Both lowercase snowboarding and uppercase Snowboarding are better than ever. Here are some reasons why:
ONE: they've finally loosened up. I think a lot of the big money's dried up, so the Jock Factor has been dropped down a bit. There are still SuperAthletes and shit, but one trip to Stevens Pass (the Northwest Capital of Snowboard Marketing*) was all it took to show me there's a new style. I'm not sure these Evo motherfuckers are really having as much fun as their hoots'n'hollarz indicate, but it's way better than aggro viber jocks. There's definitely been a trickle-down effect from the pro dorktrickers in the last five years. Everybody's on short pointy pow boards, doing those "well this terrain is boring as fuck lemme manufacture a face shot" stuff, and hey, that's generally pretty okay.
I've heard reports from Japan that impossibly cool powder ninjas are riding with a front binding only, and a gas pedal-looking surfboard pad out back. That's gotta be sick.
II: the fucking videos this season are so good. Energy drink budgets seem to squash the stoke. Slo-mo helicopters and one-off cheese wedge gonzo porn is whatever in 2017, I want to relate. I wanna get stoked!
This french fotog went behind the scenes and delivered perfection. Absolute perfection:
This dude is 29 years old. I guess the Beatles were done by that age, but his self-awareness is so refreshing. Maybe it's because I'm a manchild, but boom this shit is so rad!
I caught this one for free on Frequency's site. It stoked me out to triple level seven:
FREE- Trailer from Wonderberry on Vimeo.
Mr. Mueller is definitely the mainest Nico after this (finally surpassing the Alien, and leaving the VU chick in the dust) :
FRUITION - The Life and Dreams of Nicolas Müller from The Orchard on Vimeo.
It has it all. His tripped-out Bruce Lee shit, a sense of humor, and his riding. SNOWBOARDING. This dude always does what you want him to do. He pops around off lumpers, throws roosts on his way to impossible transfers, he rides just like you wanna. He's on some majyckal shit.
(note: if I were to find myself in Japan, and my crew just so happened to be sharing a small ski area's runs with only one other gaijin crew, and that fucking crew looked like this,
YOU'D BETTER GODDAMN BELIEVE I AM GETTING IN THERE. B.RICE: HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT?)
Love it!
THIRDLY: the bloggs are super good. We got WWD and the one you're reading now. What more do you need? Wamp wamp.
Also: as the world burns, the waves in the jet stream are tweaked. The snow in North America has been FIRING this season, providing plenty of STR9_POW to one and all. Silver linings in the End of Days.
And the gear. The gear is amazing. Look at my shit, JUST LOOK AT IT:
I'm back on Mervin, and I don't really see me finishing out my career on anything else. Nuff said. From that first Litigator I got from Bob at Bikefactory, to the Emma Peels and the Cummins and that J.Lynn, to that Altered Genetics I got from FloRida (!), to the BLACK BASE SNOW MULLET, to this motherfucking BIRDMAN BIRDMAN AKA ALPENTALEX PRO MODEL, this is my shit.
Those Unions are the best bindings that'll ever be produced. Solved. The only weak spot in that pic are my Voile split bindings, like seven years old, and you know what?--all they do is work. Definitely angling to keep it brand loyal with the splitboard clampers (cough, WWD), but goddamn if everything isn't so fucking dialed. And super cheap. #outsideisfree
SO YES: some old motherfucker said some shit on my instagram about snowboarding being dead, about Snowboarding being dead, and I'm like fuck that noize bro that's not even a joke-able. Break yourself, vool.
leight
*I still need to go a couple more times to pay off my Stevens Passpass, so I can't really go off on them yet...
I think we need another viewing party of Fruition.Maybe a third person will want to see it.. yeah a party!!
ReplyDeleteFloRida out~