Public Service Announcement
Photo by: Mason Mashon
Written by: Colin D Watt
I hate to break it to you, but snowboarding is just a business. Some of the brands and corporations just hide it better than others with catchy slogans and trendy hashtags. Believe it or not, I get it, too. Everybody has bills to pay (especially when you’re stupid enough to give a snowboard magazine away for free).
Most people I know started snowboarding because it was something new, or it was badass and rebellious, or maybe to impress some chicks. Or maybe just because it’s a damn good time. Some people got involved because they needed jobs or their bosses told them to expand a sector of their parent company in the massive enterprise building they work at from 9 to 5 every day.
There are some people who have given their left testicle for snowboarding—maybe not literally, but I can’t actually confirm or deny that. We shouldn’t let snowboarding go to the people who couldn’t give a damn about it. Point being, there will always be the hardcore enthusiasts that base their lives around snowboarding while they eat, sleep, and breathe everything about it. These are the people who will determine the direction of our sport (or hobby, or lifestyle, or whatever you want to call it). On the other side of the fence, there will always be the people who got involved in snowboarding just to make a quick and easy dollar. Those people haven’t lasted and will never last. They’re the ones who thought, “Maybe Ed Hardy should make snowboards.” And they did and it was a hilarious failure. How about those crazy Darth Vader-looking full face helmets with the built-in goggles being advertised all up in our Facebooks? No thanks, but it was pretty entertaining to see how quickly those business ventures sunk to the bottom. “Those types of people” will never get it and we need to try our best to keep “those types of people” as far away from snowboarding as possible.
There are some truly great things happening in snowboarding right now. Toddlers are getting towed around on mini snowboards with dog leashes before they can even talk these days. Local grassroots contests are happening without any entry fees and this snowboarding thing is even catching on with school programs somehow. As much as growth is beneficial for the sake of snowboarding, we all need to keep our collective eyes on snowboarding if we want to keep it afloat.
Some people are pissed off about snowboarding in the Olympics and how it takes away from the origin of its existence, or how energy drink companies don’t belong in snowboarding as they throw duffel bags full of cash into the industry and buy their brands into “coolness” with celebrity athletes. Sure, you could be bitter towards them, but they are actually helping to grow snowboarding whether we like it or not.
As consumers, we should always question all that is offered to us, especially in the efforts of big businesses trying to shove snowboarding down our throats as a way to expand their market share. As much as I love snowboarding, I don’t ever want to see Gary doing a Tindy grab on the packaging of a new flat screen TV, but it happens. We shouldn’t be buying our snowboards from the same guy at the big box sports store who strings your dad’s tennis racket and sharpens your brothers’ hockey skates. Chances are, that guy probably doesn’t snowboard or know jack shit about it, but that still happens, too.
Snowboarders should support snowboarding companies run and started by snowboarders, not venture capitalists. There are giant multinational corporations taking advantage of snowboarding and trying to cash in on it while the real snowboarding entities are left in their wake. It should be pretty obvious just how out of touch “those types of people” are. You’ll be able to spot them and their briefcases coming from a mile away. All I ask is for you to question if those people actually care if you go snowboarding or if they’re just trying to take your money. Remember this: I never tried to sell you shit.