PORT AU PORT EAST What started out several years ago as an idea has developed into a business three snowboarders hope will grow.
Magine Snowboards and Skis in Port au Port East got its start in December 2010 after owners Steve Wheeler, Marcel Savidon and Mike Maddock worked part time for nearly a year and a half making prototypes of snowboards.
They worked with the Community Business Development Corporation in developing their passion into a business and today they put out an average of one snowboard a day from their shop.
“The custom boards have been going real good,” Wheeler said during an interview on Monday. “We now have boards going out to retailers in Corner Brook and St. John’s in this province, Halifax, Truro and Bedford, N.S. and to Sussex, N.B.”
The three have been kept quite busy supplying those retailers with boards and are now hoping to expand their sales with their online retail section located on their website http://maginesnowboards.com.
Everything is produced in their shop in Port au Port East and the wood used in the process, including poplar, spruce and birch are supplied by Forest Floors and Paneling in nearby Cold Brook.
The owners believe in being as environmentally friendly as possible in the making of their products and that’s why they are working at using ecological products and are currently testing some bio-fibre composite materials in place of fibreglass. That product is obtained from the composite innovation centre in Winnipeg, Man.
While their concentration is on the snowboards, which are ready for market, right now they hope to work on several prototypes for skis this winter and get into producing them next year.
“Really, our goal is to employ more people,” Maddock said. “We want to hit our target market in Atlantic Canada, which is underway, and to go from there.”
All graphics for the snowboards are done by a local artist, and they have three local boarders in Corner Brook who are competing on their handcrafted snowboards, including Josh Keough, Marina Montevecchi and Chris Lake, who will be providing feedback to them.
While much of the equipment they have was actually homemade by local people, they just recently had a grinder delivered to the business that is in the range of $16,000, their largest purchase to date. This will be used to smooth and take out any imperfections in the boards and they feel its money that is well spent as they move forward. The machine had to be shipped to them all the way from Germany, where it’s manufactured.
As for their name, the three considered pages of names they had jotted down and kept coming back to an original suggestion by Savidon.
“Magine — it’s simple and people say it a lot in a slangy, but fun way and that’s why we kept going back to it,” Maddock said.