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This year I bought myself an early birthday present.

I've needed a new snowboard for a few years now. I bought my last one when I was still in high school, right around the same time I bought a pair of sunglasses that lasted almost as long. Sigh, how I miss them — but that will have to wait for another post.

The last board served me well, but I had it for over 10 years and it was starting to show its age, with chunks missing from where I had hit rocks or scraped it on the ski lift, rusty rails, etc. Not to mention that in the last decade the technology has changed a lot. My new board is a good bit lighter, and a better fit for how my riding style has changed, since it's also a little shorter.

I bought a Ride Crush, in blue.

Not only do I like the design printed on top, but it was actually designed by the kids in a middle school art class:

How cool is that?

And to top it all off, the majority of the designs are almost invisible when the board is room temperature (and the rest of the board looks like a sheet of notebook paper), but when it gets cold — like it will when in use — the designs get darker.

I got to take it out toward the end of February, and it rides like a dream. I couldn't be happier.