Snowboarding with friends vs alone
More often than not you’ll find snowboarders in groups and not alone. Sharing the experience and feeding off of each other’s energy is to some people the majority of the fun. Sadly the nature of competitive snowboarding encourages being alone and focusing on what you’re doing and not what your friends are doing. Professional snowboarder Mason Aguirre outlines this in his New York Times interview saying “It’s cliché in snowboarding to say it’s all about fun and go out there and have fun with your friends,” Aguirre said. “But more often than not, you see people stressing out at a contest and not having fun.”. The pathway of competitive snowboarding often comes with the sacrifice of fun for money and fame. Some people are willing to make this sacrifice however people like Mason Aguirre who choose to snowboard with friends at the risk of being less famous are the people who preserve snowboarding culture. Aguirre Perfectly outlines this by saying. “We don’t make $15 million a year. We don’t drive Lamborghinis. We come from real life and real experiences.”. Sticking to the roots of what made you love snowboarding in the first place is often what leads to people having a fruitful long career in snowboarding rather than the 15 minutes of fame that can come with contests.
Higgins, M. (2009, March 21). For a group of Snowboarding Pals, there’s no ‘I’ in friends . The New York Times. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.c om/2009/03/22/sports/othersports/22frends.html.
Snowboarding is simply to expensive
Interested in snowboarding? Let’s hope that you’ve got the money for the equipment. Sadly snowboarding is just not an option for a vast majority of the population. Dilion Ojo life line Foundation is geared to fix that problem. Dilion Ojo was a professional snowboarder who sadly passed away, his family and friends wanted to keep his legacy going by creating a not for profit organization to get kids into snowboarding. Dilion Ojos family outlines this organization by saying “We saw firsthand the positive impact that snowboarding, skateboarding, and art had on Dillon’s life”, Giving this opportunity to kids is their mission with this organization. In order to give this experience to more people Dillon Ojo Lifeline Foundation says that “Through this foundation we aim to help families and individuals overcome financial and social obstacles so that any youth who desires to be active in sports and arts can be.”. A lot of companies are backing this organization, making this organization able to achieve their goal. With the high price of entry to snowboarding that sadly isn’t going to go away, more organizations like this are needed in order to give kids the experience of snowboarding and even other sports.
About. Dillon Ojo Lifeline Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://dillon ojo.org/pages/about.
Judging in snowboarding
How snowboard contests are judged has been an issue within the sport for many years. One of the most brought up issues is the fact that more often than not the trick with the most spins will get scored better. Danny Burrows outlines this in his article “ARE CONTESTS KILLING SNOWBOARDING?” on Onboard Magazine (Onboard Magazine 2013) by saying “as amplitude and degrees of rotation are quantifiable, while style and creativity are subjective. For this reason contests have little to do with invention and everything to do with planned and practiced runs.” This format of judging caters to the robotic snowboarders who do the same 5 tricks over and over until those tricks are perfect. This can lead to a heavy lack of variety for a lot of snowboarders. A shift in the judging format to include more judging of the personal style snowboarders have with their tricks could lead to more diverse trick selection. Not only could this help with peoples opinion on the fairness of judging this would also improve the audience’s experience as they would be seeing more tricks and less of the same trick over and over again. At the end of the day Judges do not have an easy job to start with and have been trained to judge, the current format is not perfect but it is impossible to please everyone
Burrows, D. (n.d.). Are contests killing snowboarding? Onboard Magazine. Retrieved De cember 4, 2021, from https://onboardmag.com/features/talking-points/are-contes ts-killing-snowboarding.html.
A lot of people don’t enjoy snowboarding, which is fair, it all comes down to personal choice. If you’re looking to have more fun on the slopes, Curated.com has a great article by Jeff R called “How to Have More Fun While Snowboarding”. The most important topic that is covered is getting creative. Being creative with snowboarding is a great way to have fun and at the same time challenge yourself to new skills. The best part is that creativity is subjective, you don’t have to be doing anything crazy to be creative, simply just push yourself in new unique ways and you will have more fun. Getting your friends in on the action will also significantly improve your experience, new experiences are just better when you’re with enjoyable people. Being creative is also a great way to learn board control that will significantly boost your ability on a snowboard, purposely putting yourself into challenging awkward positions while snowboarding will make you a better snowboard. Snowboarding, much like a lot of solo sports, is so good because of the lack of structure. Embracing this lack of structure is a great way to have a more enjoyable time.R., J. (2021, June 9). How to have more fun while snowboarding. Curated.com. Retriev ed December 4, 2021, from
https://www.curated.com/journal/143000/how-to-hav e-more-fun-while-snowboarding.