The Worlds First Steampunk Snowboard

Ride It Cowboy

At least, I think it’s the world’s first Steampunk Snowboard. The idea started when two conversations came togehter.

Russssman and Nino were talking about repainting topsheets on snowboards on a recent trip. Meanwhile, Allie made a post about losing a camera that was taped to the top of her board. I started thinking about solid ways to mount a camera to a board. Once the logistics of the plexiglass idea gelled, I took it in an art direction.

Roughed Out

I started gathering pieces a couple of months ago. Mostly I picked things up at thrift stores. I made a few runs to the hardware store as well. I didn’t start building the board until last Tuesday night. I worked on it for 3 evenings alone. On the 4th evening, Nino jumped in and started to help. She had lots of great additions for the board, including the beautiful cloth she sewed into the sails.

Detailing

I didn’t calculate cost or track true build time. If I had to guess, I think I spent around $150 in materials. I had to buy a jig along the way, otherwise we had all the tools we needed. I almost dropped the project after the first couple of days. I didn’t think we could make it in time for Skijam/Freebasin on Saturday morning. However, when Nino dropped her duckie costume project and jumped in to help me, things came together very quickly.

Mess

My intention for the sails was to gather air and force it into the rear chamber. The airflow would then run “something” such as a generator attached to lights. It was obvious we didn’t have time to get a generator working, so I decided just to drop dry ice in the rear chamber for a smoke effect. As things turned out, we didn’t really have time to stop for dry ice. So while the sails turned out amazing, they didn’t actually do anything. Still, when they first starting going on, I felt the project was coming together for the first time.

One Sail On Rear

When we finally brought the piece up on the mountain, we were tripping over people asking questions about what it was, what it did, why we built it, etc. At the top of the lift, folks gathered to watch me ride it down. Employees at A-Basin followed us down the whole way. The attention was a lot of fun.

Onlookers

The machine rode fairly well. The sails scooped up a lot more air than I expected. Unfortunately, they also scooped up snow if I turned too hard. In version 2, we’re wanting to have the sails up considerably higher. We also need to re-engineer much of the front design to be stronger.

Hauling Brass

While the current design is effective, it’s very difficult to keep everything secured for high speed. I’m considering drilling into the deck of the snowboard and inserting whatever those threaded things are that hold the bindings down. She held together surprisingly well at full speed. Still, she looked her best at cruising speeds.

Zooooom

It was great seeing the project come together so quickly. If there is one key lesson Nino and I learned from this: we need a shop!

Thanks for taking the time to check out project out. Check out the complete flickr set.

17 Comments

Amy

Wow! That is so neat… I would have liked to have seen it in person. You’re a very innovative thinker. And the dry ice smoke effect sounds like it is definitely worth trying!

ArchaeoTerra

Would mesh filters for the openings of the windsocks be feasible? Since it let in more air then you expected in the first place, the very slightly restricted airflow shouldn’t present too much of a problem, and should solve most of the snow and moisture problems, and if it were a hard mesh like wire, it would add to the stability of the setup, etc.

Rachel

oh awesome… gotta love steampunk <3
Your a really clever guy lol xx

xero

i hope after the refit next time you ride it some one takes video

morrisio

whoever the guy above is…dude u are a fuckin wank stain on the boxers of society…

anyways wicked design man…lovin the steam punk art style:P its cool as fuck;)

Raolin Aeromancer

Shiny!! Ok next time Use the wind them there socks scoop up to play an according like device or something. Or like you said in the write up to run a generator to power some lights. I like it either way however.

Griehible

Hi,

I’m a student from Raanana (Israel).

I have to analyze how much time someone spend on internet.

There are websites which are a guilty pleasure, but there are websites which only have a visits duration of 40 seconds.

I would like to know how much time do you spend on internet (day/week/month).

Thanks for your help!

Rick

DRMANHATTAN

for ages i’ve been trying to find something like this, where such ideas could be brought to life in a fun way! your creativity is over the top and it is such a delight and inspiration can’t wait to see some video either with the generator and lights or the dry ice, I have ideas like this for objects my thing is form and function togheter all of the time, it is a way of start with multidimentional thinking so it will not hurt you at all…Keep up the good work, it is really worth it!

Boardlover

I’m a little confused about what it does. Could you explain what the end goal is supposed to be? what will you use the generator for? lights? camera? any explanation will be appreciated.

pletcherhzf

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