I wasted my forty-five minutes in the passenger seat by skimming
a new issue of Heckler Magazine. In particular, I focused
on this bit written by some guy I can't remember the name
of (Bob Klein-ed.). He wrote this diatribe against those riders
who front "Pro" status while they neither do nothing to earn
it nor show respect for it. The only qualification I had garnered
from this article for anyone's being on the outs with this
guy was that your reasons for snowboarding didn't
jive with his own. I found a certain amount of personal acceptability
for his opinion that I found in the article, however, it made
me generally sad to have read it. I could be very wrong in
my understanding of what exactly he was trying to accomplish
with his article but then again, that is the nature of human
perception -
everything is subjective. So maybe we agree or maybe not,
but either way this "Pro" stuff has got to go.
I was happy that he was calling shit on this ugly propensity
a lot of us exhibit for wholly unnecessary recognition within
our quaint little sub-culture. Anymore, it is almost not enough
for people to purely play in the snow; the goal is no longer
fun, it is the pursuit of glory and bro-brah glad handing
with as many of the other recognized chump idols of the day
as possible. I am not immune, this thing I am writing here
is as much an indictment of myself as it is of all the
other people I despise. With this I would like to question
just what in the fuck a "Pro" snowboarder is anyway? Excuse
me, but who decided that I or anyone else is "Pro?" I think
what it comes down to is that you are as "Pro" as you can
pull off to yourself and to those who are as equally easily
suckered. As for myself, no one is "Pro" unless I happen to
like them, just as no equipment is very good unless I happen
to ride it and find it to work really well for what I want
to use it for, just as I won't assess whether a book or a
movie is good with me until I have read it or seen it myself.
The point is - this is mine - this snowboarding thing belongs
to me just as it belongs to you. As such, fuck the whole heirarchy
of "Pro bro-brah" bullshit. The person who does the most beautiful
riding of the moment while you are there on the snow is the
"Pro," not the fucking jerk swilling beer, talking shit about
women and slagging the fan-boys during their hours off the
snow.
Pro
is a lie
.Some
of us have been riding for a lot of years and as a result
are exceptionally good at it, consequently getting product
sponsors and recognition for our efforts. Sponsorship should
come as a nice side-effect, not as a goal to be achieved.
At this point in my nine years of riding (and I have only
just turned 21) I am told that I am "Pro" and for the life
of me I still haven't figured out what exactly that is supposed
to mean. Do I have responsibilities, obligations, a regular
pay-check for my efforts, am I so much cooler now than when
I was twelve and falling on my ass on a Snowtech? The answer
is no. I am only as cool as I can tell myself I am and I am
only as cool as I can snow other people into believing I am.
Yet fortunately because I think in my constant cynicism that
everything is silly and beyond help, I can still function
within this sub-culture and not want to run permanently from
the hills. We set ourselves and those around us up
as professional demi-gods only to find out that there will
always be others who will come up better and stronger than
ourselves. And, we also all to often come to the dissapointing
realization that many among us are not worth worshipping for
their talents because they are not quality people.
As an honest people hater in general, I am always looking
to meet people who will surprise me as individuals, and in
snowboarding I am very unhappy to say that the numbers are
few.
Before all of the major players, and the sponsors, and the
money, I was so psyched to meet people on the mountain or
in a shop who could relate to how I felt about snowboarding.
Now, today I get off a chair lift and before anyone speaks
a word they have to size you up. You are only an acceptable
"bro" if your stance is sufficiently wide and your pants are
hella-baggy. Clone. Clone CLONE. I thought I had left hostile
cliques back in high school. Wrong. Every guy with a lame
attitude I have ever hated has seemingly now become a snowboarder.
Am I wrong?
This now gets me to the trade show experience portion of my
story. Trade shows are all about the game, the hype and the
schmooze. For anyone who has ever been sucked into the sleazy
vortex that is a trade show, you know what I am talking about.
During the last ASR show in San Diego this past August, I
was feeling super-weird. This whole thing is now so much bigger
than when I first started snowboarding that it is not anything
anymore - it has been co-opted and commodified along the way
by so many different groups that it has lost a lot of its
beauty. I, by the depth of my association with snowboarding,
have been commodified also and sometimes that feels really
gross. However, at other times when I break boards or no longer
have clothes that keep the wet out and am far too poor to
get the things I need, I am oh so thankful that I am a part
of this industry machine. It takes a certain amount of tolerance
to accept that in snowboarding the beauty is in the representation
and packaging, and is no longer purely in the action itself.
I don't want to sound like I am ringing the death bell while
attempting to harken back to some golden age because that
is simply worthless nostalgic pandering which has nothing
to do with the present. Rather, I only want to flex a few
heads - to get people to really challenge their perceptions
and motivations for how they live snowboarding.
While at this trade show, I got to meet and actually know
a few people a bit better who gave me some faith. I tried
to pay as little attention as I could to conversations about
anything having to do with the industry, these of course are
invariably boring and in the end always degenerate into bro-speak.
However, one night I went to dinner with about forty people
and had the unique experience of being seated next to these
two guys named Tom and Dan. They are
the owners of Mambosok. Prior to our meeting I had only thought
of Mambosok as as a total drag because of those really fucked
hats they make. After meeting them, I was so glad; honestly
happy and with no cynicism. The times in my life are very
few when I have not found some way to dislike something I
like for even the smallest reason. In my journal from that
time I wrote of them: "I sat next to the Mambosok guys, Tom
and Dan. They are so good. Their minds are so removed from
the industry as a whole that they could give a fuck how other
people think if they aren't their friends. They are like the
`not snowboarders-snowboarders.' They do not fake being hardcore,
or punk, or corporate, or anything. They make what they like.
Their approach is simple and I am amazed that no one else
has caught on to that notion. A lot of companies at this trade
show are very busy trying to be `in and cool.' The originality
has been lost
in their designs; instead, most companies blend together -
reeking of conformity. Tom is having a kid born in a few weeks
and that is the most pressing thing on his mind. That is far
better than worrying about team riders and schmooze-power.
And Dan, well he just purchased what sounds like a beautiful
home. I may not be totally down with all of their stuff, but
that is so unimportant in the face of the fact that as people
they are actually great."
As a result of our meeting, one day I came by their warehouse
to say hello and ended up doing an ad for them that totally
made fun of those hats. Every other company is so constantly
worried about creating a "killer image" that they can't see
the humor in anything. In another journal entry a few days
later I summed up the trade show experience with this:
"Yesterday was the last day of the trade show. Good. I never
did actually slip through every aisle to see what kind of
garbage everyone was slinging to the buyers. Yet, I can safely
say if there was ever a living thriving market place for any
and all products the human mind could invent, co-op, conjure
up, steal, or modify then the time is now. Easily, most of
the things I did see were not necessary, or were not improvements
on already existing products. Products - most of which serve
no valuable purpose anyway. All of this crap is sold under
the guise of being somehow integral to the betterment of living
an active, sporting lifestyle. Yeah, right. My newly purchased
high fashion skateboard shorts/pants "streetwear," or my great
little floral printed "french-cut" bikini is really going
to improve my skateboarding or swimming skills in the pool
next time around. Sunday, 2:40 a.m."
"I have
got a wantless need, I've got a needless want ..." -Rollins
Yes,
"Pro and trade shows are the devil. Any yes, I will still
keep myself a part of this machine for a while to come because
there is something in all of it that I love to hate; just
as I will always love the way a board under my feet in three
feet of powder feels on opening day at Baker. There is the
essential side of the board and snow that each of us would
never deny having a close affection for, and then there is
the exposed and marketable side of snowboarding that we all
try to say doesn't affect us. Some place in the middle these
two meet and it is always going to be a challenge to maintain
the importance of the first while making certain that the
second never becomes too overpowering.
My friend, and fellow "Pro" Lib Tech team rider David E. Rogers,
who I've been riding with for these nine years, sums up snowboarding
for
himself in a way that I think has, for a lot of people, been
lost: "Everytime I push myself further I get a little higher
and that is the reasons, it is like freedom - you know. Our
lives as we know it are governed by laws and physical boundaries.
When you are out ... defying gravity, throwing yourself off
a cliff that you would normally die on, that is an adrenaline
rush so potent that to get another rush as potent, you have
to throw yourself off another cliff that's bigger. Every turn
is your disaster or your success."
He loves snowboarding as I have seldom seen in other people.
To give heart and soul to it for a long time and to never
be overly hungry for recognition is a virtue in these days.
As far as Dave goes, it has always been his coveted modesty
for his ability that has always impressed me. This is cool,
and this attitude may get you recognition slower but it will
be all the more beneficial. You will have the respect of those
who truly matter and more importantly, you will be able to
respect your choices and yourself.
-Arlie John Carstens, pro snowboader, lives
in Seattle.
