Your Seven Years Winter

It starts now.

If you are not lucky enough to be riding the white wave on the southern slopes, you are probably like us, working away in the summer heat, saving up time and money for the winter. August is the month when the hints of winter start creeping back; the cool nights, the early movie releases, and new product sneaking into shops.

We started this site as a hub for those of us that live for the winter months. We will be dialing up the content as we approach the start of the season, but I wanted to take a quick moment to explain the site.

Times are changing in snowboarding, the traditional shops that were our meeting points are disappearing. It is not like when we started, when the rare sight of another rider on the slopes meant that you made a new friend. Our old crews are moving on in life and too often we end up spending our valuable days on the mountain rolling solo. This site aims to provide a little of that old culture through a mix of a traditional forum, a blog, and a magazine.

Here are the basics, in a numbered list because I am that asshole -

1. USERS - anyone can register and join.
2. POSTING - depending upon your level in the site, once logged in, you will have different options from the "write" menu that appears to the right of "rhetoric" in the upper right of the screen.
3. RIDE REPORTS - the core of this site and our culture is riding. Every user can post a "ride report". Don't worry about the epicness of the day, the idea is to let other users know the conditions, track your season, and provide the stoke to get others up on the hill.
4. REVIEWS - if you are riding a lot, then you are going to have an opinion on the stuff you are rocking. The next level on 7YW is the ability to post reviews. We are sick of fluff reviews, we want real reviews that tell the truth. To this end, I am working on a project to quantify real board flex through a repeatable test bench (more on this later).
5. RHETORIC - if you really care about the culture, inevitably you will develop some opinions on the industry. The final step on the 7YW ladder is the ability to publish rants, rumors and writings. These are no holds barred pieces that will spark discussions.
6. BLOGS & LINKS - real snowboarders tend to have pretty diverse interests. The site is not simply about sharing your on mountain adventures but anything you are really into. The "lifted links" sections allows you to quickly drop a link to anything. The "blog" is the piece that appears below the featured slideshow on the left. We use it primarily to post videos but it really can be for anything that stokes you.
7. COMMENTS - all conversations on 7YW are private to our community. You must be logged in to see the discussion and to post replies. We want real discussions, not some jibberish posted by weak fools hiding behind a fake username. Be civil but strong, cross the line and you will enter a world of pain. This is not Nam.
8. SITE DESIGN - I do all the site building and maintenance. As such we can modify and mold the site to our users' needs and suggestions very quickly. Drop a line and let us know what you want.
9. ADS - as stated on our about page, we are not in this to make money. We are avoiding having ads that compromise the integrity of the site at all costs.
10. STICKERS & STUFF - You may notice that a few of us rock a die cut 7YW logo on our boards. Phil took the initiative to get these made and they look killer. If people are interested, we can get these made for dedicated members for a small cost. John is also working on a 7YW patch and I am sure there will be other pieces available soon. We want to keep distribution exclusive, once again we are not in this to get rich.

That's it, now go get yourself an account and start contributing.

Seth