But vision is always ahead of execution – as it should be. Uncertainty is a virtue and not every concept or idea translated from paper to piste. When asked if certain protos were ever a complete disaster, Nicholas laughs. “For sure,’ he says. “You know how life is, we had a lot of times like that. It’s all part of the game. A good example was the first prototype of the Obelix. At first, it was designed with a wider nose than tail and a positive sidecut…”

For anyone with even the most basic grasp of snowboard design, alarm bells might be ringing. “We almost killed ourselves on that thing. It was so bad!” Nicholas says, almost sounding proud of his admission. “It took us three years to get to a point where we felt comfortable to release it. It wasn’t until I tried in in Japan, in really deep powder, when I realised this was probably the best powder board I’d ever ridden.”

“Sometimes they are impossible, but if you don’t try, you never know”

The Concept Line isn’t simply a practice in self-indulgence or catering to an adventurous niche in the market. What you need to know for the next piece is in your last piece. Your work is your guide. “A lot of the innovation comes from the Concept line,” Nicholas tells me. “Sometimes they are impossible, but if you don’t try, you never know.”

This kind of experimentation has led to a Formula One style of ‘trickle-down engineering’, where outside-of-the-box designs have been refined, tweaked and implemented into their flagship collection of snowboards – the Classic Line. Granted, we’re probably still some way off seeing Korua’s foray into edge-less snowboard constructions work their way into Classics any time soon, although the Tugboat, for example, served as a precursor of the incredibly popular Dart.

And then there’s the Pencil and Dart snowboards, two snowboards that have won the Whitelines 100 Awards in as many years. Their popularity has been, in large, down to their stand out performance in powder and on piste, without the need to resign them to the locker room when it’s anything less than perfect conditions. “The Pencil is just a bit more of an all-rounder,” explains Nicholas. It’s still possible to ride switch, and it has a bit more torsional stiffness, which holds up really well under higher speeds… whereas you can carve the Dart hard over the front foot and really crank it at the end to close off the turn.”

For Nicholas, he views all the boards as part of a spectrum. “You can go more to the left side for powder, then more to the middle for carving, and the further to the right you go the more specific it gets.”

It’s out there, on the right, that you’ll find the Plus Line. This is Korua’s top shelf offering, where many of the Classic outlines are brought across, but phrases like ‘carbon multi-axial webbing’ make an appearance on the spec sheet and the lively red and white colourways are replaced by an altogether more serious black-on-black aesthetic. Maximum speed, minimum weight, power and performance are all dialled up to 11 to cater for the most discerning of snowboarding psychopaths.

The Bullet Train, for example, is Korua’s latest addition to the line and built with a titanium layer, which runs throughout the core, to virtually eliminate high-speed vibrations – something it was designed to encounter on every outing. “I look at the Bullet Train as a snowboard for someone who’s really into carving up early morning groomers,” Nicholas says. “It’s definitely more specialised, not like most of our other boards which can still ride the rest of the mountain, it’s for hard groomers and icy slopes. It’s a great carving board.”

(NACHT – A short film from KORUA Shapes featuring Nicholas Wolken riding the Bullet Train on a deserted piste at night.)

Of course, having the materials doesn’t guarantee the end result, but Wolken almost seems as passionate about the design and construction phases as anything else. “It’s about knowing how to mix them. I think that’s where our strength is. It’s like cooking a soup – you can use the same ingredients, but the measurement is what makes the difference.” It’s a relatable anecdote for us laymen, but you just know he’s underplaying the levels of knowledge and expertise that goes into every board. Making a soup is one thing; Korua are closer to creating the culinary equivalent of a Consommé of the corduroy.

“It’s about knowing how to mix them. I think that’s where our strength is. It’s like cooking a soup”

It’s been nearly a decade since Korua Shapes first launched and helped turn a new page in the snowboard industry. They’ve challenged conventions, pushed innovation and helped to reignite a culture of carving among all ages and abilities. “I don’t want to hop on any trends,” Nicholas says. “As long as we – the team and ambassadors – are stoked on it, we’ll go after what we like in snowboarding.”

The conviction to follow their own path, fuelled by curiosity and creativity, is what has given the guys behind Korua Shapes their own unique, minimalist style. They have built a brand that has become globally recognised through the absence of any garish topsheet designs, through edits shot exclusively in black and white, and through nurturing a culture of snowboarding that reminds us that, sometimes, the feeling of leaving a perfect arc in the snow is more than enough to keep us coming back.

This isn’t a case of style over substance. The style is the substance. And, in snowboarding, we all know that style is the gold standard against which everything else is measured.

How are Korua staying true to this? Look between your bindings next time you’re strapped into any one of their snowboards and you’ll find the clue to the answer printed in a small passage of text by the sidewall:

“Happiness lies in the process of finding your matching shape. In this process there is no right or wrong nor a goal, since every character has different forms and every form has different characters. May you never find your perfect shape.”

As for Nicholas, when asked if he’d come any closer to finding it, his answer says as much about his own philosophies as the future of his brand.

“My favourite shape is always the one that’s not yet out there. That’s what keeps us going.”

To find out more about Korua Shapes, click here.

To see our full list of snowboard reviews from Korua Shapes, click here.