Side Effect Boardshop employee Dan Jackson walks by a snowboard display that includes some of Burton’s limited-edition lines, Love and Primo. The Love boards, which are kept in black bags, feature nude or partially nude Playboy models.

Snowboarding has always been a favorite sport of the rebellious, and that independent streak can sometimes be found in the graphics on some boards.

But few graphics have gotten as much attention as those on Burton’s Love and Primo lines of snowboards.

Burton’s Love line shows large images of nude or partially nude Playboy models on top of each board, without showing full frontal nudity. The line does show bare buttocks on the bottom of some of the boards.

And the Primo line shows cartoons depicting self-mutilation, including amputation of fingers.

Burton uses suggestive language to describe each board on its Web site, which features full-color images from the lines.

Both snowboard lines have at least one mother in Central Oregon crying foul.

“As an adult, I don’t necessarily care,” said Bend’s Joy Wilson, a 37-year-old mother of two who has written a letter to Burton. “If somebody was standing in front me on the slopes, it wouldn’t matter. But I have two young ones (a son and daughter) who snowboard, 11 and 8, and that’s the difference for me. As a mother tiger, you don’t really want to expose your kids to stuff before it is necessary. In a sense, it is just as important as someone else’s freedom of speech or expression.”

Burlington, Vt.-based Burton has refused to pull the boards from the market, calling it a free-speech issue, and is no longer talking to the press.

“These are not X-rated images,” Burton co-owner Donna Carpenter said in a news release. “These are vintage Playboy images from as far back as the 1970s. They are beautiful, kitschy, well-fed models; nothing obscene is revealed. These board graphics are retro, tongue-in-cheek and, in my opinion, harmless.”

Burton only produced 1,000 Love boards and fewer than 1,000 Primo boards, and the company expects them to be collector’s items rarely seen on the slopes.

But Wilson’s objections are hardly solitary.

Her protest is minute compared with the firestorm of controversy in Vermont over the boards, capped by a 100-person protest in October at Burton’s headquarters, according to the Burlington Free Press.

Some resorts have prohibited their employees from using the boards while on the clock, including Vail, Beaver Creek Resort, Breckenridge Ski Resort and Keystone Ski Resort in Colorado, California’s Heavenly Mountain Resort and Vermont’s Smugglers Notch, Killington Resort, Pico Mountain and Stowe Mountain Resort, according to the Burlington Free Press.

“Killington Resort does not condone or approve of the new Burton Love and Primo series of snowboards,” according to a news release from the resort, which is owned by the same company, Powdr Corp., that owns Mt. Bachelor ski area. “We do recognize the impact the visual aspect of these products may have on our guests, especially those with children.”

Mt. Bachelor has yet to follow suit.

“We are monitoring the situation with Burton boards and are taking a wait-and-see approach,” said Frankie Labbé, communications manager for Mt. Bachelor.

Sales of the two lines are limited to certain snowboard-only shops, including Bend’s Side Effects Boardshop, one of the few shops in Oregon selling the lines. The Primo boards retail for $349.95 and the Love boards for $429.95.

Justin Martinez, manager at Side Effects, said he has not heard any complaints from customers, and the Love boards are displayed in a bag that hides the graphics.

“We kind of make sure that we keep things tasteful, so we hold them in the back and just let people know that they were there if they were after them,” Martinez said of snowboards with graphics some might find offensive. “All the Love boards come in black bags, so you can’t see anything unless you pull them out of the bag.”

The boards are only made in adult sizes, but Martinez said the store has no age requirement to buy them. “Obviously, if there is a kid that was younger, we would double-check with the parents,” he said.

Burton is not the first snowboard or ski manufacturer to show suggestive graphics on its products.

Sims produced a line of boards in 2004 in collaboration with pornographic filmmaker Vivid Entertainment Group featuring porn stars such as Jenna Jame-son and Briana Banks.

Head currently produces a ski featuring scantily clad twins.

“This is far from the first time that graphics like these have shown up in the industry,” said Jeremy Nelson, owner of Bend’s Skjersaa’s Ski and Snowboard, which does not sell Burton’s Primo or Love lines. “I think it is because Burton is such a big company” that it’s receiving so much criticism, he said.

“There is some crazy stuff out there for sure, but Burton is taking the brunt of it this year,” Nelson said. “But I can’t imagine it is hurting their sales at all,” he added with a laugh.

‘Why go there?’

Many snowboarders hardly raise an eyebrow at such graphics.

“I think some parents might be offended by it, but I don’t think it is anything different than normal life,” said Nick Rose, an 18-year-old student at Central Oregon Community College who has been a snowboarder for five years. “It’s just an a–. If I was a parent, I wouldn’t be offended by it. I really don’t think it is that big of a deal.”

Luke Skinner, an 18-year-old senior at Redmond High School, agreed.

“Yeah, I see some concern,” Skinner said. “But you have to expect that eventually when (parents) are up there with a bunch of snowboarders. They are going to hear a lot worse stuff than that (from snowboarders).”

Rose had a different reaction to the Primo line, though he was not offended.

“That’s just kind of weird,” Rose said. “For some people, it might be (artistic). I would rather go for something that is not mutilating anything.”

Wilson takes exception to the Primo boards as well as the Love line, but not because of her two children. As a master’s student in counseling at the Oregon State University-Cascade Campus, she says self-mutilation is a problem for teenagers and should not be lampooned.

“Considering what is going on in society with our teens right now, I wouldn’t depict it as a joke or funny, or glorifying it,” Wilson said. “But I don’t think my kids would even get that, so I would be less likely to say something to someone who had that board on the slope in front of me than someone who had the Playboy ladies in front of me.”

Still, Wilson understands Burton’s free-speech argument, and if it was any other manufacturer, she would not be as concerned, she said.

But because of Burton’s philanthropic efforts, she holds the company to a higher standard.

“They are involved with taking underprivileged kids out on the slopes, giving them the opportunity to experience what other people get to experience,” said Wilson, adding that her family has several of the company’s boards. “So we have all just kind of held them up on a pedestal, because they have really given back to communities, especially with kids. And I think that is where it kind of rubbed us the wrong way.

“My point is, you’re a great company, you guys sell rad boards,” she said. “There are so many graphics to pick from that are awesome. Why go there?”