Saign Charlestein
Occupation: Artist / Powhound extraordinaire
Home Town: Tacoma WA
Home Mountain: Wherever there are fresh turns and no people
Snowboarding since: 1993
Riding Venture since: 2012
Why Venture? Best build quality and performance hands down. I go deep into the backcountry, and need something I can depend on. Not to mention as a small business owner, I like to support the small guys, and ride something made by people who use their product, understand how it needs to function, and take pride in making it the best they can.
Best Snowboarding Memory: First trip to Alaska, after days of waiting out storms, going window shopping and getting shut down, it went blue with all time conditions. It’s like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. The snow is like magic. So sticky and stable, yet so light and fluffy. It opens up terrain that would be almost unridable in most other places.
Setup: I like big lines and going fast. The Odin handles high speeds like a champ and chops though crud on the run outs.
Bio: I grew up in SoCal skating and surfing. In the 6th grade my Dad got a cabin in the San Bernadino mountains, and his roommate had a snowboard that he let me use. My best friend and I started out by hiking up a small hill by his place, and built a small jump. We had on steel toed Doc Martins, and trashbags under our jeans to keep us dry. I was hooked. The next place he took us was to Green Valley Big Air. It was a snowboard only resort on the way to Big Bear. They just had a big storm, but not enough to open, so we hiked up the first couple slopes, and had our first taste of fresh pow, it was a feeling like none other.
As I grew up in SoCal, I transitioned into a park rat, hitting all the biggest jumps and rails, and making trips up to Mammoth and Tahoe when I could. In the rare occurrence it would dump and there was enough of a base to go out of bounds without ruining our boards, we would constantly duck ropes, and luckily never got into any bad situations with no avalanche knowledge. When I graduated high school I got my first of many Mammoth season passes, and started hitting more big mountain style lines and really starting to explore the backcountry.
In 2011, I moved to WA and realized that there were huge mountains, with snow all year round! I had wanted a splitboard for years, but now it wasn’t an option - it was a necessity. I bought a Venture Zephyr 164 split, and it changed my snowboarding life. I hooked up with a solid crew, rode every calendar month of the year for a couple years straight, and proceeded to bag all the summits and gnar lines that intrigued me in prime conditions. I soon stopped buying season passes to the local resorts, being fed up with the crowds, and the whole cut throat pow day mentality. The money I saved from not buying the season pass turned into a ticket to Alaska.
This was the next big transition in my snowboarding career. We went there to tour, and to shred the gnar. No helis or guides dictating where we went, we bagged some burly lines that helis will rarely step to. We were there for 2 weeks, and averaged 7k of vert a day, and came back ruined. Snowboarding will never be the same. It’s all I think about: steep, gnarly lines in perfect condition.
Now I just tour on the best days, sniffing out storms and the best conditions. Staying in shape to make my pilgrimage to the magical shredding paradise of Alaska.