It was the time when everyone was jigsawing their nose and tails to be blunt and reduce swing weight for more freestyle riding. The new school crazy was alive in Summit County, CO and it was baggy jeans, chain wallets with plaid shirts. The skateboard influence was the trend in the industry. Burton team riders such as Stevie Alters and J2 were pushing Burton to make this board. They had already been chopping down their Air 6.1 to look like a twin and then they got the Twin Ouija but it wasn’t really cut down. So it was only a matter of time before Burton was going to make this board to keep pace with the ever changing landscape of the snowboard scene at the time.
This board was designed to jib, rail slide, log ride. The Ouija Twin had come out but it still wasn’t the board that the team riders wanted. The Blacktop twin was a mid season early release and only came, I think, in 2 sizes in very limited production runs. Dealers jumped on the chance to have this limited board in the shops and kids wanted this board because it was just soooo fricking cool.
Burton was not known as the cool brand. Snowboarding was cool but Burton was the big giant, the corporate snowboard company if there was such a thing. Brands like Joyride, Lib Tech, Aggression and the 100’s of other wannabe skate influenced brands were the hot trend. Burton acted quickly to cement themselves as the brand for everyone from the backcountry guy to the skate rat. They were leading the market with the biggest team, the biggest line and the most market share. Nothing could stop Burton.
