It seems that in the UK we have enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years with start-up snowboard brands. One of which is Douk, which is pronounced Duke, a British snowboard brand with a difference – all their snowboards are hand-crafted and manufactured in the UK.
You can purchase pre-designed and branded snowboards in a number of different shapes and profiles, but Douk’s whole MO is that you can completely design a hand-crafted customised snowboard yourself. This is ideal for a personalised board or for corporate branding.
Customising is easy and you are spoilt for choice with the different profiles available which include standard Camber (a good all-rounder, especially good for the park and charging around a resort), Rocker (good for powder) and a hybrid camber-flat (good for all-mountain).
Next is the fun part as you can let loose on your creativity to design the top and bottom graphics of the board. A downloadable PDF is supplied to use as a template for the design.
Professional snowboarder Jamie Barrow who is officially Britain’s fastest snowboarder, went along to meet the Douk team and helped make his own signature snowboard at their factory in Worcestershire. I caught up with Jamie afterwards, he was still buzzing from the experience and had found the process from design to build fascinating. Jamie’s customised ‘Speed Demon’ signature snowboard is a hybrid (camber in the middle and flat under the feet combo) and I was lucky enough to get my hands on one to test it out in Austria and the Dolomites, Italy.
Jaime Barrow with his custom designed Douk snowboard
Like many, I am used to riding camber planks, so it took me a bit of time to get used to the camber profile, but once i did, my perseverance was rewarded. This snowboard was stiff and had plenty of pop and power thanks to the Ash stringers that are inserted into the middle of the board, a full length carbon rod and ‘V’ carbon rods at the top and tail.
I found charging around the mountain on the Douk was as easy and smooth as sticking a Bentley into cruise control on a long straight and empty road. The edge control was sublime and the whole board is very responsive. It is not as playful as a full camber board would be, but it more than makes up for it with the superior edge control, making it more difficult to catch that dreaded edge.
I have grown to absolutely love my Douk plank and I recommend it for intermediate to advanced riders, as it may be too stiff for beginners. This snowboard is not designed for a snow dome, it needs to be let off the leash and to charge around a mountain like a dog on steroids!
To design your very own hand-crafted snowboard, check out the Douk site.
Specifications
- Hyprid (camber in the middle and flat under the feet)
- True Twin
- Sintered 7700 Base
- Rockwell 48 Edges
- Carbon Rod Stringers