Loken Industries

[El Bajong]

I contacted the norwegian company Loken Industries A/S after finding a site mentioning that they where developing skiboards. I asked if they where still in business, what skiboards they make etc.

Ill sum up what I got in reply from Ola Løken Karlsnes, the founder of the company from what I can understand.

Loken Industries is still in business. Their skiboards are developed in Norway and manufactured at a factory in Austria. They are making four models. All have extruded bases, polylaminated tree-cores and are symmetrical shaped. They all have standard 4-hole inserts and come with graphite bindings. Nose and tips are 45 mm high.

The four models:

Stark
98 centimeters long
124 - 102 - 124 mm

CMO
92 centimeters long
130 - 110 - 130 mm

CT6
99 centimeters long
124 - 102 - 124 mm

Skreem
97 centimeters long
124 - 102 - 124 mm

Here is an old picture showing three of the four models, but the ones shown have 8-hole bindings, the current models do not however.
http://blink.dagbladet.no/user/file...ack1024x768.jpg

The reason they havent tried selling skiboards at any large scale yet, is that they dont have the money to get a large enough factory run. They are waiting to get money from a norwegian state owned fund for industrial development, and if they get it, are planning on getting innto the market "proper" in the fall of 2005.

He told me that they at the moment have 15 pairs lying about, so if you are particularly interested, you can contacct him at Ola-Loken.Kalsnes@telenor.com

[tommy]

This is what i got from them :


Hello Tommy!!

What you hear of Skiboards in Norway, is my initiative to contribute to the market with my "Loken Industries" brand.

The company was founded in 2002, and I have since then manufactured skiboards with intent to sell them..
Sadly though; resources are limited when you're starting up, so I haven't been able to make more than 40 pairs so far..

I have sold about 25, but that without any martketing budget..

I have also found it hard to sell to close friends.
They tend to want to borrow as long as they know you have them :)

Se the link at the bottom of this page to see three out of four manufactured models (tacky setup).
The boards all come with a graphite binding (4 hole inserts), but are compatible with Bomber / Groove / Cannon etc..

I am currently enrolled in an "incubator" program, and my hope is to recieve a startup funding, which allows me to munufacture approx 300 boards, and market them.

The reason why I havent "shouted out" to the market about this yet, is that I didn't want to make an "official release" befor I knew if this would work or not.

I am very pleased with the boards' quality though. I ride them all the time, and I have not heard of any dissapointed customer yet.

And as mentioned; boards are in stock, and I take orders!!



Sincerely


Ola Loken Kalsnes
CEO
Loken Industries AS


boards:
http://blink.dagbladet.no/user/files/v/vb/vbilly/nooback1024x768.jpg

[allz]

hm, its very interesting that he can do it by himself and noone helps him, i mean, noone tell to noone here or in other european sites!!!

those white with dark stripe in midle, like Mike Nick - isnt it???

[Greco]

no they just look like the mike nicks from like '99.

great job guys, i'm going to contact him.

g

[allz]

yes G, thats it - like i was saying - LIKE MIKE NICK skb. ok, old ones, i just saw those and now i see these - they look like LINE a little bit.

i am not saying bad.

[bailey]

hey those arent bad looking!

[sire]

What's the price, shipping, etc...??

[tommy]

who knows, no1 supplys them, there not even kind of out, email the guy and he will probably get you some.

[McShane]

neat!!! good looking, sounds promising.

i've always been sort of jealos about scandinavians having state aid funding for industrial startups. not yet in baltics (but may appear in near future, i hope)

[Kelli]

yeah but state aid in industry has socialistic roots

[Greco]

if you're going to make a statement like that please explain what you mean so we can understand where you're coming from.

[allz]

i dont understand last 3 posts ...:(

[tommy]

no1 does its just one of those things in life...... (dont ask)

[Quicksilver]

HAHA Kelli and her smartness

[McShane]

Originally posted by Kelli
yeah but state aid in industry has socialistic roots

says who? but still, i wouldn't care as long as i could get start-up capital :cool:


PS Greco - did you address that last line to me or kelli?

[Greco]

kelli

[McShane]

kool then! :cool:

now defend yourself kelli! :D :p

[marcolo86]

Ehm... Weren't we talking about Loken Industries...?:confused:

What kind of a comment is that...?

[Kelli]

i will explain it when i get home from work

[El Bajong]

Since I made contact with Ola Løken Kalsnes of Loken Industries two weeks ago, I've been chatting a lot with him, mostly about skiboarding. The company has had a slow start, producing around 40 boards since being founded in the year 2000.

However, it now looks like Loken Industries may be starting to gain momentum, the first version of their website, http://www.lokenindustries.com has been opened. Watch this site folks, there will be some very exciting news forthcoming there in a few weeks. Thats all I can say for now :)

(gotten home yet, Kelli? :D)

[Kelli]

sorry its coming guys i have had a lot going on in my house right now. it will be here

[tommy]

thats some extreeeeme stuff dawg

[Kelli]

ok here it is,

In a very general sense, socialism is an ideology built around opposition to private property, in favor of public--"social" or, in practice governmental-- ownership of the means of prodiction, the principle of equality in the distribution of goods and an assortment of other programs.

socialists believe in taking conttrol of the economy in the name of society, wether by outright ownership or regulation. This regulation comes from grants that require the producer to follow certain guidlines of the state or country.

The US in the past century has been subtly having a period of time called progressivism which was occuring more in the early 1900s then it is now. As the progressive came into our government forms of socialism began to leak in, things like the public school system(esp, the dewey education system), a lot of media(muckraking which originally started in 1900-1920) were all some what formed by ideas of socialism and copied from other nations that were proclaiming socialism at the time.

[tommy]

can you use words less than 4 letters long please....

[Greco]

damn home schoolers!

[tommy]

yeh right, i went to a average school, and i still cant remember what i learnt.

but i deffinatly didnt learn

In a very general sense, socialism is an ideology built around opposition to private property, in favor of public--"social" or, in practice governmental-- ownership of the means of prodiction, the principle of equality in the distribution of goods and an assortment of other programs.

socialists believe in taking conttrol of the economy in the name of society, wether by outright ownership or regulation. This regulation comes from grants that require the producer to follow certain guidlines of the state or country.

The US in the past century has been subtly having a period of time called progressivism which was occuring more in the early 1900s then it is now. As the progressive came into our government forms of socialism began to leak in, things like the public school system(esp, the dewey education system), a lot of media(muckraking which originally started in 1900-1920) were all some what formed by ideas of socialism and copied from other nations that were proclaiming socialism at the time.

[El Bajong]

Kelli, did I understand you correctly? Are you against public schools? I'd just like to know what kind of schools you'd want then. Do you prefer the kind of school where only children whose parents can pay are allowed to go? What about the rest? Should they (and their offpsring) be doomed to a life of cleaning toilets and mowing lawns?

Why is socialism so wrong? Is it the fact that taxes have to be paid? Or is it because some basic institutions such as prisons are owned by the state?

Since WWII, Norway had a socialist majority for something like 25 years, and our system is still based on a mix between socialism and capitalism, the state controls most hospitals, most schools and still own large shares in the companies that used to be state-owned, such as the big oil company Statoil. This system worked out fine before oil was discovered in Norway, and it still works fine.

I do not believe that which economic system you choose fully decides how the economy of that country will work out, but rather how the chosen system is executed. A few months ago, a survey in the New York Times showed which countries in the world had most competitive business. It ranked Sweden (same economic system as Norway) as no. 1, the US as no. 2, Denmark as no. 3, while Norway was down at no. 6.

All the different ideologies sound like they could work out fantastically if everything goes as it should, but as we all know, this never happens. Perfect marxism would be great, as would perfect capitalism, but this is unrealistic. Ill try giving an example why full-fledged capitalism wouldnt work in Norway:

One of the ideas of capitalism is that competition will regulate the market, so noone overprices, since that would mean people could buy from the cheaper company. Norway is a lang country, with a fairly scattered population. A good few years ago, there where two airlines flying between northern Norway and southern Norway (Oslo in particular, the capital). Then the smaller of the two companies got innto financial problems and was bought up by the larger one. For many years, this one big company was the only one with routes up here (they allso had a monopoly on many routes in the south) and the prices rose at the same pace as that of a space shuttle. A trip from the countrys northernmost region and back could cost you around 1400 USD (current rate), for a distance equal to that of New York - Miami. Luckily, a low-fare company managed to start up a couple years ago, and as such, the prices has sunk, after many years of insane pricing.

My point here is, that if there is no market for two companies to compete on something, the one company left can price their product however they like, since there is no competition. In sparsely populated areas like Norway (Alaska too, I suppose) its too easy to get a monopoly to let businesses do whatever they want.

(sorry, this got a bit longer than I intended)

[valmorel]

So THATS how it works! Cool. Actually, I'm off to get an asprin.

[Kelli]

OK i am not against public schools and having funding for them
I am against how the public schools are run in the sense that teachers a are forced to teach a curriculm that is aggainst their morals or even the morals of the students(with topics like evolution vs. creationism gay rights abortion) Just a for instance in Vermont they start teaching children about the gay propaganda in kindergarden(spelling?) I am also against the fact that for people like my family we pay taxes for the public schools. in all essence public school is not free it comes from the taxes you pay every month/year. The reason private schools are so expensive is because they do not except state funding so that they can teach the curriculum that they want to teach not what the state demands that they teach. yes there are certain guidlines that they must follow(such as the amount of credits needed to graduate) There is also a looking down by many colleges on homeschoolers take me for instance right now i am applying for colleges some have no problems with me they actually prefer homeschoolers over public schoolers then other colleges look at me and say no way u didnt follow the curriculm of the state u are not a recgonized student of the state no way yet i hold a 3.8 GPA and legal transcripts I am not recgonized(this is because i am not a student of the state of Maryland and i didnt get taught what they think i should be taught, things like human rights activist topics and so on)

Yes socialism is wrong in my opinion. Before socialism/state funding started, people were able to afford what they needed to survive on. Here in the US we get a lot because the state funds it. With Socialism/State funding comes inflation, credit expansion, rediscount rates, events like the Great Depression, stock market crashes, bank closings and so on.

There are ways to keep monopolies from forming other then by state funding. Take intel for instance, they did not want state funding yet they also didnt want to be a monopoly so they gave a grant of money to AMD in order that AMD may grow and be competition. Now AMD is an excellent gaming CPU and up there with intels P4 processors or even P5. although AMD has not expanded as far or may not be as far advanced in comercialization like intel they are still a great threat to intel now because of the little bit of help that intel gave them when they were in trouble.

[Ian.cap]

Let me preface this with I hold a degree in business and I used to vote republican. It was 1992 the last time I did, but still, I did it. I say this only to emphasize that I LOVE capitalism and I agree that it and even Marxism in a pure way could both work well. Unfortunately greed will always get in the way so neither of these will work perfectly in the world we live in. While I used to disagree with socialism all together, I now see the need for capitalism as we currently know it to borrow some lessons from socialism. Our species needs to get its shit together and the only way is to work together. There are too many customs and practices out there to say only one is truly right. It would be ignorant to not take the lessons of others to strengthen your own. EVOLUTION!

[From Kelli’s post:
Yes socialism is wrong in my opinion. Before socialism/state funding started, people were able to afford what they needed to survive on.]

Yes this is true, but we are a far cry from the sustainable nation we once were. While we have the capacity, we don’t have the production and this has caused massive unemployment. We have outsourced so much labor that we import most of our basic needs that were once produced here. This practice has created a need for state sponsored programs. If the corporations that created these problems dumped more of their profits back into the general population people could survive. Unfortunately many people have to take state or federal assistance just to feed their family. Not because they’re lazy but because there’s no job or worse a job for $5 an hour one. It robs people not only of a livelihood but their dignity as well. Do we just say they’re an operational cost of capitalism and just leave it up to natural selection? Capitalism doesn’t really factor in compassion, does it?

My point here to you Kelli is that There’s lessons from socialism that are beneficial. I do agree with you that one of them is shouldn’t be too much help from the government for business in the way Loken will benefit, but for our country to survive we have to adapt to the new problems that a capitalism only policy can’t address. The Industrial Revolution is over. We import now, not export. Our empire is at a crossroads and our leaders in government and business can take it forward by adapting or we can crash and burn as one of the shortest lived dynasties. We are at the mercy of the world now. Well except for the fact we have a pretty kick ass military that I’m glad my money goes to because they’re all out there giving us the privilege to sit here and bullshit like this. But that’s neither here nor there.


Oh and…

[Just a for instance in Vermont they start teaching children about the gay propaganda in kindergarden(spelling?) is spelled - kindergarten]

I live in VT and I have two children and many friends with kids in the school system here. While it was a huge topic before it passed, the civil union issue is hardly discussed here. Just curious, what do you mean by gay propaganda? That statement sounds a lot like propaganda to me. Do you think “the gays” are hell bent on global domination or something?

The Intel – AMD reference was a good example of business/capitalism working positively. To play devils advocate though, you could say that Intel was creating a competitor to avoid monopoly issues down the line. Meaning that if they never gave the dough to AMD and we’re the only player in chip production, sometime down the line, someone would sue. America is, historically, a very litigious society.

[McShane]

should i add my buck (since this is not about two cents any more)

i guess not really.
we should just realize economic and morale differences in each system. and egos (i like this term for morale/psychology/consumerism/whatever the best) are what cannot be accounted for thus making the world imperfect.
El Bajong very well explained the socialism pros which i had in mind when referred to the Nordic countries. (btw, Kelli, would you claim there should be no public roads?) but every economic theory tends to disregard morale. and that is why Marxism doesn't hold, that is why USSR collapsed and that is why even in the most capitalistic economies taxes are charged. wasn't it Germany to have the largest tax burden in the world?
my point is - i totaly support the capitalistic rivalry principles, but in certain situations in each economy some socialistic "input" is necessary to develop. after all, we live in communities not in our micorcosms of oneselves. (and i guess my experience in USSR, transition and western worlds is sufficient to judge this objectively)


PS kindergarten is spelled with t - came to English from German :p

[Roussel]

i love good old liberal canada :D