Interview – Virgin River Board Co.

Virgin River Board Co. is a new inland skimboard manufacturer out of St. George Utah. In an interview with Inland Skimboarding, Virgin River Board Co.’s Chan Nay gave us loads of great info. about the company. Check it out, your sure to be impressed!

Inland Skimboarding: Tell us a little bit about Virgin River skimboards.
Virgin River Board Co.: First off we have really come up with a great board that we have put a lot of time and development into. We build boards that are 3/8"to 1/2" thick depending on what the rider likes. Our weights range from just over 6 lbs to almost 8lbs. We have a board that is perfect for every rider not like most companies who want the rider to fit their board, we build a board to fit the rider! We have a huge selection of graphics that range from the old school woody look to our vinyl decals, to our latest model of the rubber top with our logo painted on it. We use the highest quality of material to insure our product is second to none! I have had each of our boards in the back of my truck for almost 4 weeks now, through the heat, rain, and all other extremes just to see what the board would do. To this day I still ride all of them and they all have the same rocker they started with.

Inland Skimboarding: How did the name of your company originate?
Virgin River Board Co.: When we were trying to think of our name we were trying to think of something that everyone in the skimboarding community would recognize and also hit home on the local scene as well. That was when it hit us that Virgin River Board Co. was the one.

Inland Skimboarding: Where is Virgin River Skimboards located?
Virgin River Board Co.: We are located here in St. George, Utah. All of our boards are made here locally in our shop and are available in our store at 968 E. St. George Blvd, or on our website at www.vrskimz.com.

Inland Skimboarding: How long have you been making skimboards?
Virgin River Board Co.: We have been doing research and development on the boards for a little over a year now. We have really hit the scene hard this year and plan to make it bigger from here on out!

Inland Skimboarding: A lot of inland skimboarders start off on boards that they have made themselves. What are the advantages of moving to a professionally manufactured board?
Virgin River Board Co.: There are a couple of great advantages to have a professional board. I have used home made boards, as I am sure everyone else has too, but the biggest advantage I have found is that I can fully enjoy the sport more and have a better experience. Our boards are more than just a professional board they are hand crafted one by one here in St. George to insure the quality and durability of our boards. We like to think that it is more of a hand crafted board than a mass produced board. We pride ourselves on paying attention to the details so the rider doesn't have to. Less time on the river bank fixing or worrying and more time riding!

Inland Skimboarding: What makes a good inland skimboard?
Virgin River Board Co.: We feel that a solid board with perfect rocker, and a company that stands behind their product. I see a lot of these "one time use boards", that you can buy for $30 or $40, but I have noticed that kids never seem to enjoy their time skimmming. That’s why we have made it one of our goals and focuses to build a great beginner/intermediate board for not much more than how much you will spend on replacing a couple of “one time use” boards in a year. We feel it will also help keep the kids’ interest in skimboarding and help draw more people to the skimboarding community.

Inland Skimboarding: Tell us about your inland skimboards.
Virgin River Board Co.: All of our boards have end to end rocker with an hpl bottom. We have just released our new line with the rubber tops. They have proven to do well for us. We can do any color that the customer wants and/or they can paint on it themselves! I think that is really cool, as it offers the customer to have a one of a kind board, and keep the individualality that people like. We offer S/M and M/L in all of our lines. Like I mentioned before we use only the best materials to insure our boards are made to last and handle the abuse of the sport, and in St. George, the heat!

Inland Skimboarding: Why should I buy a Virgin River skimboard?
Virgin River Board Co.: We offer the best built board out there! Out of the boards I ride everyday I use and abuse them hard. I let anyone and everyone ride them. When most people test ride them, the first thing I hear is "I will take it easy so I don't break it" I always reply "if you can break it I will give you one"!!! Who else would tell you that?! I have not had one of our new boards break or warp! I think it’s in the adhesive we use, and the way we laminate them. The only way to find out our boards are the best is to ride one. I am more than happy to let new comers ride them and see for themselves that our boards are the best, and they need one!

Inland Skimboarding: What makes your inland skimboards unique?
Virgin River Board Co.: I would say it has to be the fact that this is all we do. Our whole focus and goal is to offer the best inland skimboards. Our board shape is awesome and has perfect rocker and weight that every rider is looking for. We build the board around the rider not the rider around the board!

Inland Skimboarding: What kind of testing/quality control do your boards go through?
Virgin River Board Co.: We do hours and hours of research before we even decide to try a new product. Once we decide we want to try it, we go through about 4 different processes of how it could be done. In doing this we find the best way to utilize the product and get the most out of it. I personally inspect every board, as I make them all by myself. If I have any doubt or concerns I either fix it if it can be, or analyze it to see what went wrong. We take every board and have our sponsored riders use them, and get their feed back and then put them through all extremes. We test the cold, the heat, and direct sunlight for weeks on end. Before I launch a new board I think it’s safe to say if we are going to have any problems with it I will know about it and have it corrected before we start to produce. Granted there are those that you don't find until later, but that’s the nature of things.

Inland Skimboarding: Rails have become an integral part of inland skimboarding. Boards take quite a bit of abuse as a result. Talk a little bit about the challenge that presents when designing and building inland skimboards.
Virgin River Board Co.: Whoever figures this one out first will be a millionaire! It seems like the two biggest problems are the edges of your board getting dinged and causing water damage, and the bottoms wearing out. We feel we have found a great solution to the edge problem as our rubber coating is completely wrapped around the edge of the board. It will still chip off on a big enough hit but your have to hit it really hard. The bottoms is still up in the air. We have some great ideas we are researching and developing now and are hoping to have a couple of answers in the near future. So keep your eyes open as we try to crack this nut!

Inland Skimboarding: When you get feedback from inland riders, what positive things do you hear most often?
Virgin River Board Co.: We hear a lot of positive feedback on a couple of things. First is the rocker and size. The second is the weight. One person’s ideal weight related to another’s could be pounds different. Well we covered that! We have the same size board in two different weights. Our heaviest board in a M/L with our rubber top is just under 8 lbs. Our lightest board in the same size and finish is just over 6 1/2 lbs. So as you can see we have really put a lot of time and effort into catering to the riders and their comfort and liking.

Inland Skimboarding: Where do you see the sport of inland skimboarding 10 years from now?
Virgin River Board Co.: I honestly see it in the X-Games with hundreds of thousands of viewers! That is one of our goals, to do everything we can to help the skimboarding community grow and make the skimming scene bigger. We need to get it in front of everybody, and that’s what Virgin River Board Co. intends on doing.

Inland Skimboarding: Do you see anything new on the horizon technology wise that will improve the next generation of inland skimboarding?
Virgin River Board Co.: I can see bigger and better ramps and rails. What we have now is a huge step from where skimboarding originated in the 70's. I don't want to give it away, but I will say this, don't miss next years Virgin River Classic. This next year’s event will be above and beyond what anyone in this community has seen!

Inland Skimboarding: As a board manufacturer, is there anything you can do, or are doing, to increase the respect for inland skimboarding?
Virgin River Board Co.: We have been working with Mike Gardner, who has been in the St. George skimboarding scene for the past 20 years, with the scout troops on what it takes to build a board and teaching them how, and about skimboarding in hopes that it will spark interest in skimboarding and help grow the skimboarding community and scene locally.

Inland Skimboarding: What inland skimboarding events have you been involved with? Tell us about your experiences at those events.
Virgin River Board Co.: We have worked with the city on the Virgin River Classic this past year. I also was in charge of the skimboard making class that the city of St. George offers each summer for the kids. They were both great experiences, and it gave us great ideas and goals for next year. It was a great learning year on how we can be a bigger help next year to really make a difference in the Virgin River Classic, and the skimboard making class.

Inland Skimboarding: Do you have any sponsored inland skimboarders? What does it take for an inland skimboarder to get sponsored by Virgin River Skimboards?
Virgin River Board Co.: We do have a good team we have put together. Our riders have been great to work with. They are great to help us reach our goals, and our projects with the scouts, camps, and so forth. As far as getting sponsored by us, obviously we look for talented riders, but also we look for someone who is a team player and is willing work with the local kids on teaching them about skimboarding by giving them pointers, and helping us with camps that we plan on holding.

Inland Skimboarding: Any last comments?
Virgin River Board Co.: Over all I would like to give a special thanks to Mike Gardner, at DMG films, as he has been a huge part of keeping the skimboarding scene alive here in St. George, and all of our riders and the locals for helping us create a great board! We plan on helping take inland skimboarding to the next level. As we make plans, one of our goals is to see the Virgin River Classic be THE spot every year. We are working on taking all the right steps towards that and hope to have an even better turn out next year, We are also working on having a few of the issues resolved, as there is a little stigma we are trying to help St. George over come. We have such confidence in our boards that we are doing a promo offer, much like the government’s cash for clunkers. We are doing our own "Cash for skimunkers". You can bring in your board, whether it is store bought or home made, and we will give you up to $50 off on a new Virgin River Board Co. skimboard. This offer runs from August 1, 2009 to September 26, 2009! You can email chan@vrskimz.com or call 702-672-7157 for details.

You can check out the Virgin River Board Co. on the web at www.vrskimz.com.