HARDGOODS 25/26

[Msteff]

I believe elan pressed their early boards and then when the factory went under Capita bought it.

[C.Fuzzy]

Smokey this is not Nam

This is snowboarding. There are rules

Rules.gif (1.92 MiB) Viewed 5165 times

[pow_hnd]

First hand info from a former Capita employee. Boards are built by underpaid and overworked Slovenian guest workers.
Of course its not like China or Dubai or even Taiwan but still made hesitant to buy a Capita.

Gonna call BS on what the former employee said. The labor laws in the EU and wage scales are very stringent and getting around them is not really possible.

It’s those exact reasons why Nidecker Group, which already had a factory in Switzerland based their production in Dubai, when they started up the other brands under their umbrella.

[eleveneightnate]

Is "overworked" in Europe when you put in 24 hours a week, get socialized healthcare, and only get 3 sausage/smoke breaks instead of 4?

[Spenser]

Is "overworked" in Europe when you put in 24 hours a week, get socialized healthcare, and only get 3 sausage/smoke breaks instead of 4?

As a snowboard bum in the US on Medicaid whose most recent job was at a small dispensary my friends owned, I feel personally attacked

[Blessed420]

First hand info from a former Capita employee. Boards are built by underpaid and overworked Slovenian guest workers.
Of course its not like China or Dubai or even Taiwan but still made hesitant to buy a Capita.

Gonna call BS on what the former employee said. The labor laws in the EU and wage scales are very stringent and getting around them is not really possible.

It’s those exact reasons why Nidecker Group, which already had a factory in Switzerland based their production in Dubai, when they started up the other brands under their umbrella.

well not like that, you can ofcourse get cheaper labour from neighbour countries etc, in finland the "cheap" workers come from estonia even cheaper from latvia and cheapest from lithuania.

and they will be given a minimum wage contract as it is but usually when they work as contractors so they can be paid even less.

i think in aus there is no minimun wage so you can just give them a deal and aus general income is about 55k and slovenian 25k so its simple you can get cheaper labour from there.

[alexxx]

While personal accounts are unreliable, work life in "Europe" isn't all sunshine and roses, more importantly there there's no one Europe when it comes to labor laws, regulations and wages. Each country is still different and there is undoubtedly a lot of labor "arbitrage" going on. Temporary contracts, gig workers, cheap labor from low wage locales are commonplace. Especially in the countries where the legislation is the strictest and the businesses are struggling to eke out a profit with the backdrop of inflation, high taxes, insane energy costs, red tape, healthcare (someone still needs to pay it even when it isn't as predatory as in the US) etc.
I doubt tho that Capita treats its workers worse than the average sizable business in Austria which is still light years better than most any factory in the Middle East or Asia.

[casjcade]

Workers buy and pack all the supplies/food they need in their country, work 4-6 weeks in a more expensive country, often two full time jobs in shifts if they can swing it, then home for 2-3 weeks, rince repeat. Free supply of energy drinks from employer, or deducted from pay.

[G.D.]

Finally got to ride again this past weekend, during a big demo day event set up by my main local shop (the hermano @ad1105 was helping out the Mervin tent, actually ).Only tried two boards; don't really have much interest in any other ones at the moment, tbh.

Rode both the W26 Capita Aero & the Mercury. Both didn't really excite as much as I was hoping, esp the Aero. Could be due to the fact it felt barely broken in, but the 57 Longo felt a lot stiffer underfoot than I expected and prefer these days. Rode it for a few laps (conditions were firm slush, fwiw) and wanted to switch out sooner than I was expecting.

Tried the 57 Merc right after it and felt a touch less stiff underfoot & had a touch more torsional flex than the Aero, but not by much. Stayed on the Merc longer, for maybe close to an hour ... But tbh, enjoy my 54 & 57 Passport much more. Similar flex overall, but a little less dead feeling. Was really surprised ngl, esp the Aero. The feedback I've heard since it released was it was not that stiff and rides pretty lively, which is what I was looking forward to. And I've been wanting to get a Capita board for a while now. Guess the wait continues ;p.

[Alkasquawlik]

Finally got to ride again this past weekend, during a big demo day event set up by my main local shop (the hermano @ad1105 was helping out the Mervin tent, actually ).Only tried two boards; don't really have much interest in any other ones at the moment, tbh.

Rode both the W26 Capita Aero & the Mercury. Both didn't really excite as much as I was hoping, esp the Aero. Could be due to the fact it felt barely broken in, but the 57 Longo felt a lot stiffer underfoot than I expected and prefer these days. Rode it for a few laps (conditions were firm slush, fwiw) and wanted to switch out sooner than I was expecting.

Tried the 57 Merc right after it and felt a touch less stiff underfoot & had a touch more torsional flex than the Aero, but not by much. Stayed on the Merc longer, for maybe close to an hour ... But tbh, enjoy my 54 & 57 Passport much more. Similar flex overall, but a little less dead feeling. Was really surprised ngl, esp the Aero. The feedback I've heard since it released was it was not that stiff and rides pretty lively, which is what I was looking forward to. And I've been wanting to get a Capita board for a while now. Guess the wait continues ;p.

I feel the same way about my Aeronaut. Specs and riding style, it seemed to be right up my alley, but there's something about it that seems lacking to me. It's a fine board as it stands, but I keep getting the pull to go back to my older Kazu. Going to ride some of the 25/26 boards this weekend and will get some ride time on the new Kazu to see how the 'new' camber profile compares to the old version with the camber through the tail. I'm already planning on buying next year's Kazu to replace the Aeronaut as the DD, but we'll see how much I like it. Worst case, I'm back on my old Kazu.