Snowboard maker Bataleon is one of the most recent Scandinavian-based brands to jump the Atlantic and start making tracks in the US. With the help of Norwegian pros Stale Lien, Kim Christiansen, and Christian Halland, Bataleon was founded by self-proclaimed mad scientist Jørgen Karlsen and snowboard instructor John Knutsson—but it wasn’t until the team hit upon the brand’s now-patented Triple Base Technology that things really began to take off.
Initially developed for precision and acceleration for backcountry freestyle riding, the 3-D profiled base technology ended up performing in the park. But as International Brand Manager John Knutsson knows, new technology isn’t enough to sell a brand on paper: “The only place we can convince people about the qualities of the Triple Base is on the mountain.” Or on the streets of Scandinavia, as demonstrated in the Norwegian film One Too Many Mornings (view the trailer below).
Though the brand has had good success in Scandinavia in a relatively short period of time, building a reputation in the United States is the team's priority. With its four current business partners working from offices in Oslo, the Alps, and near Mt. Hood, Oregon, the company seems to be covering its mountain bases. “We’re basically based in our board bags, trying to cover as much of the snow-covered world as possible,” says Knutsson.
Left to right: Evil Twin, Undisputed, Enemy
Left to right: Violenza, Hero, Goliath
Bataleon was originally founded in Oslo back in 2002. Jørgen Karlsen had made an extensive study of the riding properties of snow boarding equipment in the late nineties and observed that a conventional flat board changed its shape when going through a curve. The torsion forces twisted the board in a 3D shape, leaving it with a smaller angle to the ground at the tip and tail, and the maximum angle in the middle. It was evident that this shape was beneficial for the riding properties of the board; in order to take advantage of that, they split the base of the board in three parts, giving it a 3D shape where the left base is shaped for turning left, the middle part of the base is shaped for going straight, and the right base is shaped for turning right.
The result was a board with a triple base, where each part of the base was shaped like the natural shape of a board in motion. Bataleon claims the Triple Base Technology, patented in 1998, gives great advantages going straight, in carves and edge-to-edge transitions by reducing the tendency of edge-catch and giving a smoother and faster riding experience.
Jørgen Karlsen (Born 1954) gained a B.Sc in Biophysics from NTNU in Trondheim. Since then he’s been running his own holding company (Jørgen Karlsen AS) and now owns several companies in a diverse range of fields including mechanical engineering, sports equipment, horticultural production and real estate ventures. Jorgen is also currently the R&D Director at A-Viral.
Check out this fantastic trailer for One Too Many Mornings by Disorder Films which recently won the best Norwegian film award.
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