Quenching a thirst for powder, adventure

BAYVIEW — Matt Miller's obsession with snowboarding dates back to when the sport was still in its infancy.

His fascination was such that in 1979, Miller designed and built his first snowboard, which he said was "not unlike a short, wide ironing board."

"And it worked great," Miller said. "That was before there was any such thing as snowboard boots and bindings. I had like a nine-inch sanding disk on the back and a two-by-four on the front that I put my foot up against."

A lot has changed since 1979 and Miller has designed and manufactured many snowboards over the years. He started his company, Thirst Snowboards in 2009, but this year he decided to dig in and pursue his dream of building boards on full-time basis.

"I can't remember ever building a board that didn't work right," he said, adding that a few never made it through the manufacturing process, coming out with air pockets and such, but every board that made it through the process has a success story.

Alpine boarding, carving down a mountain with speed and control, is Miller's passion. Thirst Snowboards, which Miller manufactures in his Bayview shop, have different characteristics than freestyle boards, most notably the length. Also, the rider's feet are at the same angle in a forward position rather than a "duck stance," he said. That way, he said, the rider can get all the way down to the snow when carving a turn. 

Where most freestyle board lengths stop around the 150-160 cm range, that is about where the alpine boards start. The most popular alpine length is about 185 cm, Miller said, but some go up to 200 cm or longer. Boards over 200 cm are "few and far between," he said, and require a specialized resort to handle the speed and turns. Schweitzer can handle carving speed and, in fact, Miller helps organize the North Idaho Carving Event, or N.I.C.E., held on Schweitzer each year. He said it brings not only people from around the region, but from all over the country.

Alpine boarding may not be as popular or glamorous as freestyle, but for carvers like Miller, there is no comparison. Carvers are not out to hit the jumps and "catch air," but they feel the rush of g-force acceleration as the board makes half circles with each turn, cutting the board deep into the snow on one edge while the other edge "couldn't be further from the snow," Miller said. Even when carving at high speeds, Miller said crashes have very little impact because the rider is at such an angle they are already on the snow, so if they lose their edge and "crash," they can set the edge again and pull out of it.

"It's a great aspect of snowboarding, especially for people who may have grown up snowboarding their whole life, they get to that point in their life where they realize their mortality and can't do those spine-twisting, gravity-defying feats anymore," Miller said.

Miller said he has designed "crossover" boards for freestyle riders who want to experience alpine riding. But generally he has a couple of designs he starts with, then he can adjust the core, which is the most important component as it affects the board's flexibility, stiffness and durability. Miller's cores are designed with a parabolic flex insert, either an HQI — a herringbone quasi-isotropic which offers the ability to fine-tune flexibility for the tip and tail — or an XQI, which is "x" style quasi-isotropic to provide an overall flex character, preferable for the longer boards he designs.

Miller's boards are engineered with more than 35 components, built for strength and flexibility.

While he does have a few pre-made boards, Miller said he prefers to make each board specialized for its owner. For his 8-year-old daughter, he is working a design that takes basically one of his most popular boards and shrinks it down to her size.

"I am really looking forward to getting her set up properly," he said.

Because of the extensive process in which Miller uses to create each board, the prices of the boards vary. He said adult boards range anywhere from $450 to $1,200 or more depending on the length. Kids boards are about $300 to $500.

Information: thirstsnowboards.com. Thirst Snowboards is also on Facebook at facebook.com/thirstsnowboards.