A ski having vents for venting snow from beneath the ski to a location above the ski and a modified keel that provides for greater and easier directional control over the ski relative to a conventional ski.

The disclosure herein is directed toward systems and methods for supporting a person and enabling motion of a person across a surface of snow while satisfying the countervailing requirements of increasing surface area for weight-carrying capacity on soft snow and reducing the opposing forces, like for example drag and friction, in hard snow. More specifically, a snowboard described herein includes an inner edge and an outer edge, and allows the rider to control the amount of board-to-snow contact. This snowboard is configured to improve rider support, increase speed and enhance safety performance.

A ski having vents for venting snow from beneath the ski to a location above the ski and a modified keel that provides for greater and easier directional control over the ski relative to a conventional ski.

A snow ski assembly is provided for use by an individual to slide across a snow covered surface, for example, under the force of gravity. The assembly includes a ski having a bottom wall for engaging the snow covered surface and an upturned peripheral region extending around a perimeter of the bottom wall. The bottom wall of the ski includes at least one control structure extending across at least a portion of the bottom wall, where the at least one control structure is configured to control a movement of the ski on the snow covered surface. The assembly also includes a mounting feature configured to couple a binding to the bottom wall of the ski, such that the individual can position a foot in the binding and use the ski to slide across the snow covered surface.

A snowboard, snowboard assembly, and snowboard accessory for converting a snowboard into training snowboard. There is a board and a pivot member/strip. The pivot member/strip is elongated member protruding from the underside of the board along the main axis of the board. The pivot member/strip has a base width that is greater than a width of the flat bottom of the strip and greater than a height of the strip. The flat bottom of the strip is flanked by beveled edges along each side and at the front and back. The strip is either integral to the board or is couple thereto by a coupling structure (e.g. adhesive, binding, snaps, clips). The strip has a trapezoidal cross-section. Flanking beveled edges may have an acute angle with respect to the base and/or an obtuse angle with respect to the flat bottom surface.

A ski having vents for venting snow from beneath the ski to a location above the ski and a modified keel that provides for greater and easier directional control over the ski relative to a conventional ski.

A rotating binding for a snowboard or other recreational equipment to which a user's foot is attached includes a lever having teeth at one end for engaging corresponding teeth in a disk attached to the snowboard or other equipment. Movement of the lever is resisted until an additional movement of the lever is performed in order to unsecure the lever from a secured position in which it engages the teeth within the disk. Some examples of the snowboard or other recreational equipment may include retractable fins that may be extended downward from the snowboard, or secured in a retracted position.

A snowshoe-ski kit comprising a hybrid snowshoe-ski comprising a main body defining a bottom surface operative for moving over snow and having a snowshoe-ski traction coefficient, and a top surface opposite the bottom surface. The hybrid snowshoe-ski further comprises a binding attached to the main body for attachment to a person's foot atop the top surface. The kit also comprises a first removable and reversible sheet-like skin having opposite first and second surfaces each defining respective first and second skin traction coefficients that differ from each other and that differ from the snowshoe-ski bottom surface traction coefficient. The first skin is removably attachable to the snowshoe-ski main body with either one of the first and second surfaces bearing against the bottom surface and the other one of the first and second surfaces being exposed, for allowing the snowshoe-ski to be operatively used either alone or with the first skin installed with either one of the first and second skin surfaces exposed.

A steering system for a snowboard includes two binding interface pods, one of which may be active and one of which may be passive. Rotation or tilting of a top plate of the active binding interface pod in response to rotation or tilting of the rider's steering foot causes counter-rotation of a steering fin under the rider's steering foot. The passive binding interface pod is responsive via a linkage between the active and passive binding interface pods to cause rotation of a steering fin under the rider's non-steering foot. Coordinated counter-rotation of the steering fins causes the board to turn in the direction of rotation of the rider's steering foot when the steering fins are unaligned. Optionally, both binding pods may be active in steering, i.e. enabling two footed steering.

A rotating binding for a snowboard or other recreational equipment to which a user's foot is attached includes a lever having teeth at one end for engaging corresponding teeth in a disk attached to the snowboard or other equipment. Movement of the lever is resisted until an additional movement of the lever is performed in order to unsecure the lever from a secured position in which it engages the teeth within the disk. Some examples of the snowboard or other recreational equipment may include retractable fins that may be extended downward from the snowboard, or secured in a retracted position.