Ground Rules: Factory Reds Vs. Resprays

For the purpose of this article, we are talking about factory original Red Swallowtails with Red Bases. We've seen several boards with obscure colors which were actually re-painted after the fact but started as a common production color (this includes reds, purple, black, etc). There are also unique colors that were made out of hobby as the mold forms changed hands a few times, even landing in a high school shop class at one point. This information has been compiled based off of research from original Winterstick Staff and Riders. Huge help to Kevin E. for his effort in helping sort out the facts after some recent discussions with the previous board owners/team riders.             

3 Runs of Red Swallowtails

The red swallowtails can be broken up into 3 different runs: 1979 pre-France tour, 1981 France tour, and 1982 post-France tour issues. This isn't including Dimitrije's early 1976 Red 190cm Swallowtail "Gun" with the broken glass traction - we'll cover that in a seperate article soon. 

1979 Reds - 1st Run

A Small batch of Red Swallowtails were pressed out but stayed within the inner circle of the company. Some were used during Demo tours to ski regions. Renée Sessions, one of the original founders also had one that she took on the France Tour in 1981/1982, not to be mistaken with the other boards that that the "TEAM" marking, which were made after hers. We've only tracked down 1 of these so far and it now resides in Utah once again.                   

1981 TEAM Reds - 2nd Run

The second run of Red Swallowtails have the unique "TEAM" insignia on the board. in Dec 1981, Alain Gaimard, whom was promoting Les Arcs 2,000 invited the Winterstick team to the new mountain and cross promoted snow surfing or "La Glisse de Neige". Most of the Red and Blue swallowtails taken on the trip didn't make it back. Some were sacrificed for huge glory shots for magazine photos and snapped, while a few others stayed in France. Team rider Mick T. gave his board to Regis Rolland, which was Regis' first snowboard and the one he would use to base his home made versions off of. Regis would even  ride the red winterstick a few times in the 2000s, as late as 2014 in Kashmir, India for an APO snowboard trip. That board made it back to North America in 2020. Another Red "TEAM" Swallowtail recently made it back to Utah in 2024. So we know of 2 that still exist today. 

1982 Red + Gold - 3rd Run

Upon returning from France, team rider Mick T. convinced Dimitrije to press out a replacement red swallowtail. This time they added some Gold Fleck to the paint giving this one a copper tinge to it. Only one of these were made and it still resides in Utah. 

Got any cool Winterstick Stuff?

We're always trying to uncover more history behind the brand, be it old boards, softgoods, or print media. Let us know if you think you have something unique and we'll do our best to share what we know about it. Even better if it's something we've never seen before!
email: winterstick.net(at)gmail.com