Arbor’s Draft Receives Two Awards

Posted on: October 13, 2009 by admin

The Draft receives the SIA & Snow Press “Innovation Award” and the Outside Magazine “Gear Of The Year” award.

Here team rider Pat Milbery shows us why the Darft is his favorite board.

The Arbor Collective redesigns the Draft series, offering up their take on the rocker revolution. The new Draft has been designed around The System, a fusion of interdependent technologies that support rocker-specific performance. Make no mistake; rocker boards represent a completely different approach to snowboard design and performance. As a result, using rocker requires a total rethinking of long held ideas on material and design, and how those technologies interact. Based on this, Arbor developed The System to address the new physics of riding rocker.

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“I was initially cautious about adding rocker to any of our snowboard designs,” said Bob Carlson, Arbor’s cofounder. “The effect de-cambering has on edge and flex performance is massive and the consequences of such a radical alteration must be addressed. Existing designs cannot just be rockered if you expect a board to function. You have to start from scratch, looking at every aspect of a board’s design in an effort to understand how rocker will affect its function. At Arbor, we scrapped everything we thought we knew, and methodically built The System set of technologies. I think you’ll find that we’ve created a balanced, more functional system that actually delivers the performance promised by rocker design. There’s a reason why it’s Arbor team rider, Pat Milbery’s favorite board.”

The Gear of the Year Award
The Draft received Outside Magazine’s snowboard “Gear of the Year Award.” Managing Editor for Outside Magazine, Alicia Carr had the following to say, “This year, more than half of our seven favorite snowboards feature this technology (multiple sidecut), though none employs it better than our ‘Gear of the Year’ winner, the Arbor Draft.”

The Innovation Award
SIA and Snow Press bestowed their “Innovation Award” on the Draft. “A player in snowboarding’s eco revolution, Arbor continues to up their game by introducing cutting-edge products that appeal to socially and environmentally conscious shredders,” says Mike Horn, snowboard editor for Snow Press. “The Draft is a freestyle-oriented twin featuring Arbor’s holistic “System,” a blend of interdependent technologies including Parabolic Rocker and Grip Tech sidecut, which redefine the ride…and leave only tracks in their wake.”

THE SYSTEM: A FUSION OF INTERDEPENDENT TECHNOLOGIES THAT SUPPORT SUCCESSFUL ROCKER PERFORMANCE

The Draft Art – A Collaboration Graphics Story
To create a graphic capable of launching The System, Arbor reached out to friend Rex Holloway, cofounder and art director of Rogue Status (roguestatus.com). Based down the street from Arbor in Venice, California, Rogue Status is a pridefully controversial, streetwear brand that built its name on thought provoking, in your head graphics. Holloway also works as a tattoo artist and to this day there is a long waiting list to get time in his chair. For the Draft, he created an original piece using the El Diå de Los Muertos theme that he often works into his tattoo designs. The art speaks for itself and is well represented on the new Draft.

Other Important Features
The Draft also features a two year warranty, Arbor’s Fusion Base, FSC Certified Medicine Core, Blended Urethane/ABS Sidewalls, Butter Glassing, a deep version of the Shadow Flex System, and four new sizes: 149.5, 153.0, 155.0, and 158.5cm.