The Boarding Company Limited

The Boarding Company grew out of a passion for all outdoor extreme sports - on water, on snow, and in the streets. From the beginning, back in 2004, it was obvious that:

• Some of these sports can be expensive to participate in.
• Most high street shops offer very poor value for money.
• The range of equipment on offer can be confusing and bewildering, even to experienced riders, let alone newcomers.
• Many extreme sports website are run by amateurs, so are amateurish in the way they present their products and offer an extremely poor level of service.

So, bit by bit, we set about so to sort this little lot out!

September 2004
We started off really and truly offering bargain boards - or bargain snowboards to be precise - on a website called BargainBoards.co.uk. The website was homemade (without a shopping cart so you couldn't even pay online!).

Winter 2004/5
More and more snowboard related products were added to our range – jackets, pants, thermals, goggles, etc. – all at bargain prices!

September 2005
New ‘professional’ website launched with loads of revolutionary design and technical features, many of which are now common place. Easy navigation, top quality photos and ‘expert written’ product descriptions were fundamentals which remain with us today.

April 2006
We moved to bigger premises – but we were not there for long!

September 2007
We began to sell snow skis as well as snowboards! 

October 2007
Watersports department launched.

September 2008
We moved into a brand new warehouse unit, with new offices and a new revolutionary concept in retailing – a ‘riders lounge’ style cyber shop – where you can buy online but look at and touch the gear as well. This way, we are able to offer a larger choice than any high street shop!

July 2009
Skate department launched.

September 2009
We uploaded our 20,000th product onto our website!

October 2009
Our third website design was launched.  The look and feel of the website (as well as the technical features) are constantly evolving but the overall look and feel you can see today is based on the 2009 re-launch.

June 2010
With a growing team and more products than ever, we more than doubled our warehouse and office space by taking on a second, larger warehouse unit.

September 2010
To complement our stock clearance outlet, BargainBoards.co.uk, we launched Absolute-Snow.co.uk, Absolute-Skate.co.uk, Absolute-Watersports.co.uk and Absolute-Street.co.uk!  These new websites specialise in current season products from the best brands available in each of their specialist product areas.

June 2011
We launched another two new departments, further expanding our reach into the extreme sports world we love: Absolute-Rock for all your rock climbing, mountaineering, hiking and walking equipment; plus Absolute-BMX for everything from complete BMX bikes, down the the smallest of spare parts.

July 2011
We opened two brand new shops, both at The XC - one of Europe's biggest indoor extreme sports centres. Our Absolute-Skate shop is a totally specialised hardcore skate shop, while Absolute-Rock caters for your mountaineering equipment needs. We also carry a full range of BMX bikes and spares plus scooters - with in-line skates coming soon.

January 2012
We dropped the BargainBoards.co.uk brand name in favour of our ‘Absolute’ suite of websites. This reflected our gradual move into a broader range of non-board sports as well as the fact that, for some time, we have offered a full range of current season products in addition to the stock clearance bargains we have become famous for. Don't worry - we will continue to offer these cheap stock clearance deals but from now on, they will be offered under the ‘Absolute’ umbrella.