Screenshot: DOUBLEDECK
Interesting news out of the ISPO Munich sports trade show: DOUBLEDECK Snowboards claims to have invented a technology that improves board performance across all categories.
“Easier for beginners and better for everyone else,” is how DOUBLEDECK “mastermind and inventor” Andreas Kramer puts it in an interview with ISPO.com.
He also plays pretty coy with precisely what the new technology is, and the DOUBLEDECK website is just a 20-second video. But from the few details he’s willing to give — and the glimpses available in the video — the innovations seem to center around a curved bridge screwed to the top of the snowboard.
In the interview, Kramer claims the secret sauce is the bridge’s “shape, preload and flexible connection to the snowboard.” It certainly looks like the invention might add some springiness to the ride. Kramer also claims the primary deck, which he calls the “motherboard,” uses advanced and proprietary materials technology.
Kramer is a longtime fixture in the European sporting-goods industry, moving from skateboards to snowskates (where the technology could have possibly been birthed) to snowboards. Snowboard technology hasn’t changed all that much in the past decade or so (some would argue bindings have seen the biggest advancement with step-ons and backcountry setups). Whether Kramer’s innovation bears fruit is up for debate. Let us know what you think!
