OP-ED The Evil Empire of Snowboarding

Author: Mark Esposito

In 1993, the Green Mountain State rejected the retail monster known as Walmart from building here. It's a shame that 16 years later, we have let something just as bad grow up in our backyard.

Burton Snowboards was once a revolution unto itself: it personified youth angst and created a culture unrivaled in its individuality. In 1977, Jake Burton's garage was the source of the first snowboards. In 2009, his legacy lives on as Burton's market share of the snowboard industry ranges from 40-70 percent. However, this legacy is not one that most snowboarders appreciate. Burton has forgotten its local Burlington roots and transformed into a commercial brute that might be better known as the "Walmart of Snowboarding."

Years ago, the Burton Custom X with carbon I-beams and Cartel Capstraps was the epitome of snowboard technology -­ all the best snowboarders had this board. Today the only Burton gear you will find on local pros is five years old; current Burton gear is designed with the sole intention of garnering a larger market share.

The list of Burton's transgressions against the snowboard culture is colossal. The first and greatest came with the use of the 3-D System, a binding system which defied the industry standard and only allowed riders to use Burton bindings with a Burton board. The Burton T6 was another scheme to make money, featuring technology costing over $1,000 per board. The only drawback was that the aluminum honeycomb core was ruined after hitting one rock or grinding one rail. To sidestep the negative publicity, Burton developed Anon goggles, R.E.D. protective gear, Gravis footwear and Analog clothing. This season, Burton unveiled an attempt to regain customers with its Love series- boards featuring nude playboy bunnies. Their list of crimes even extends to Burton's latest prodigy, Shaun White, who became the only pro snowboarder to sell out.

The company's latest attempt at swindling a few more customers into paying a ridiculous amount of money for an image is the Eco Nico board. Burton has received numerous accolades for putting so much work into creating a eco-friendly board that will fall into a category accounting for about 2 percent of the entire industry. Retailing for just under $630, the board's green specs are impressive - it has foregone the toxic lacquers used on previous topsheets, used 90 percent recycled steel, 100 percent recycled sidewalls and 50 percent recycled base material.

The technological specs are much more nebulous. The board is not described with standard terms such as sintered base, CNC-milled wood core or dual progressive sidecut. These terms would normally tell a rider exactly how a board will perform. Instead, terms loaded with "green" connotations such as salv edges, re-run WFO base and clean screen graphics are used. This leaves you standing with a $630 board that reviews have described as nothing special and you may or may not feel good about buying. In order to ride this board, you will also need to buy $200 bindings that will most likely break in one season. At least Walmart is cheap.

While Burton has been parading its efforts to the world, the forerunners of green snowboards have been entirely overlooked. Companies such as GNU and Arbor have always built green boards that outperform Burton's entire line while still selling for less. Arbor consistently uses bamboo to provide a lighter, more efficient board that uses the natural beauty of bamboo as a topsheet rather than toxic and controversial plastic graphics.

The future of snowboarding is by no means in question. It is a dynamic sport with the ability to overcome outdated biases and adjust to fit today's expectations. It is a shame, however, that the visionary of the free love snowboard culture has been lost to greed.