Snowskate, anyone? I mean, that is what this is, a streamlined snowskate, or street-ready no board. Obviously this is cool in its own right, being freestyle oriented and specifically emulating its wheeled counterpart with 7 plies of wood, “just like a skateboard.” And they admittedly styled this project after the no boards of yore, but, additionally, modeled them after the skate designs that inspired the Signal crew over the years. In doing so, they connected with legend Christian Hosoi and asked for his input. Obviously the end product is not only street-ready, but wall-worthy looking something like a museum piece straight out of the late seventies, eighties, and early nineties.
Signal not only pulled in the likes of Hosoi, but had Professor Paul Schmitt spearhead the making and, ultimately, realization of the envisioned designs. Needless to say, the crew was in good hands this go-around and the result proved as much.
Now, onto the testing: Boston; no boots; no bindings; and all that Dropkick Murphys on shuffle/repeat you can handle. I’m not necessarily surprised by their undying spirit, but I am still very proud of that particular corner of the Northeast. THIS is what winter is about — unprecedented snowfall and similarly unbearable conditions, but the steel-balled shenanigans to make the most of it. Now this isn’t to say that the modern and, again, urban take on the no-board is steel-balled, but the resolve to continually make snowgaritas out of snow shouldn’t go unnoticed.
My favorite part of the entire episode was when Christian Hosoi successfully summed up skateboarding in one compact quote: “When you’re having fun, it better perform well, but it better look good, too.”
Preach!
