After spending months throughout the spring and summer testing �bi-deck� snowskate designs, Mike Olsen, co-founder of Mervin Mfg. and a posse of Mervin employees, have tweaked the snowskate as we know it into a design that actually works.

Design testing took place in an undisclosed location with year-round snow cover, miles away from the prying eyes at Mt Hood. Not only does this new design work, but it performs better than anyone thought a snowskate could.

�This board gives us the feeling we were looking for back in the very beginning of snowboarding. It really feels more like skating and surfing than it does snowboarding,� said Mike. The key to the board�s high performance is the Bent Metal trucks placement, which works in synergy with the flex of the ski. The board has been tested on snow in a wide variety of conditions causing the engineers to re-think snowskate design. Olsen and other testers have ridden everything from boilerplate to a few inches of fresh on slopes up to a black diamond level.

Greg Hughes, Mervin Sales Manager adds, �It sounds overly simplistic to say that our skate really works but it�s amazing how much better it performs than anything else out there�. �It has more of a snowboard construction complete with great graphics. And it�s waterproof. It sounds ridiculous when I say it but current models on the market are not. We thought it was a �no brainer� feature.�

Look for the Gnu Snowkateboard in two models; the Michigan at $179 retail and the Danny Kass Model for $199, at the Mervin booth at SIA booth # 2613. There will be limited numbers available for immediate delivery.

For more information on Mervin Manufacturing, Lib Technologies, Gnu Snowboards, or Bent Metal Binders, please call 206-270-9792 or visit http://www.mervin.com/