Podcasts about spark r

Lots of people dream of starting a ski or snowboard or some type of company in the outdoor industry. But how do you go about actually doing that, and really getting a company off the ground? At Blister Summit 2025, I talked with four individuals who had the dream — and the audacity — to start their own companies: Klem Branner, Venture Snowboards; Will Ritter, Spark R&D; Jamie Grant, CARV; and Cobey Nash, AlpenFlow Design. Today you'll hear them talk about the highs, the lows, and the breakthroughs that come with starting a company — and the arguably even more challenging work of keeping a company going.RELATED LINKS:Get Covered: BLISTER+TOPICS & TIMES:New Blister Cinematic Ep w/ Cody (1:00)New BLISTER+ Members (2:01)Founder Introductions (3:42)How Long from Idea to Launch? (5:46)How Did You Move from Idea to Launch? (14:41)Starting 25 Years Ago vs Starting Today (23:45)Funding: To Take or Not to Take? (34:01)Audience Questions:How did you know people would want your products? (45:33)Tell us about your first order? (47:03)Concerns about the future? (48:29)How did you know this was a product worth building? (50:02)What was your darkest moment? (52:11)How can we best support small brands? (57:04)CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Blister CinematicCRAFTED Bikes & Big IdeasGEAR:30 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What new thoughts and ideas emerge when you bring together in conversation makers of hybrid ski bindings and AT bindings and snowboard bindings and splitboard bindings? Well you're about to find out, because at Blister Summit 2025, Jonathan Ellsworth led a conversation along these lines with Will Ritter of Spark R&D; Royal White, from Burton; Andy Merriman, from ATK Bindings; and Cobey Nash, from the very new company, AlpenFlow Design. Enjoy, this is a great one.RELATED LINKS:Get Yourself Covered: BLISTER+TOPICS & TIMES:Exploring the Evolution of Bindings (3:11)Customer Feedback in Product Development (5:47)Design Principles of New Companies (08:50)The Importance of User Experience (12:13)Evolution of ATK Bindings (15:00)The Future of Snowboard Bindings (18:02)Challenges in Binding Production (21:02)User Errors / Misuse of Bindings (23:58)Understanding Binding Mechanics & Maintenance (34:03)The Importance of Familiarity with Gear (37:10)The Shift towards Lightweight Ski Gear (41:18)Ethical Considerations in Product Development (46:54)Bindings Compatibility (50:00)The Cost of Backcountry Bindings Explained (54:03)The Future of Binding Standards in Skiing (57:15)CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Blister CinematicCRAFTEDBikes & Big IdeasBlister Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Relationship Reddit Stories, OP and his girlfriend opened their relationship after girlfriend revealed that's what she was looking for. After they did this OP says that the relationship started to lose its spark.

We talk with Spark R&D founder, Will Ritter, about the current happenings at Spark; compare the splitboarding and backcountry skiing communities and gear trends; go over design highlights from their current lineup; and more.TOPICS & TIMES:Bozeman backcountry conditions (3:54)Spark R&D: Background (5:52)Spark's new building (7:35)Current supply chain & shipping logistics (13:00)Splitboarding State of the Union (19:40)Ski Touring Gear vs. Splitboarding Gear (23:36)Touring gear that never sees the backcountry (28:45)Weight preferences & the “gram race” (32:38)Spark R&D's latest product developments (35:41)Biggest improvements across the industry? (40:58)What We're Celebrating (52:00)RELATED LINKS:Videos from our Blister Summit 2022Blister LabsSubscribe to our Newsletter & Gear GiveawaysBecome a Blister Member / Get our Buyer's GuideGEAR:30 Ep. 27 w/ Spark R&DGEAR:30 Ep. 28 w/ Spark R&DCHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Blister PodcastBikes & Big IdeasOff the Couch See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

LISTEN FIRST MONTANA Listen first. It is what all great leaders do. Episode 25: Bruce Whittenberg In this episode, Chantel speaks with the founding Executive Director of Leadership Montana, Bruce Whittenberg.  Bruce gives listeners an inside look into the earliest stages of Leadership Montana's formation including the original vision for how a leadership training program could positively impact people and communities across Montana.  Bruce also tells Chantel about his long tenure as Executive Director of the Montana Historical Society and why capturing and sharing Montana's history is so important to him.  Finally, Bruce talks about the significance of receiving Leadership Montana's most prestigious award, the Tom Scott Award for Leadership Excellence. Chantel Schieffer Host Chantel, Class of 2010 and Masters Class 2019 alumna, is also our President & CEO. An occasional host, she brings to Listen First Montana a deep knowledge of our alumni and the many ways they work to build a better Montana. Bruce Whittenberg Guest Bruce was the founding Executive Director of Leadership Montana, a statewide effort to develop a sustainable network of leaders who share a commitment to the future of the state. Prior to that, Bruce was publisher of the Helena Independent Record from 1993-1998, and publisher of the Billings Gazette from 1998-2000. His newspaper career spanned 25 years in three states. He recently retired as the Director of the Montana Historical Society. Bruce's long record of public service most recently includes the Board of Directors of the Friends of Montana PBS, the Board of Directors of the Myrna Loy Center in Helena, the Lewis and Clark Library Foundation and the Burton K. Wheeler Center for Public Policy.  He currently serves as executive director for The Greater Montana Foundation. Bruce has two sons. Jake is a graduate of Montana State University and Emmy Award-winning broadcast news journalist for KING5 NBC television in Seattle. Jonathan is also graduate of Montana State University in graphic design and works for Spark R & D in Bozeman, MT. Bruce is also blessed with a beautiful granddaughter, Lula and grandson, Oliver, and two wonderful daughters-in-law, Tara and Beth.

Post North Face Meeting, Patagonia, Hestra, Mountain Hardwear, Spark R&D Thanks for making the Engearment Podcast the #1 Fitness podcast in Nepal! We had a great meeting with The North Face two weeks ago. They put us up in a nice room in Winter Park and fed us great food.  We hung out with TNF athletes and other media companies as we tested out the newest gear for 2022-2023 on the mountain. We have reviews up on that gear on our YouTube channel - check then out here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxAprJXsIhdEPtai7jP0JNg?view_as=subscriber We also worked on projects for Patagonia, Mountain Hardwear and Kuhl.   There is a fun tour of Hestra HQ and a preview of what is new for next season. Spark R&D sent over next year's Surge to test as well. Thanks for all the support!  

Episode 73 Dark Starts backcountry splitboarding podcast presents Split Decisions, with Will Ritter of Spark R&D. For full show notes and details on the products visit https://www.darkstarts.ca/sparkrandd Special thanks to: Visit our website for great deals from our sponsors: www.darkstarts.ca/partners Groundswell Marketing www.instagram.com/groundswell_fm/ Valerie Black The Artist Behind The Logo www.instagram.com/valerieblack.art/ Follow us: www.darkstarts.ca @ Darkstarts.podcast https://www.instagram.com/darkstarts.podcast/ @ Darkstarts.media https://www.instagram.com/darkstarts.media/

Full TorahAnytime LectureVideo or AudioMore classes from this speaker ⭐ Ignite the Spark

Episode 31 Dark Starts backcountry splitboarding podcast presents Will Ritter, founder of Spark R&D. Fell in love with the rockies while on spring break, and shortly after discovered the backcountry (the hard way). Started Spark R&D in 2006 when his curious engineering mind wanted to build a better splitboard binding than what was available on the market. Got a less than perfect sense of direction? Will has pro tips for navigating your next dark start. Impressive gear and nutrition knowledge too. There’s no question, powder runs through Will’s veins. Few people are lucky enough to make a living from their passion, and fewer still create innovative products that make splitboarding even better and more fun. Will takes us to where it all began and tells us what he’s working on next. And since he’s a splitboarder first, he’s got great tips on gear, nutrition and how to introduce your kids to splitboarding. Or, was that Darrin? Show links: Spark Website Spark Instagram Special thanks to: Tahoe Lab Boards Use promo code DS15 to get 15% off all boards Groundswell Marketing Valerie Black The Artist Behind The Logo Follow us on Instagram: @ Darkstarts.podcast @ Darkstarts.media

Episode 11 of the Spark R&D Podcast features an interview with Jay Moore. Jay is the owner of the famous World Boards, a skate and snowboard shop in Bozeman, Montana. In the interview, he discusses among many topics, his early days in California skating and riding, how he got to Bozeman, how he started the shop, his first interactions with Spark R&D and Will, and how he stays stoked after all these years.

Episode 11 of the Spark R&D Podcast features an interview with Jay Moore. Jay is the owner of the famous World Boards, a skate and snowboard shop in Bozeman, Montana. In the interview, he discusses among many topics, his early days in California skating and riding, how he got to Bozeman, how he started the shop, his first interactions with Spark R&D and Will, and how he stays stoked after all these years.

Last week we talked to Will Ritter, the founder of the biggest splitboard binding company in the world, Spark R&D, about the origin story of Spark R&D, and some of the milestones and setbacks that the company has achieved — and survived — along the way.This week we’re running Part 2 of our conversation, and Will and I discuss some of Spark R&D’s current products, discuss the old hard boots vs. soft boots debate, talk collaborating with companies like CAST Touring and 22 Designs, and using solar power at the Spark R&D factory.TOPICS & TIMES:Sparks’ new "Pro Series" of bindings (1:05)Should we expect any drastic changes in Spark's splitboard interface? (4:43)Thoughts on Karakoram’s new interface? (14:02)Hard boots vs. soft boots (15:48)Will the next biggest innovation be in bindings, splitboards or boots? (21:30)Spark's collaborations with CAST Touring, 22 Designs, Phantom, etc. (29:31)What’s the best question I haven't asked you? (35:54)Using solar power at Spark R&D (38:45) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Will Ritter is the founder of Spark R&D, the largest splitboard binding company in the world, and Spark R&D designs and manufactures all of their products in Bozeman, Montana. This turned into such an interesting conversation with Will that we are presenting it in two parts. Here in part 1, we talk about the history of Spark R&D, and whether or not you’ve ever ridden a snowboard, if you have ever thought about starting any company of any kind, listen closely, because I promise you that you will glean some very real insights into what actually goes into starting and running a company.And then we will be posting later part 2 of our conversation, where Will and I went deeper into Spark R&D’s specific products, we discuss hard boots vs. soft boots, how much room Will thinks there is for splitboards to improve, and more.But for now, let’s get the origin story of Spark R&D, and listen to Will kindly share some real words of wisdom for anyone thinking of starting anything.TOPICS & TIMES:Trick or Treating & the myth of the Sugar Sprite?? (1:44)When, where, and why did Will start Spark R&D? (3:48)The many products Will worked on as an engineering consultant (5:25)Working on the MFD ALLTIME touring binding with Jason Prigge (7:27)The move from consulting to factory production (10:06)The backcountry touring scene back when Will started Spark R&D (14:05)"Making One" - and other major milestones (23:35)How to have Zen get beaten into you (35:35)The state of Spark R&D today (46:35)STAY TUNED FOR PART 2... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Producer / Mountain Guide Clark Fyans Interview, Film Producer, mountain guide. Vail Resorts’s news.  25% Increase in season pass sales, revenue down $80 million Q4. Spark R&D adds solar to their Bozeman, MT manufacturing center. Outdoor Gear Mentioned Sony 18-200mm Lens Snow Sense Avalanche Book  

In episode 10 of the Spark R&D Podcast we chat with Team Rider Rafael Pease about his upcoming splitboard, adventure travel documentary film, Yūgen. This has been a three-year project for Rafa and he has put a tremendous amount of time and energy into it. It was very interesting chatting with him and getting his take on everything to do with the project now that it is complete. He talks about the how the project was formed and then grew, where he went, who he met, his favorite experiences, and some of the challenges. 

In episode 10 of the Spark R&D Podcast we chat with Team Rider Rafael Pease about his upcoming splitboard, adventure travel documentary film, Yūgen. This has been a three-year project for Rafa and he has put a tremendous amount of time and energy into it. It was very interesting chatting with him and getting his take on everything to do with the project now that it is complete. He talks about the how the project was formed and then grew, where he went, who he met, his favorite experiences, and some of the challenges. 

In Episode nine of the Spark R&D Podcast, we speak with Tommy Delago one of the co-founders of Nitro Snowboards. Will Ritter, our own founder, joins the conversation we chat with Tommy about the origins of Nitro snowboards and about the first splitboards Nitro produced.

In Episode nine of the Spark R&D Podcast, we speak with Tommy Delago one of the co-founders of Nitro Snowboards. Will Ritter, our own founder, joins the conversation we chat with Tommy about the origins of Nitro snowboards and about the first splitboards Nitro produced.

In episode 8 of the Spark R&D Podcast, we chat with Steph Nitsch, the co-owner and founder of the women’s snowboard brand, Pallas Snowboards. Steph is an avid splitboarder and spends a lot of time backcountry, making her a perfect guest for the show. During the podcast, we talk about the origins of Pallas Snowboards, some of her design philosophy, the Jackson Hole Pow Wow, and her passion for getting ladies active in the backcountry.

In episode 8 of the Spark R&D Podcast, we chat with Steph Nitsch, the co-owner and founder of the women’s snowboard brand, Pallas Snowboards. Steph is an avid splitboarder and spends a lot of time backcountry, making her a perfect guest for the show. During the podcast, we talk about the origins of Pallas Snowboards, some of her design philosophy, the Jackson Hole Pow Wow, and her passion for getting ladies active in the backcountry.

Episode 7 was recorded in the cozy kitchen of Tom Wilson-North in Chamonix, France. Tom is the manager of the renowned snowboard shop in Chamonix, Zero G. He gives some good insight into the freeride and split scenes in Chamonix, the beginnings of his relationship with Spark R&D, and some of the trends in the

Episode 7 was recorded in the cozy kitchen of Tom Wilson-North in Chamonix, France. Tom is the manager of the renowned snowboard shop in Chamonix, Zero G. He gives some good insight into the freeride and split scenes in Chamonix, the beginnings of his relationship with Spark R&D, and some of the trends in the

In episode six of the Spark R&D Podcast we spoke with photographer Zach Clanton. Zach spends a ton of time in the backcountry and filled us in on his photography, his affinity for human powered travel, sketchy plane landings, his AK split mission to “Storm Troopers” with Thomas Delfino last winter, and more!

In episode six of the Spark R&D Podcast we spoke with photographer Zach Clanton. Zach spends a ton of time in the backcountry and filled us in on his photography, his affinity for human powered travel, sketchy plane landings, his AK split mission to “Storm Troopers” with Thomas Delfino last winter, and more!

In honor of Manufacturing Day 2017, a day devoted to modern manufacturing and inspiring the next generation of manufacturers, we spoke with Ethan about his role in the manufacturing process here at Spark R&D. In the interview, he discusses how he became an engineer, his role and responsibilities at Spark R&D, and of course, how much he’s looking

In honor of Manufacturing Day 2017, a day devoted to modern manufacturing and inspiring the next generation of manufacturers, we spoke with Ethan about his role in the manufacturing process here at Spark R&D. In the interview, he discusses how he became an engineer, his role and responsibilities at Spark R&D, and of course, how much he’s looking

An interview with Patrick Shoekel – the founder and lead contributor to the blog splitboarding.eu.

An interview with Patrick Shoekel – the founder and lead contributor to the blog splitboarding.eu.

The O'Reilly Radar Podcast: A special holiday cross-over of the O'Reilly Data Show Podcast.O'Reilly's Ben Lorica chats with Apache Spark release manager and Databricks co-founder Patrick Wendell about Spark's roadmap and interesting applications he's seeing in the growing Spark ecosystem.Here are some highlights from their chat: We were really trying to solve research problems, so we were trying to work with the early users of Spark, getting feedback on what issues it had and what types of problems they were trying to solve with Spark, and then use that to influence the roadmap. It was definitely a more informal process, but from the very beginning, we were expressly user driven in the way we thought about building Spark, which is quite different than a lot of other open source projects. … From the beginning, we were focused on empowering other people and building platforms for other developers. One of the early users was Conviva, a company that does analytics for real-time video distribution. They were a very early user of Spark, they continue to use it today, and a lot of their feedback was incorporated into our roadmap, especially around the types of APIs they wanted to have that would make data processing really simple for them, and of course, performance was a big issue for them very early on because in the business of optimizing real-time video streams, you want to be able to react really quickly when conditions change. ... Early on, things like latency and performance were pretty important. In general in Spark, we are trying to make every release of Spark accessible to more users, and that means getting people super easy-to-use APIs—APIs in familiar languages like Python and APIs that are codable without a lot of effort. I remember when we started Spark, we were super excited because you can write a k-means cluster in like 10 lines of code; to do the same thing in Hadoop, you have to write 300 lines. The next major API for Spark is this API called Spark R that was merged into master branch [early in 2015], and it's going to be present in the 1.4 release of Spark. This is what we saw as a very important part of embracing the data science community. R is already very popular and actually growing rather quickly in terms of popularity for statistical processing, and we wanted to give people a really nice first-class way of using R with Spark. We have an exploration into [deep learning] going on, actually, by Reza Zadeh, who's a Stanford professor who's been working on Spark for a long time and works at Databricks as well, as a consultant. He's starting to look into it; I think the initial deliverable was just some support for standard neural nets, but deep learning is definitely on the horizon. That may be more of the Spark 1.6 time frame, but we are definitely deciding which subsets of functionality we can support nicely inside of Spark, and we've heard a very clear user demand for that. Subscribe to the O'Reilly Radar Podcast: Stitcher, TuneIn, iTunes, SoundCloud, RSS

The O'Reilly Radar Podcast: A special holiday cross-over of the O'Reilly Data Show Podcast.O'Reilly's Ben Lorica chats with Apache Spark release manager and Databricks co-founder Patrick Wendell about Spark's roadmap and interesting applications he's seeing in the growing Spark ecosystem.Here are some highlights from their chat: We were really trying to solve research problems, so we were trying to work with the early users of Spark, getting feedback on what issues it had and what types of problems they were trying to solve with Spark, and then use that to influence the roadmap. It was definitely a more informal process, but from the very beginning, we were expressly user driven in the way we thought about building Spark, which is quite different than a lot of other open source projects. … From the beginning, we were focused on empowering other people and building platforms for other developers. One of the early users was Conviva, a company that does analytics for real-time video distribution. They were a very early user of Spark, they continue to use it today, and a lot of their feedback was incorporated into our roadmap, especially around the types of APIs they wanted to have that would make data processing really simple for them, and of course, performance was a big issue for them very early on because in the business of optimizing real-time video streams, you want to be able to react really quickly when conditions change. ... Early on, things like latency and performance were pretty important. In general in Spark, we are trying to make every release of Spark accessible to more users, and that means getting people super easy-to-use APIs—APIs in familiar languages like Python and APIs that are codable without a lot of effort. I remember when we started Spark, we were super excited because you can write a k-means cluster in like 10 lines of code; to do the same thing in Hadoop, you have to write 300 lines. The next major API for Spark is this API called Spark R that was merged into master branch [early in 2015], and it's going to be present in the 1.4 release of Spark. This is what we saw as a very important part of embracing the data science community. R is already very popular and actually growing rather quickly in terms of popularity for statistical processing, and we wanted to give people a really nice first-class way of using R with Spark. We have an exploration into [deep learning] going on, actually, by Reza Zadeh, who's a Stanford professor who's been working on Spark for a long time and works at Databricks as well, as a consultant. He's starting to look into it; I think the initial deliverable was just some support for standard neural nets, but deep learning is definitely on the horizon. That may be more of the Spark 1.6 time frame, but we are definitely deciding which subsets of functionality we can support nicely inside of Spark, and we've heard a very clear user demand for that. Subscribe to the O'Reilly Radar Podcast: Stitcher, TuneIn, iTunes, SoundCloud, RSS