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Kitchen Conversations: Is pro snowboarding dying, dead, or alive and well?
Once upon a time anyone could get a free snowboard. Most people didn't know it, but all it took was a bad sponsor me video and low standards. There were so many companies out there that if you could turn (actually, not a requirement) or grab your board while in the air (not important where) you were getting free stuff. Now maybe it was from Fester or Crazy Banana and they definitely weren't even covering your contest fees much less the cost of the paper your resume was printed on, but hey, you were sponsored.
So what happened to all those sponsored riders? Well, most of them got hurt, burnt or over it and quit. The others kept getting better and are now helping a company convince kids it is cool to snowboard for a living.
But what of the kids with bad sponsor me videos and low standards trying to make it today? Well, some of them are on the Galleon team, but the rest are out of luck. Why? Because snowboarding suddenly has standards and talent is actually necessary to get free stuff and even more so to get money. The biggest problem facing those trying to go pro though: that 12-year-old down the street can do all the same tricks as you, and a couple more. Plus, he's got lots of years left on his ACL.
This change has come with the progression and growth of snowboarding. Pro snowboarders are really good now. They land their tricks every time. They do tricks that would have won a 1995 big air contest, and land on a 15-stair handrail. But you know what, everyone is good at snowboarding. The kid on flow who skips his junior high classes at the mountain academy so he can hike the pipe is that good too. Of course flowing him product isn't helping his local shop sell more stuff, it's just making everyone else his age say, "Hey, I should be getting free stuff too."
So what does this mean for professional snowboarding? It means that those who do it have to work really hard and they have to be paranoid. Don't want to double up on a sled because that person behind you could steal your video part (plus they are heavy and sleds are a pain in the ass.) And watch out for the 14-year-old kid who just asked for your autograph. Next year he could be riding your pro model, only it will have his name on it and not yours. And above all, don't get hurt. Don't get hurt throwing yourself off 100-foot jumps so that you can one-up the next guy. Actually, if you don't land this trick you're probably not just going to get hurt; you're going to die. So don't die either.
Does anyone want this? Did snowboarding's forefathers ever think that one day professional snowboarding would be a question of life or death? God I hope not, because death does not exactly represent what I like to think snowboarding was, is and will be in the future. But where do you go? Boards are attached to your feet, and it's going to be hard to find a new way to flip them. Tricks can't get much more technical than 1440's. People can't fly much further through the air without a parachute (and look at the death rate of BASE jumping, don't need that.)
Who is going to be left to defy the odds and disregard their personal safety so that kids will want to buy whoever's board? No one. Not only are riders going to be over the idea of dying in the line of duty, but companies are suddenly going to realize that their dare-devils aren't even helping them. The danger will pretty much alienate everyone who would actually buy a board, because they don't want to die either. Someone is going to come along with no team and blow everyone out of the water. And that's that. Bye bye Audi's, bling, and free stuff. I give getting paid to snowboard ten years at most, and then snowboarding will be like skiing was before it was "saved" by the freestyle revolution. People will always snowboard but unless they are trying to make the Olympics, the possibility of going pro won't even be something they think about. Maybe we'll be better off. -BG
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