The Sunday Story Behind the Photo with Steve

Let's start this story with some history behind this board:

So the Story goes... In the early days of snowboarding, there was a rider from Washington State named Craig Kelly. He was considered one of the best, and Burton wanted him on the team. The problem was that Kelly was under contract with Sims Snowboards and could not ride for anyone else. So Craig Kelly and Burton founder, Jake Carpenter, would meet in secret to discuss future plans and ideas.

For the 1989 catalog, Burton wanted to give Kelly his own signature pro board, but Kelly wasn’t yet free of his obligations to Sims Snowboards. So Carpenter came up with a solution, instead of naming the board after Kelly they would call it the Mystery Air and would ship the product in wooden crates with the words “Top Secret” printed on them. The move was genius — the buzz around the board was huge.



Kelly went on to be one of Burton’s most successful team riders helping to build the brand to Burton Snowboards we know today. He was four-time world champion and won three U.S. Open titles. After his competition days ended, he pioneered the freeriding movement and traveled the world making snowboarding movies. Tragically Craig's life was cut short by an avalanche in British Columbia in 2003 but he will forever be a legend in the sport.

Now let's get to the story behind my Mystery Air:

In the late fall of 1992 I went to Killington to make some early turns. As I was leaving Killington I pulled up to the stop sign at the bottom of the access road and THERE IT WAS. Sticking out of the snow, in front of a ski/snowboard shop, a 1989 BURTON MYSTERY AIR. Seeing as there were only 250 Mystery Airs made this was a rare occurrence... Even crazier was the shop was using it as a display to let people leaving the mountain know that they carried snowboards.

I couldn't believe it. Here I was in the middle of ski country at one of the busiest stop signs in VT, looking at the first Burton Pro model ever made. It was just sitting front and center in the snow for all to see and while I had never seen this board in person I knew exactly what it was. Most shops never received this board because so few were even ordered. If you ordered it that year it was sight unseen.

I pull in the parking lot and went straight inside and to see if they would be willing to sell it. They looked at me like I was crazy and started firing off questions; "the board in the snow?" "why would you want that?" "I'll get the manager" "the board outside?" "I think it's broken, you want to buy it?" I ended up walking out of the shop with the board for seventy five dollars and they were probably thinking they ripped me off.... HAHA!!!

I still remember seeing that board sitting in the snow and I laugh to myself when I think about how many people saw that board but didn't see what I saw. It's in the collection for good and I'm so stoked to have such a great piece of snowboard history.

The board originally retailed for $499.00 and The catalog blurb was as follows;

The Mystery Air is the most radical halfpipe board on the market. Soon the secret will be out, and you can shred with it at a mountain near you.

specs:
Vertically Laminated Wood Core sealed with ABS sidewalls.
Composite Fiberglass sandwich construction.
Variable Flex Pattern.
Radial Sidecut for natural arc turns.
Freestyle tail kick for tricks.
Cracked Carbon steel racing edge.
Sintered UHMW Ptex 2000 racing base.
Rubber dampening strips between the edge and the sidewall.
Heat treated aluminium tip and tail protectors.
Thermoplastic dampening laminates in nose and tail.
Sixteen hole rear binding insert pattern for extended angulation and stance width selection.
Choice of Multiflex or Variplate binding.
Non-Skid Mat for riding chairlifts or T-bars.
Steel inserts laminated into core.
Shred-ready: Factory tuned and waxed to racer specifications.