Wintersticks and binding free

Mackie with early fish experiments, photo Kidman

Winterstick

And this is actually Dimitrije riding a winterstick, not Mick- sorry!

Wolle, bindingless carve

Snowskate



From the Ether interview with Mick Mackie:

When did you start tinkering around with the idea of combining Milovich's Winterstick snowboard design with the fish and flex?
MM- It was around 1996-7 I think; when Curren rode Skip Frye's Fish at Jeffery's, all those years ago, it all came back. I was kind of bored on my Thrusters and wanted to feel other things. My brother-in-law, Pete, he was pretty into it, and we just played around with it; it was a private thing. Other guys were a little interested in it, but it didn't really take off. We just wanted to see what they would do. It was just from my own wants; from wanting to feel the sensation of what that design would give you. To see if they work I guess.

How do you find the design-can you feel the similarities between your surfboard and the Winterstick?
MM-Yeah, just from sinking the tail and riding off one swallow a t a time-one pin at a time-you get a nice slice off either pin and a whip out of the tail and whip out of your turn; the surfboard is in a soft medium, which is water, so you're sinking and flexing the tail as well. It seems to work.

The Other Fishes you make, with the sidecut tails-where did the idea come from for them?
MM-The sidecut tail came directly from Dimitrije Milovich's Winterstick.

Not that I know much about snow (been in real snow 3 times- I come from the South Pacific for crying out loud) but these links and connections are fascinating, and the binding free concept seems wild. I've linked the snowskate guys, they have some cool stuff on their blog. Patrick Trefz tour is go, more on that soon but the west coast jaunt will include a May 16 stop at Tom Curren's Rip Curl store in Santa Barbara over the Sacred Craft weekend, with Tom's band providing musical entertainment and Primo providing beer. Sweet. We'll be at Sacred Craft with the Mackies, a few Lynch Design boards and some Swift stuff so come on by.