Patent Application
20190247735
The present invention relates to snowboards, specifically to snowboards, snowboard assemblies, and snowboard accessories.
Snowboards are boards that used to glide on snow. They are shaped to be longer than they are wide, but not extremely so, like skis. They are usually about as wide as a person's foot is long, since the bindings that couple the foot to the board are positioned so that the foot is sideways (orthogonal) to the long axis of the board. Users of such equipment may be referred to as snowboarders. These types of boards are commonly used by people at ski hills or resorts for leisure, entertainment, and competitive purposes in the activity called snowboarding.
It is difficult to learn how to ride a snowboard as there is a single control surface/plane that is substantially flat and/or convex that rides over slippery snow. Generally, it takes several days to become somewhat proficient. Falls are common during that period and learners report substantial soreness of muscles and bruising as a result.
Additionally, steering a snowboard requires using the edges of the snowboard as cutting/turning ridges but requires tipping of the planar surface to accomplish that. Tipping too far or not far enough results in failed turns and/or falls. The differences between tipping too far or not enough are tiny, especially for novice snowboarders.
Further, there are those who desire to modify the operation of a snowboard or similar recreational/travel device so that it performs differently, e.g. handles turns differently. In some cases more speed is desired, in other cases sharper turning is desired, in still yet other cases increased safety is desired, and etc.
Accordingly, there are systems, devices, and methods for assisting snowboarders (e.g. training, riding, facilitating particular modes, changing boards for various uses) and for training novice snowboarders. Examples of references related to the present invention are described below in their own words, and the supporting teachings of each reference are incorporated by reference herein:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,960, issued to Safler, discloses a board suitable for use in descending a snow slope. The board has a generally flat elongate base, a forward portion with an upturned leading edge portion, a user support portion and a rearward portion comprising at least partly independently movable left and right support portions extending generally alongside each other rearwardly from said forward portion. The base has outer side edges of generally angular cross-sectional shape for biting into the surface of a snow slope during turning in use of the board. The side edges are furthermore concavely arcuate, in plan view, so that the board is substantially waisted intermediate its ends so that the board can proceed along an arcuate path when one of its side edges is weighted and the other unweighted.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,760, issued to Remondet, discloses a surfboard for surfing on snow has an hourglass profile including dimension lines curved inwardly in the runner zone, and wherein bindings each form an angle with a line perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the surfboard. Both dimension lines are offset longitudinally with respect to each other and are positioned so that the most curved point of each dimension line is located on the axis of symmetry of the axes passing through the two bindings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,249, issued to Morris, discloses a snowboard having a convex bottom with a flat area formed therein to extend from the tail to at least the nose to facilitate balancing of the snowboard and improve performance when cornering. An improved snowboard illustrates the convex bottom smoothly tapering into the body 34 at the longitudinal midpoint to form a flat bottom that then extends to the tip. To provide additional control and stability, a keel extends from the flat bottom a distance no further than the convex bottom and having a width between 2% and 4% of the width of the body.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,240,908, issued to Sankrithi, discloses recreational equipment for use on a sliding surface, such as skis, snowboards, or other equipment for use by a person such as a skier, snowboarder or water-skier. This invention provides a pogo-ski comprising a ski and a post thereon which is fitted with foot supports and a handhold suitable for use by a standing user.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No.: 20020063404, by Lafond, discloses a modified snowboard that includes a multi-position binding system having at least two preset positions, including a first position where the user is able to control the snowboard under conventional use, and a second position where the user is able to rotate the binding systems to extend a guide blade through a slot from a recessed position within the core of the board. The blade when in use projects from the bottom surface to provide guide means to aid the user in controlling the direction of the snowboard during forward movement. A retractable guide blade for snowboards is also disclosed.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No.: 20110233900, by Huard, discloses a system including first elongate blade and a second elongate blade. The second elongate blade is substantially in superposition with reference to the first blade. The first and the second blades are affixed together at one end. The system includes a user-actuated mechanism is connected at least to the second blade. The mechanism is selectively operable by a user of the snow-riding device to longitudinally reposition at least a portion of the second blade with reference to the first blade. This longitudinal repositioning modifies the efficient length ratio between the two blades and thereby the camber of the system. The system is self-contained and once integrated to the snow-riding device, the system permits a selective camber adjustment of at least a portion of the snow-riding device upon modifying the camber of the system.
The inventions heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages which include but are not limited to: being difficult to use/install, not teaching how to turn on the edge of a snowboard, not changing how a snowboard operates, failing to act as a training tool, being difficult to install, not able to be used with any snowboard, being limited to functioning only with particular snowboard types/brands, being too heavy, and being too complicated.
What is needed is a snowboard, snowboard assembly, and/or a snowboard accessory that solves one or more of the problems described herein and/or one or more problems that may come to the attention of one skilled in the art upon becoming familiar with this specification.
The present invention has been developed in response to the present state of the art, and in particular, in response to the problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fully solved by currently available snowboard assemblies and/or snowboard accessories. Accordingly, the present invention has been developed to provide a snowboard, snowboard assembly, and/or a snowboard accessory.
There may be a snowboard, snowboard assembly, and/or a snowboard accessory that may include one or more of a board and/or a pivot member and/or a strip.
The board may have an underside and/or a main axis that extends along the longest length of the board.
The pivot member/strip may be being an elongated member protruding from the underside of the board and/or extending along the main axis of the board. The pivot member/strip may include one or more of a length which may be a longest distance between two ends of the pivot member, a height which may be a greatest orthogonal distance from the underside of the board to an underside of the pivot member, a base which may be at the coupling between the pivot member and the board including a base width which may be a greatest distance between two opposite edges of the pivot member orthogonal to each of the length and height. It may be that the base width is greater than the height.
The pivot member/strip may also include a flat bottom surface having a bottom width which may be a distance between opposite side-to-side edges of the flat bottom surface of the pivot member. It may be that the bottom width is less than the base width. The pivot member/strip may also include a pair of flanking beveled edges coupling the flat bottom surface to the base. Flanking beveled edges may have an acute angle with respect to the base and/or an obtuse angle with respect to the flat bottom surface.
It may be that a front and/or rear and/or side of the pivot member/strip are beveled. It may be that the pivot member/strip extends along the longest length of the snowboard. It may be that the pivot member/strip has a trapezoidal cross-section. It may be that the trapezoidal cross-section includes a pair of rounded corners. It may be that the bottom width is greater than the height.
In another non-limiting embodiment, there may be a snowboard assembly, including one or more of a board having an underside and a main axis extending from front-to-back of the board; and a pivot member coupled to the underside of the board along a middle portion from side-to-side thereof and aligned with the main axis of the board, the pivot member including one or more of a coupling structure coupling the pivot member to the board; and a strip coupled to the coupling structure, the strip having a base and a bottom surface opposite the base, wherein the base is wider than the bottom surface and the bottom surface is flat.
It may be that the bottom surface is wider than a longest distance between the base and the bottom surface. It may be that the coupling structure is selected from the group of coupling structures consisting of: an adhesive layer, screws, bolts, rivets, snaps, clips, tongue-and-groove, latches, and bindings. It may be that the coupling structure is selectably couplable and non-destructably detachable from the board. It may be that the strip does not have a uniform height from front-to-back. It may be that the strip extends less than a full length of the board. It may be that the base extends a full width of the board at least at one region thereof.
In still yet another non-limiting embodiment, there may be a snowboard accessory for converting a snowboard into a training snowboard, including one or more of a coupling structure that couples to an underside of a snowboard; and a strip coupled to the coupling structure, the strip having a base and a bottom surface opposite the base, wherein the base is wider than the bottom surface and the bottom surface is flat. It may be that the strip has a trapezoidal cross-section with rounded bottom corners. It may be that the coupling structure is an adhesive layer and/or a binding. It may be that the strip does not have a uniform height from front-to-back. It may be that the strip is beveled both side-to-side and front-to-back.
Reference throughout this specification to features, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of the features and advantages that may be realized with the present invention should be or are in any single embodiment of the invention. Rather, language referring to the features and advantages is understood to mean that a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, discussion of the features and advantages, and similar language, throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, refer to the same embodiment.
Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of the invention.
These features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.
In order for the advantages of the invention to be readily understood, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawing(s). It is noted that the drawings of the invention are not to scale. The drawings are mere schematics representations, not intended to portray specific parameters of the invention. Understanding that these drawing(s) depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not, therefore, to be considered to be limiting its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawing(s), in which:
For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated in the drawing(s), and specific language will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended. Any alterations and further modifications of the inventive features illustrated herein, and any additional applications of the principles of the invention as illustrated herein, which would occur to one skilled in the relevant art and having possession of this disclosure, are to be considered within the scope of the invention.
Reference throughout this specification to an “embodiment,” an “example” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, characteristic, or combinations thereof described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases an “embodiment,” an “example,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment, to different embodiments, or to one or more of the figures. Additionally, reference to the wording “embodiment,” “example” or the like, for two or more features, elements, etc. does not mean that the features are necessarily related, dissimilar, the same, etc.
Each statement of an embodiment, or example, is to be considered independent of any other statement of an embodiment despite any use of similar or identical language characterizing each embodiment. Therefore, where one embodiment is identified as “another embodiment,” the identified embodiment is independent of any other embodiments characterized by the language “another embodiment.” The features, functions, and the like described herein are considered to be able to be combined in whole or in part one with another as the claims and/or art may direct, either directly or indirectly, implicitly or explicitly.
As used herein, “comprising,” “including,” “containing,” “is,” “are,” “characterized by,” and grammatical equivalents thereof are inclusive or open-ended terms that do not exclude additional unrecited elements or method steps. “Comprising” is to be interpreted as including the more restrictive terms “consisting of” and “consisting essentially of.”
Snowboards come in several different styles, depending on the type of riding intended:
Freestyle: Generally shorter with moderate to soft flex. Freestyle boards are typically twin-tip in shape (mirror image along the lateral axis) to enable riding both ways. Incorporates a deep sidecut for quick/tight turning. Used in the pipe and in the park on various jumps and terrain features including boxes, rails, and urban features
Park/Jib (rails): Flexible and short to medium length, twin-tip shape with a twin flex and an outward stance to allow easy switch riding, and easy spinning, a wider stance, with the edges filed dull is used for skateboard-park like snowboard parks.
Freeride: Longer than freestyle and park boards. Moderate to stiff in flex and typically directional (versus twin-tip). Used from all-mountain to off-piste and backcountry riding, to ‘extreme’ big-mountain descents—in various types of snow from groomed hard-packed snow to soft powdery snow.
Powder: Highly directional boards that typically have a rockered nose and tapered shape (wider tip than tail).
All-Mountain: Most common. A mix between freeride and freestyle boards. The ‘jack of all trades, master of none.’ Commonly directional or directional twin in shape (twin-tip and centered stance but with more flex on the front)
Racing/Alpine: Long, narrow, rigid, and directional shape. Used for slalom and giant slalom races, these boards are designed to excel on groomed slopes. Most often ridden with a “hard” plastic snowboard boot (similar to a ski boot), but also ridden recreationally with soft boots, particularly by riders in Europe.
Splitboard: A snowboard which splits in half lengthwise, and allows the bindings to be quickly connected to hinges aligning them longitudinally on the board, allowing the halves of the boards to function as cross country skis. Used with removable skins on the base of the board, which easily slide forward on snow but not backwards, they allow a snowboard to easily travel into the backcountry. Once the rider is ready to descend, the board halves can simply be joined back together.
Dual snowboards: two boards, one at each foot. An innovation which allows one to walk on the pistes and perform new tricks.
Learning how to ride a snowboard is substantially more difficult than learning to ski. It is harder to remain upright, as you are resting on a single touch point, and it is harder to turn, as all parts of your body come into play with proper turning. The following is an example of instruction given to snowboarders in regards to making turns:
To turn on a snowboard, you need to think about the following: your head, shoulders, hips, knees and feet. Each of the steps below, contain a specific technique of movements for that exact body part mentioned.
On a snowboard, people usually forget how important the head is. Typical mistakes are looking at the board or straight down the valley. To keep orientation and avoid surprises while riding your snowboard: keep your head up, look in your riding direction, and spot and plan your next turn.
When initiating turns on your snowboard, always start with turning your head first and look in the direction you want to go. Do this even before you start turning your snowboard. The shoulders and the snowboard work closely together and follow each other when you are riding. When turning your head and shoulders, the snowboard will automatically follow your head and shoulder rotation. Essentially, your head and shoulders are the steering wheel. To improve your turns with correct movements of the shoulders, you should: turn your head and shoulders in the direction you want to ride, then, use your core muscles to turn the snowboard under you, and control the speed of your turns with the speed you turn your shoulders.
While rotating your head and shoulders in your turns, your hips will also start to turn. To test this and practice the motions: Place your hands on your hips, make some smooth turns and feel how your hips are working, You don't want your hips to go back and forth, so keep the hips over the center of the board, moving in rotational motions
When you start using your knees to turn on your snowboard, you can really start to advance your riding. Taking the motions from the head, shoulders and hips and moving them further down through the body, you can initiate your turn and get on your edge much earlier. This will help you control your speed and direction, which is especially good for riding steep slopes. The easiest way to get the knees turning is to: while riding heelside, turn your knees towards the nose of the snowboard, or when riding toeside, turn your knees towards the tail of the snowboard
The movement of the feet makes a huge impact on your riding, as the feet are directly mounted to the snowboard. Practice paddling your feet while turning on your snowboard. Think about initiating the turn with pressure on the front foot and finishing with pressure on the back foot. When you are turning toeside, start with pressure on your front foot toes, and end the turn on your backfoot toes. When you are turning heelside, start with pressure on the front foot heels and end the turn on your backfoot heels.
The illustrated carve tapes are slightly thicker towards a front middle region as compared to a rear middle region, but in various embodiments they may be the same thickness or thinner/thicker than shown. While the term “carve tape” is used throughout, such term does not limit the structure of the carve tape to a flexible substrate. The pivot member of a particular carve tape may be rigid or flexible. It may be straight/flat and/or include curved regions. There may be regions thereof that are rigid and regions that are flexible. In one non-limiting example, a middle region is more rigid and less flexible than front and rear regions, which may be bent to mate up with curvature of a snowboard. Such difference in rigidity may come merely from reduced thickness or may come from being composed of different materials and/or layers of materials.
In one non-limiting embodiment, there is a pivot member having a coupling structure for coupling to an undersurface of a snowboard. The pivot member is an elongated structure that extends the full length of the snowboard when coupled thereto. There is a flat region along the length thereof. The flat region provides a stable position for the board where it is not tipped to either side, but when the board is tipped, it amplifies the “cut” that the board makes in the snow, this aiding in two things: 1) the turning power of the board while tipped, and 2) the feel of that turning power and therefore increasing the impression and learning of the user with respect to how to turn and why to tip when turning. The pivot member is wider than it is thick/deep so that this effect is amplified.
In one non-limiting embodiment, there is a snowboard accessory that helps a beginning snowboarder learn how to snowboard quicker with less fear. Such may help to know how to turn both right and left also while reducing their overall speed. There may be a center piece of material (e.g. rubber) used to create a pivot on a snowboard that is attached (e.g. with an adhesive and/or a screw). It may be disposed along the center of a snowboard to create that pivot point/ridge. It may be a molded piece that is attached to a snowboard. Alternatively, it may be molded with the snowboard when it is being formed.
It may be that the center strip is wider than it is tall and/or extends the full flat under-surface of the board. The strip may have a beveled front and back. A region between the bevels may have a rounded rectangular cross-section corners on the corners away from the board. The strip may be about 1.5 inches wide and/or about 0.5 inches deep/thick. It may be between about 2.5 inches wide and 1 inch wide. It may be between about 0.25 inches and 0.75 inches deep/thick. The strip may have rounded corners that leave a flat middle region so that when you pivot then the strip bites differently.
In one nonlimiting embodiment, there is a strip/pivot member having a rectangular cross-section in the middle region thereof and a circular segment (sector bounded by a cord) cross-section at front and back regions thereof. Other cross-sectional shapes may be present in various embodiments, including but not limited to elliptical, elliptical segments, triangular, trapezoidal, and the like and combinations thereof.
In one non-limiting embodiment, there is a strip/pivot member that is composed of one or more material types and/or configurations including but not limited to: rubbers, plastics, woods, metals, ceramics, composites, woven materials, pressed materials, molded materials, cast materials, natural and/or artificial fibers, and the like and composites thereof.
In one non-limiting embodiment, there is a strip/pivot member having a bottom surface composed of a material and/or having a configuration that slows the rider down as compared to the bottom surface of the snowboard. Such may include materials and/or structures having higher frictional coefficients than waxed wood. Such may include ridges, grooves, channels, and the like that may be oriented substantially orthogonal to the line of travel of the snowboard while in operation. Such may simply occur because of the fact that the strip/pivot member interrupts the normal flat undersurface of the board.
In one non-limiting embodiment, there is a coupling structure such as but not limited to: adhesive, epoxy, welding, clips, snaps, tongue-and-groove, friction-fittings, bolts, buckles, ties, buttons, cables, hook-an-eye fasteners, nails, pegs, nuts, pins, retaining rings, rivets, bands, staples, stitches, straps, anchors, zippers, flanges, frogs, grommets, clasps, clamps, and the like and combinations thereof.
The illustrated cross-sectional views show that the material thereof is thicker (top to bottom measurement) in the middle and tapered to varying degrees at the front and back. Further, these views show that the bottom-most part of each is flat, flanked by curved ends. Additionally, the views illustrate that the pivot member is wider than it is thick, in each view.
Each of the various illustrated pivot members provides for a different handling when turning and a different “bite” into the snow. It may be that the smaller pivot members provide a larger bite, and thus more help for novice snowboarders.
Accordingly, it may be that pivot member 72 is for beginners, pivot member 74 is for more advanced beginners, and pivot member 76 is for novices that are about to transition to not using a pivot member at all with their board.
The illustrated pivot members may be integral to the board 70, may be coupled thereto by a coupling that is selectably coupleable (i.e. one may choose to couple the structures together with a coupling structure such as but not limited to an adhesive layer), may be nondestructably detachable (i.e. removable without damaging the associated structures, such as but not limited to with selectably decouplable snaps, clips, bindings, contact adhesives). Where a progression of pivot members is used in training, it will be useful to have pivot members that can be removed from a board without damaging the board and/or without damaging the pivot member. Thereby the board and/or pivot members are reusable.
The height of each pivot member may be measured from the base to the flat bottom surface, i.e. a distance going orthogonal from an underside of the board to the flat bottom of the pivot member/strip. The base width may be measured as a greatest distance between two opposite edges of the pivot member orthogonal to each of the length and height. The flat-bottom width may be a distance between opposite side-to-side edges of the flat bottom surface of the pivot member.
It is understood that the above-described embodiments are only illustrative of the application of the principles of the present invention. The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiment is to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
For example, although the
Additionally, although the figures illustrate
It is also envisioned that
It is expected that there could be numerous variations of the design of this invention. An example is that the
Finally, it is envisioned that the components of the device may be constructed of a variety of materials,
Thus, while the present invention has been fully described above with particularity and detail in connection with what is presently deemed to be the most practical and preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that numerous modifications, including, but not limited to, variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use may be made, without departing from the principles and concepts of the invention as set forth in the claims. Further, it is contemplated that an embodiment may be limited to consist of or to consist essentially of one or more of the features, functions, structures, methods described herein.
This invention claims priority, under 35 U.S.C. § 120, to the U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/584,521 to Robert L. Kap II filed on 10 Nov. 2017, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62584521 | Nov 2017 | US |
