Snowboarders, Big Business, And Risks Oh My!

Can anyone tell us what snowboarders, big business, and super risks have in common? Anyone at all? Still drawing a blank? OK the answer to that is pretty damn simple it probably completely eluded you and now you’re going to shake your head in disbelief. Seems that these three topics common ground is rooted in what the mainstream media believes snowboarding is to the world. Wow, how could you guys not catch that it’s pretty damn disappointing! Oh wait you’re like me and don’t understand why the mainstream media would talk about us, who is throwing money our way, or least of all the risks of snowboarding.

Thanks to Boardistan for finding this article from The Times. Visions of Christine Brennan danced through my head like sporadic bad memories of a rough night out while reading through this article by Christina Crapazano. Much like the first four letters of her last name this article if pretty much full of shit. No one in the mainstream media understands what snowboarding is or what snowboarders want and this piece definitely furthers that proof.

Here’s some classic examples of things they shouldn’t talk about:

Halfpipe snowboarders differ from most other athletes: they’re a proud comradeship of renegades, who scorn convention or anything that compromises their independent spirit. They also seek to advance the magic of the board, as a symbol of their limit-defying mentality.

The halfpipe is full of renegades? Shit guess we better watch out for this guy he’s going to be double chucking ballerina spinning into the next Olympics.

But as Olympic snowboarders are soaring to new airborne feats, some in the sport are worried about the extreme risks and seemingly endless dollars being spent.

Who are these people worried about the money being spent? As much as having corporate sponsors that don’t fit with snowboarding it’s a necessary evil to fund projects. Would we have That’s It That’s All if it weren’t for Red Bull? And risk has always been associated with snowboarding was Shawn Farmer dropping a 100 foot cliff back in the day any different than someone chucking a double cork in the pipe? Progression happens it’s a natural thing, let along Mikey Basich was doing double back flips in the 90′s in contests so it’s not anything new.

The safety equipment, ironically, enables more risk taking. During training, snowboarders position themselves to land in the airbag or foam pit instead of on the pipe. The softer surface largely eliminates the fear of falling, allowing snowboarders to focus on a trick’s air mechanics instead of the landing. Airbags and foam pits also increase the speed at which athletes master new maneuvers.

Where’s the irony in safety equipment enabling more risks? So if the opportunity presents itself to be safer while progressing we shouldn’t take it because it might cause more risks?

Yet the leap forward in the risky nature of stunts has not been universally embraced in the snowboard community.

What, since when? It seems if you aren’t putting a double in your video part you aren’t relevant anymore. Fuck all one has to do is look at the teasers on this site and just count how many of them have kids tossing that trick that obviously don’t have a training facility to learn these “dangerous aerial maneuvers”. Double corks are pretty much as accepted as reverse camber these days.

“It has gone from being something that was just fun to do to it being something that has life or death consequences,” said two-time snowboard cross gold medalist Seth Wescott.

Thank you Seth Wescott you are definitely helping the cause here. Risk is associated with anything. Drive down the road and pass a car for those 2 seconds you have the potential to collide and die. Even a day for the average rider on the slopes has life or death consequences. This is nothing new to snowboarding and never will be, it’s just because we had a highly publicized figure get injured going into a highly publicized event that it draws more attention. If this hadn’t been an Olympic year would this topic even exist?

The money has also been troubling for some. Sponsors have long been involved in athlete training. Organizations like the United States Ski and Snowboard Association use sponsor funding to develop training programs. And apparel and snowboard companies, like DC Shoes, develop training and equipment-testing facilities for sponsored athletes. (Snowboarders call this “giving back” to the sport.) Red Bull and Nike are mostly applauded for sponsoring private halfpipes. However, each of the companies’ sizable investment in just one athlete’s training was unprecedented and, for some, shockingly expensive for what was a rag-tag sport.

Rag-tag sport? Evidently they haven’t noticed it’s a billion dollar industry that has gone from the out skirts of golf courses to all but 3 resorts in the United States and is internationally recognized. Also is it me or doesn’t “giving back” mean actually giving back to the community and not just to sponsored athletes? When was the last time the average Joe just strolled up to The Mountain Lab and did some hot laps? Come to think of it when was the last time any of these private facilities actually gave back to any of us? What this excerpt is describing isn’t giving back but marketing as these companies need to invest in their athletes to get them to that level where people idolize them and want to buy the products their endorsing. Think about this why is Chas Guldemond a super contest jock without any hard goods sponsors yet he can spin like a ballerina and take home over a 100k in prize money? Simple he’s not as marketable as someone like Scott Stevens who films a video part that people watch think is creative and walk away with the idea that maybe they could shred their back yard.

To some, the price to be able to progress in the sport is also getting higher, and some snowboarders worry that rising training costs will necessitate increased corporate funding, which will deter aspiring snowboarders.

As the money and risks rise, the loss for snowboarding could be the very things that draw so many to the sport — its accessibility, esprit de corps and sheer pleasure.

No shit snowboarding’s not accessible! Look at the cost for what the true average rider pays, couple hundred in gear, 50 to hundred in a day ticket, and then there’s the travel expenses. Oh but now we need to feel bad that the soccer mom society has engulfed snowboarding and brought out a rise in training costs? News flash for every contest jock out there “training” there’s a plethora of kids that are just having fun and doing it their way without the stupid structure that seems to be being force fed to this upcoming generation.

With excerpts like this why would anyone want to even consider snowboarding? Oh that’s right it’s fun which the last quote from Travis Rice in this piece nailed it. Like I’ve said before The Olympics need snowboarding and not the other way around. Contests will always exist but that’s not what the majority of snowboarding is, the majority is being out there having fun whether with friends or yourself. At the end of the day snowboarding is about fun and that should be the reason you want to do it and what people see when they watch people doing it.

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