PowderJets and the Sunday Morning Series

In the understated town of Peru, Vermont Jesse Loomis makes snowboards. PowderJets to be exact. Constructed by hand with environmentally conscious methods using decades worth of experience and reflection, PowderJets are in effect the simplest, most efficient snowboards out. Designed for backcountry boarding, the combination of old school shapes with new school technology (mainly a concave tail and metal edges) allows for confident maneuvering on classic East Coast ice too.

As the modest brand’s slogan goes, “They have factories, we have a workshop.” And in this workshop Loomis is usually a one man show. Though recently he teamed up with long time riding buddy and celebrated NYC-based artist Scott Lenhardt, with the end result being the Sunday Morning Series—three one-of-a-kind snowboards hand cut and crafted by Loomis, and hand painted by Lenhardt.

As the story goes Loomis and Lenhardt are old pals, having met while working in the rental shop of the local Vermont ski hill as teens. In the decades since the two have logged too many laps together to count, Loomis has made a name for himself as a pioneer in the return-to-roots movement in snowboarding design, and Lenhardt has gone on to create over 50 snowboard graphics for some of the biggest names in the biz, not to mention earn numerous solo exhibitions in galleries around the globe. Yet they had yet to officially collaborate on an off-hill project.

Then legendary Salt Lake City boardshop Milosport called, and commissioned three unique board designs. Loomis saw the opportunity as a chance to finally tap Lenhardt’s talents. The fact that Lenhardt happened to be crashing at his house while visiting family in Vermont of the holidays made the ask even easier.

As the three boards were destined for Utah, their respective shapes needed to reflect the terrain they’d eventually be ridden on. Drawing inspiration from classic Winterstick designs from snowboarding’s early days, Loomis designed each with stances and sidecut set back, big bold noses, and flowing curves—each detail adding together to create a complete design intended for all-mountain surfing.

The artwork would have to match too. Lenhardt was up to the task, even if his inspirations were a bit less concrete. The sun motif draws on that very ski hill where the two came up together—Bromley, aka “Sun Mountain”—combined with a dash of Utah’s very own Sundance Kid (a bit of a stretch, but ok, we’ll roll with it) and was painted in a style reminiscent of Lenhardt’s adolescent work.

“I was able to tap into the early/mid 90’s mindset where I would paint trippy faces without thinking too hard because I was young and high on life,” he explains.

We can dig it.