Call them artisan snowboards handcrafted from Pennsylvania poplar.

Start-up snowboard manufacturer Gilson Boards hasn’t exactly carved a straight line down the slopes as it ramps up its first full season.

The idea for its new board design began in the mountains of western Maine when a teenaged Nick Gilson, now the company’s CEO, had something of an epiphany and came up with a blueprint for what he thought would be better buttery board.

So the curious teenager tinkered and tweaked. He built wooden prototypes. The years go by, about a decade, and Gilson finds himself as a science teacher at a Nashville academy. He finds another curious science teacher in Austin Royer with significant engineering experience. He tinkers and tweaks too.

Finally, a board is produced that meets the maker’s expectations.

Gilson and his team have set up shop in the central Pennsylvania town of Winfield. and will be touring the country this winter doing demonstration days at ski resorts.

“In a market that has seen little outward innovation in many years, we are pushing the boundaries of the sport with our first-of-its-kind design that is making snowboarding more accessible to new riders and more exciting for seasoned veterans,” said Gilson.

The company has launched an expanded e-commerce portal allowing customers to configure and order their boards online at gilsonboards.com.

“As we enter our first full snow season this year, we are excited to launch our new e-commerce capabilities to help riders customize their boards,” he said.

The boards feature a patent-pending contoured base design which the company calls Raised Central Region and Soft Edge Technology.

Think of the board as something like a catamaran boat hull on snow.

These two design elements combine to give the boards a versatile all-mountain ride by allowing the board to ride like two skis in packed snow and sinking down into heavier powder when needed. The Gilson design reduces the chances of catching an edge, making for a more forgiving ride for novice snowboarders, while also delivering improved acceleration and maneuverability to experienced riders. Thanks to this contour base, the company maintains Gilson Boards are also stronger than traditional snowboards enabling a Gilson to be thinner with increased flexibility and more pop.

“As a company born out of innovation, we really love designing the right board for each of our customers and we want them to feel that same exhilaration too, that experience starts from the moment they conceptualize their perfect board on our new customer portal to the moment that take their first run on a Gilson Board,” said Gilson.

Gilson offers a handful of boards for sale. The First Snow is made for riders who like making graceful and tasteful turns while the Signature Pro has those jack of all trade snowboarders in mind, those who like all sorts of terrain from lines found in the parks to those found in the woods.

The Cherry Springer Pro has a rustic look, making it at home on groomed cruisers and for giddiness in the glades.

For those riders who love graphics, Gilson offers custom art from their rivers of creativity or from customers.

Pricing for the boards start at $349 for First Snow, $489 for the Signature Pro and $529 for the Cherry Stringer Pro.

The Gilson Boards cross-country demo tour is scheduled to travel through the Northeast in December and early January before heading out to Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, California, Nevada and Washington.

They’ll be visiting more than 40 resorts.

Just look for the long silver Airstream.