McNab Snowboards – designed with Knowledge, handcrafted with science, ridden with passion
The Intro bit
Not just another Snowboard brand, McNab Snowboards put Neil McNab’s 30 years of Snowboard Design and Ride Philosophy right under your feet. Riding a McNab Snowboard is like starting a new relationship with both your personal riding performance and your love for the whole sport of Snowboarding!
From the very first time I carved a turn on a snowboard, way back in the mid 80’s, and felt the edge and sidecut guide me through that first clean arc I was completely addicted, I’ve been following my search for the perfect turn ever since. (Neil McNab)
The Concept bit
Throughout my Snowboarding career, as a World Cup competitor, National Champion, Professional Freerider and finally Backcountry Snowboard Guide, I’ve always explored and played with the dynamics and fundamental links that exist between Snowboard technique and Snowboard design.
Understanding how we move and manipulate a snowboard through our feet to make it turn ‘by design rather than force’, what we need to do physically and technically to create the line and ride that we desire is something that I have spent the better part of my career exploring.
An understanding of simple bio-mechanics, Snowboard design and the link between speed, line, terrain shape and conditions on the mountain are all essential ingredients in your search for the perfect ride.
Riding a McNab Snowboard is like starting a new relationship with both your personal riding performance and your love for the whole sport of Snowboarding!
In the past 30 years I’ve ridden hundreds of different snowboards exploring their performance potential and limits. I’ve watched new trends come and go, watched fads and fashions fade and analysed the technologies and design elements that have become permanent fixtures in this never ending search for the perfect ride.
Today, Snowboarding has never been in a better place. Riding levels and stoke are at an all time high and it feels like we are at the dawning of a new era of performance, understanding and desire.
Today’s serious riders demand more from both their riding and their equipment than ever before and like a Surfer looking to match performance to a particular wave size and style, searches out a Snowboard designed to meet their own very specific personal needs.
The days where we picked a board for its graphics, an association with a pro rider or brand or as a fashion statement are gone. Today’s serious rider knows what they want, where they want to go, has a good idea of how to get there and maybe more to the point, how they want it to feel when they arrive.
Today we are looking for a Snowboard that specifically pushes and inspires our performance. A board that inspires us to improve on a daily basis and that simply feels better and better as we get stronger and our riding develops.
Today we are looking for a Snowboard that specifically pushes and inspires our performance.
I’ve wanted to design and ride my own Snowboards for years. I’ve ridden other companies boards my whole career, analyzing and pondering on the how’s and why’s, looking at features, fads and dimensions. Thinking about what would improve performance, what I would do differently, change or develop and to finally put all my experience into these Snowboard designs and see them work so well has been amazing!
My personal freeride philosophy radiates from the connection between us, our movements, how we look at and choose to ride the mountain and the Snowboard we ride.
McNab Snowboards are inspired by a love of the arc and a Freeride and Surf inspired passion for riding the natural terrain of the mountain in all terrain and in all conditions.
McNab Snowboards are designed with unique sidecut, flex and camber profiles that link you with your board in a way that you will have never felt before.
McNab Snowboards are designed with unique sidecut, flex and camber profiles that create an incredible feeling of control and sensitivity from tip to tail throughout the arc
McNab Snowboards link you with your board in a way that you will have never felt before.
Riding a McNab Snowboard is like starting a new relationship with both your personal riding performance and your love for the whole sport of Snowboarding!
The Creative bit
Having not yet found a Snowboard that fulfilled all my needs and desires, it recently became time to put my 30 years of questions and theories to practice and try to design and build the board of my dreams.
I teamed up with fellow Snowboarding addict, ex CERN and Rolls Royce engineer and master Snowboard builder, Phill Hazell
(Phill on our first Splitboard, Lofoten Norway)
For this I teamed up with friend, fellow Snowboarding addict, ex CERN and Rolls Royce engineer, inventor and master Snowboard builder, Phill Hazell, who seemed to be able to make sense of my ideas, designs and ramblings and over the past few winters we began quietly pressing, testing and developing our designs in his laboratory/workshop.
The Nerdy Science bit
Our designs are quite unique in terms of the relationship between you, your board and the Fine Art of carving the perfect arc on the mountains natural canvas.
We play with a unique formula that takes into account rider physique, foot size and stance width. We use rider and stance info to set the distance to the control points of the board, which in turn sets the board length.
Rider physique relates to the flex properties of the board and our unique customized sidecut and camber profiling does the rest.
By combining all these elements and our secret camber/sidecut formula we produce Snowboards that boast incredible edge grip, stability and carve performance and inspire a new vision of how we view and ride the mountain.
we are constantly looking at new materials and construction techniques.
As a small, independent, custom hand crafted Snowboard brand we have the freedom to develop and test new designs, constructions and ideas on a board by board basis and so can work with our customers to tweak our designs and construction to match desires and needs and we are constantly looking at new materials and construction techniques.
The Eco bit
Whilst our first goal is to build the best most progressive boards possible, our second goal is to achieve our first goal in the most ecologically friendly way possible.
Our aim is to create desirable hand crafted, custom designs in an ecological way that inspire and excite us to ride.
We are very aware and conscious of the ecological costs of building Snowboards and strive to work with the most sustainable and eco friendly products we can from sources in close proximity to the Workshop and recycling materials were possible.
Phill is an incredibly creative, a skilled craftsman and able to turn his hands to many methods of fabrication. He is completely addicted to the slide and ride philosophy and this drives him to want to make the best products possible, exploring avenues and technologies that could lead to exciting innovation in our snowboards.
Our aim is not to start up a factory produced commercial Snowboard brand by sticking a logo on an existing core or model, but to create desirable hand crafted, custom designs in an ecological way that inspire and excite us to ride and see where it goes.
If at the end of the day, we both simply get to ride the mountains on the boards of our dreams, hand built in an ecological process, then ‘mcnab snowboards’ has already been a successful venture for us both.