Riding the Beast: Has Snowboarding Lost its Soul? (fwd)

[terekhov]

IMHO we need that here for history's sake:

https://medium.com/@chriskarol/riding-the-beast-cad5a6bc9460#.1bq25xu2l

Quote

By; Chris Karol

The question made me nauseous. The woman from the New York Times had somehow gotten my mobile number and just asked me if snowboarding had in fact “lost its soul”. The year was 1997. I was a passenger, speeding over Vail Pass on my way to Europe. The athletes I was coaching would be battling it out on the World Cup tour, competing for a chance to represent the USA in Nagano, Japan. Snowboarding was about to become an Olympic sport. And here I was, trading with the enemy. I didn’t want to talk about it, I responded grimly. “Snowboarding doesn’t have a soul...it’s just a sport.” That’s not what she was after. A racer at heart, my competitive fire had been doused four years earlier. I had been an A-Team rider for the world’s largest snowboard company, Burton Snowboards. It was fun, but I was done. My final race had taken place at the Op Pro in February of 1993 at June Mountain, California, finishing 2nd in Giant Slalom. That was good enough for me. Having invested my youth in snowboarding, I now had to find a new way to give back to the sport which had given me a life. There was lot’s to do. Television and magazine coverage for alpine-snowboarding had been dwindling. Snowboarding’s freestyle community had flipped the middle finger to alpine-snowboarding and sponsor opportunities were drying up. Even worse, the entire sport of snowboarding had just been ambushed by the International Olympic Committee and it's partners in crime, the Federation International de Ski and the United States Ski/Snowboard Association. I had loved racing and been at the top of my game but I was willing to put it behind me. Love and a sense of accomplishment lured me to pasture. Snowboarding itself had been my dream. Olympic dreams of snowboarders around the planet had now become reality. New worlds of opportunity had been created for ourselves and every other snowboarder on the planet. It felt good. Even better, I had fallen in love with a beautiful woman. No way I was about to jump in bed with the Federation of Skier’s who had just stolen snowboarding’s most valuable commercial rights through a backdoor deal with the International Olympic Committee. It was time to move on. But four years later my world had changed, the love was lost. I found myself pondering my future once again when alpine snowboarding returned, offering me a new lease on life. In a previous life snowboarders had created our own International Snowboard Federation to represent, serve and protect the interests of the snowboarding community. We created our own events and built our own World Cup tour spanning three continents throughout Japan, Europe and North America. Each nation had a national championship series with corresponding professional snowboarders’ associations. Riders qualified for the World Cup by rising up through their nations ranking and quota systems. It worked. Major corporate sponsors fought for the snowboarder demographic. Competing pro-tours offered substantial prize money. Renegade magazines and television networks jockeyed for position with primetime coverage. Independent riders and industry-supported teams flourished, each with their own unique personalities and style. This was snowboarding. But now it was finished. Victims of our own success, we had willingly walked into the den of the Beast.

Competitive snowboarders, through our commitment and love for the sport were on the path towards making our Olympic dreams come true. Talks to have the sport represented in the 1994 Norwegian Cultural Exhibition were a step in the right direction if not misguided. The festivities were about to begin when the three headed Beast suddenly appeared. Call it the Vampire-Wolf-Squid if you will but by the time the curtains lifted the International Skiing Federation had taken full control over Olympic snowboarding.

The Beast had caught snowboarding on its heel-edge, spinning a late 180 and going for the throat. Tearing out the artery that had given life to the sport before lashing out with its Squid like tentacles, snatching outstretched arms of the fallen snowboarders, reeling them in, then ramming its blood funnel into the sport, effectively sucking the blood out of snowboarding and placing it on life support to feed the International Olympic Committee. Likening the IOC and it's partners in crime to infamous Wall Street critic Matt Taibbi’s analogy, “The world’s most powerful investment bank wrapped around the face of [snowboarding] relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smelled like money.” Snowboarding, master of its own universe, created and built by snowboarders, was left for dead standing in its tracks. The lives of snowboardings pioneers held in the balance.

Snowboarding’s place in the food chain became clear in a heartbeat. Olympic snowboarding now demanded obedience to the Beast. Pundits jabbered. Snowboarding had read its own press, believing we had earned our place at the table, but the cruel reality became clear when the spotlights snapped on. Snowboarding had been shepherded straight into the Vampire’s den by its worst rivals. There we were, blinded by the spotlight’s glare. The feast smelled like success until snowboarders realized what was for dinner. Held hostage and exposed to the world, riders who could afford the ransom ran for their lives. Suddenly fueled by a media explosion, snowboarding was on fire with increasingly lucrative endorsements and industry support. Alpine-snowboarders got left to burn in the blaze. Backcountry boarders began looking for their soul. New alpine-snowboarders were drawn to the fire, greasing the gullet of the Beast as it warmed up for the main course. When the USSA held their first team tryout in 1994 it was an alpine-snowboarding competition. Self-respecting freestyle-snowboarders wouldn’t have been caught dead near it.

Growing lack of media attention for alpine-snowboarding had only added to the mounting frustrations found in the competitive endorsement world. Alpine wasn’t cool. Nevermind that alpine-snowboarding represented the most objective competitive format. freestyle-snowboarding had become all about media exposure and money. At least the skier Federation and its Governing bodies seemed to appreciate alpine-snowboarding and support it. And support it they did, until the Beast was able to choke down the rest of the sport. Bloated, the Beast sat silent, fat on the scales of justice. Indigestion boiled. By the time I found myself dodging the New York Times reporter, I had returned to the sport to become an alpine-snowboarding coach for the US arm of the Squid. It was a mixed blessing but things had changed. Snowboarding’s own International Federation had since lost its primary tour sponsor and gone bankrupt. The snowboard industry had jumped ship and was now in bed with the Beast. But there was one notable exception. Terje Haakonsen, arguably the world’s best snowboarder at the time, made international headlines boycotting the Olympics. It was a bold statement. Terje had been a shoe-in for the gold medal in snowboarding’s premier event. Burton Snowboards, his sponsor, stood behind him all the way. But what did they really stand to gain from boycotting? Burton is like the Goldman Sachs of snowboarding, a leader in their field and a master of their domain. The corporate giant, a symbol of dominance in the fiercely independent sport of snowboarding, went from boycott status to self-proclaimed freedom-fighter overnight. Snowboarding had a new enemy. It’s not likely that Burton offered Terje any stock options for his sacrifice. They didn’t have to. Terje rose instantly to the rank of cult-hero. Here was the world’s best snowboarder turning down an almost guaranteed Olympic gold medal based on principle alone. A worthy principle but let’s be clear who really won the war. Burton now sits on the board of trustees for the USSA. Burton is a primary sponsor for the USSA's Olympic snowboarding team; and snowboarding is now a staple in the USSA'S so-called “portfolio of sports”. The Vampire-Wolf-Squid secured its blood funnel into snowboarding, leaving the Beast free to roam the world snapping up snowboarding’s bounty of goats. Snowboarding appears to have grown up. White goats are milked, before being sent to pasture, leading a fresh herd of new kids for the Squids. Goats to slaughter—some fled, away from the Vampire culling the balance of the herd. Meanwhile, Craig Kelly has passed, a flying tomato has gone down in history, and Terje still rips. At least Sage hit the slopes with some style. The snowboard industry is now in the grips of the Vampire-Wolf-Squid, keeping the world informed about the colorful history of snowboarding. Snowboarding has been consumed. The Beast feeds targets to boarders before sitting down to eat them for breakfast. Media feeds scour the web pumping kids full of taurine driven insanity, unlocking the gates before launching them into the field of smoking hot goats. X games lure the lost back into the fold, thinking they’ve jumped the fence. If they can handle the show they earn a ticket to ride in the three-ring circus. The carve came back hard when the soft slide caught hold. Easing back on the throttle before giving the party wagon some gas, snowboarding launched into the pit of despair. Things began to get gnarly. Ski kids already late to the party hooked a tip on the net while old squids fed hollow sacks to the herd. Some snowboarders naturally regurgitated, choking on the poles. The Beast stroked the loins of it's offspring as they rose to claim the forsaken snowboarders preceding them and sold VIP tickets to the bonfire, letting the brands get hot before burning them into the flesh of their goats and watching the twisted rippers fight to the death. Humbled and broken, new snowboarders and skiers unleashed the flood. Soaked from the drawers down, riders have now been reduced to inventory in the social fabric of existence. Stacked in highly profitable warehouses of action-sports heroes and plugged into the socioeconomic machine like pods in the matrix, pumped full of Olympic dreams before being fed to the Beast.

The battle to save snowboarding’s soul never happened. The muffled cries of injustice rang hollow. The defiant snowboarder and the loyal sponsor, already in the belly of the Beast, were caught with their pants down, unable to fight. Snowboarders silently fell. Waking up, finding lost mountains, while the Beast silently rolled to a stop on top of the Pass. Alpine-snowboarding sped off to catch its flight to Europe, powered by the hopes & dreams of all souls on board to wake up with the rising sun.

References Contact; karolshreds@gmail.com

 

[BlueB]

Lots of poor writing and circular wining, to state a simple truth: The professional sport is completely commercialized. Take it or leave it. Olympics were supposed to be the bastion and celebration of amateur sport... high jacked few decades ago. Now it's just an evil organization that steals from the pockets of citizens of host countries to fill few rich ones. 

The only true spirit of boarding lives with back country riders, skinning the remote slopes for their turns (and no, Terjes of the world are not included). We, the free carvers, were close too, as the main stream outcasts, searching for that pure turn. Now that carving is getting cool again, maybe not for much longer... 

Edited March 16, 2017 by BlueB

[lowrider]

On that depressing note a simple question. Where does that leave those of us who ride a Sqwal ?

[lonbordin]

30 minutes ago, lowrider said:

On that depressing note a simple question. Where does that leave those of us who ride a Sqwal ?

In a dark cave without a light?

I wish snowsliding didn't get all these divisions.

Xc→tele→ski→mono→skwal→alpine→freestyle→no bindings→sledding

It's just a big snowsliding rainbow.

[b0ardski]

poles and stepins on one edge with boots that don't wear out every season, you can keep the rest

 

money is as money does, spinny flippy sells, hundreths of a second does not, maybe split boarding is the answer

if a boarder turns in the woods and nobody's there to see it does it still have a soul?

viva la glisse

 

Edited March 17, 2017 by b0ardski

[Jack M]

4 hours ago, BlueB said:

1) Lots of poor writing...

2) The only true spirit of boarding...

3) Now that carving is getting cool again, maybe not for much longer... 

(man this new quoting system sucks)

1) Wow.  You know he very well may be lurking here.  He used to post.  I quite enjoyed the piece.  It was creative and it came from experience and the heart.  No glaring grammar mistakes jumped out at me either.

2) You are not the arbiter of what defines the spirit of snowboarding.

3) Don't hold your breath.

[Eric Brammer aka PSR]

As an ISF and USASA Judge in the early 90's, I watched the USSA/FIS 'gear up' for Nagano, about three years in advance of Snowboarding's first Olympics. The first thing they did was literally steal the Judging Book USASA used, and then 're-write' it with a fairly bogus point system that made 'usual' non-progressive tricks 'worth more'. This was supposedly to 'standardise' the Pipe runs (Read; Squelch Innovation, and Don't Reward Palmer for Going BIG). Second thing they did, was make 'their' events the ones that counted towards getting into Olympic Tryouts. In the U.S., they then set about putting on contests On The Same DAY as established USASA/ISF events, but literally on a mountain that was nearby, in the same State (Ie, if we, the USASA were at Okemo, they'd be running a USSA event at Mt. Snow, or Killington). It was purely Evil Divide+Conquer. Midway through '91, the ISF went to court, and won, making the FIS have to count ISF points towards tryouts; and, the Court noted that 'same area' events should be on different days, but fell short of stipulating who was running a Saturday or a Sunday contest. The FIS agreed, in court, to abide. Next season, they were back at it, again with the 'divide+conquer routine. Another Court session, another 'win' for USASA, and yet, the USSA continued with the events overlapping USASA's timetable. This went back to Court in '93, again. Why? Because the FIS used it's very deep pockets to make the ISF have to pay for Lawyers that it couldn't really afford; Bring them back to Court by misbehaving! The USSA Proved it's intentions and honesty right then and there.

That, in a nutshell, shows the Ethics behind the USSA and FIS. 

I quit Judging in '95 in Disgust. It still brings the bile up when I think of it.

 

Edited March 17, 2017 by Eric Brammer aka PSR

[Rob Stevens]

If snowboarding is supposed to be fun, and you're having fun, then it's working.

 

[lordmetroland]

Not sure what I thought of the article, but I'm pretty excited about the idea of this "Blood Funnel."

[BlueB]

2 hours ago, Jack Michaud said:

(man this new quoting system sucks)

1) Wow.  You know he very well may be lurking here.  He used to post.  I quite enjoyed the piece.  It was creative and it came from experience and the heart.  No glaring grammar mistakes jumped out at me either.

2) You are not the arbiter of what defines the spirit of snowboarding.

3) Don't hold your breath.

1) I know. I'm not afraid to speak my mind. Winey article, repeating itself every other sentence. Shark-wolf-octopus-dracula-kerber? Give me a break. You want to be a pro - play the game. 

2) What is Jerusalem worth to you? Nothing... Everything! 

Who is to define the true spirit of snowboarding? All of us. 

3) Time will tell... 

[BlueB]

52 minutes ago, Rob Stevens said:

If snowboarding is supposed to be fun, and you're having fun, then it's working.

 

Bang on! 

[terekhov]

for me it's looks like pretty nice writing and surely not wining - just a piece of established history from one of snowboarding' world champions. and who can surely RIDE:

 

not so bad for 50yo boy! :)

[BlueB]

On 16/03/2017 at 10:02 PM, terekhov said:

... from one of snowboarding' worl champions. and who can surely RIDE:

 

No one doubts that. 

Edited March 21, 2017 by BlueB

[billyt.]

10 hours ago, lowrider said:

On that depressing note a simple question. Where does that leave those of us who ride a Sqwal ?

I think that you will get separate restrooms at the lodge?

[Corey]

Re: Soul - who cares?  I think too many people take their recreational activities way too seriously.  As a reality check: We slide down artificially-prepped snow slopes on precisely-made slabs of wood/metal/rubber/fiberglass/carbon/pixie dust/etc.  We do things that 99% of other slope users don't understand, like, or appreciate.  And yet we're really serious about it. 

Do people debate the soul of 10-pin bowling?  Golf?  Darts?  Teleboarding?  I bet they do, and to an outsider, anyone engaged in that debate looks a little crazy.  

Hardboot snowboarding makes MY soul happy, so I don't care what any pretentious governing body or company does.  I'm excited to get my last two days of the 2016/2017 season this Saturday and Sunday!   

[softbootsurfer]

maybe go get a Snurfer and start over... 

 

Edited March 17, 2017 by softbootsurfer

[Corey]

8 hours ago, terekhov said:

for me it's looks like pretty nice writing and surely not wining - just a piece of established history from one of snowboarding' world champions. and who can surely RIDE:

 

not so bad for 50yo boy! :)

That video editor has no soul.  ;)  Why show one clip over and over again?  

[Rob Stevens]

^ I thought it was a GIF. 

[Neil Gendzwill]

52 minutes ago, corey_dyck said:

That video editor has no soul.  ;)  Why show one clip over and over again?  

Not sure what the purpose of that clip is, to show that even world-class racers have some bad habits?

[Dan]

2 hours ago, Neil Gendzwill said:

Not sure what the purpose of that clip is, to show that even world-class racers have some bad habits?

haha, I noticed that trailing arm too. The arm swinging reminded me a little bit of slalom skateboard, I don't know anything about running snowboard gates, is that a thing for slalom snowboard? 

[Eric Brammer aka PSR]

41 minutes ago, Dan said:

haha, I noticed that trailing arm too. The arm swinging reminded me a little bit of slalom skateboard, I don't know anything about running snowboard gates, is that a thing for slalom snowboard? 

Chris Karol was already RACING in '82. I Know, because I competed against him (but, was on the same 'team') that year. That arm posture was often your best defense against Up-Right Bamboo Gates. Note, also, that in the 'repeat' portion of the clip, he's 'working' a pumped carve; the board is 45* to the snow, and he's Gaining Speed, not dropping his butt to the snow to 'punch out' a hard turn. Sometimes, often actually, smooth beats gnarly.

As for Skateboard slalom, just watch JG,Vlad, Curt or Schwippert to see what works.

In and of 'Soul', it IS important. It's what has kept Surfing alive, and in Skateboarding, I can see it's re-emergence (after the Sneaker/Rails Ad-Wars) in the various forms of Longboarding, and the re-kindling of Bowl riding. Snowboarding, being a 'cousin' sport may yet see such a Renaissance, but might not if the attitude is as self-centered as I often see here.

In all three board sports, I've been fortunate to meet, learn from, teach, and ride with some of the most awesome people on the planet; But I wouldn't have if I hadn't wanted to share in the joy of riding.

[terekhov]

5 hours ago, corey_dyck said:

Why show one clip over and over again?  

just do nice joint - and with that provocative music - look that in loop for loooong minutes until you get THE flow. and, just read author's description on u tube - there's answer for you there :)  and, ... that's the best freeriding which I saw on video in that season. stoke!

Edited March 17, 2017 by terekhov

[philw]

The blood funnel is going to eat my vampire and feed me to the squid?

Most snowboarders never raced and are most likely to be nonplussed by both the writing style and the motivation behind it.

The soul of the sport is right here, in the riding of thousands of people in the snow today. We don't need judges, points, or even timings. Just a lift and some snow. There's no need to dwell over ancient trivial bitterness. The sport is a joy, or you're doing it wrong.

[Eric Brammer aka PSR]

4 hours ago, philw said:

 

The soul of the sport is right here, in the riding of thousands of people in the snow today. We don't need judges, points, or even timings. Just a lift and some snow. There's no need to dwell over ancient trivial bitterness. The sport is a joy, or you're doing it wrong.

Yeah, well remember to thank those like Chris, anyhow.  He and I both went to various SKI HILLS, in-the-day, and DEMOED this silly sport to the Mountain Management/Ski-Patrols/Ski-Schools, and OPENED a few LIFTS to you guys. Trust me, we had to HIKE IT a lot. When you HIKE FOR YOUR RUNS, that's 'soulful'; it takes TIME, Commitment, and a stout pair of lungs. 

I did Judging because I didn't want some dang fool who had no grasp of what was a trick, or a progressive trick, or a difficult trick, to be calling out who's 'got it' that day!! I quit when 'name recognition' took the fairness out of the equation. Luckily, The Clock doesn't lie. There-in, RACING is the Pure Form of who's better; Human Opinion can't sway The Clock. But, if the entire Format is ruled, run-by, and governed by Skiers, is it "our" sport any longer?

Well, I'll just go grab my ol' Sims 1711, and take a Hike up yonder local Ski-Bump while I ponder how it is still MY Sport.

And, ya'll are welcome for the 'lift'...

 

 

Edited March 18, 2017 by Eric Brammer aka PSR

[carvedog]

I actually couldn't read the whole thing. Maybe says more about my ADD than Carol's writing. Too metaphorical or allegorical or one of those other big words. 

Squirrel!!!!!

I raced a little USSA for a few years. Had a ball. And i used my license to run a few skier downhills which was even more awesome.

Overall the politics of snowboarding have sucked all the life out of the sport. As sport. All the way through. From the manufacturers early advertising flaunting the rebel side of being anti-authority, the magazines only being interested in the most tweaked and freaked, to the competition side being so obtuse and ridiculous. 

I ride to carve. I don't care if it's popular or who is zooming who. The less organized the better. Anarchy is the path of the future. Want to see a real halfpipe. Combine it with bordercross and have six people drop in at once. Racing is so far gone I almost don't even care anymore.