Bataleon: Camel Toe Bill Stewart Edition

This winter will be the third season for the Bataleon Camel Toe snowboard. In this time it has quickly picked up fans ranging from single week holidaymakers to committed season shredders. A cut down tail allows the Camel Toe to be ridden 5-10 cms shorter than a usual backcountry board, without sacrificing any float while keeping it very maneuverable in tight trees. As well as being unsurpassed on powder and in the backcountry, the camel toe also handles incredibly well for all mountain riding, where its soft-mid flex keeps things playful and forgiving. The eye catching outline shape is just a bonus!

For this season, we made a good thing even better and in the process paid homage to an almost forgotten piece of snowboard history. A random meeting occurred between us and one Bill Stewart at his surf shop in San Clemente, CA. As luck would have it, he was in! Bill Stewart needs no introduction to surfers: He started his company, Stewart Surfboards, 30 years ago and is widely hailed as one of the fathers of modern longboards.
 
Having listened to the explanation of the Triple Base Technology that Bataleon uses on its snowboard range, Bill stunned us by dropping the bombshell that he had created a prototype snowboard back in 1981 that employed similar outline and base shapes. Using his expertise from surf shaping, ski manufacturing and water ski design, over 30 years ago Bill had already designed and built a snowboard that included side cut, steel edges, a front foot binding and an advanced 3D base with upturned side bases and offset base channels. Having dropped this revelation, Bill then agreed to show us round his man cave so we could see the original for ourselves

While the construction materials of the boards differ, the Camel Toe includes a soft-mid flex full poplar core, reinforced with hard wood along the sidewalls. This reinforcement equalizes power delivery along the full contact edges, maximizing stability and keeps the longer nose more torsionally stable, doing a similar job to Bill’s wooden top sheet. At the same time Bi-Ax laminates ensure that the board is not overly stiff, keeping it playful all over the hill, like Bill’s foam core.
 
We released the Camel Toe as a dedicated powder surfer, but over the last two years it has become very apparent that the board performs amazingly well everywhere and consequently is well loved by the team: Shayne Pospisil using his for big mountain descents, DBK throwing switch back 7s on powder kickers as well as riding it hard in parks and on resort runs. Tor Lundstrom even throws down on one in the pipe!
 
So pick up your Bill Stewart X Bataleon Camel Toe, ride it in powder and over the whole hill and fall in love with its awesome looks and performance, just like the Bataleon team. The Camel Toe will be released as both a regular edition and the special ‘Stewart Edition’ in sizes 153, 158 and 162, so look out for them!