Materials and Design

Triaxial Fiberglass

Triaxial fiberglass has fibers running in three different directions. Unlike the biaxial (fibers in two directions) glass being used by many other manufacturers, triaxial glass enables us to build more torsional stiffness into Donek boards.

Torsional stiffness is the single most important factor in the board's ability to hold an edge on ice and execute a clean, pure carve. When you ride a Donek board over that sheet of ice, you'll be glad we understand this fact.

Rubber Damping

Have you ever heard the saying, "moderation in all things"? Many lesser board manufacturers boast about their multiple damping layers trying to make you feel that a sluggish unresponsive ride is a good thing. We've added just enough damping to our boards to produce the needed vibration reduction.

You will find that our boards are lively and responsive. In order to keep the tip and tail of the board on the ground, we've taken a slightly different approach. You can read about it above in the Geometry section.

Full Wrap 48 Rockwell Edge

The majority of edge material on the market today has a Rockwel "C"l hardness of 48. Other companies boast about it, but it's the same for all edge material. Don't be sucked into the marketing hype.

By wrapping the edge all the way around the base, we've eliminated edge pullout and delams in the tip and tail. When you look at one of our boards the edge is probably one of the best examples of the craftsmanship that goes into our product. It's virtually impossible to see the seam between the two pieces of edge and you won't find any gaps between the edge and the base material.

Regardless of the board you buy, inspecting the edge fit is a good check of the manufacturer's quality control, attention to detail, and passion for what they do.

Base Materials

Sintered DuraSurf 2001 is one of the most abrasion resistant base materials on the planet. IMS 4000 Elektra is one of the fastest. We use the right base for the job – our Pilot, Freeride, and Freestyle boards get DuraSurf 2001, our Carve and Race boards get IMS 4000 Elektra.

Die-Cut Graphics

Die cut graphics produce a more simple and elegant graphic while improving a board's durability. Silk screened graphics rely on the ink as a bond layer – this weakened bond layer often results in delamination and sometimes cracking of the ink near the board's edge. Our die cut graphics simply won't delam.

Dye Sublimated Base Graphics

While other manufaturers do further damage to the environment using toxic inks to silk screen and fload coat their bases, we're one of the few capable of dye sublimating base material. We use base material composed of a natural (clear) layer melted to a white layer on the back side. This gives us a white background without requiring the applicationg of weak polluting toxic ink to the back side of the base. Dye sublimation is an environmentally friendly process that uses water based inks and a paper carrier which is recycled. The ink is digitally printed on the paper and transferred into the plastic base material with heat and pressure. The heat causes the dye sublimation ink to become a gas, which migrates into the plastic. As the material cools the ink becomes a solid and is fixed in the material.