Its February 28 already

Can I even believe it is the last day of February 28, 2015.
The year is off to a quick start and it feels today like winter may finally arrive to California.
We have had the most incredible weather for what seems like the past two years, today it just started to rain and it is snowing in the Sierra's. Everything around us is in full bloom, oaks are sprouting new leaves, daffodils are out, fruit trees are flowering.

Meanwhile around much of the rest of the country, winter has a firm grip on things and doesn't seem prepared to let go anytime soon.

I've had reports from Ohio, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, California, and haven't had a lot of boards check in with a photo or report on how they are riding. For those of you who have gotten a "Grellboard" and just put it in the corner, break it out and make yourself known. I didn't build those boards so they could be mounted to a wall.

Anyways, Anne after 6 months of treatment has come home and here Plasma Cell Leukemia is in remission, that's a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, during this time she has develop a Plasma Cell Cytoma on her eye and will need a full regiment of Radiology for that. She is one strong and positive woman, I'm doing the best I can to take care of her and keep the wheels on my world.

Until my next post. Enjoy every minute of every day.
JG

Winter in the Sierra is only getting started

Certainly winter is on its way, although you wouldn't think so if you lived in Corralitos, it was 80 degrees yesterday and it got cold today, down to 65.  Ordinarily, I wouldn't think much of the weather but as I love snow, where is it. Forecasts are looking at a miracle march with big snow and rain for California, we hope so. In the meantime there is good snow in the sierras and you should go up and take advantage and support our resorts. In the meantime, we are keeping busy in the shop and the new boards are the best ever. A G48 is $400. Order one today and it will ship within a week.
JG

Another beautiful day

As I adjust to a temporary life in Pacifica, CA. I am very greatful for the opportunity to visit a new town. Ordinarily, this would be a place I would just past through on the way to somewhere's else. Not this time, I actually get to have a forced vacation, Certainly, as a caregiver, your schedule is always close to those you are taking care of. This isn't my first time at this role, what I've learned is that you will never find enough time for yourself. Not complaining, its wonderful to see Anne recovering from her bout with Plasma Cell Leukemia/multi myeloma. On monday, I get a break so I can go home and back to work. I'm going to use every extra moment to get caught up.

Pacifica Pier, December 13, 2014

Its winter in the Sierra, it took its time but its here to stay

I don't know what to think, its december 12, the mountain just opened and I can't get there. Life is like that, it throws all kinds of challenges at you along with trials and tribulations. I am going to have a great winter season, it just hasn't started yet and when it does I'm going to enjoy every moment. In the meantime I am inspired by my daughter, she decided to move to Tahoe for the winter of her 20th year, she is the same age as I was when I decided to move to Aspen, Colorado. She is smarter than me, she actually found an apartment, a job and planned it all out. I just got a one way ticket, a bus fare and was dropped off on main street to fend for myself. So many years later, it was one of the best things I ever did for myself. I am so proud of her and just know it is going to be one of the winters we all remember.

Its raining here at home, time to go to the mountains and test some boards

This has been a punishing fall season, with Anne sick and in the hospital, work, managing home life, a 20 year old daughter and trying to build Grellboards's, all things considered I'm doing great. The boards I've build over the past several months are amongst the best I've ever made. The have ptex bases, 3 dimensional design and are build with carbon fibers, epoxy, a variety of fiberglass weaves, vacuum bagged and heated. The finished product comes off the mold like as a unique individual, from that point I get to shape and be creative. The wall street journal just recognized "Snurfing" the article is available online but I'm posting it here. In the future, if you want the best go to www.grellboards.com. If you want to talk Snurfing, I bought my first board in 1968. Snowboards for the Sledding Hill Ditch the stiff boots—and lift tickets—with a back-to-basics, binding-free board, like the Snurfer, Burton Throwback or Jones Mountain Surfer POWDER RANGERS | From left: Burton’s limited-edition Throwback, based on a 1981 rope-steered model; a recent reissue of the Snurfer, a 1965 proto-snowboard; and the Jones Mountain Surfer, which lacks bindings but has small metal cleats that riders can push their boots into for greater control. ENLARGE POWDER RANGERS | From left: Burton’s limited-edition Throwback, based on a 1981 rope-steered model; a recent reissue of the Snurfer, a 1965 proto-snowboard; and the Jones Mountain Surfer, which lacks bindings but has small metal cleats that riders can push their boots into for greater control. By JESSE WILL Nov. 28, 2014 12:40 p.m. ET 4 COMMENTS SNOWBOARDING IS a relatively young sport, but some riders are still pining for its humble roots. “There’s an interest now in returning to a place where you don’t need to dress like an astronaut and take a chair lift,” said pro-snowboarding legend Jeremy Jones. Indeed, in the sport’s earliest days, riders would “snow surf” down backyard inclines and sledding hills, not ticketed resort slopes. The equipment was more rudimentary, too. One classic will make a comeback next week, when the venerable Vermont-based snowboard maker Burton releases its Throwback Snowboard ($120, burton.com)—a plywood model based on the brand’s Backhill, from 1981, which was one of the sport’s most popular boards at the time. Like other early snowboards, the Throwback has no bindings to lock boots to it. Instead, you stand on a grippy polymer footpad and hang on via the handle attached to the nose by a rope (kind of like standing on a sled). That rope serves two purposes: It allows you to steer (just lean back in the direction you want to turn) and prevents the board from becoming a projectile when you spill. The Throwback isn’t meant for use at resorts, since it lacks the metal edges that make for tidy turns on hard-packed snow. It’s also missing the polyethylene base that gives modern snowboards their glide. But it’s perfect for absolute beginners to use at the park (Mr. Jones himself learned on a Burton Backhill—a Christmas present—in his backyard when he was a child) as well as powder junkies who want to snag a hillside run without getting fully geared up. The Throwback will be available in two sizes—100 cm for kids, 130 cm adults—and limited to an edition of 800. It’s being joined by another blast-from-the-past: the Snurfer, a proto-snowboard first sold in 1965 that has been out of production for 30 years. Vermont-based Vew-Do recently attained Snurfer’s license and is just beginning to ship hardwood remakes of the original as well as an updated model, called the Nomad, which has a wider, more forgiving nose ($120 and $140, snurferboards.com). Mr. Jones’s eponymous snowboard brand—now a Burton rival—is getting in on the retro act, too, with the binding-free Jones Mountain Surfer ($349, jonessnowboards.com)—a model aimed at more experienced riders that is less of a toy than the Throwback or Snurfer. “Raising kids and teaching them how to snowboard was really a reminder to me that you don’t need a bunch of fancy gear to have a lot of fun,” said Mr. Jones.

And it just escalates from here, check this from the Manchester Journal in Vermont

MANCHESTER - Brew Moscarello climbs on a Vew-Do balance board — the top-of-the-line El Dorado model with an extra-wide concave deck and quick-radial-taper roller — and begins swinging his weight back and forth, bending his knees, mimicking the motion of skiing. His shoulders are squared to the fall line. Moscarello has built a $1 million business in Manchester, where Burton Snowboards also got its start, selling his balance boards, which can be used to train skiers, snowboarders, and other athletes. Now Moscarello is about to launch a new product resurrected from the misty past of snowboarding's earliest days — the Snurfer. Debuting in 1965, the Snurfer is essentially a small surf board for snow with a string attached to make turns by lifting the front end. It went on to sell more than 1 million units in about a decade after being bought by the Brunswick Corp. from inventor Sherman Poppen. Most of all, the Snurfer was just a hell of a lot of fun, whether you were at a ski resort or on the hill in your back yard. "When you're doing it you feel like you're eight years old again," Moscarello said. "You feel like your mom is going to be calling you, 'Brew come on in for dinner!'" The Vew-Do is an improved version of the Bongo Board Moscarello rode as a kid growing up in Yonkers, N.Y. The Bongo Board, introduced in the 1950s, had a cylindrical roller, without a taper, that only allowed the left-to-right rocking motion associated with skiing. "Once you combine that with the taper to the roller, I can transfer my weight in any direction or rotate," Moscarello said. Now Moscarello swings around to face the fall line head-on in a "ready" position, like a snowboarder, and begins shifting his weight front to back, instead of left to right. Next he rotates and spins, thanks to the taper in the roller, practicing more snowboarding moves. Moscarello, 51, founder and president of Balance Designs Inc. in Manchester, began making and selling his balance boards in 1992 to snowboarders, skiers, and other athletes such as surfers and even baseball, basketball and football players. Developing and practicing balance is integral to nearly every sport, Moscarello said, coming from an athletic background that included playing lacrosse, baseball and other sports. "It's balance instincts," he said. "If you develop your balance instincts you're going to become a better athlete overall. You're going to have a stronger core and that core strength is what's going to take you to levels you could not achieve previously." Brunswick eventually licensed the Snurfer to the Jem Corp., which went defunct in the 1980s, Moscarello said, just as snowboarding was coming into its own. The Snurfer was left behind, but it launched a new industry. "The predecessor to all of snowboarding and snowboards was the Snurfer," Moscarello said. "It inspired Jake Burton and Tom Sims pretty much simultaneously to take Snurfers and say, 'Hey, this thing could use some improvement.' They put on metal edges and bindings and that kind of thing." BUR20141121Snurfer8Buy Photo Brew Moscarello, owner of Balance Designs Inc. in Manchester, is bringing back the Snurfer, the predecessor of the modern snowboard, and the inspiration for Jake Burton and others, that sold more than 1 million units in the 1960s and 1970s before disappearing from the market. The Snurfer is essentially a small surf board for snow with a string attached to make turns by lifting the front end.(Photo: RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS) Stratton gets on board Sherman Poppen is 83 years old today living in Georgia rather than the cold and snow of his native Muskegon, Mich., where he developed the Snurfer. Poppen launched his invention on Christmas Day in 1965. Moscarello is planning to visit Poppen soon, and hopes to have him attend the SnowSports Industries America Snow Show at the end of January in Denver. Moscarello will re-introduce the Snurfer to the snow industry on the 50th anniversary of its creation. Moscarello began in the snowboarding business with Burton Snowboards. He was a 20-year-old working in an EMS store in Ardsley, N.Y. when he called up Burton and said he'd like to carry the company's boards. He was connected to the vice president of sales, who quickly realized Moscarello didn't represent EMS as a whole, but was just a kid who wanted to get some boards in the store. "While I had him on the phone I said, 'Hey are there any positions up there?' He said, 'There are, come up and interview,'" Moscarello remembered. Soon, he found himself at the SnowSports Industries of America show in Las Vegas, selling Burton boards to a skeptical industry. With the exception of Stratton Mountain. "Most resorts said, 'Stay away,'" Moscarello said. "Stratton welcomed it. It was also the first to put in an instructional program for snowboarding." Anxious to get out of the office and onto the snow, Moscarello was soon teaching snowboarding at Stratton, and working at Burton in the summers. It was as a teacher that he realized most people had no idea of the balance required to ride a snowboard, especially in the early days. "The technology was so lame it was much more difficult to learn to ride a snowboard than it is today," Moscarello said. It was that experience as a teacher than led Moscarello to develop his Vew-Do balance boards. At first he brought his old Bongo Board for his students to practice on. "That was where I saw the need to teach balance before getting on the snow," Moscarello said. "I broke out the Bongo Board before putting them on a snowboard." Moscarello liked what the Bongo Board was doing for him as an instructor, but at the same time, he knew it was archaic. The wheels really began to turn for Moscarello when he saw one of his roommates in Manchester — John Gerndt, long-time product tester for Burton — hop on the Bongo Board one summer evening when they were kicking back in the front yard. Gerndt is known by his initials, JG. "So JG gets on the board, and here's a guy who can ride anything — wake board, surfboard, skateboard — anything," Moscarello said. "He gets on the board, goes back and forth, and all of a sudden he starts trying to do spins and tricks and flips, snowboard moves, grabs. At that moment, that's what inspired me to take the Bongo Board to the next level, just like Jake took the Snurfer to the next level." An abandoned Jem Moscarello realized the potential for the Snurfer as snowboard sales began to falter in the past several years. He researched the patent and realized it had been abandoned by Jem. He secured it for himself, with the blessing of Poppen. "Now we've come full circle," Moscarello said. "Basically what's happening is as snowboard sales are waning some of the companies are starting to come up with something similar to the Snurfer called 'noboards,' bindingless snowboards people are riding in powder." "Most board sports are cyclical, they have highs and lows," Moscarello continued. "Skateboarding is famous for that." What happened to snowboard sales, according to Moscarello, is that the ski industry incorporated the technology developed for snowboards into skis, changing the shape and design of skis to allow skiers to spin and rotate without catching an edge, and to ski forward or backward. "That technology has allowed kids to really excel in the freestyle realms of skiing," Moscarello said. "What's happening now is everybody is having fun, whether on four edges or two edges. They're all wearing the same clothes, all speaking the same language." Unfortunately, that's not good for the snowboard industry, Moscarello said, unless you're a company that makes snowboards and skis, like K2. Moscarello said he approached Burton to help him launch the Snurfer but was unable to reach an agreement with the Burlington company. "Burton was always purely snowboarding and proud of it," Moscarello said. "They did quite a bit of restructuring this past year, trying to determine how they're going to combat this trend. Quite frankly I met with them to bring my product line to them to discuss how we can do something together. They were basically minimizing their brands as opposed to taking on new ones." Burton declined to comment. Stymied at Burton, Moscarello turned to his old friend Dave Schmidt, Burton's original global sales manager and a well-known name in the ski industry. With Schmidt's help Moscarello was able to line up several investors to launch the Snurfer. Schmidt, whom Moscarello calls "Schmidty," has joined Balance Designs. "Just having Schmidty's name associated with us gave investors confidence," Moscarello said. "Here's the guy who started Burton Snowboards sales and marketing." Moscarello is making his snurfers at American Sports Laminates, in Rib Lake, Wisc., which made skateboards for Santa Cruz and others for 27 years before skateboard manufacturing went overseas. Owner Jay Winkler was about to close his doors when Moscarello contacted him. Winkler agreed to take the Snurfer on. Moscarello stresses that the Snurfer is not a snowboard. It does not have edges, and you shouldn't take it to the top of the mountain on an icy day, although the possibilities in powder are just about unlimited. He's counting instead on tapping into the kind of backyard fun that families can have together wherever there's snow. Contact Dan D'Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DanDambrosioVT.

"Its surfing on snow and that's exciting"