Burton Snowboards acquires Channel Islands Surfboards

Today my friend Helaine forwarded me and Email that announces the acquisition of the world renown Channel Islands Surfboards created by Al Merrick in 1969 to the snowboard staple Burton Snowboards. At the surface of this deal it may seem to make sense to most people. The biggest surfboard company joins forces with the biggest snowboard company. Both sports share a similar audience and subculture that once was underground and irreverent.

 

Once you look deeper into this deal, it was clear to me that the surfers are getting the short end of the deal. Think about each sport and its origins, surfing has a glorious and romantic start in Polynesia and developed through the past 100 years with a deeply layered legacy world-wide. Snowboarding on the other hand was a spin off sport that merged skateboarding and skiing. It has exponentially grown since its start in the late 70's and early 80's. The shallow learning curve and accessibility of snow and slopes made snowboarding as mainstream the sport they evolved from. Surfing on the other hand is not as easily picked up and requires some real dedication for a beginning enthusiast to become competent.

 

Surfing is also much more multifaceted as a sport than its solid-state counter part. Waves are ever-changing and unpredictable whereas groomed snow on a ski resort is just a passive opposition for metal edges of a snowboard. I don't want to sounds like a snob but I just don't think the snowboard culture is as deep and rich as the surfing culture. For most surfers, snowboarding is what you do in the winter time if the swells are small. Ask any surfer to choose between surfing the best waves in the world versus riding the best snow, I would imagine most would choose the liquid version of the board sport.

 

These 2 companies are as big as they come in their respective sports. Can they really benefit from each other? I doubt it. Nearly all surfers already snowboard so there is nothing for Channel Islands to gain by trying to sell their customer base on a new sport. I suspect what Burton will do is going to try and sell the romance of riding a wave to their snowboarding masses. Most of them will never pick it up but in the meantime there will be more people in the water for us to dodge around. Al, I hope it was worth it to you.