As the death toll from Monday’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake in China’s Sichuan province could reach 80,000 and the list of missing and entombed stands at over 25,000, our hearts go out to the ten million people estimated to have been directly impacted. While disasters of this magnitude have far reaching impacts outside the local community, the quake is expected to have a minimal impact on Chinese snowboard production.

Rescuers using a power shovel remove debris of buildings collapsed following Monday’s powerful earthquake while searching for survivors in Hanwang town in Sichuan province, China, Wednesday, May 14, 2008. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

“It was a thousand or so miles north of here,” says Shenyang based 9010 snowboard’s Co-founder Jay Desnarais. “There is not much manufacturing at all there. Most of the snowboard and snowboard binding factories are in southern China and the Shanghai area.”

The province of Sichuan is located in the southwestern China and the quake’s epicenter was in a region of small cities and towns amongst steep hills.

“I received word from our factory that we have a few employees who have family members affected by the earthquake and are taking leave,” says Ride Brand Director Scott Mavis. “Otherwise, our factory and supply chain are not located in the area of the earthquake and were not affected.”

Despite the fact that the quake was felt as far away as Beijing, K2’s Product Director Alex Draper adds that “it happened quite a ways away and at this point we anticipate no affect on our operations from this.”

For more information on how to help help the victims of the earthquake go

HERE.

Tags: china, snowboard

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 11:39 am and is filed under FEATURES, NEWS. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.