Environmental Products
I once read a quote from some over 45 year old shop jock that seemed bitter at snowboarding which read something like this, “rail riding isn’t snowboarding, park riding isn’t snowboarding, resort riding isn’t snowboarding, these kids these days are pussies and should ride boards that are big and real snow”. So evidently we’re all pussies if we don’t ride boards over 165cm’s and only on powder days without lift service. Cool I’m so down with that lets pigeon hole snowboarding!
Oh wait there’s a problem with that, snowboarding is global from the streets to the peaks. It’s the diversity we see in all our riders who come from various environments that makes snowboarding what it is. Snowboarding is all about people making the most out of what they have in their environments and growing as riders from there.
You think those jib kids from Minnesota are thinking to themselves well today lets just go ride the Gondola up to the ridge and then hike out the gate to shred some pow? Fuck no they’re saying well we have this triple kink we can hit and then go get some Dunkin’ Donuts. This is a lot of peoples reality that don’t live near mountains but instead have trash dumps, foot hills, and mounds to ride.
When you’re geographically limited to what you have in front of you this causes you to break the confines of conformity. How many times can you lap that 200 vertical feet before you say well I guess I should venture into the stunt park? Or how many lifts can you ride when you’re in the mountains before you hike out a gate and discover slack-country riding which ultimately leads to back-country?
What I’m getting at in all of this is that where we live and what we have in front of us causes us to become products of our environments. If we want to change that it means venturing out past the confines of what is in front of us to utilize the creativity that snowboarding provides. So when you think your riding has stagnated maybe you should take a look around you and see what your environment can provide.
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this post made me laugh. I ride over 100 days a year and according to that guy I’m apparently not snowboarding. It must suck to go through life that bitter. snowboarding is and should be whatever you make of it and whatever you want it to be. i feel bad for the his customers. hopefully they’ll find a more supportive place to do business. I wonder if he sells a lot of 170′s?
It’s funny reading this man when I was a lot younger I thought pretty much the same way. Also I was poor and was afraid to ruin my board on boxes/rails. And then 2 or 3 seasons ago (I’m 31 now) I realized that if I didn’t find some way to make snowboarding in Michigan fun, new, and exciting every time I ride, I would end up giving it up because like you said “HOw many times can you lap the same 200 foot vertical?” I’m by no means an expert but it’s really rejuvenated my love for the sport. I think everyone should step out of their comfort zones from time to time and try something new – after all that is how we all got started with this sport, by trying something new.
Simple evolution of the “sport” (fuck I hate calling it that). 1000$ bro flicks turn into a couple sponsors turns into your own personal redbull wrapped Helli with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of filming equipment. I mean I am not even that old and I could rant about how easy it is to ride parks now because you dont have to worry about impaling yourself on a screw that the ski patrol (no park crews back then) forgot to screw down. Or having a rainbow rail flip over and taking out a group of ski school kids. ahhh the good ol days.
and another thing
Rail riding is green. I mean, We would have no trees left if we all rode 165cm.