In 2004, Steven Cobb of Lib Tech's ExperiMental Division designed and built the Wiffle Board, a snowboard filled with large holes not unlike a wiffle ball.
On the Lib Tech YouTube, the legend of the wiffle board is explained: Cobb pressed two of the boards. One of the prototypes was ridden by finisher Zac Lindblad, but it broke in the early aughts. There's no video evidence, but the broken board remains in Zac's garage to this day.
Flash forward to 2024, twenty years after Lib's Wiffle Board made its ExperiMental debut, and Lib Tech designer, marketer, R&D, and PNW ripper Matteo Soltane, took the holey board to Mt. Baker to put it to the test in deep snow.
Popular Science explains in an article from 2014 (we assume the physics of wiffle balls have not changed at all since then) that wiffle balls have their identifiable design because the holes located on one side of the ball "disrupt airflow, increasing turbulence over that half of the ball. More turbulence means less drag on that side, resulting in an upward 'lift' force."
Honestly, I never took physics in school, but less drag and a lift force sounds pretty good on a pow day. In practice though, it looks like the holes may hamper float a bit. Says Mateo, jokingly in the above video, "It's a nose-diver, for sure."
Lib Tech teammate Austen Sweetin noted the all-day faceshots though, considering the extra snow kick up through the holes.
The bottom line, no matter the board he's riding, Matteo rips. And we look forward to the next product innovation from Lib Tech's ExperiMental Division.
Filmed StanTech, Lucey, and Taters, and edited by StanTech.
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