Recently, I asked some of my "New School" friends what the most outrageous thing that they had seen someone do, either snowboarding or at a ski area. One guy told me about the time his friend was riding at Breckenridge when he stopped within sight of the liftline, pulled down his pants, and proceeded to jack off on a snow making gun. This was by far the most outrageous thing that I have ever heard. But what does that mean?

"Shock Value" is what I would label it, and defined in the dictionary, Shock means: "a disturbance in the equilibrium or permanence of something." Value means: "relative worth, utility, or importance: degree of excellence." With this understood, we must now relate the terminology to our everyday snowboarding life. Why is it that you don't see skiers jacking off on the mountain? Probably because they are different than snowboarders.

When I started snowboarding over 15 years ago, I was different than skiers: I wore wool pants and less visible clothing than skiers, and I always thought that I acted different also. There was an unspoken brotherhood of boarders that we were much more openminded than our skiing counter parts.

Shock value in those days was to show up at a ski area and see if they would let us on the lifts, and when they said no, we had nothing to lose by saying FUCK YOU! Shock value these days is when some scumbag like Steve Rocco produces the blatant put downs in his magazine or his ads. If it's no big deal to smoke pot, than why does Rocco have to tell the world how much dope one of his riders consumes in a week?

The difference is in the old days we were not jeopardizing our future in snowboarding because we had already been rejected. The new world order of shock value, as in Rocco's case, is far reaching and damaging to our own kind. For example, there are ads which directly put down companies, and their products, or even worse, put down the consumer: YOU! Is it really funny to be put down because you don't live in smog and ego infested So.Cal.? Is it really cool to go around vibing everyone that you meet involved with snowboarding, to prove the point that you are an individual? Today's version of shock value does nothing but divide the people in our sport and create hatred. You say fuck the racers and fuck the beginners and fuck the big companies and fuck the small ones and fuck the powder and fuck the jibbers and fuck the big ski areas and fuck the small ones and fuck hiking and fuck backcountry and fuck this rider and fuck that rider. Look at yourself now! You've become nothing but a frothing, festering negative puddle of verbal diarrhea, doing nothing to preserve the sport or the "cool" image that you have worked so hard on maintaining.

I think that it is your job to differentiate between no big deal and something that is supposed to shock you. Take my friend, Shaun Palmer, for example. Shaun has maintained an obnoxious image. How? As with anyone, some people like him and some people hate him. He did an ad dressed in drag. Is that shocking? Maybe. Is it damaging to our sport? Why would it be? If Shaun was pictured doing an air with a caption that read "Shaun hates you and he hates Burton," that would be damaging.

I think Shaun did the ad to make fun of all the people in our industry that spend all of their time trying to be a better company than some other company. Doesn't that sound stupid? I thought we were supposed to be individuals, right? Then why do companies care what other companies say or do?

I think it's because we have reached a point where everyone is putting down everyone and we forgot how to be individuals. Think what you what and if you are horny on the hill, then by all means go to the snow making gun, whip it out and start jackin'! Like the band HFL says: HARDCORE - FUCK YOU ALL!