Its Chrismastime

Here we are celebrating the holidays, I didn't know I had so much spirit, its ok, I feel good for all that hard work. I built a couple of boards for some kids in Colorado, I built some boards for my best man in Carbondale, I built a board with an apprentice. Next up is to build two boards for the Vermont Open snowboard and music festival. Its a drys season so far in the Sierras, but then the magic there is that all it takes is one storm and its game on.

Last weekend was all time

I had to make a trip to the house in Placerville and to do work at on the studio. Driving out was eazy, no rain or snow until I hit eldorado hills east of Sacramento. By the time I got to placerville it was snowing good. We ended up with 4 inches of powdery snow.I decided to snurf the pitch at the house first and had a great time. In turn headed up to Sierra at Tahoe, read online the night before that one lift was running. The drive ups was a black diamond, low visibility, stupid drivers and all that stuff, my vintage previa alltrac ruled the road, needs new wipers thought, arrived at Sierra and it was awesome. Got set up, cleared to Snurf and hit the mountain, 32 inches of new snow and I got a bunch of vertical on my board. Since I didn't have a standard "snowboard", I snurfed the mountain and it was a great time. I even got booted once early on, until I got things straightened out with management. The staff at Sierra does a great job and worked with me. Can't wait for my next visit. Building boards has been a great opportunity, people are getting excited. the timing is right. It feels like snowboarding did back in the day. JG

Advertisement from 25th anniversary issue of surfer magazine

It never seemed like a big deal to have my photo used by Flite Snowboards in the advertisement they placed in the 25th anniversary issue of Surfer Magazine. In retrospect, snowboarding was in its infancy and everything was new. Unknown to most, that year I was riding my own Hibak design had it disguised. I was the first rider at the Sims World Championships with a Plastic Highback, you can see footage of me riding in the Halfpipe/Powder. It was a huge snow year, most I had ever seen. Now I find that we are approaching the 30th anniversary of the Highback Binding. At least I've made my share of turns out there and really looking forward to this coming season. JG

materials

It feels like it took all day, driving to pick up epoxy, the fiberglass and stuff. it did take all day. but we are ready for the next round of production. pretty exciting stuff, new molds, new materials, the sport is taking off. Maybe I can make a few people happy with my designs. Jg

Vacuum epoxy boards, wow

I just reach the 124 mark, maybe a few more boards before I started giving them numbers, I should be keeping track? Anyway, we just shifted from polyester resins to a more environmentally friendly epoxy, we'll see. The epoxy boards in traditional layups are kind of whimpy, but when you add the vacuum to the process the boards are amazing. Lightweight, super strong and sure to be fun on the snow. We are now experimenting with uhmw husks, our first venture in this direction is an amazing G60 vacuum bag creation. I am really excited about how fast we have moved along, we are figuring out all the new molds and they are staring to deliver the best boards yet. Just remember, we are just staring, we hit #124 and the road to 1 million should be quite a ride. JG

It really has been a fun experience getting back into building boards. Alot of people are excited about what we are doing and each time I box up and send out a board its exciting. Mark Sullivan of Tailgate Alaska will get a G60. Rick Waring will get a board for himself and his son in Bend, Oregon. Larry Madden, in Aspen wants a board to ride at Buttermilk and so it goes. Wave Rave in Mammoth Lakes, has a dozen boards ordered and they are almost done. I am excited with the response so far and look forward to launching a website soon. Just so you know, the price of these handmade boards is $200 for a G42, $300 for a G48 and $500 for custom G60.

Visitors to the shop

ITs not everyday that my friend Ishi comes to visit in CAlifornia. Great time to see my friend and build a new board.