“When they first started they kicked some ass, they where one of the first thrash metal bands.
Here’s a good old vid with the whole band when cliff burton was still around.
RIP Cliff. Laurent”
Big thanks to Laurent for sending in RRT this week!
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.
I’ll admit they drive me crazy, and I’m not much of one for the Reply All thread that keeps going (especially in your work email; apparently I’m not as much fun as other people in the building)
The other day my buddy Bill sent out a link to a comic book styled “history” of Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA album (apparently, we’re around the 25th anniversary). So the the thing compares him to Dylan and then ends with a frame praising “The Boss” for turning down a cool $12mil from Chrysler to use “Born in the USA” in a commercial.
Well, the thread basically goes in a direction that implies Bruce should have quit while he was ahead. I basically agree with this point, though I will say, I saw him in concert for the first time this summer and the guy has a formula to put on a good show (despite them wheeling Clarence out like he was Hannibal Lector)
Leave it though to my friends to find this gem of Dylan on YouTube…
The thread continues with Ian McKaye references (looking for people who would call Dylan out) et al…but eventually lands here and I paraphrase my buddy Grant…
“I went searching the interweb for the white whale – the celebrity who knew when to quit, who did quit, and who stayed gone… These were the suggestions:
Who’d we miss?
(BTW- Death doesn’t count)
As you may have seen on our twitter account a big crew of Rome employees is down in the beantown area tonight as former Rome employee Adam gets married tonight…Most shops will remember Adam as he was the point guy when a store pretty much needed anything from Rome. He’s now on to bigger and better things slinging coffee but we certainly miss having him around the office (he even had a hat named after him).
He’s lucky enough to be marrying Agatha, the brains behind Burrito Mountain (which we blog about here). You may also know from her years in-house at Eesa (that’s Adam as a “model” on the Eesa homepage).
Anyways, here’s to you guys…
I don’t usually show stuff for the next year to anybody, but we just got the 2011 boot samples in and I’m stoked about the PureFlex lacing system boots which the SDS has been working on for the past two years. As Product Manager for boots, it’s really my job, what I’m supposed to do. But it’s been just a fun and totally immersive experience, kinda like laboring on a piece of art, eating cold pizza, not taking showers, trapped in my own apartment, losing 10 lbs (honestly been there before) then finally seeing it come together in the final stages. It’s very rewarding. We started off with a clean slate, to try to do something that’s different from anyone else. We talked to shops, we listened to riders.
Acid lace does forefoot, orange does innercuff
Doing up the ankle zone
The forefoot, innercuff, ankle zones locked up
This is, in my view, truly the first 4-zone lacing system. It has locking guides at key points to allow you to adjust tightness at the forefoot, innercuff, ankle and upper zones. It’s also a natural feeling system that doesn’t embed long plastic guides in the body to hinder the “pure” flexibility of the body. Lastly, it’s fast because one of the two laces (see first pic) does up the innercuff and two other zones in one fell swoop. Shop kids will get a chance to try these out in a couple of months at the on-snow demos. I’ll also be posting a video soon so you can check out Pureflex Lacing in action.
Wrapping the uppercuff without crossing hands
Locking off the laces at the top
So George isn’t around this morning, maybe he’ll do a Rock ‘n Roll Tuesday post later in the day.
A year ago or so, Cavan cast a net out looking for psychedlic music (I think for the Magic Bus segment) and in my searches trying to help I found this site.
Well after a hiatus, the main poster has started posting to it again. From the bizarre to the popular you’ll find all sorts of stuff on there; it displays an unbelievable range of musical appreciation.
What’s also great is that the poster puts up a lot of tracks on Box.net, so if you find something you really like, you can probably download it. So much of the stuff is from record labels that don’t exist, or artists they have to find by looking them up in the phone book
Probably my favorite thing I found on here was The Fort Mudge Memorial Dump. Here’s the link to the blog on them. “The Seventh is Death” is one of the key tracks.
So I hope you use like Google Reader or something to track the Rome SDS blog, I would highly recommend tracking the Über Space blog as well.
Some other good blogs that I follow on Google reader include:
>>>Eiki and his brother’s page. Usually good for a Youtube video of a crash or something.
>>>Willie’s blog on the Bluebird site.
>>>Soccer Insider blog from Washington Post. A little DC United focused, but when the US had their run in the Confederations Cup it had some of the best reporting.
>>>And of course VT Death Rider, which since they post so rarely you have to follow it on a RSS feed
We’ve gone 6 days without a post on here, so to avoid back to back Wednesdays with Bill, here goes Rock and Roll Tuesday..
We’ve all been lied to by roadside signs before. Maybe the billboard with the “worlds largest gopher”, 3 miles off the exit turned out to be a stuffed beaver, spray painted tan with its tail cut off. Maybe the sign SLOW CHILDREN misled you to believe that they would be slow moving and easy to avoid, when in reality, the children were quite nimble and quickly followed that ball into the street in front of your car.
Anyhow, point being, one sign that’s pretty trustworthy is the sign on route 26 in Sandy Oregon that says “Windells the “Funnest” Place on Earth”.
If you don’t know, Windell’s is a summer camp where you can, snowboard at Mt. Hood in the summer, demo next years Rome gear before it even hits the shops, shred with your favorite pros, skate until you can’t feel your legs, paintball, BMX dirt jump, foam pit, white water raft and pretty much do anything else that’s awesome to do.
I’ve been out here for the past few days hooking up the Rome house, (known as the Roadhouse), stickering up the Rome van with a new design and putting up some pretty sick banners around camp.
If you’ve already been to Windell’s and think it’s going to be the same thing when show up this year…it’s probably time to think again. BOB the giant indoor skate park has gotten a full face lift, Windell’s has a whole slew of new handrails for the park, and the king of concrete Jamie Weller has transformed the campus into a giant outdoor skate paradise.
I just talked to Reed, one of the main camp guys here, and although there aren’t a ton of spots left, if you call now and get in touch you should still be able to get your week of awesome in this summer.
Not feeling too creative on the writing front so I figured I’d share some pics from the last few months with you…
Had to visit our warehouse in Holland>>
Night Lights in Rotterdam...
Dutch Windmills
Got some riding in on the way to one of our factories>>
Riding the train out of the city...
Cliche shot of Alpine Lodge in Zell am See
Phillip was an intern in our German office, here he is getting ready to drop in...
After he dropped in he got a trip to the hospital as an extra bonus
Got some good days in at Stowe>>
Looking back towards the resort from up in the Notch...
We got our company ride day in before the end of the season...some people hanging out between runs...
Took a trip over to Mount Washington about a week ago...good end to the season for me
So nothing special…just figured that I’d throw something new up here to keep you entertained on a quiet weekend…
PS-Have to admit that I was surprised by Mine the Bird…not quite sure what that name means??
(aka Hammer Whacking)
So when we go to the board factory in Austria, one of our favorite pastimes is a game called Hammerschlagen. Many places that you go at night will have a stump and a hammer and basically the objective is to pound your nail in first with the hammer…but there’s a catch.
In the North of Austria you play with the wedge end of a machinist hammer, where our factory is in the south the “hammer” is tougher to describe. First, it has a curved handle and instead of a traditional hammer head, the end is a cylinder and you try to whack the nail with the edge of the cylinder.
Peter from La Resistance mid-Hammerschlagen trick.
As Peter demonstrates above, you can also add spin tricks to your repertoire of how you whack the nail. Peter owns the shop “La Resistance” in Zell am See Austria. It’s a sweet shop that you should check out if you are ever in the area.
So Rome has been known to celebrate the anniversary of 050601. I decided that we needed to bring the fun of Hammerschlagen to the party.
I tasked Nate (“Number Two”) with finding a stump; which he did on one of his fishing expeditions. Nate found a section of a tree that was already laying about.
So I decided that we could do the Operations Department weekly meeting in Nate’s crew cab as we went to pick up the stump.
Here I am rolling the stump to the truck
Stump loaded and ready to go to it's new home
Here's Number Two delivering the stump...
So we need to just acquire a hammer and game on. That means you Colvin…
For more on Hammerschlagen, you can check out Wikipedia though there’s some seemingly revisionist history on there… (don’t watch the stuff on Youtube, most of the videos are of people who don’t understand the game)
Stump Acquisition Photo Cred: Warranty Ben