For the last few years, he’s been allowed to pretty much run riot, creating brands-within-a-brand that have consistently stood out as some of the most head-turning snowboards on the market. Much of what is ‘Shaped By TK’ is informed by the years he put in as a pro rider, but he’s always had an eye on the world of surfing too. Unsurprisingly, that was the entry point for this particular project.

“Why look for answers in physics and mathematics when sometimes by just taking the time to observe nature you can find inspiration?”

“The idea came to me more than two years ago, after having been to see an exhibition at a friend’s house, a guy who has a wine bar in Biarritz. On the wall there were drawings of which half was a fish, the other a surfboard, with this clear relationship between the design of the surfboard fin and the fish fin”. That was the lightbulb moment, he says. “Why look for answers in physics and mathematics when sometimes by just taking the time to observe nature you can find inspiration? Nature has many more years of R&D than humans, after all…”

This approach in itself certainly isn’t new to snowboard design – the Winterstick Swallowtail, for example, came along way back in 1972 – but for Thierry, that day on the Atlantic coast opened the door to a whole new way of thinking. Returning home, he delved into the science of ‘biomimicry’, and began to absorb the ideas of those who had applied it to other areas of design. “There are plenty of experts, and there’s even a school in Spain where this is the principal focus of study,” he continues. “I also had the chance to meet people who study and develop solutions through this approach. When I got back to our office, I told [Nidecker shaper & engineer] Antoine Floquet, who was immediately won over by the idea.”

With no shortage of resources from which to draw on, the pair set to work. However, even when combined with their own expertise in board-building, the biomimicry boffins alone wouldn’t be enough to guarantee an assist from Mother Nature. Team riders Mathieu Crepel and Shin Biyajima were also drafted into the brain trust in order to get things moving in the right direction.

From the brand that produced the Gun, Mosquito and Tracer, they’re actually quite conventional-looking – and appropriately enough for Nidecker, also look like they’d be most at home either skimming across a powder field, or locked in a carve. Look closer, however, and you’ll see the influence of the natural world creeping in.

“With such passionate riders, I can tell you that the discussions were just awesome”

As you might expect, the features are all present where the board interacts most with its environment; the nose, the tail, the base and the sidewall. On both the Alpha and the Beta, the front end is largely the same, and even from a distance looks ready to gobble up powder and spit it out. It’s not as pointy as some of Thierry’s previous creations, though, and that’s deliberate; he’s gone for a slightly more rounded shape, combined with a slight ‘spoon’ element. It’s been designed to mimic the way the stomach of a dolphin glides through water, and do the same for the snow. A stroke of cleverness worthy of – well, a dolphin.

At the other end, the shape deviates a lot more. The Beta has gone full chip-fork (not technically seen in the wild, unless you count the Blue Lagoon at 3am), while the Alpha has a more classic all-mountain tail. There’s also another feature that’s harder to spot; a subtle indentation on each edge that narrows the outline just as you get to the business end. This ‘drop out’ tail essentially removes a bit of surface area, allowing the rear of the board to sink further into powder. This trick was stumbled upon by studying birds’ wings in flight, apparently.

The APX versions of both boards also feature a rounded sidewall. In this case it’s less about what Thierry and Antoine could see, but rather what they couldn’t. Right angles are rare in nature, with curves much more prolific. The new ‘Nidactive APX’ construction sees the core rounded off at the sides, with topsheet material curving over it in an even layer, down to a wafer-thin section of polyurethane.

“As you might expect, the features are all present where the board interacts most with its environment; the nose, the tail, the base and the sidewall.”

The resulting physical properties, neatly combined with an increased use of natural materials over synthetics, deliver improved edge hold – and that’s something that’s pretty important to any Nidecker board. The brand’s recent renaissance owes much to its track record of making decks that carve well. However, as Thierry points out, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.

“The problem we had to solve was that sometimes the transition between the toe and heel edge is aggressive. Some people love it, but when your name is Mathieu Crepel and you surf as well as you snowboard, you want to have a kind of ‘rolling’ feeling at that weightless transition moment.”

Anyone who has monitored snowboard development in recent years will probably know where this is going. 3D bases are all the rage now, and exactly what’s needed to solve this issue. As for exactly how to contour the base, the answer was right there in black and white.

“The brand’s recent renaissance owes much to its track record of making decks that carve well”

“When we sought to refine this behaviour, we discovered that the penguin used its belly when gliding on the ice. It would involve an interplay between flat and a round shape… there was clearly a solution there. In the end, the base contour itself didn’t end up being just a basic 3D, but it became a progressive 3D between the contact points and beyond.”

Where does the project go from here? Will there be a Gamma? A Delta? Will they be giving LSD to spiders to find the perfect fibreglass weave? Perhaps the cuckoo offers some potential – they are Swiss, after all. “Our way of working starts with being faced with a problem to solve, then we go looking for inspiration,” says Thierry. When you size this year’s new boards up, that checks out; regardless of how you feel about the nature, anyone looking for more float and smoother transitions will find it in the Alpha and the Beta. As for what’s left, Thierry and Antoine are working on it, leaving no stone unturned – even if that does lead them down a few dead ends from time to time. “We have tried leaf textures to improve the glide, but it didn’t really work out. We’ve not yet found the perfect solution… but it will happen!”

And that’s the nub of it. The Nidecker lot will be the first to admit that this isn’t about reinventing the wheel – but as an approach to solving problems (combined with a welcome, timely message about respecting nature) there’s lots to admire. When they’re ready to unveil the next step in their evolution, we’ll be waiting.