Focus Snowboards - The Canadian Rockies first snowboard company

Welcome to Focus Snowboards!

Thanks for stopping by to check out the site and get to know us. We wanted to put together a short introduction for you all to share a little more about who we are and what we've been up to.

Who are we?

We are Kahli, Leo & Willow (our pup) and we're based in Canmore in the Canadian Rockies. Focus Snowboards is a co-creative endeavour for us both and with a combined 50 seasons of experience in the winter industry around the world, we are really excited to be launching our own snowboard line in the Canadian Rockies.

We'll keep things short and sweet here and tell you some of the things that we've been up to on the way to launching our flagship snowboard for the 2024.25 Northern hemisphere winter season.

Focus Snowboards is built on 3 simple values:

Lifestyle | Creativity | Progression

Our Mission

"We exist to help snowboarders connect more with the mountains and their riding, so they can truly enjoy everything snowboarding has to offer.”

Tell Us More

Leo - Director of Board & Rider Development

As a snowboard instructor trainer, coaching and helping riders all over the world, it was important to create a snowboard company that did things a little differently. Every snowboard purchase comes with included personalized video coaching and this is our commitment to helping our riders get more from what snowboarding has to offer.

"Given that snowboarding often becomes a lifelong passion, it has always interested me that companies didn't take more of an interest in how their riders were getting on with their gear. It was close to my heart that we supported our riders beyond the point of purchase and personalized video coaching is my way to take care of that."

Having ridden too many boards to count over the years and been around in snowboarding before the introduction of reverse camber, it's been great to have Leo's mind behind the actual board design process. He’s been out there for years watching real riders dealing with real challenges on all different types and sizes of snowboards and he knows that suitable equipment is a key piece of the puzzle to enjoying your riding. With regard to the overall design of our snowboards here's what he has to say about things:

“Two themes stand at the core of our design process - simplicity and versatility. We set out to create a board that can handle the harsh conditions and variety of terrain on offer in the Rockies. As a result, our first snowboard model has been developed as a one board quiver - an all mountain twin capable of riding anywhere, anytime in any condition.”

When considering what we want to provide for our riders in terms of board sizing, we were able to marry our ideas of visual design with a practical approach and here's why:

“The snowboard only really knows one thing about you, and that’s how much you weigh. For that reason, we follow an inclusive sizing ethos with a variety of lengths and widths to cater for all riders”

Kahli - Artistic Director

As a National Geographic photographer, Kahli is no stranger to watching the light move through the mountains. Her priority was to capture the very nature of the Canadian Rockies and fit it into the constraints of a snowboard topsheet. A driving force behind looking at her photography in this way was that over the years she's been less and less inspired by snowboard graphics. When she did see a well designed board it was usually offered on a men's board, or a women's board in the wrong size or profile options. With all that said, here's a little more on what Kahli had to say about the topic:

“We wanted to move away from men’s and women’s specific graphics and instead feature timeless artwork that would suit all riders. As an artist, of course, I know that this tends to be subjective, but I had a very clear idea from early on that I wanted truly eye-catching visuals that were appreciated in the same way a fine art print would be. For that reason, there will be a limited number of each board graphic available…once they’re gone, they’re gone.”

Her love for the Aurora Borealis, a striking feature of the night skies in Banff National Park, was at the top of her list when it came to finding unique ways to blend them into our visual design.

“I love photographing this phenomenon and it was an easy decision for me to bring elements of this into our designs.”

What's next?

Well, now you know more about who we are and what we're up to, if you like what you read, hear, and see then get involved and join the movement to help riders connect more with the mountain and their riding. Sign up to our newsletter at the bottom of the page, share with your friends and spread the word. We're just getting started here and we have big plans for the future and we appreciate your support along the way.

See you out on the slopes!

Kahli, Leo & Willow

 

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