It’s 10:30 p.m. on a Monday and the music coming from the wax and p-tex covered iHome is barely audible over the buzzing of heavy machinery. All the inventory in Boardworks Techshop is covered in blankets and bedsheets to protect it from the flying particles of debris being slung from the spinning disc saw. A tall, broad-shouldered man in Carhartt overalls and a baseball cap with a pencil behind his ear splits a vintage Lib Tech Jaime Lynn signature snowboard in two for a patron’s custom build. His name is Johnny Lupo and he’s the owner of Boardworks in Bellingham, WA.

It’s an all too familiar story in snowboarding: the little shop that couldn’t stay alive whe trying to compete with budget-driven e-commerce—those who couldn’t innovate or find a niche. But Lupo knows this. He’s been a shop employee, watched a great snowboard shop go out of business firsthand. He’s started something different—a shop that can provide a level of service and know-how not available on the web. He’s banking on custom splitboard builds, snowboard repair, and building a sense of community.

The shop itself is a humble one floor, one room brick building located behind a sketchy Chevron, kitty corner to a homeless shelter, and across from a drop-in clinic. This isn’t your middle-of-the-mall PacSun with employees who know more about slip-on shoes than hard goods. This is the real deal, a place run by lifelong snowboarders with the knowledge to get you back up and rolling when something goes wrong. Even so, the viability of opening such a humble operation entails financial, legal, and motivational hurdles in itself. Lupo saved for over five years, and was also able to secure some extra start-up capital from a long-time family friend. He was able to rent the space from another acquaintance, which may have been the lucky break that allowed his dream to come to fruition.

Lupo, 25, is a San Diego native who first rode at Bear Mountain and Mt. High, where the snow is predominantly manmade and nearly every run is littered with jib features. Even then he was passionate about snowboarding, but upon traveling north and experiencing firsthand the mountains and terrain in Washington State, Lupo discovered a whole new perspective and love for the mountains. After a few unforgettable days between Crystal Mountain and The Summit At Snoqualmie, the Pacific Northwest drew him in.

He first moved to Seattle, living with his girlfriend at the time. Lupo started looking for jobs at board shops and found a spot at one of the most reputable shops in the northwest, Snowboard Connection. “As soon as I walked in there and saw all the inventory in the store I knew that was where I wanted to work,” Lupo says.

Lupo started in a sales position then moved into the in-house repair and tune shop. During his five years at SnoCon he had the unique opportunity to train under master technician Nick Parko, whom Lupo credits for nearly everything he knows about snowboard repair and maintenance. Nick eventually left SnoCon to found Sick Splits, one of the first custom splitboard shops, leaving Lupo in charge of repair and tuning at SnoCon. Although Sick Splits was short-lived, Lupo learned a lot from helping Nick with the venture, and he saw the potential for the custom splitboard business to prosper. As SnoCon started to make plans to close it’s doors, Lupo was already preparing to open doors of his own. “I had started my loose plan of wanting to start my own shop, but it was more of like a fantasy, and I was going to school at the time,” Lupo says. “As SnoCon was phasing out, my plan to

do my own thing was becoming more and more of a possibility.”

Fast forward two years to the winter of 2016. Lupo now has a thriving shop of his own. There’s the start of a vintage snowboard museum on his ceiling. And in a community that has seen many snowboard shops come and go, he’s also built a gathering place. He hosts a pre-season box jam with industry support from Red Bull, 686 and Nitro Snowboards, among others, and he’s created a comfortable atmosphere. Drop in most days and there will be a half-dozen locals hanging out and talking with each other and Johnny as he works—about snowboarding, their personal lives and beyond. Talking like friends, and good friends at that. It’s a place for people to gather—something that local shops need to cultivate. His little space is a throwback, in a way. It’s a conscious decision on Johnny’s part.

“I want to keep the younger guys that are coming up in the game, into snowboarding,” Lupo says. “I don’t want them to lose focus because it’s becoming a fashion game or something thats cool. I want to bring back the passion and soul that snowboarding has shown me over the years. I want to bring back some of that creativity…This is where I want to be.”

Where I Want To Be: Johnny Lupo And A New Breed of Snowboard Shop from Funny Feelings on Vimeo.