Snowboarder Guide

From ExtremeWiki

Snowboarder Guide (SBG) is a snowboard product, equipment, and resort review resource. Their mission is to provide in-depth reviews of snowboard products and resorts from the perspective of every-day riders.

SBG has many of the features of a traditional magazine, like news, articles, and interviews, but their primary trade is reviews. The magazine manages a team of reviewers who write "Featured Reviews" for the site, but as of 2008, anyone can write a review on any snowboard product as well.

[edit] History

Snowboarder Guide was founded in the fall of 1998 as an online resort review resource. Editor Chris Rogers, and two of his friends, set out in a small motorhome to ride at as many western resorts as possible. Early in the planning process they discovered that there weren’t any guides to help a rider decide where to ride. http://www.snowboarderguide.com was soon live and reporting on resorts around the US.

In 2001 SBG was expanded to include product reviews. A site update followed shortly. 2001 was also the first year the mag began attending events as media.

In 2002 the product review section of the website really took off, as SBG discovered the huge demand for information about snowboard products. Some of the original crew was no longer actively involved with snowboarding, and so the review team was formed to disperse the reviews among more writers.

The 2002-2003 season proved there was more interest in the product reviews than in the resort reviews, and while SBG continued to review resorts, the priority really shifted towards products. The team was receiving more products than ever before, with seven different reviewers out testing gear.

In the fall of 2004 the editorial staff relocated to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Steamboat was chosen due to a review of the mountain a couple years previously. Chris’ statement was “Of all the resorts we’ve reviewed, it was the first mountain that I felt I could live at.” The magazine continued to grow, and over the 2004-2005 season saw more than 1 million visitors. This traffic more than doubled over the next year, with more than 2.5 million hits in the 05/06 season.

The site continues to grow and adapt to the needs and wants of its readers. 2008 saw the introduction of a new website and the invitation for all readers to write reviews. SBG is now the largest snowboard equipment and resort review magazine.