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Culture Interviews

Island Snowboards | Volume One

A stunning new short film documents a day in the life Owain Bassett, founder of Island Snowboards, as he rides Niseko's backcountry on his own hand crafted boards.

While on a trip to Japan in January 2020 photographer / film-maker Owen Tozer travelled up north to Hokkaido to shred with his friends from the Dragon Lodge who were on their annual powder mission to the island.

Staying with Island Snowboards founder Owain Bassett they decided to document a day in the life of his winter in this powder kingdom: Evenings building boards in the workshop, mornings clearing snow, before heading off in search of lines to hike and ride on what developed into a rare bluebird day in the Niseko backcountry.

Collaborating with another Tignes / Dragon Lodge crew member Pete Leakey – who composed bespoke original music – the film captures the atmosphere and showcases the beautiful landscape unique to winter on Hokkaido.

Filmed & edited by Owen Tozer | Original music by Pete Leakey

“Evenings building boards in the workshop, mornings clearing snow, before heading off in search of lines to hike and ride”

After a successful debut season in Japan and with plans underway to grow in Europe for the 21/22 season, we caught up with Island Snowboards’ head-honcho Owain Bassett to discuss the origins of the brand, his unique approach to crafting and designing snowboards, and how a fusion of European and Japanese riding styles and cultures has helped to shape the brand’s ethos.

Owain Bassett – founder of Island Snowboards. (Photo: Owen Tozer)

Origins

Hey Owain. So, it’s the 2nd official season of Island Snowboards. You’re selling the Volume One around local shops in Niseko, Hokkaido, this season, right? 

Yeah, thanks. Great to get it out there again this winter. We’ve got some great support from a handful of local core snowboard stores who are getting behind us and helping spread the word. We’re also selling through the website and to customers who’d placed pre-orders after our demo sessions last winter, or visit us in person at the factory. Also, we’re stoked to now have a limited number of boards available in Europe for the first time exclusively through TSA.

“The craft of actually making my own boards came first and the concept of Island as a brand grew from there”

Tell us how the concept of Island Snowboards came to fruition. Was it a slow and evolving process, or was there a sudden lightbulb moment?

Slow and evolving for sure. It’s taken a while to get to this point. I started thinking about it around 2014/15 when a friend of mine here in Hokkaido was messing around building noboards, shaping blanks of wood. I got curious looking into what it would take to make a proper snowboard and it went from there. First I built the press and sourced materials which took a while, then a few years of experimenting, learning and prototyping over and over until I got it right. The craft of actually making my own boards came first and the concept of Island as a brand grew from there.

Man and machine. Owain Bassett with his Volume One snowboard. (Photo: Owen Tozer)

Japan has such a rich culture and history of snowboard shaping and design and Hokkaido feels like the epicentre of a unique style of riding, terrain and snowboard design. What has been the biggest influence and inspiration for you in setting up Island Snowboards?

I think at the time I couldn’t find any snowboards I really wanted to ride, I noticed what a few small brands were doing, both here in Japan but also in Europe and the US. Building boards themselves, not outsourcing to some factory somewhere. It looked like a rad way of doing it and a bit of a project to start off with.

The boards are a result of riding here in Hokkaido and back in Europe as well as the people I ride with.

Present

The Volume One looks in line with some of the most exciting and popular shapes that we’re seeing more and more of these days. Why did you opt for this shape and profile for the first one?

I wanted a fun riding shape that would work for the terrain and snow we have here, but at the same time would work for European conditions too. If we’d focused on a deep pow snowboard first up I think we’d have limited ourselves to a narrow field of riders so I think the Volume One as our flagship shape embodies the type of riding that Island Snowboards is all about. It’s the type of board I wanted to ride. Shred pow, carve groomers, pop side hits and go fast. The spec is set up for this sidecut, flex, etc.

“I wanted a fun riding shape that would work for the terrain and snow we have here, but at the same time would work for European conditions too”

The Volume One Snowboards.

Tell us a bit about the process of this creating this board – from concept to completion. Was it sketched out on paper hundreds of times before it was ever built, proto-typed for several seasons, constantly tweaked, re-designed and overhauled? How did you know when you had ‘the one’?

It’s a bit of a mix of the tech for the geometry of dimensions and sidecuts mixed with the artistic side of sketching out nose and tail aesthetics. For me, the area between contact points has a lot to do with numbers and messing around with a CAD program, but the nose and tail shapes all sketched out on paper over and over to see how the whole thing fits together. Getting the camber and flex profiles for sure took a bit of testing to get right and I think you can always tweak these combinations which make it so interesting. It’s been 4 or 5 years of prototyping and testing to get to where I’m really happy with the version in production.

Inspecting the finished product.. (Photo: Owen Tozer)

I know that John was riding a prototype in Tignes a couple springs back and rode some bigger alpine lines and even competed in a banked slalom with it. I hear you’ve had the ‘Will Hughes Seal of Approval’ too! What kind of feedback have you had from people on how the Volume One snowboard is so far? 

The feedback we’ve had has been overwhelmingly positive, as much as we tried to get people we know and trust to give us constructive criticism! I’ve had super detailed reviews from experienced riders like Will Hughes and Neil McNair, to “yeah, it’s rad” from others. I gave a board to Hamish Duncan to test and didn’t get it back for the 3 weeks he was here.

I hiked Mt. Yotei with my brother John, Will and Hamish and to see them all grab a Volume One and ride a dream line in perfect conditions was rad. Plus the feedback on how well it rode in various conditions in the Alps was great to hear – It’s the only board John has ridden in Europe for the last few winters!

I think it’s a shape that has a wide appeal and is really easy to understand right away. We want people to remember that snowboarding is fun so it’s great to hear that people are really getting riding the Volume One.

Will Hughes lays out a textbook Euro carve under the night lights of Hirafu. (Photo: Owen Tozer)

The wood cores you guys use sound super interesting – how did you come to source these materials and why have chosen them for the construction. 

I was using poplar to start with as a bit of a benchmark since most snowboard brands use this in their cores. Then we worked with local timber suppliers to find Japanese grown wood that had the same strength and flex characteristics and discovered Honoki which is ideal for the cores and Tamo for the stringers which are both grown here on Hokkaido.

I made a stack of cores from it, built a run of boards and they performed even better than the poplar cores used previously. We now work closely with a local timber yard and handpick every length of wood, so we can guarantee the quality and consistency of every core.

“The rice bag sleeves are one small example of something that seemed like a great way to avoid plastic packaging and are something that is widely available here to re-purpose and give second life to”

Using native Japanese materials seems to be at the heart of Island’s ethos – even down to the recycled rice bags you use as board sleeves. Was this a core part of the brand you wanted to create? Why?

Yeah for sure. The rice bag sleeves are one small example of something that seemed like a great way to avoid plastic packaging and are something that is widely available here to re-purpose and give second life to. Sustainability is important to us so if we can source great quality and local materials to use in any part of our business that in any way reduces our footprint then we do and will continue to.

Simplicity, function and style. Black bases and die-cut logos. (Photo: Owen Tozer)

When it comes to the graphics and colourways of free-carve and freeride inspired boards, simplicity seems to be the design of choice – a sort of ‘let the shape do the talking’ approach. What was the thought process behind the graphics for your snowboards?

We’ve kept the base clean with a die-cut logo only in the nose section. Solid black bases simply perform better, run faster.

Rather than a clean, graphic design look, we took inspiration more from art and music…we originally hand-painted the topsheet tail design, then transferred a version to silkscreen.

I think the simple one colour tail print pops out against the black topsheet and differentiates each size model in the range.

And the logo? I’ve just spent 20 minutes trying to sketch it on paper and it’s tripping me out! Is there a story behind it?

Haha, I’m glad you liked it and it tripped you out! I always liked the illusion of the Penrose triangle and I suppose this was a starting point for the logo. It includes an “I an S and L” from Island Snowboards and after loads of iterations with pencil and paper, this seemed to settle really well. After we put it into the base and launched the website a few people have also commented on it, and it pops in photos.

Above Sequence: Owain and the Volume One Snowboard – both equally at home deep in the Niseko backcountry (Photos: Owen Tozer)

Future

The name Volume One implies there may be a few more shapes to come. Can you tell us about plans in the pipeline?

We’ve been working on and testing a couple of new shapes over the last two winters with our local Japanese riders.

We actually have a new shape for those deeper days out this winter – The Deep Psych – a heavily tapered, long nosed weapon! Wide nose for float, long sidecut for high speed, drawn out turns, and heavy taper in the tail to keep in nimble in the trees. This will be available in 3 sizes and limited numbers this winter, for sale only direct and locally in Japan at first, although we will have a couple for the European crew to demo too of course and it’ll be available over there next year

We’ll also be testing a 3rd shape this winter so stay tuned to see what comes out of the workshop.

“Anyone in the area can give us a shout and drop in to check out the boards and building process in person”

Pillaging powder and slicing up corduroy – the Deep Psych snowboard.

I hear you’ve recently renovated a workshop, too, right? What’s that process been like? Has it given you the chance to create some more experimental shapes and future designs?

Yeah were lucky enough to score a rad old farm shed at the base of Mt Yotei. It has tons of character but also needs a lot of love. Eventually, it will house the workshop, showroom and office space. So far the board press room which needs to be separate and dust-free is finished and the woodwork and finishing area is done, so we completed this season’s line there and are now building prototypes of new shapes.

Next spring and summer we’ll complete the other production areas and showroom / office space too. Eventually, we’ll be able to do everything under one roof – milling and shaping cores, screen-printing graphics, pressing boards and finishing and tuning to the highest standard.

It’ll also work as a showroom so anyone in the area can give us a shout and drop in to check out the boards and building process in person.

Owain laying up a new snowboard. (Photo: Owen Tozer)

Is the plan to roll out globally at some point? For those of us outside of Japan, when might we be able to get out hands on one?

The plan is to grow slowly and steadily from a solid local Japanese base. We can ship anywhere to anyone buying directly from us online of course, but we’re available for the first time in Europe this winter through The Snowboard Asylum. We’re looking to start building relationships with good shops who like what we’re doing and want to support us long term, so we’re really stoked that a leading shop like TSA believed in us! We’ll also have some boards available at the Dragon Lodge for anyone to demo over in France.

“Starting any business is obviously a big step and not without its difficulties and stresses, but I’ve always had a kind of DIY attitude that you can do anything if you put the effort in and work hard with good people”

Living in Hokkaido, spending the winters riding with your friends and family, starting a new snowboard brand – I’m sure it sounds like the epitome of ‘living the dream’ for many people reading this. And I’m sure in many ways it is! But what have been some of the harsh realities and lessons learned about starting up your own snowboard brand?

Well, moving here definitely changed my life – meeting my wife, starting a family and of course riding some of the best snow in the world.

Starting any business is obviously a big step and not without its difficulties and stresses, but I’ve always had a kind of DIY attitude that you can do anything if you put the effort in and work hard with good people, friends and family for support. It’s the same ethos John and I had starting Dragon Lodge all those years ago. The goal of doing something you love for a living, while creating something to the best of your ability, that you can be proud of – this is what we’re starting to do with Island. I could write a book about the lessons I’ve learned actually designing and building snowboards but as far as Island as a brand and business goes the plan has always been to grow steadily and sustainably while learning along the way.

For more information, check out the Island Snowboards website or head over to The Snowboard Asylum.

Going up... (Photo: Owen Tozer)
Brothers in arms. John and Oawin Bassett. (Photo: Owen Tozer)

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