MADE

Not many people know the story of how our boards are made. We thought we would share with you the process from when they are designed, manufactured, tested and finally produced.

StepChild Snowboards are designed and engineered in Canada. We work with our team riders each year to see what they are demanding from their boards and with this in mind we then develop our line to suit their needs and match the progression of what’s happening on the mountain and streets. We test upcoming models to see how our boards feel and how we can improve them, many times at the Summer camps the team riders will actually be riding future models so they can give us their feedback. Each pro rider gets full input on their board, we put what they want in their model and whatever graphic they are feeling – JP wanted Kevlar in his to increase the pop, so we’ve put it in! Joe wanted a picture of a smelly fish on his board so we put that on!

StepChild Snowboards are proudly manufactured in Austria. The craftsmen that work on our boards have been in the industry since its humble beginnings. With their skills and expertise and state of the art technology each snowboard is produced to the highest of standards.

At the GST Factory (Antiesenhofen, Austria) technology works side by side with traditional methods, taking advantage of modern technological developments, testing and construction. Along with the skill of each craftsman, our factory has seen itself become one of the most respected in Snowboard Manufacturing.

First we go through the wood cores and choose what will finally become your Jib Stick, your Suck’s board or any StepChild board you choose to shred.

Altering the combination of woods within the core, each board is given a different flexibility, pop and strength. During the manufacturing process, different wood profiles are applied together resulting in changes in the ride, feel, response and flex of the board.

The GST factory is very environmentally aware, 95% of each of our boards contain Austrian made materials, allowing our factory to monitor their carbon footprint and make less of an environmental impact. Our boards are still mainly manufactured by hand, here we see the guys working on the new molds.

Production flows effortlessly through the 6500 sq meter factory, with each member of the team – who are all locally based – an expert in their area of production. The boards travel around the different production stations, each solely focusing on a single aspect of construction. From the printing of top sheets to inserting the sidewalls, their specific knowledge and skill is put together to bring you the highest quality StepChild Snowboards.

Our factory developed and patented the stone-grind base process – StrucTurn – the tiny dimples you see on the base of your board. It’s these innovations that keep our factory at the forefront of manufacturing. The StrucTurn base has a series of elongated grooves that break down the friction between board and snow for improved results. This is applied almost at the end of the production process with a state of the art machine that can get all those little dimples perfect.

The GST factory focuses on core snowboard brands. We work side by side developing our snowboards to be the best out there. Unique technologies that are solely in use at the GST factory are applied during the manufacturing process. For example the use of a specially developed UV Lacquer that uses 90% less solvents! Yes we are green although we don’t shout about it.

Once the main production process is complete, the boards are left to dry and settle before they are sent to the Top Secret testing facility for some core and insert testing amongst many others.

The testing phase has constantly changed with the development of technology. Different tests help to apply different pressures to our boards to ensure they’ll keep solid while you ride them. Applying different forces to the board lets us understand how it will cope under the pressure of your bindings, and how the wood will respond to various stresses along the core. It also lets us measure the amount of compression applied to the board and how to alleviate the stress in parts of the core.

One of our favorites is the wood core strength test. First the board is frozen in a temperature controlled deep freeze to replicate the coldest conditions possible, it is then put under a computer monitored flex test where an extreme amount of pressure is applied to different positions of the board. Here we see how the core of the Salary Man stands up to one such test and never gives in!

Once the board has been lab tested, its final test is getting the shit kicked out of it by our team riders!

Thanks for supporting StepChild!