Heresy Snowboarding

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We have a limited range of snowboards coming in as a result of a backorder.

These are:

1 x 150cm Trees
1 x 153 Shark RC
1 x 156 Shark RC

These will be AUD$500 and won’t last, so email us if you want to snap one up. Once they’re gone, that’s it.

You can check out the specifications here [pdf download].

Just contact us to organise payment and shipping (PayPal, ship anywhere in Australia for free, globally for AUD$200).

Contact: tim [at] heresysnowboarding [dot] com.

It’s been a while, and many of the visitors to this blog don’t go to the main Heresy page.

Our final batch of clothing is selling quick, with tees below cost at $10, and hoodies at $20. We have one snowboard left for $200.

Check it out here.

* updated Oct 1 2009 – there have been some questions – check the FAQ at the end *
Well this has not been an easy decision, nor is it easy for me to tell you all, but here it goes.

Sale discount code at checkout is “closingpublic”.

The Announcement

After 7 (close to eight) years in operation, Heresy Snowboarding will be ceasing operation for the foreseeable future.

We’ve battled to stay a small, people and quality-focused company operating on a budget; but without the mass market capital backing and huge scale and marketing budget, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ship inventory globally in a cost effective manner as well as constantly providing uncompromisingly good designs.  Given the high overheads in design, inventory and so on, we need to make a lot of sales – this is not happening.

To be honest, the only reason Heresy has survived so long is by virtue of the fact I am on a decent wage personally, and have been able to absorb losses from my personal savings (I’ve sunk around AUD$250,000 into the company and thousands of unpaid hours). This can’t continue especially given my other interests – which are taking up an increasing amount of time and deliver a much better return on my time and effort.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a load of fun, and learnt a lot about business, and more importantly, met a LOT of fantastic people – Jase Y at Messy Design (one of the most generous and kind people I’ve never met – if you have design needs, check them out, they RULE and are design/branding NINJAS), all the Falls, Whitewater and Big White crews (the Falls and Perth crews especially). Everyone who came around to our office (my house usually) to buy stuff and have a beer. The fantastic reps like Packy and Pat. Unbelievable support from Falls Creek (I’ll never forget riding around the resort and seeing Heresy boards everywhere, or loads of people at the Man with Heresy gear on, it was truly humbling). People who did free work for me (Dave S, Wil W, Jase Y). Everyone who put up with my emails asking for feedback on designs and direction (you all know who you are).

And last but not least, every single person who supported us via kind words or by stumping up cold hard cash for something; especially my friends. You guys kept me going time and time again.

Running Heresy has imbued me with an abiding sense of humanity’s place in the universe and our ability to voraciously affect all around us. The Earth is a delicate balanced miracle of the universe and requires our gentle guiding hand – something we do not provide to our own detriment. All my reading has made me realise that running a mass market snowboard company – even with an entirely enviromental focus – is folly in the continued face of global warming.  The snow industry MUST innovate or it will die. Selling uber-cool flouro stuff year on year is not going to cut the mustard.

Heresy’s demise is therefore the ultimate salute to all that we stand for.

To those of you wondering if we will return, the answer is “maybe”. We have some ideas, but they’ll take time to bring into existence, and, as always, some more money. If we return however we will not be the same company. No more standard inventory. We’ll be something very different, a Purple Cow if you will. So when you read on about the closing down sale, rest assured we won’t be staying open. The stuff won’t appear again cheaper or more expensive. Once it’s gone, that’s it, it’s gone (I’ve already snaffled one of everything for myself).

The practical part

Board warranties will continue to be honoured for the standard 2 years. So if you bought a board from us in the last 24 months, or, buy one of the closing down sale boards, you will have your warranty covered. Our site will stay up (with changes made to reflect us going to sleep for a bit), email will be active, and you can get me on @thinkheresy on Twitter or on Facebook or on hs@heresysnowboarding.com.

The Sale

Everything, and I mean everything, without exception, is 60% off (at least). Check the store for everything we have left. Anyone who buys something is going to get free stickers, free 3degrees wristbands – the whole shebang. Each package lovingly put together by hand, by me.  The mailing list got 80% off for a short time.  This has gone down. So rest assured this 60% will NOT last so get in now.

For those of you overseas, boards can, and will, be shipped to you via UPS or FedEx for AUD$200.

That’s it.

It’s been fun, but as with all things in life, things change, you move on, and seek out new opportunities.

I hope to see you all on the long road, around the resorts, in the surf or on the bike.

Tim Marsh
Founder, Owner, Heresy Snowboarding Australia
Born: May 2002

* Update 1 Oct 2009 – FAQs *
FAQs.
Q: Does the discount apply to boards?
A: Yes, it applies to everything.

Q: How long will this last?
A: Until everything is sold. Newer stuff (Sharks, Save our Winter, We Love, CMYK) will NOT be discounted futher than 60%.

Q: Don’t do this!
A: Sorry, we have to.

Q: Will you come back?
A: IF we do, it will NOT be using the same model. No more cool designs and boards. Sorry. That’s how it has to be (see the reasons why in the announcement above).

Q: Your store has an SSL error.
A: Just accept the certificate anyway. We purchased an SSL certificate for “heresysnowboarding.com”. SSL requires you to buy “www.heresysnowboarding.com” as well, which we didn’t. So, just enter “heresysnowboarding.com/store” in the URL bar, and accept the certificate. Don’t worry, no one’s hacking you or stealing your details.

me·a cul·pa (mā’ə kŭl’pə, mē’ə)
n. An acknowledgment of a personal error or fault.

Let me get this straight.

I love snowboarding. A lot.

I love this company. A lot.

I love this planet. A hell of a lot.

My problem is that I got jaded and started despairing about our future on this planet and about our insatiable need for stuff. I forgot the joy of standing at the top of a run with 2ft fresh.

I am waaay busy with other businesses (if you want to see what I’ve been doing, check out wherespresso.com, tdftips.com and shredquest.com. All reasons. No excuses though.

So, here’s the deal. I’m sorry. I stuffed up. I got way too negative. And now I said that, I’m going to fix it.

How am I going to do that? Well, for that you’re going to have to wait, but it’s going to start on this blog, with way more content that adds value, integration with other Heresy web presence and other stuff. Less negativity. MOre focus, on snowboarding and what we do best. Facebook integration to drive the community side. And? Way, way more. Too much to go into now, so you’re going to have to trust me.

Things are going to be changing around here, so keep your eyes peeled.

Thanks for being so awesome.

Tim M
Heresy Snowboarding Founder

Sometimes, we get so lost in our little world of snowboarding, we lose sight of what else is going on.

Readers of this site would know I’m a really passionate environmentalist; I care, a lot.

One of my problems is I am always talking about the bad stuff. Hope sells, despair doesn’t.

Seth Godin had a great post about the enormity of something (i.e. an issue, global warming) here .

Enormity doesn’t mean really enormous. It means incredibly horrible.

The problem with enormity in marketing is that it doesn’t work. Enormity should pull at our heartstrings, but it usually shuts us down.

Show us too many sick kids, unfair imprisonments or burned bodies and you won’t get a bigger donation, you’ll just get averted eyes.

If you’ve got a small, fixable problem, people will rush to help, because people like to be on the winning side, take credit and do something that worked. If you’ve got a generational problem, something that is going to take herculean effort and even then probably won’t pan out, we’re going to move on in search of something smaller.

Not fair, but true.

However, I don’t see any point in gilding the lily; our home is in big strife. Actually, strike that. Planet Earth will be fine. Its inhabitants – us primarily – are the ones in strife.

My constant highlighting of the climate’s woes can be a failing sometimes; turns people off. But more and more, snowboarding seems so unimportant to me. Not in terms of my, mental and spiritual wellbeing, but, in terms of taking notice of the greater world around us. And when I say it can be a failing, what I mean is, people come to this site for news on the snow, and a lot of the time, are disappointed. But for me, being like other snow news sites doesn’t make sense. None of that crap matters; who’s riding what, what flouro colours are in this season (”Oh my god, am I allowed to wear orange this season? ORANGE?”), what colour bindings are cool. Lame. It’s all become lame. There has to be more.

So today I thought I’d highlight some things that aren’t so cool, that happen under our noses. Unseen. Inescapable. Unrelenting. Happening around the world, RIGHT, NOW.

I hope it compels you to act and look at yourself, and examine how you frame the world you live in.

Here we have some video of wholesale forest destruction in Sumatra and Bornea; organgutangs are in strife. All for palm oil. Now, palm oil can be good, IF it’s grown responsibly (it’s not yet, at least not on a wholesale level). Read more here and here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2IG1nVljrg&feature=related

I’ve previously talked about the dire state of the planet’s water resources in the manner we use them here and here.

In Nepal – people are running out of water. Think that’s scary? . How about war over water?. Billions – BILLIONS – without water. Problem is, we’ve probably tipped past the edge and are now in an horrible warming cycle. Who knows where it will end.

Food production article from Grist about how the manner in which we grow our food, for an inexorably increasing population, is very, very bad.

Not just bad, but cruel.

What about how climate change is killing fish? Read more on the food chain here and here.

As I read stories of this type more and more, I wonder if it’s all worthwhile. Is trying to change snowboarding and the way it runs worth the effort, given the little return I get?

Is the heartache and stress worth it?

Does anyone even care?

Self doubt – it’s incredibly powerful, but a great opportunity for something to pop up.

What do you think? Post comments below!

One thing is clear, things MUST and WILL change. They have to, if we want to survive.

We have a planet falling apart, in no small part due to our selfishness.

We also have an industry that relies on a healthy planet, but doesn’t seem to really give a shit (apart from a few people) instead preferring to cash in on buzz.

I’m becoming really disillusioned with snowboard (the industry).

People need to wake up to what is really happening and stop riding the gravy train, seriously.

Let me get one thing out of the way.

I feel really sorry for climate deniers. Especially rusty old crackpots like Ian Plimer, or, for that matter, utter crackpots like Bolt. Even as the Good Ship Humanity sinks into the murky depths, methinks he will protest too much.

But I digress.

Much has been made recently in Australia about the need to “discuss” whether we “believe” in the science behind the CC/AGW hypothesis.

No. There is no need (this means you Fielding).

Ian Plimer, an apparently respected Adelaide geologist, recently wrote a book, which I won’t link to as it’s rubbish and full of lies about climate change. In it, he uses and manipulates research, graphs and so on to push his barrow.

And snow lover, this is what you’re up against. Crusty old (and young – that means you Bolt) deniers seeking to halt, deny and delay change and action – the action required to salvage humanity (you can pretty much forget about snow seasons especially in Australia. Ironic huh? A snowboarding company writing about and cataloguing the death of our beloved sport).

The following links are REALLY good education as they show you the depths that these clowns are stooping to. Guys like Plimer are being thoroughly debunked all the time, but they still get airtime.

It’s utter bullshit that this happens.

So, Plimer wrote his book. Then Tim @ Deltoid jumped all over it.
Then Monbiot jumped on him…

So did Karoly…

And Lambeck…

And Malcolm Walter…

Then Monbiot challenged him to a debate.

All good so far. Condition was Plimer had to pre-answer some questions Monbiot had.

And then it fell down in a heap.

Luckily, we had the inimitable Tamino sort things out.

Anyway, that’s what we’re up against.

Here’s some more info about how to deal with skeptics.

CE Journal. Real Climate. Science Blogs – IllConsidered 1 and 2 (this one is REALLY good).

Clive Hamilton has a really good article on what obfuscation means for us.

Australian and overseas marginal ski resort seasons are in deep shit (I’ve stopped caring about saying naughty words – they have more impact).

Seriously. Deep. Shit. So, we’re in the middle of our 2009 Australian ski season and we have a base of around 1metre. Now I remember back in February I was shocked to hear that some elements of the ski industry simply don’t believe in climate change, that it will all go away.

So, if you’re not an ostrich who likes putting his head in the sand, how about read about what’s really going on.

• 2nd hottest June on record – about to get hotter
• NASA GISS – 2nd hottest July on record
• NSIDC – polar ice report June
• NSIDC – polar ice report July

If water goes, we’ll have anarchy.

This is not a dress rehearsal.

I’ve just returned from a cycling trip to France. I met a lot of Europeans and one thing was starkly obvious – there is no longer even a general discussion around climate change and whether it’s occurring, or, more bizarrely, if we should “believe” in it. There’s nothing to believe in. Science is not a belief system. It just *is*.

I was shocked that the Euros have accepted climate change is happening, have reconciled that humans have a lot (not all) to do with it, and we must act.

Contrast that to Australia, and the US, where we have lunatic right wing clowns like Ian Plimer and Andrew Bolt (who in my opinion are oxygen thieves) mouthing off that it’s all a scientific conspiracy by varmint scientists chasing research dollars.

Bullshit. This is utter bullshit.

We’ve previously written about the insanity of climate change denialism (as opposed to healthy scientific rigour) here and elsewhere on our page.

You might think this sounds rather boring, Snowboard/Ski-person, but, this prevailing attitude affects you in a profound way. Not just in your ability to pursue your snow addiction, but in your ability to access affordable food and clean water – read more here, here and here.

Continued insistence on global warming or climate change denialism is extremely dangerous in the face of overwhelming evidence in support of the CC and GW position.

Recently, an Australian geologist wrote a book, which has since been ripped apart and revealed as containing outright distortions (and even lies), with unattributable graphs (not a good look in the science world).

The Australian newspaper, usually a bastion of right-wing and denialist content, recently had two pieces refuting this, here and here.

Happily, this kind of writing is being seen more and more as being the provence of crackpots. Science is slowly winning the PR war, aided by daily news about sea ice loss, Antarctic ice sheet breakup and so on.

One of my aims is to really engage the thinking and concerned boarder and skier into reading and thinking about this issue and hopefully by taking action in a meaningful manner, or by talking about this with their friends.

One of the key things to remember is this planet will do just fine in the long run. Humans, however, we’re in big, big trouble. The earth doesn’t need us, we need it.

So, if you want to continue your lifestyle, you need to ask yourself if you can afford to sit back and remain unengaged on this. This isn’t something that will only affect your grandkids, it’s here, now.

Start reading, and next time someone starts spouting global cooling rubbish, walk away (it’s not worth debating them). Next time someone says they don’t care, tell them why they should.cl

Things have been quiet from us, sorry. We just got back from overseas.

On the back of our post about Food, Inc, here’s a new movie about the Coal Industry: frightening.