Friday night went off huge with the 11th Annual Transworld Riders’ Poll Awards at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver.

After all sorts of shenanigans on Thursday night, the Riders’ Polls went off without a hitch. We arrived a little on the early side, found a booth in the VIP section upstairs (thanks TW Snow!), and settled in with a few drinks.

Riders Poll Award Winners

Rookie Of The Year: Halldór Helgason (DC)

Men’s Rider Of The Year: John Jackson (Forum)

Women’s Rider Of The Year: Annie Boulanger (Salomon)

Men’s Video Part Of The Year: John Jackson (Forum Snowboards’ Forever)

Women’s Video Part Of The Year: Annie Boulanger (Absinthe Films’ Neverland)

Video Of The Year: Forever (Forum Snowboards)

Standout Of The Year: Xavier De Le Rue (Standard Films’ Black Winter)

2010 Legend Award: Tom Burt (Winterstick)

Men’s Reader’s Choice: Eiki Helgason (Rome)

Women’s Reader’s Choice: Marie-France Roy (Rome)

If I were able to I would add a SIA Party of the Year award to Transworld and the event sponsors: New Era, Matador, Vans, Aerial7, POW, Keystone, Breckenridge, Ball Park, Red Bull and Zumiez. Great night, looking forward to next year.

SIA is always an intense, all-consuming series of events, but with the move to Denver, the 2010 show became a whole new beast. More floor space meant more brands, and so we found ourselves busier than ever tracking down what’s coming next, and from which company.

After meeting with the hundred or so companies we normally see at SIA, not to mention the after parties, we’re usually pretty wasted. But SIA.10 took it to a whole new level with two days of on-snow demos immediately following the tradeshow.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be rolling out previews from each company we met with, including photos, and mentions of any products that really caught our attention, as well as on-snow previews for select boards, boots, and bindings. For now you can check out this gallery of images, an overview of the entire trip.

On December 3rd I made a quick trip down to Copper to grab some photos of the teams training in pipe and hit up Woodward at Copper. It was super cold out, and I blew through batteries on my Canon shooting in the pipe, so the Woodward photos are on the pocket camera and are a bit blurry. I’ll definitely be back to Woodward to shoot some real photos in a few weeks.

11/25/09 – I made a couple of laps with a few members from Steamboat’s Ski & Snowboard School and snapped some photos from the opening day park.

You can read the blog post about opening day here.

Salomon Snowboards and Bonfire Outerwear has been putting on the Backyard Bang in Portland, Oregon for a couple of years now, and for Winter 2010 they brought it to Denver, Colorado. The crew closed down a street in downtown Denver, and we were there to capture the fun.

Results

Women
1. Claire Hewitt DeMeyer
2.Melissa Kelly
3. Izzy LaLive

November 5, 2009 – Opening day at Keystone in Colorado. I snapped a bunch of photos.

Park was going off, more than 20 features plus the 25′ jump. Blog post here: Keystone Opening | Day 10 of 30 Days on the Road

November 1st, 2009 – Finally, a day on snow! I hit up Loveland with Steamboat friends Dylan, Carly, Doug, and Shay from shayboarder.com. The sky was a deep blue, the sun was out, and the snow was pretty fun. Loveland had two lifts running and a couple of “white ribbons of death” to choose from.

The snow up top was pretty dry and easy to ride, but the lower half of the mountain was alternating between trying to slush when the sun was on it, and trying to freeze when it wasn’t, and by our last run the base was pretty sketchy with ice. I had braced myself for crowds, but maybe thanks to Halloween hangovers there was plenty of room on the slopes.

Loveland has a great early-season jib park set up. At the top you can choose between a flat box and a flat rail, next hit is a left-hand C, then a large butter box. After the butter box there’s another feature I can’t remember – no one was hitting it, and then a great larger rainbow that is set perfectly.

I had a blast, great to be on snow again.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

November 3rd, 2009 at the Fox Theater in Boulder, Colorado. Swollen Members rocked the house. Three opening sets, Bliss N Eso was on first, followed by Common Market and Big “B”.

You can read the blog post about the concert here: Swollen in Boulder | Day 8 of 30 Days on the Road

Part 3 is the final part of the Gore Tour section of Day 3 of 30 Days on the Road. About time, as I need to catch up on everything that been going on since then.

I found the Q&A section extremely helpful in forming an overall picture of Gore. This was some of the “big picture” time, stepping back from the focus on the products and looking at Gore as a whole. This was a lot of talking, so fewer pictures in this section. One of the things that is fascinating to me about Gore is their dedication and commitment to the end product. Gore is rather unique in that it doesn’t sell and end product to the consumer, but they guarantee those end products. They’re able to do this because of the host of tests and quality assurance steps that we went over in Parts 1 & 2. I’m sure there are other companies that operate like this, but I haven’t found one. Since everyone loves car analogies, think of it as if a steel company were to guarantee that your new car would be free of defects, and if anything happened to the car because of the steel, the steel company would have you a new car within a few days. Gore’s warranty is “No BS,” if you’re unsatisfied with any aspect of the Gore-Tex technology in a piece of outerwear, they’ll do whatever they can to make it right, whether that’s a repair, replacement, or a refund. On top of that, Gore says that their product warranty is less than 1%, compared to an industry average of around 6% (I haven’t verified these numbers, they’re straight from Gore).

The first question we spent some time on was how Gore compares to other similar products. The four types of waterproof barriers used in today’s outerwear are Microporous Coatings, Monolithic Coatings, Bicomponent Coatings, and ePTFE.

Microporous Coatings are polyurethane coatings with air pockets in them. The number and arrangement and quantity of air pockets determine both breathability and waterproofing.
Monolithic Coatings are continuous or laminated polyurethane; less breathable, more waterproof.
Bi-Component Coatings are a mix of Microporous and Monolithic Coatings, with a monolithic coating on the outside to prevent water from entering the garment, with a microporous layer to help it breath.
ePTFE is the membrane that Gore and their direct competitors like Event use. Gore stresses that it’s not simply using the material, but how the material is processed and used, and that just because something is ePTFE doesn’t mean it’s the same as Gore-Tex.

Event vs Gore-Tex Breathability

This created a big sidebar, with a few bloggers asking some questions about the specific differences between Gore-Tex and Event, citing Event’s research that says Event is 2x more breathable than Gore. Gore argues that there are flaws in Event’s testing methodology, and that Event’s chart doesn’t show the whole picture. There are some graphics Gore had that I’m hoping they’ll make public because it really helped explain what’s going on in regards to Gore and Event. The most basic explanation is that the absolute ideal temperature for Gore is cold and wet; Event’s tests were done in dry, hot weather, that you would have to be mad to wear a jacket in. This led to a cool demonstration with two cups of steaming water, two outerwear samples, and a piece of clear plexiglass. The blue circle of cloth is Gore, the black is a piece of Event. When the plexiglass was placed on the fabric it would fog up from the moisture coming through the fabrics. To the human eye it is almost imperceptible, both fog at basically the same time.

The next question asked if Gore would be developing a “price-point” version of their material, lower cost, but maybe doesn’t work as well. The straight answer from Gore is “No.” The testing and guarantee from Gore basically prevents this, as they don’t want a poorly performing piece of “Gore-Tex Light” to detract from their branding work or their reputation for quality.

A number of questions centered around the environmental aspects. The biggest takeaway is that Gore doesn’t “greenwash,” meaning they don’t publicize what they’re doing for the environment. They want to be known for their technical offerings, not for being green; being green is just part of who they are. They took us through a list of the various things that Gore has done to promote efficiency, but the number one component is durability. In their view, if Gore makes products that last twice as long as the industry standard, they’ve made a huge impact on the environment in the long run.

Everyone outside the Gore store

The Q&A session completed the technical aspects of the trip, but there was a bit of fun still ahead. We piled into a bus, and Gore took us on a shopping spree at the Gore store; we were all able to pick out something from the store, up to a $300 value. The Gore store is a great shop, and unique from most company stores in that it has gear from many different companies, all united by their inclusion of Gore-Tex. I snagged a bright blue Burton AK 3L jacket that I had been coveting for a while.

Once everyone was back on the bus we made our way to downtown Philadelphia for a City Hunt scavenger hunt. This was loads of fun, but as I told Gore, I would have traded it for 3 more hours of checking out the Gore facilities. We had a great team, and it was fun to cruise all over Philly checking out the sites; we ended up coming in second, which I think was actually the winning position because I didn’t have to fit the silly trophy into my carry-on bag. Finally we made our way to dinner at Moshulu, a restaurant on a boat (T-Pain did not make an appearance). The dinner included most of the Gore employees we had interacted with, and was a great way to wrap up the trip. There was plenty of time to chat with the various employees and ask additional questions.

The night wrapped up with a group of us back at the hotel bar. Over the course of a few beers the discussion ranged from search engine optimization, to effective use of social media, and on to the average height of leprechauns. The group of bloggers Gore assembled for this event was awesome, and one of the great side benefits to this trip is that it developed a great support network of similarly wired people from a bunch of outdoor sports.

Thanks for following this saga. I had no idea this would turn into a three-part blog and back up the posts so much; in the remaining days of 30 Days on the Road I’ll probably spin stuff like this into articles, and keep the blog posts a little more simple and on time.

If you’re looking for more information I recommend you check out Gore’s Quality Testing website.

I feel it is important to mention that W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. covered expenses for this trip. In return they’re obviously getting coverage of the trip, which they wouldn’t have received otherwise; it works out to pretty cheap advertising for them. I’ve tried to prevent this from having an influence on what I’ve written, in terms of tone or value judgments, and I hope that the end result is the same as if I had gone there on my own dime. I’ve been a user of Gore-Tex products for years, and while I now know a lot more about Gore and Gore-Tex, I’ve tried not to let Gore’s generosity bias these posts.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

From the durability testing room full of washing machines we continued on to what was my favorite part of the tour: the “comfort lab” and the “rain room.”

A group of us in the Comfort Chamber at about 20 degrees F

The comfort lab is a wind tunnel and cold climate room where Gore can test their outerwear in a more personal manner, simulating temperatures from -20 F to +120 F and high winds. While the fabric tests we saw earlier can tell Gore a lot about the fabrics, they can’t test how the jacket works as a finished product, or the effect that pockets and zippers have. In the comfort lab Gore is able to put the finished product on Nate the test dummy, a thermal torso that can report temperature data, and see exactly how wind and cold are transmitted through the outerwear. In addition to Nate, Gore also enlists the help of local college students to get perceptive feedback about products.

We would be really wet without these jackets

Just down the hall from the comfort lab is the rain room, a glass-walled, two-story room designed to simulate rainfall. We suited up in Gore-Tex jackets, pants, and foot coverings, and were ushered into the rain. Water drops fall from the ceiling, approximately 30 feet, and can also be sprayed from the wall at pressures simulating a 60 mph windblown rain or how rain will interact with a seated motorcyclist. Temperatures in the rain room are also adjustable, to a point; they can’t make it snow, but they can get pretty close. The jackets we were wearing were split down the middle, half blue, half yellow. Going back to DWR from Part 1, the yellow half was coated with DWR and the blue half wasn’t, allowing us to really see and feel the difference. On the yellow half, water beaded up quickly and rolled off the jacket. On the blue half, the material quickly became wet, and I definitely felt like I was getting wet, even as they assured us that the Gore-Tex was keeping us dry. This was another really cool tactile demonstration, and was a fun experience; and yes we were still dry.

The group suiting up for the rain room

I'm waterproof now

Yellow has DWR coating, Blue doesn't, Gore-Tex membrane keeps us dry

The rain room concluded our time at Elk Mills 5, the next stop was Elk Creek 2, a glove and shoe testing facility. Tom Casti and Larry Abbot walked us through a couple of different boot and glove tests and filled us in on the details. Boots are rigorously tested, including 100,000 flexes (500,000 for military products) on a partially submerged flex tester.

Gore membrane booties are pressurized and submerged in water. Faulty booties will bubble.

This bootie has a leak at one of its seams

Boots are filled with water and positioned in this machine which spins them at high speeds. If a boot is faulty, centrifugal force will push the water through the boot.

This boot is still full of water after the centrifugal test

These mechanical legs flex each shoe at least 100,000 times

This foot from the flex tester has sensors on it that detect moisture and set off an alarm

This test pressurizes a glove. If the glove has leaks, water in the blue tray will bubble

This glove is faulty and the water is bubbling

The finished product

After touring the glove and boot testing we moved to a conference room for a group discussion and question and answer period with Gore. On the way Gore stroked out egos a bit by showing us the posters they made for each attending blogger. The posters were in the lunch room, and had been put together so that employees at Gore knew something about us when we came to tour. It was pretty flattering, but I thought it was cool that Gore wanted their employees to know something about the people who were touring through the facilities.

The Q&A was a great opportunity to learn more about specific areas of Gore that we had questions about. At the onset of the trip Gore had solicited questions from us, and then took the time to pull together the right people to answer the questions.

Continued in Gore Tour: Day 3 of 30 Days on the Road – Part 3, coming soon.

If you missed it, check out Gore Tour: Day 3 of 30 Days on the Road – Part 1

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.