do Something EveryDay. I picked up a nice little 4″x6″ sketch book with a ton of pages in it, and that’s just what I’m doing with it – making something everyday. No themes, no critiques, no nothing really; just something new, everyday. I twitter’d one of the first entries the other day, but figured i’d make this somewhat official on here.

So that’s it. My own personal deadline. I’ll be sharing stuff on here from time to time. Feel free to love or hate on it. Here’s today’s entry: Hang Loose

I’m back at the board factory this week, and while i’d like to show you all the sick graphics for next year, well, I just cant. Instead, you get this little montage of bits and pieces. I’m really hyped on how all this stuff looks thou, and I’m pretty sure that it will be worth the wait for you guys to see all this stuff next year. Until then, get out there and cop some new gear at your LOCAL snowboard shop, and for those areas that have snow flying already – get stoked! You’ll be shreading again before you know it.