Latest News
Closed January 06 2020
We are closed for the foreseeable future. We are taking a break from making boards after 20 plus years. We may be back...who knows? Thanks for all the support over the years!
Arielle Gold Wins Bronze Medal at 2018 Winter Olympics March 05 2018
We are so proud of Arielle for putting down a great third run in the women's pipe final at the 2018 Pyeong Chang Winter Olympics. Arielle rides the 152 Origin board.
Check out Arielle's run here:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/usas-arielle-gold-snares-bronze-womens-halfpipe
Arielle Gold Makes 2018 U.S. Olympic Team January 31 2018
Arielle Gold will be representing the U.S. in South Korea this winter for the 2018 Olympic Games. She will be heading to South Korea with the momentum of her 2nd Place Finish at the X-Games last weekend.
This is an article from Steamboat Today Newspaper about what boards Arielle rides and some of the history of the work she has done with Unity Snowboards.
Arielle Gold (halfpipe snowboarding)
There are plenty of giants in the snowboard industry, but Steamboat Springs halfpipe snowboarder Arielle Gold gets her boards from a relative shrimp, at least in terms of market share.
Gold's now a two-time Olympian, having made the team in 2014 and again this season.
In terms of riding, she said she's found exactly what she's looking for.
Gold rides the 152 centimeter Origin board from Unity Snowboards, a small 1,000-board-per-year company that's been hand building boards in Summit County for more than 20 years. They still do today out of the corner of a two-story warehouse in Silverthorne.
For Gold, it was about finding the right fit in Unity's line. She tried a larger men's board and the size worked well enough but it proved stiff for her.
The women's boards, meanwhile, proved a little too soft.
So, her custom snowboard supplier built her a custom snowboard.
"The outside is the men's board, but the actual core is a women's core," Gold said. "It's a little softer, a little more flexible. I tried his men's board, and it felt like it was a little too much for me, a little hard to turn."
She's ridden Unity boards to the podiums of some of the biggest events in her sport, including a second-place finish at Winter X Games Aspen, and she rode one in the most recent Warren Miller flick, "Line of Descent."
She gets two new boards every fall and doesn't plan to switch up anything before arriving in Pyeongchang, South Korea, for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
She'll ride the same two boards that got her onto the U.S. Olympic Team.
The board: Made in Silverthorne, Gold's board is a custom-made version of the 152 Origin with a full length aspen and maple wood core. Built to shine in the park and pipe, it's symmetrical in shape and flex. $545.00, unitysnowboards.com.
Taylor and Arielle Gold featured in new Warren Miller movie October 02 2017
Taylor and Arielle Gold are featured in the new 2017 Warren Miller film "Line of Descent"
History of Unity Snowboards Featured in Lewis & Clark College Magazine November 25 2016
The Chronicle Magazine - Winter 2016 Issue
Catching the Snowboard Wave
Pete Wurster still remembers his first snowboard ride at Ski Brule resort in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula nearly 30 years ago.
When his family, all avid skiers, moved from Washington to Wisconsin, he and his brother strapped on snowboards as a way to challenge themselves on smaller terrain.
“It took us an hour to make our first run,” he says. “Snowboarding turned a little mountain into a huge adventure.”
Now the owner of Unity Snowboards in Silverthorne, Colorado, Wurster has carved out a niche in the competitive world of snowboard manufacturing. A hands-on entrepreneur, he designs and helps build every snowboard produced by Unity—about 1,000 annually and rising.
Unity’s boards are known throughout the industry for their artistry and craftsmanship. For example, the Whale, a big board designed to float across powder, originally featured graphic elements from the text of Moby Dick. Completely redesigned for 2016, this black board offers better edge control and a yellow skull graphic inspired by Day of the Dead folklore.
Wurster sells 80 percent of his boards in international markets— the most lucrative currently in France, Switzerland, Japan, and South Korea. “‘Made in the U.S.’ seems to carry a lot of weight overseas,” he says. “Our customer tends to be a little older than the standard 18-to-24-year-old demographic, someone who’s been riding for a while and wants more from a board.”
As a student at Lewis & Clark, Wurster majored in art. He chose the college, in part, for its proximity to snowboarding on Mount Hood and windsurfing in the Columbia River Gorge. But that was just the exterior landscape for his education.
Living on the international floor in Copeland Residence Hall and studying in Spain during his junior year, he gained the skills and confidence needed to break through language and cultural barriers. “What I learned during those years comes in handy when I visit distributors around the world,” says Wurster.
His passion for art and graphic design culminated in his senior art show at Lewis & Clark. On display was his first original snowboard—featuring hand-painted graphics inspired by the California surf culture of the 1960s and 1970s.
“My advisor, Phyllis Yes, was an incredible artist who pushed me to be creative and dig deep for my authenticity,” he says. “Mike Taylor, also in the art department, was more of a graphics guy. He helped me simplify my designs to make them bold and powerful.”
After graduating, Wurster headed straight to Silverthorne, Colorado, where his childhood friend Paul Krikava had been working as an apprentice to an established snowboard maker. The pair rented a small, fully equipped warehouse and began a crash course in snowboard manufacturing.
“We worked seven days a week for three months that summer making private-label snowboards for a distributor in Japan,” says Wurster. Seeing potential in the business, they decided to launch their own brand. After a few lean years, Krikava and his wife moved back to Wisconsin to raise a family, leaving Wurster to run the show.
Determined to succeed, he bankrolled the business with a second, more lucrative private-label order from Japan.
Unity Snowboards got another big boost in 2003 and 2004, when the company’s Pride series took two Top 10 Transworld Snowboarding Good Wood awards. “That put us on the map,” says Wurster, “both nationally and internationally.”
Using an assembly-line method, he and his crew of three produce 20 boards a day during the summer months. The remainder of the year he devotes to other aspects of business development, including design, marketing, trade shows, ski resort demonstration days—and, of course, spending time on the mountain.
“Unity Snowboards is a labor of love,” he says. “It’s important that I continue riding each season, finding different ways to have fun in the snow.”
by Pattie Pace
http://www.lclark.edu/live/news/32208-catching-the-snowboard-wave
CUSTOM BOARDS August 01 2016
We are now making custom boards and splitboards. If you are looking for a tweak on one of our existing shapes, or have a totally new type of board shape that you want to have built. We can do pretty much anything. You can work with us on size, widths, flex patterns, etc. We have pre-set graphic restrictions, so we will work with you on our various graphic options.
Custom Pricing starts at $650.00 for a one-off board and $900.00 for one-off splitboards.
Call or Email for more info:
970-262-2246
Jackson Hole Pow Wow 2016 Video March 29 2016
Jackson Hole Snowboarding PowWow 2016 from AVALON7 on Vimeo.
Demo or Rent Unity Boards November 20 2015
Pioneer Sports in Frisco, Colorado has a bunch of our new Reverse and Dominion boards available for demo or rental. Check them out if you are in Summit County and want to try out some of our new boards. The Grind (970-468-0400) in Silverthorne, Colorado also has Unity boards available for rental.
www.pioneersportscolorado.com 970-688-3668
The Grind/Blue Valley Ski Rental 970-468-0400
Celebrating 20 Years with FREE T-Shirts! October 31 2015
This season marks our 20th year in business. The 1995-1996 season is when we built our first boards. To celebrate we are going to be giving away one of our new 20 Year Commemorative T-Shirts with every new board purchase.
We'll fit the size of the shirt based on what size board you order. Send us an email or call if you want to specify a specific size. Sizes available are: M, L and XL.
Building Boards at The Unity Factory July 03 2015
Save Our Snow Board Demo March 25 2015
We will be demoing some of our new boards this Saturday March 28th at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area in Colorado. Come out and try some new boards and help support The High Country Conservation Center.
Unity Rider Arielle Gold Grabs 3rd at US Open March 10 2015
Taking Carving to the Next Level February 19 2015
Ryan Knapton has really been pushing the limits of carving freestyle boards on hard pack this season. In this video he tests out some Power Plate risers from Bomber Industries. Ryan rides our twin tip traditional camber Origin series boards. The risers really allow him to lean the board over with not boot out issues.