Contributor // WACKLE

In the 80′s a part big of the surf/skate and later, the snow “experience”, was trying to find like minded fools to share the stoke. The Westbeach shop became a meeting place and ultimately an info source. These Westbeach newsletter helped spread the gospel and tune riders into the scene. Now of course snowboarding is mainstream, we get info from blogs, websites, mags, and all this seems silly. But at the time, these newsletters were the pulse.

Snowboards evolved in much the same way that Westbeach did – By trial and error and the pioneer spirit….

A Quebec legend of notable mention was Louis “LOFO” Fournier. Emmanuel Krebs told us about him being the first to make highbacks and we learn a great deal more from LOFO. Frustrated with his inability to fit his board into his Renault, he cut his custom made highbacks in two. Check out this pick of him taken from our book (look to reserve your copy online soon) at an event in the early 80′s. Note that the competitors behind him don’t even have highbacks!

Check LOFO’s workshop crafted boards below. Nice SNOWBOARD SHOP sticker on the W-1! Lastly, check out LOFO in his workshop below in 1985. This was where the magic happened. And of course, a pic of LOFO in his WESTBEACH PANTS circa 87-88.

Innovation started in the workshop as seen in the below image of Lofo in his dad’s shop.

Check out these mid 80′s skate deck at the Westbeach shop – bright colours were in, shapes were changing, this was skateboarding’s second coming. Snowboarding would be next.

Graphics were ever everything and still are

Contributor // Lenny Rubenovitch

Check out this short video my crew and I made about the history of snowboarding in Whistler. As you may know, we will be releasing some upcoming Westbeach Anniversary videos……more on that later.

The Whistler Film Festival in association with underexposed media group presents a Whistler Stories Film: The First To Go Up, a brief history of snowboarding in Whistler.The First To Go Up documents the story of the first snowboarders allowed to ride on Blackcomb and Whistler Mountains, and the struggles they encountered as this upstart new sport took hold.

Whistler, 2007

The First to Go Up, a brief history of snowboarding in Whistler

Skateboarding’s popularity was suffering in the early 80′s and fashion was changing, surf culture was in, while the snurfer and snowboarding were on the rise. Bright colours and Californian culture were being imported in Canada and the California dream was alive and kicking.

Yes, the ad below does say, “DIG THIS BUYERS”. I think I still do.

-Jon Cartwright

This framed advertisement comes from Chip’s personal archive of Westbeach memories. It was probably the first ad that Westbeach did and from what I can tell it ran in a trade magazine in the early 80′s. It is also one of the few pieces of advertising that Chip kept. His archive also contained some amazing examples of the early snow clothing and lots of internal comunications.

Some of the things that I find interesting about this ad is the cut and paste that is a holdover of the recent punk movement, the lack of name identification, The shorts are called “chips shorts”, as well as “2 HIP” just within this ad. Chip has also called them “bbq shorts” and of course they ended up being Westbeach shorts. The name “Westbeach” is relegated to the tiny yellow strip on the bottom right (mostly hidden beneath the frame). The brand was definitely tying to find its name still at this point.

Also, the “surfer” in the top photo, on the left, is Shane Bunting who later went on to fame as “Madchild” from  the Canadian hiphop crew “Swollen Members”

- Dano

Westbeach began 30 years ago before snowboarding existed as we now know it. “Streetwear” and “lifestyle” were new ideas imported from California’s surf and skate scene. Chip Wilson’s Westbeach Calgary shop (pictured here) was the spot to get your latest trends, get some original California brands, and know there was more out there than 501′s and button ups. No snowboard sold here yet – it was all about the short!