Photography By: Shaun Hughes

Article Wrtiien By: Nate Deschenes

From the resort to the backcountry, the Crested
Butte area is truly a hidden gem for snowboarding in
the western United States. The Colorado Boarder
has been the heartbeat of the snowboarding
community there since 1987.

The story of the shop is really that of two friends, Dave White and Jacob
Parr. In their own words: “We moved to Crested Butte on a whim. A friend
had spent the season prior there and promised it was way better then the
bigger, more well-known resorts in Colorado. So we packed up and headed
west for the mountains of Colorado with about five hundred dollars each.”
Fast forward a couple of years, and with the construction of the town’s first
skatepark looming, the guys wrote up a business plan that basically said,
as they recall, “One hundred dollars a day in business would pay the rent.”
Of course, this didn’t include a paycheck for the boys. In fact, they didn’t
take one for the first four years that they were open. No one ever said the
dream would be easy.

By 2000, they had their first employee, and the next year they bought
out their only competition in town. Since then, things have grown exponentially.
The Colorado Boarder is now the premier snowboard shop name in all of
Colorado, with one location on the ski hill, one in the town of Crested Butte,
another in neighboring Gunnison and an online store for anyone elsewhere,
showing that dedication not only pays off, but now pays the rent.

Still as motivated as ever, the guys at CB know the value ofproviding
the customer with the highest level of customer service through
employees who not only love to ride, but are required to. Dave states,
“Our employees are expected to take ride breaks. Our work schedule
is actually built to accommodate that.” That may just be the best thing
a boss could ever do for an employee. However, keeping the workers
happy could just be a ploy to make sure they come into the shop with
smiles on their faces and wanting to talk about nothing but shredding.
Sneaky. However you see it, it’s working.

As far as the shop has come since those early days, the equipment
has followed suit; Colorado Boarder has kept with the times, stocking
their shelves with nothing but the best, most progressive gear out
there. With companies like Volcom, The Program (Forum, Special Blend
and Foursquare) and the big “B” supporting the shop, you need look no
further to outfit the entire gang with premium brands. From the college
kids at nearby Western State to die hard locals, CB has the entire valley
covered. As for snow tech, know that Crested Butte is not a mellow area
and you will blow through some gear when riding here. In turn, the guys
behind the machines are used to fixing the unfixable. They claim, “If the
board isn’t broke, we will fix it.”

If you know anything about mountain living and the pride locals take
in that, it should come as no surprise that the good people behind this
shop would leave us with this: “At the end of the day, we know that there
are other core shops and other guys out there just like us, but we honestly
believe that no one has more heart and passion for what they do than at
The Colorado Boarder.”