10 Best Freeride Snowboards 2015/16
Our favourite freeride snowboards of the year, as chosen by the Whitelines Team
Co-owner Brad Richmond remortgaged his house to start up Stepchild Snowboards in 2000. He started with two riders on the team, co-owner Sean Johnson and Graydon Kavanagh; but within a few months, young Kavanagh had put his snowboarding career on hiatus and began his own construction company…not the best start.
Luckily for Brad, the next year he signed a young Simon Chamberlain for a mere $500 and 3 snowboards. Needless to say, the young buck was more stoked than a baby with a heap of wrapping paper.
Stepchild blew onto the scene with Simon Chamberlain’s section in DC Snowboarding’s ‘MTN LAB’, rocketing the brand to new exposure. They scored their first cover with Andreas Wiig who was riding Stepchild whilst he was scouting out some new sponsors – and the Stepchild crew also started filming for their first film ‘Child Support’. A busy 2006…
The film dropped in 2007 with unknown ripper Joe Sexton blitzkrieging the opening section with his insane riding and his insanely tight pants which he was lampooned for relentlessly… if only we’d known.
Next up to the Stepchild plate was JP Walker. He signed for Stepchild in 2007 and filmed for their production ‘This Video Sucks’. He was the first rider to film his entire section switch, which to this day still makes him ‘The Real JP’.
Stepchild is the snowboard of choice for the fridge kids, jibbers across the globe. But they’ve also added Kiwi lady-slopestyler Possum Torr to the likes of Sexton, Walker and Chamberlain. A new string to their bow perhaps?
