Traditional Hotel in an Austrian Ski Town
March nights are cold and quiet, but the discussions inside the Kogler Hotel in Mittersill are heating up. This traditional hotel in the Austrian ski town is not a typical corporate meeting room, yet it is the ideal place for Blizzard to plan the future of its brand. In the brand’s hometown, a crucial discussion about the new snowboard series Blank Canvas is underway—it will define Blizzard’s next phase in freestyle skiing.
The Blizzard team gathered in Austria to hold the first-ever Global Freestyle Ski Athlete Summit in over a decade. The summit coincides with the finalization stage of the Blank Canvas project. After more than two years of research and development, the project is now in its sprint phase, aiming for an official launch in the 2025–26 ski season.
The Blank Canvas series consists of three twin-tip snowboards, with overall flexibility significantly higher than any previous Blizzard product. This direction itself breaks the brand’s tradition and has sparked extensive in-depth discussions. Feedback between engineers and athletes is frequent and direct, with repeated deliberations on board shape, structure, and riding feel. At critical moments, the team chose to face challenges head-on.
Athletes from different backgrounds were deeply involved throughout the development of Blank Canvas, providing direct feedback to the engineering team through multiple rounds of prototype testing. This “athlete-first” development model is extremely rare in the skiing industry.
“We completely reversed the traditional process,” said Frank Shine, Blizzard Tecnica’s Global Marketing Manager. “Usually, engineers lead the design, and then athletes test it. This time, we started from the real needs of the athletes. Although the process is longer and riskier, this is exactly the direction we want to explore.”
Blank Canvas is not a rejection of Blizzard’s tradition but an extension. Known for precision and quality, Blizzard aims to integrate these genes into snowboards that better fit the contemporary freeskiing context—emphasizing elasticity, float, and flow rather than power output. To achieve this, Austrian engineers handcrafted prototypes over 730 days, with athletes repeatedly testing, adjusting, and retesting.
Connery Lundin, former champion of the Freeride World Tour, is one of the key drivers of the project. He not only provided experience support but also helped young riders accurately convey their feelings to the engineering team. “Having Blizzard make a softer snowboard sounds counterintuitive,” he said, “but we all know that if the Mittersill factory is going to make a freestyle board, it will be the best.”
The first prototypes debuted in the 2023–24 season, covering waist widths of 100, 108, and 118 millimeters. Different core structures, contours, and board shapes were continuously tested with no preset answers. As more young riders joined, the direction gradually became clearer. By the 2024–25 season, the final form began to take shape.
In the later stages of the project, the team reconvened for testing at the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier in Austria. Discussions once reached a deadlock, but the focus eventually shifted to the youngest member, Zeb Schreiber. As a representative of the next generation of freestyle skiing, he clearly described the ideal snowboard characteristics: natural release in turns, softer tips and tails, and a riding experience that inspires skiers to rethink mountain terrain. His feedback guided the final prototype’s direction.
The updated prototype then underwent spring jib testing at Palisades Tahoe. Images of Blizzard snowboards in the park began to feel natural and reasonable. In August, the final version completed testing in Portillo, Chile, marking the official maturity of the Blank Canvas project.
Visually, Blank Canvas also breaks tradition. Artist Penelope Misa was invited to design the board graphics and was granted the extremely rare freedom of complete creative control. She ultimately chose “Monotype” as the core visual language—a form of art that cannot be replicated, with each piece unique, perfectly aligning with skiing’s essence that “every turn is unrepeatable.”
Blank Canvas is not a product of a momentary inspiration but the result of long-term collaboration and shared risk among skiers, engineers, marketing teams, and artists.
“Blizzard chose to trust the athletes,” said Piper Kunst. “That’s uncommon. From riding style to visual expression, Blank Canvas always encourages people to create in their own way.”
What is ultimately presented is not just a brand-new snowboard product line but an attitude toward the future.
Blank Canvas provides Blizzard with a truly blank canvas and opens new possibilities for the next generation of freestyle skiers.