Boston’s affinity for extreme sports is apparent. The excitement around an article we published back in July about a proposed skatepark beneath the Zakim Bridge was so intense it nearly broke our site. But now as we bid a gloomy farewell to summer, plan to enjoy fall and try our damnedest not to give a single thought to winter, a handful of local innovators are actually waiting on bated breath for inches upon inches of fresh powder. That’s because they’re handcrafting snowboards, hoping to grant other shredders the benefits of a locally-grown product.

On Wednesday, October 1, Juke Snowboarding went live with their Kickstarter campaign to help solicit funds to be able to afford snowboarders of any level of expertise specially designed and pressed boards for the 2015 season.

As you’ll see in the pitch video above, Juke boards are customizable which is just one aspect that separates them apart from larger, more generic manufacturers.

I sat down with Pat Rodgers, who’s in charge of the company’s business development, about how he and co-founders Tim Reilly and Bill Connolly, along with media maven Mackenzie Hennessey brought Juke to life, the moguls speed bumps they’ve encountered and what’s in store for the imminent future.

Juke was formed back in 2010 when the aforementioned constituents started chatting about the feasibility of building their own boards. They began pulling together the required materials – wood, plastics, scrap metal, etc. – and were even fortunate enough to come across their own press which they bought at a significantly cheaper rate than the market price.

“With our boat out of commission we needed something to fill the void,” explained Reilly in a statement, “and being avid snowboarders we decided to dive head first in learning everything we could about building them ourselves.”

From the wooden core – for which they prefer poplar and oak – to the fiber glass encasing, to the epoxy finish, Juke boards are specially tailored to provide the utmost performance for both park and terrain.

They built a custom mold which allows them to build boards in various shapes to better handle differing topography and flexibility concerns. They also have an in-house graphic designer to users can personalize the aesthetics to their own tastes and style.

“Overall our technology and tools have come a long way since when we began in college back in 2010,” Rodgers said. “Our tools are not as assembly-lined-style as some of the big shops but we are still making the same high quality, very versatile, type of snowboard for the public to shred their faces off on the slopes.”

It hasn’t all been smiles and snowflakes for the Juke brass, though. Unfortunately they experienced problems like delaminating and warping with the press they acquired and subsequently had to spring for a new one.

But since then, they’ve been test-running designs and are now able to offer it to the masses.

With the Kickstarter campaign, for which they’ve already raised $2,480 of their $10,000 goal from 26 backers at the time this article was published, Juke hopes to have 75 boards on hand by next winter. Though they aren’t expecting to hit profitability until then or the season after, they’ll use any monetary gains to market their boards to respectable retailers and bring them to a shop near you.

Check out the Kickstarter page here for more information about Juke and its product line and find out how you can get free swag within the next 28 days.

Images via Juke Snowboarding

You can read more stories on Boston startups, technology and innovation at https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/inno