Editor’s Note: Projectile Dysfunction is a new column honoring those that jibbed when others jabbed, celebrating the individuals who set the snowboard world on fire with their progressive riding and larger-than-life personas.
When it came to Shaun’s antics and wild style, people either loved him or hated him.
Snowboarding wasn’t always so polished. In fact, at one point, snowboarding seemed like a jumbled mess of pioneering outcasts. They were the freaks and geeks of mountain society who didn’t want to conform to–as it was viewed then– the “soul-less and elitist pastime of skiing.” Snowboarding, much like its surfing and skateboarding predecessors, was for those who enjoyed a fringe lifestyle of counter culture pursuits. It was a way to have fun, ride fast, and maybe piss off your parents all at the same time.
And like any other counter culture, snowboarding has had its share of characters. They were the sport’s bastard sons, the ones who would scoff at convention and do things their own way. They helped make snowboarding radical. And there weren’t many figures more polarizing than Shaun Palmer. Palmer was born into the mountain community of South Lake Tahoe, Calif. in the late ’60s and would later become one of the sport’s most notable showmen. He was also one of the most debated. When it came to his antics and wild style, people either loved him or hated him.
Palmer had flair before that was a thing, hitting jumps one foot out when Bode Merrill and Scott Stevens were in playpens. And even though he cut his hair like a circus clown and wore hideous plaid snowboard pants, he was one of the most feared competitors of all-time.
In the ‘1980s, snowboarding was much like an awkward toddler trying to walk. The culture was still being defined. And snowboarders were just starting to be accepted into ski resorts. Little did they know, the mountains were about to get a rude awakening from a group of revolutionary freestylers. At the forefront of the movement was Shaun Palmer, loud and vivacious.
By 1990, Palmer was a world champion halfpipe rider, and his larger-than-life persona was capturing the hearts and minds of young snowboarders everywhere. He was loud, abrasive, and arrogant. And while many of his peers seemed to be turned off by Palmer’s attitude, they couldn’t ignore his will to dominate every competition he entered.
Photo: Palmer Snowboards
In 1995, he started his own snowboard brand, Palmer Snowboarders. He also started mountain biking and by the end of 1996, had become a world-renowned downhill competitor. Palmer also started to gravitate towards the boardercross circuit, leaving behind a long and successful freestyle career. He seemed focused on speed, regardless of the apparatus. By the early 2000s, Palmer was one of the most decorated competitors in X-Games history and the only X-Games athlete to achieve a gold medal in Snow Mountain Bike Racing, Boardercross, Skiercross, and Ultracross.
Because of snowboarding’s insular qualities, when Palmer seemingly left to pursue other interests, it was as if he disappeared from snowboarding’s collective conscious. But Palmer wasn’t done with the sport. In fact, in 2006, he made the US Olympic team. However, much of snowboarding’s core disregarded the achievement because it wasn’t freestyle and, unfortunately, he tore his achilles two weeks before and couldn’t compete.
Since his last go at the Olympic team in 2010, Palmer has released his documentary The Miserable Champion, which chronicled his rise to fame and subsequent addictive and destructive behavior. It’s a display of Shaun’s fuck-the-world attitude and uncovers reasons behind the bravado, some of which were deeply rooted in emotional insecurities.
Palmer remains one of the most controversial and polarizing snowboarding figures of all-time. And while he was crude, rude, and intense, he was just what snowboarding needed in its formative years. Perhaps present day snowboarding could use a dose. His madness will always be emblematic of a culture built on punk rock ethics and disdain for authority.
