The dudes at the World Snowboard Tour have partnered up with Swatch to produce this 7-part documentary series focussed on the history of competitive snowboarding. Pretty interesting stuff, check it…

Shred documentaries filled with archive footage seem all the rage these days – this series follows hot on the heels of burn’s nostalgia-heavy We Ride – The Story of Snowboarding – and this is no bad thing. It’s always rad to dip into snowboarding’s history to see how far we’ve come and also throw some high fives to the guys and girls responsible for pushing the boundaries. With this season’s World Snowboard Tour almost a wrap, the crew have launched this 7-part series charting the evolution of contest riding from the titular straight line runs to today’s mind melting barrage of hyper spinning.

This first episode looks at the inception of the first shred contests over in the US back in the 80s, spotlights the likes of Jake Burton, Tom Sims, Craig Kelly and Terry Kidwell, and is, to coin a phrase from a magazine of the time, absolutely radical.

Dubbed ‘The Stone Hut’, Jake’s finally gone and given himself his own pro model, albeit in a very limited production run. About time. If we were the owner of the biggest snowboard brand on the planet the first thing we’d have done is hook ourselves up with our own signature board and then show off to women of dubious moral fibre…

Anyway, here is said PR, along with pictures of Jake getting his hands dirty…

For the first time, Jake Burton, Founder and CEO of Burton Snowboards, has built a very limited run of signature snowboards called ‘The Stone Hut’. Available in select snowboard shops worldwide starting today, each Stone Hut snowboard was handcrafted in Vermont at Craig’s (named after Craig Kelly), the most advanced snowboard prototype facility in the world.

“Even though a piece of me has been in so many of our boards over the past 35 years, this is the first signature board I’ve built,” said Jake. “When the boards team approached me about doing a sig board, I jumped on it and talked them into doing a really limited production run so we could make them in Vermont at Craig’s. Up until now, we’ve only made prototypes or boards for team riders there. So the Stone Hut is special for many reasons, but the one I keep coming back to is I think Craig would be stoked that it was built in his facility – I know I am.”

During this past summer, Jake spent a lot of time at Craig’s, fine-tuning each detail of the Stone Hut. His goal was to create a snowboard that was ideal for ‘a powder day in the park’ – essentially a board that was very versatile so riders could easily head down an icy groomer, then dip into powder in the trees. As far as construction goes, the concept behind the Stone Hut board is simple.It’s a twin shaped freestyle board underfoot with a powder nose and a freestyle tail. The Bend is Flat Top, so it holds an edge when riders need it, but also floats in powder. Available in two lengths (150 and 155), the Stone Hut is downsized so that riders can select a board length that is 5 cms shorter than a traditional board.

For Jake, the Stone Hut board graphic is also ‘a dream come true’ because it features someone he’s always looked up to – Jimi Hendrix. With artwork from the Jimi Hendrix album, Valleys of Neptune, the board graphics are one-of-a-kind. For a finishing touch, Jake personally signed each board at Craig’s.

The Stone Hut also comes with a few items Jake thought would go well with the board, all packaged in a laptop case that features artwork from Valleys of Neptune. The kit includes EST CantBEDs (size medium), a binding accessory that many Burton team riders and Jake use all the time. If riders need a different size, they can call Jake’s office directly – the number is listed with the kit. Also included is a Sharpie for marking binding stances, an EST Tool for fine-tuning bindings, a credit card scraper that fits in a wallet, a code to download some of Jake’s favorite Hendrix songs and stickersfrom the Burton archives.

With only 100 available worldwide, the Stone Hut promises to be a collector’s item for sure. But more than anything else, Jake wants riders to get the boards on snow and send him feedback about the new shape.

“I want people to have fun riding this board, and I want to hear what they think of the unique shape,” said Jake. “I also hope everyone gets a good laugh from the stickers that come with the board – I couldn’t resist throwing in some that got us in a little trouble over the years.”

Read more about the Stone Hut (and how it got its name) in an interview with Jake where a full list of shops carrying the board is also available.

Come to where the flavour is. Come to Bulgaria.

Hello and welcome to our new episode of This Week in Snowboarding. Click yourself through an abundance of links to the best the snowboarding world had to offer over the past seven days!

SATURDAY

The Illicit Snowboarder tells the story of the first snowboarder, the Mustachio has a nice edit from the Dachstein, Albert is the name of an upcoming Czech movie, Snowboarder Mag tells us what Austin Smith wears on the hill, the Thirsty Convoy shreds Meadows, the German Restless movie is really good (but we somehow failed at putting it up on Mpora), and Jon Kooley’s Day in the Life is kool.

SUNDAY

The Ride Ride with Us Episode 3 drops, SkulFilms’ Frienemies gets re-released, Scott Stevens lets you in on one-footers, the Helgasons post an ok highlights clip, people keep sending their shit edits to Yobeat, our web columnist Jon Weaver gets interviewed by the German Snowstoked blog, Andre Chamberlain tells you how to film snowboarding, and Jussi Oksanen teaches his kids how to ride…

MONDAY

Our new Photo Annual has the best cover, ever (and some interesting content, too), Seb Toots talks about his horror slam at last year’s Air&Style, Torstein Horgmo goes all gangsta, Halldor Helgason reveals an interesting fact in this interview, Wiig, Moore & Co. session NZ, Ben Lynch stars in Airblaster’s latest Family Portrait, Mikey LeBlanc has bionic knees, avalanche danger does exist, here is Smokin’ Snowboards’ Boreal TVC edit, Our Neck of the Woods is a flick from the US East Coast, here’s all Austrian action from 9191, here’s the Hyland Hills opening with bad filming and good guys, after watching this edit everyone should have Nick Pooch on their list, Ville Uotila rides the Dachstein park, TW Business lists the NYC Snow Film Fest winners, and Bear Mountain opens with a bang(ing good edit).

Where will YOU be when diarrhea strikes?

TUESDAY

We post to dope remixes of the Commotion movie, Comstock & Van Gyn hit the Wasatch, Liam Gallagher visits Mt Baker, this clip shows how to ride a suburban street like a boss, Jake Burton talks about supporting local shops, here’s a nice Mt Snow opener, Jon Weaver talks about the spirit of snowboarding, Yobeat posts the best pow edit of the week, and Jess Kimura is good at knife fights.

WEDNESDAY

Isenseven re-release their first ever video called New Noise, Matt Georges stars in this neat video from Billabong, Animal Farm’s Showemus movie is sick and free, Yobeat has a decent Trollhaugen-tage clip, Enni Rukajärvi now rides for Burton, Mark McMorris now drinks Red Bull, Spatziba releases the Gigi Talking Heads Part 2, John Jackson slays Mammoth, ESPN has a chat with Dan Brisse, and Desiree Melancon labels her front foot.

"Someone has planted a foreign body in your throat."

THURSDAY

Peetu Piiroinen tells us stuff about the upcoming season, we post the All Plugged Up full movie, Torstein Horgmo goes skiing, Smith Optics release a good David Bertschinger Karg profile, and another decent Prospecting Idaho episode, Xavier De Le Rue is working on his new project Timeline, Volcom releases a cool Scott Stevens montage, Banshee Bungee move offices to SLC, our fav movie crew bHappy shreds Northstar, Chris Carr is featured in this edit, Louie Vito’s wallpaper is an instant success on our site, Lavigne, Paradis, Cantin et al shred Keystone, Rome Snowboards know what core means, the Ästhetiker shred Flachauwinkl, Flow posts some B-footage, Todd Richards gets nostalgic, Nitro loves shop kids (read it, industry!), Mario Käppeli and Ethan Morgan shred Stubai, while Peter König cruises at Trysil,

FRIDAY

The Air&Style draw looks promising, the Pirates Helsinki log drops, Java Fernandez posts a good Videograss clip (featuring Anderson, Grenier and Paradis), Enni Rukajärvi is about to meet the Finnish president, Grilo’s Grilomentary teaser drops, Ashbury shreds Bear Mountain, and David Bertschinger Karg does some fun laps in Hoch-Ybrig.

Did we miss anything important? Let us know! You didn’t like it? Well, at least you don’t have scoleciphobia!

See you next week!

This is the first part of the TTR’s little history lesson on the origins of what all our hearts beat for: snowboarding. From Terry Kidwell and Jake Burton to Terje Haakonsen and the first Olympics in Nagano…