Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Smokin Snowboards Interview With Founder Jay Quintin
Jay Quintin has snowboarding roots to say the least. He was Kemper snowboard's first professional rider. He then bounced through brief stints with G&S with Shawn Farmer, Joyride snowobards with Dale Rehberg, then moved on to Lib Tech...before jumping for a big payday with Black Flys for his own pro model. Well...big payday for the mid 90's, lol! After that Jay spent some time at Electric Ink and then Happy magazine while he worked on his plan to make his own snowboards.
Finally Smokin was launched in the winter of 1996-97 in Truckee, California. After a year of pressing some boards in his basement there, he moved his operations to Kings Beach right next to Lake Tahoe. Smokin stayed there up until about 5 years ago when he first won a Transworld "Good Wood" award....and then the demand increased and he had to move to a bigger location north of Tahoe up in the small town of Chilcoot. This past year he moved down to just north of Reno, Nevada in what's called "Sun Valley"....aka the largest trailer park concentration in the entire United States.
Smokin's factory is one of the only true, "little" guys, hand-making snowboards still in the United States. I just recently picked up our 2010 Smokin' Snowboards from Jay at his factory and warehouse and thought that I'd ask him a couple of questions....
"Jay, what exactly is Smokin' snowboards and why did you start it?"
"So how exactly did you get permission to use Lib Tech's Magnetraction, and why did you want to use it on Smokin' boards?"
"What's your connection with Mike Basich, and what's special about his
"What else sets Smokin' snowboards apart from other brands?"
"What's your take on the state of the snowboard industry, where Smokin is headed, and any final thoughts you might have?"
"And tell me what happened to your dog Tyson there Jay?"
Finally Smokin was launched in the winter of 1996-97 in Truckee, California. After a year of pressing some boards in his basement there, he moved his operations to Kings Beach right next to Lake Tahoe. Smokin stayed there up until about 5 years ago when he first won a Transworld "Good Wood" award....and then the demand increased and he had to move to a bigger location north of Tahoe up in the small town of Chilcoot. This past year he moved down to just north of Reno, Nevada in what's called "Sun Valley"....aka the largest trailer park concentration in the entire United States.
Smokin's factory is one of the only true, "little" guys, hand-making snowboards still in the United States. I just recently picked up our 2010 Smokin' Snowboards from Jay at his factory and warehouse and thought that I'd ask him a couple of questions....
"Jay, what exactly is Smokin' snowboards and why did you start it?"
"So how exactly did you get permission to use Lib Tech's Magnetraction, and why did you want to use it on Smokin' boards?"
"What's your connection with Mike Basich, and what's special about his
"What else sets Smokin' snowboards apart from other brands?"
"What's your take on the state of the snowboard industry, where Smokin is headed, and any final thoughts you might have?"
"And tell me what happened to your dog Tyson there Jay?"
Labels: Jay Quintin Smokin Snowboards, Smokin Snowboards, Smokin Snowboards Factory, smokin snowboards magnetraction
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
go smokin go