If building a snowboard was as simple as wrapping a piece of wood in some fiberglass and making it smooth, everyone could make their own. K2 snowboard technology is continually pushing the envelope to make snowboards better, faster, more durable and more fun. There are a number of key technologies that K2 has introduced in recent years. But there's one innovation that goes to the heart of snowboard construction the K2 snowboard technology called Hybritech construction. "There has been a lot of evolution in the construction of snowboards over the years," says Louis Boudreault, a K2 representative. "Boards used to be made with sidewalls using sandwich construction. That meant a lot of dampening between you and the snow. BUT in order to have the sidewalls using sandwhich construction, these snowboards became heavy. Cap construction was used in skis first ...To combat the excess weight problem, snowboards went to cap construction where a lot of the materials were eliminated. You could make the board thinner from tip to tail. Cap construction was very popular in skis already, so K2 knew that it could work in snowboards so K2 snowboard technology was tweaked to take methods from ski tech and transferr them to constructing snowboards. Hybritech is a cap enclosed tip and tail that gives you a low swing weight and delivers the same feel and performance of a cap board. When you make a turn, you are riding on the sidewall. That gives you all the durability and dampening characteristics of a sidewall or sandwich construction board. "The advantages of a board like this is it's got a very low swing weight, or force required to initiate a turn," says Boudreault. "With less weight, especially at the tip, you have a board that was very lively and achieved a greater cutting angle with the snow. "We decided that there were very strong advantages to the cap construction and strong advantages to the sidewall construction," says Boudreault. "How can we bring both together? That's where Hybritech comes in." It's all about performance . You'll find Hybritech K2 snowboard technology on boards like the K2 Access. "Hybritech construction definitely increases the performance of the board in the middle part of the turn, without sacrificing the quickness you need at the start of the turn," says Boudreault. K2 knows they are onto a good thing with the Hybritech sidewall construction. Their mission is to build snowboards that allow riders to push the boundaries of their ability and improve every time they hit the slopes. "Every time you create a new technology, you give the riders out there a level of performance they have been asking for," says Boudreault. "Once you give them that new level of performance, the riders work to achieve new levels of ability ". Of course K2 snowboard technology hasnt stopped there and they are continually improving their snowboards with new materials like carbon fiber and Kevlar inlays and highly technical construction techniques... |