Guy 1: How many Canadian snowboarders does it take to win a gold medal?
Guy 2: I dunno, how many?
Guy 1: One and an eighth!
If you find that joke funny, you know the inseperable tie between snowboarding and marijuana use. For those too young or aloof to know the tale of Ross Rebagliati, spend some time learning about the roller coaster ride of recognition through a medal honoring just how easily an agenda can hijack the Honor-filled ideal of athletic excellence.
On this day, the chosen day by default due to the evolution of a code stoners would use for getting high. Four-twenty, brah. So it is only fair in this column about snowboarding to honor that link. And after the storm Colorado just got, it’s safe to say that the state is celebrating in style.
Avalanche Season
With the highs come the lows, and it also sad to acknowledge the death of young freeride snowboard champ Estelle Bolet in Switzerland. Bode Merrill also got himself a bit too close to the other side of luck in Alaska. It’s a painful and far-reaching reminder of the power always present in the mountains, but particularly this time of year as the seasons are in full flux.
Nationals in Copper
In the United States, anyone with the dream of being a champ on a snowboard had their radar set on Copper Mountain for the USASA national championships. The USASA is the main governing body for competitive snowboarding (and freeskiing but someone else can talk about that). Competitors as young as five years old came out to compete in five different disciplines: Halfpipe, boardercross, slopestyle, rail jam, and slalom/GS.
To get to this point, riders had to compete and do well in regional competitions all around the country. Competing is not limited to Yanks, as competitors came from as far as Europe and New Zealand to climb their way to the top of the podium.
There were too many categories and disciplines to list them all, but for a full results list you can visit The USASA website. If you don’t want to do that, at least check out Chris Corning’s winning slopestyle run:
Full Moon Ladies in Alaska
The women of the ultra-ambitious two-year, feminine-powered project Full Moon have made their way to Alaska to film what will undoubtedly be a bar-raising effort that will inspire a whole new generation of female snowboarders. Scratch that, I’m guessing everyone will be inspired by these ladies, and getting the gender asterisk out of the equation will be a big dividend to their efforts over the past two years. These ladies can shred, and shred hard. They’ve been updating us on social media so check out the feeds of Leanne Pelosi, Robin Van Gyn, Jamie Anderson, Annie Boulanger, Hana Beaman, and Helen Schettini to see what they’ve been up to in (almost) real time.
End of Season Parties
Springtime is all about sunshine, slushy corn snow, alcohol, and pond skimming. It may not be blower pow, but any time you are in the mountains sliding over snow with some good people, you can safely call it a good day.
Each year local hills seem to top themselves in the quality of their festivities. It’s as if people beyond the die-hards are waking up to the fact that spring skiing/riding is in a league of its own, and the scene doesn’t always have to be mind bending stunts that could leave you in a wheelchair. And competition can simply be an excuse to hang out on the hill a bit longer with a few beverages.
I wish I could provide a more comprehensive overview, but the spring pond skim/slush cup event is now such a standard tradition across North America that I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings for feeling left out. That and, when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ’em all pretty much. It’s not so much as the highlight reels as it is a way for people to celebrate the season in style. However, if you’d like to check out some of the action from across the continent, I’ll lead you down the internet video rabbit hole with this link.
Holy Bowly Madness
The Holy Bowly event went down in Mammoth last week, and the choice to host it there couldnt have been better. It was a winter to remember for much of the west, but particularly for Mammoth which was comoletely buried on several occasions . So the crew responsible for shaping this one-of-a-kind garden of delights had a giant 3d canvas of possibilities.
I just need to take a moment to pontificate for a second:. But it’s my soapbox, and i’ll abuse it if I want to. The holy bowly is a perfect example of why snowboarding kicks so much ass. I’ve always considered snowboarding to be an art form; a way to express oneself using your surrounding natural elements in a way that is fun and gets the blood moving. When you get into that flow state, it’s as if you can do anything. With the holy bowly, the expression is turned up a notch with not only the riding, but the course design.
Sure, this takes a massive budget as well as a massive amount of snow, but it also creates a whole new league of possibilities when people follow suit. The beauty of snow is how easy it is to sculpt, and then subsequently ride on. Another beauty of the temporary nature of snow is that these massive parks do not last long, so you better get your goods in when the getting’s good. It’s a bit like those Tibetan sand mandalas that the buddhist monks create, one grain at a time with painstaking detail; only to destroy it at the end of it all. The art is in the process and not the result. So, too, is snowboarding. Conditions don’t last, and sooner or later whatever you are riding and using to catapult oneself into the atmosphere will soon enough become water in a river, and then out to sea. It’s a great metaphor for life, and part of the reason that so many of us have such a deep love of snowboarding.
Until next week shredders. Don’t put your board away yet.
