This is a faked shot of Basti Rittig checking Facebook. He was actually checking the weather... before he checked his Facebook. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi.

Jon Weaver returns with more musings from his experience of contemporary pro snowboarding. This week it’s a very 21st century addiction that’s in his Oakley-clad headlamps…

An addiction. It can take your time, your money, your friends, and all without you noticing as you crave even more for the sweet taste of the forbidden fruit. Through our lives many of us will have run into someone who we think is taking things a little too far – maybe someone on a season who was drinking that wine with breakfast which struck you as a little “too” early to start things, although Chalets and Hotels are notorious for their all day drinking sessions on a changeovear day.

It could be that friend who smoked the herb a little too much at Uni, and didn’t make it to lectures. Or, for that matter, didn’t make it up before the sun went down that day, or even the smoker who just chain smoked a little too much for it to be healthy. I always remember a guy in Tignes who when hiking backcountry would chainsmoke, leading him to the name of the Sherpa. It could even be the editorial office for whom October becomes not only the start of the glaciers but more importantly the most cherished of all drinking seasons.

It can happen easily and without us realizing and quite often it can take a good friend to slap some sense into you, or what the Americans slightly over zealously call an ‘Intervention’, before we realize the error of our ways. Normally when there is just one person with a problem then it is easily spotted. A few people and getting that group to stop is tough. Imagine thousands, even millions of people, all addicted to the same thing. Hard to stop, right…?

So what am I talking about here? Our passion and addiction for snow? No this isn’t the Daily Mail Ski and Snowboard magazine. Grow up, we already read that crap 100 times before, and even though Snowboard magazine editors [some, not all, Jonathan! - Ed] use it every Autumn for their opening paragraphs, if your reading this your already in way past that.

I am talking about…  Wait for it…  Breath deep…  Facebook. Yes, that’s right. You probably have it open in a window behind this one right? Your probably chatting to someone about what bad editorial this is as you read it.

It’s crazy though. Facebook has quickly transformed so many facets of life, from the way we communicate, to the way we flirt, stay in touch, and watch perversely at friends – or even better, enemies. Now for all 30 somethings, we have had to learn about technology and even email (we didn’t have emails before we were 20 kids, think about that) and so Facebook has been just another thing we caught onto late, if at all.

This is an example of what evils await on Facebook. Bad photos of intoxicated mag editors and riders.

On the road with a quiver of Pro Snowboarders back in the day if they checked in for an event and there wasn’t a bar, there would have been hell breaking loose. Ah. I remember watching fondly from a distance, The alcohol problems, serial womanisers, out late, causing havoc everywhere they went, I remember the late 90s pro snowboarders as real superstars, and all the baggage and rumours that came with it.

Now fast forward to 2011. If the Pro Snowboarder is to check into a hotel and there isn’t wireless, then seriously all hell is breaking loose and London Bridge is falling down. The first thing they need to do is update their status about where they are, how bad the journey was unless they got a free upgrade, and then set about trying to undress anyone within a keyboard’s contact.

It’s not just the quick update at checkin. The week descends into a constant barrage of “Yep, I just need 5 more minutes” as you look down and see them chatting away to some young lady they just met online. I mean to that generation it’s perfectly normal. Did you know that many online specialists agree that in just 5 years we wont have emails anymore, and people will just use Facebook. If you look to the younger generation now 70% of those around 16 years old don’t have email addresses already and instead rely on facebook mail.

Now I am not trying to shout down with Facebook from the rooftops – I use it as much as the next man – but I do wonder what western society would be like without it today. Think in your own personal terms. What’s the first site you go on, after onboardmag.com and the-goodlife.co.uk of course? Most probably it’s Facebook. How many hours would you say you spend on it a day? At least one I’d imagine. So just think collectively what could be achieved if an entire nation cut down there intake of this sweetly blue-themed toxic addictition? What did people do during seasons back in the day before the internet? Send letters, call each other and actually go out and meet girls in bars, and whilst maybe you had fewer friends back then, maybe you had more actual friends.

Anyways enough ranting from an over 30 year old who has to battle against Facebook for team riders’ attention on a daily basis, you’re probably bored of reading already and that chat you have open in the other window looks much more alluring, and there is more chance of getting her to write something sleazy to you than me. I am going to write a blog, and yep, post it on Facebook, to see how many of my friends will actually interrupt an online flirting session to read a blog. Heaven forbid what would happen if you tried to get someone to read a print article.

Peetu on his way to winning the Air&Style Munich with a heavy cold and no training. The boy is unreal. Photo: Frode Sandbech/Nike 6.0

Jon Weaver returns with another installment of his always thought-provoking column, Gossip from the GoodLife, with the question: What does it take to be a pro snowboarder?

WHAT IS A PRO?

I know. I heard about that kid at your local park who just learnt a 10, and can do a double cork. Stoked for him. But what’s that? Everyone from the local shop owner to the guy at the bar thinks this kid needs a deal, and quick.

Sounds like a familiar story right? It’s one that I have heard a million times, from various sources, and the only thing that changes is the number of rotations as we go through in a seemingly mind-blowing couple of years of progression right now.

Seriously, I remember after Stefan Gimpl did the cab 9 to win Air&Style three years in a row, people were saying maybe that was the maximum that could be achieved on a jump. Oh my, how times have changed. A cab 9 wouldn’t even get you into a semis these days.

So back to the story. The guy who learns some tricks and then the world starts clamoring for him to be given cash money and all the trimmings for doing this. Now, way back when I imagine I thought along these lines. I mean, I know from my own riding, I was even like “come on, I can do some 7s now and so I need to get paid”. You always think what you’re doing is way ahead, and you should be the next Johnny Pro.

A cracked rib or two won't stop Seb Toutant from manning up and sending it. Photo: Frode Sandbech/Nike 6.0

Oh, how wrong I was. The other weekend in Munich at the Nike 6.0 Air&Style we really saw the definition of a pro. Not that the gathered 20,000 kids would have ever known, but the riders at that event were truly up against it.

Thursday’s training went well for some, a few just cruised straight airs, others recovered from Jet Lag, whilst others stayed in bed. Peetu Piiroinen managed to get out of his sick bed for one run to test the speed and that was enough. That’s normal for a training on the first day of an Air&Style.

Friday was tricky as the wind had picked up and the snow warmed up so speed was an issue. Of course, a few people like Seb Toutant and Seppe Smits who are seasoned at this just set about it. Unfortunately, though, Seb managed to slam firstly on the kicker before heading to the rail and catching an edge on there, too, and breaking a rib. Mason Aguirre was sick all day, and Mike Casanova was still in the USA as he was super lastminute with his travel plans.

So Saturday around came the day of the event and as the riders got to the stadium they could see it had been raining, and raining enough so the snow had avalanched at the top of the run in. Before long the call came through: “Training cancelled”. So those riders who had been sick, injured or still travelling were faced with the thought of just dropping in for 1 presentation run and then going straight for it. Pretty heavy.

This brings me back to being a “pro” and what it involves. Think about Peetu, for example. He rode Air&Style Innsbruck, and was then holed up in a hotel room all week, sick as a dog. He did one test run on Thursday then went back to bed, before getting up on Saturday and having to go straight for it. First hit b7, second hit back 10, third hit back 12. You see where I am going here? You think Johnny Local shred still wants to have a go at this stuff? It’s not as easy as it looks.

Same thing with Seb Toutant, after a couple of mellow training days he breaks a rib and has to go to the doctor beforehand for a painkilling injection into his ribs to take away the pain before he had to ride. Did it prevent him from charging?. No way. First run B7, second run, b10, third run cab 9 double, fourth run cab 12 double. I repeat all without training on the jump which had changed loads during the day.

Mike Casanova literally stepped off the plane, had breakfast and started riding. A few hours out the airport and he'd won the Stairset Battle. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Then in the rail event, at breakfast that morning, I noticed Mike Casanova so said hello and he said “Yep, I landed at 7.30am this morning, time for breakfast quickly before heading off to the stadium”. He then went off and won the rail battle.

It’s not just contests. I remember talking to Jake Blauvelt about filming aswell. It can mean being stuck in a cabin somewhere like Alaska for 2 weeks straight in bad weather. Then one day it clears and you have to be ready to throw down on that day, first run, first track, no warm up runs, no building of kickers, just when it’s time to get it on, buy yourself a big ass envelope and send it to the moon. Imagine how you or I feel after being stuck at home for a couple of weeks not being able to ride: it always takes a good few runs to get anything like normality back.

That’s the difference. If I spent a good week on snow on one jump I might be able to get a front 7 around again, but for the difference between the guys at the top and the rest of us is this ability to really step it up when it matters, and not let lack of training or conditions be an excuse. If I had to hit that Air&Style jump I would be just happy I hadn’t landed on the net in the middle of the jump.

The current contest schedule is pretty grueling and can mean flying transatlantic a few times a month, and riding contests in between. It’s nothing short of amazing to see the consistency of these guys time and again.

The modern antihero. Photo: Frode Sandbech

Jon Weaver is back with a new edition of his vastly popular ‘Gossip from the Goodlife.’ This time he ponders the question what makes Halldor Helgason such a loveable character…

The Rebirth of the Antihero

Contest snowboarding is bringing snowboarding to the masses on a weekly basis it seems now. The Dew Tour is on national TV in the States, Air and Style should be on Eurosport, and it’s just cropping up all over the place.

Many of the riders who are in this realm though are brought up through the various schools and national teams who are churning out riders who can do the latest double cork and put it into a contest run. However, at some of these contests, watching that gets old rather quick.

So where have all the rockstars gone?

Think in music terms. The mainstream might love Lady Gaga, Beyonce and her ass, and Take That. But what the people really want is that chance to watch Pete Doherty, because you just don’t know if he will even turn up. Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Biggie: The list goes on with rock stars who we all were privileged to have listened and loved once upon a time, and why? Because they just did whatever the hell they wanted, and whenever they wanted. They wouldn’t have been at the start gate waxing their boards or running through a back 10 whilst grabbing round their leg in some kind of ugly homage to Shaun White, would they?

Romain de Marchi: Antiheros make for great desktop wallpapers. Photo: Matt Georges

No, quite simply. They would have been waking up in a ditch, shaking off the remnants of last night’s excess and dragging themselves up the hill for a few laps in the park, dropping a couple of hammers here and there, and if you were lucky enough you would get to see it.

So who have we got in these realms these days?

Well some would remember the antics of Romain De Marchi jibbing the car at Air and Style as the last real rockstar, we also have Dimitry Fesenko, who on team trips instead of a physio would bring another person for relaxation. I guess nowadays comparisons in Europe could be drawn to Iouri Podladtchikov, who only matches his riding by his excessive love of cars, which draws his own status. We also have the Grillionaire, who seems to have an aura around himself and Chris Sörman, who seems on a one-man mission to make the playboy mansion before he meets his maker. Then the other rider who is carving the niche in the market is the one the Americans love – Halldor Helgason. After spending the last few weeks on the road with Halldor, I can honestly say I haven’t worked with many riders who are as loved around the world as this guy.

Halldor's method is hard to explain. Photo: Frode Sandbech

In China, a land without blogs, the people love him, despite never seeing his website, in Europe he has girls throwing themselves at him on the hill, and in the States, they stop him in grocery stores and on the hill. To quote a 50-year-old snowboarder on meeting Halldor, Lonnie Kauk and Chuck G “Oh my God, dude! You guys rule, I gotta get my picture taken with you three guys, you’re three of the baddest motherfuckers in the game!” That’s right, a 50-year-old guy.

Upon meeting all these fans, Halldor is as mellow as ever, just loving the fact that people enjoy his snowboarding, and everything that comes with it. His outlook on snowboarding does just revolve around having fun snowboarding. And I don’t mean the way some brands market themselves as “having fun since 2002” or whatever bullshit to try and make you think they are cool. Halldor actually just enjoys nothing more than cruising – same as me and you. The difference is when he straps into a contest he can send it like the best of them, he just doesn’t need to get all serious to do it. To quote Snowboarder magazine “this shot on the loon jump looks pretty amazing, it’s even better when you think he was puking in the woods just before this was taken.”

It’s not all good when he touches things though, and you will see a pattern whereby in each event he enters, he will either be winning or come in last. At the Dew Tour last year he won prelims and qualis before coming last in the finals, by trying something just different to the rest. That’s Halldor all over. And if he does come last, you know he will still make the most of it, as we saw in China at Air and Style, when he did his contest run with a camera in his hand and doing a backflip for the Chinese crowd, probably the first they had ever seen (before posting it on helgasons.com and getting more views than the original Air and Style recap video).

He didn't stomp it but Halldor's lobster flip was the most popular trick at the 2011 Munich Air&Style. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

So why do people love him so much – from riders, to media, to fans?

Well let’s look at America’s golden boy, Shaun White: He does amazing things for the sport, including a bunch of mainstream PR which brings the sport to a new audience for which he must be commended upon. On the other hand, though, he rolls into China for Air and Style, doesn’t mix with any other riders, doesn’t even seem to have a grasp of who any of the new generation of riders are, and gives a few handshakes and waves like the queen mum, before leaving on a jet plane. A private jet plane. It seems he is almost separating himself from the sport that heralded him as the king.

Meanwhile, you have Halldor, who is exciting people with his riding, making them laugh on the internet, probably getting in your way on the dance floor, before buying you a drink, and then getting up and riding the park with you. I guess we have always loved this kind of riders who aren’t doing it by the rulebook.

Think about Eric Cantona. He literally dropkicked a fan once. You think his stock went down? Hell no. He sold more shirts than ever before that season, for sure. People love those who are true to themselves and a bit unpredictable.

And though there’s little chance you’d see Halldor kung-fu kicking anyone, apart from accidentally on the dance floor, he is modern snowboarding’s anti hero. And we can’t get enough of him.

The offending sticker in all its glory. Weaver, we have one with your name on.

After a short hiatus, Gossip from the GoodLife returns with some chin-stroking inspired from an infamous Onboard sticker from way back when…

A few years back Onboard produced some stickers [albeit ironic – a point lost on some] which caught the eye, and still now stands out with a certain knowing look: Europe Sucks. There was a huge debate a few years ago over which continent – the US or Europe – was bringing out the best riders. Now 10 or 15 years ago perhaps the States had a better developed infrastructure to nuture through talent in the forms of parks and events, but Europe has caught up no end since then, and despite a lack of facilties at times in certain areas, Europe has consistently brought through some amazing riders.

If we think of riders who are in the legendary bracket of snowboarding, I would offer up names such as Haakonson, Nyvelt, Müller, Gigi, De Marchi (for his groundbreaking riding at the turn of the century), Andreas Wiig (for his reinvention of what was expected on a park jump or from a video part), and the same can be said of Eero Ettala, who after just rewatching his part in Eurogap, and his part in White Balance from several years ago, it’s apparent that he has been at the forefront of progression for a long time. That’s no mean list even before we include names like Johan Olofsson, Axel Pauporte and Daniel Franck.

Eero Ettala - good at snowboarding!

From the US there are also a huge number of amazing shreds, you just have to look at Travis Rice, Jake Blauvelt, Danny Kass for proof of that. The US has always brought snowboarding a wealth of talent and is responsible for many riders who would be considered legendary, but it does seem that here in Europe we are capable of bringing through these enigmas from the far reaches of the north, or from some dark Austrian or Swiss Valley, who come out and blow minds for decades at a time.

So, going back to that sticker. It was tongue in cheek from the beginning and I for one would love to have a sticker like that on my board. I mean, think about it. We have all these parks now cropping up everywhere. Mayrhofen, Laax and Livigno are all just getting better by the month it seems; we have amazing events cropping up quickly, from the Open, to Air&Style, to the new events like Stuttgart Big Air all of which bring snowboarding to the people.

Then think about the next generation of amazing riders coming through who are already heroes to the kids out there: Halldor, Torstein, Gjermund are names which are synonomous with progression, and seem to be the leading lights as they can mix up rails, parks, pow… oh, and of course they can win any event they want. It seems the riders coming through in Europe seem a touch more rounded whilst those in the States seem focused on trying to wear leather, smoke cigs, and tap their way through a video part.

Take that, America!

Geographically, Europe is unreal. When was the last time you took a roadtrip, or even better a train trip? Seriously, train travel is the future. If I could go to every event through the world, by train I would be on Platform 1 with my bags packed. From Innsbruck, you have access to Arlberg, Zillertal and of course all the local resorts around IBK, I mean you couldn’t wish for anything better. Accomodation-wise, Austria runs the show. You get big appartments or hotels with wellness. Coming from the UK, I didn’t get the idea of wellness, but it makes you feel, well, ummm wellnessed if that’s a word. Then you can take the train down to Italy, and hit up any of the parks from Fakie and his crew of shapers (watch out for Kronplatz blowing up this year) that also means you get to taste some amazing food, some top class wine, and they have a fine range of dark haired ladies around there. Of course you can also take the train down to Switzerland and stay in some amazing places like the Rocks Resort, and ride mountians home to Freddie Kalbermatten and Nicolas Müller. Hop on the train the otherway and find yourself in Munich ready to hit some beer gardens, and shred some mighty fine hills in Germany which have an amazing jib scene going down. Did I mention the beer gardens?

Otherwise you can jump in a cheap-ass plane and head for Scandanavia, which is home to some amazing parks (all with great accommodation) and amazing-looking women thanks to the Vikings who raped and pillaged all the good looking ones from around Europe when they were on the rampage. That explains the lack in other regions…

Europe is really an awesom place, so use its openness and ease of travel as a chance to grab your crew and a camera and go on a roadtrip this season. It will open your eyes as to how close we all are, yet how different we all are. Different laguages, different people; you can try some other food, drink another man’s beer, and enjoy this place we call home.

Former chalet girl Jenny Jones takes her first of 3 Winter X Slopestyle golds. No biggie.

In his latest contribution to his swelling sack of Gossip from the GoodLife articles, Jon Weaver trains his keen eye on the phenomenon known to people not fortunate to be born at the foot of a mountain as ‘doing a season’, and recounts the tale of one seasonaire who went on to make waves in the scene.

“What you doing this winter?”

“Doing a season, innit!”

That expression, despite taking its cues from some pretty average British TV, is something which means a lot to many of us, especially those of us from the UK and our flatland bredren in Holland and Belgium.

In what is a yearly ritual many thousands of eager snowboarders pack up a car (which should preferably be older than some of the people in it), fill it to the brim with their crew, and head for the hills. It’s a ritual many of us know well and have various stories from it, one of my best being when driving in a Ford Fiesta 5 men (Josh Wolf, Nelson Pratt, Tom West and Mark Ruperelia) deep with BOB (boards onboard on the roof) only for the car to break down on the French highways on a stretch without hard shoulder, just as Josh was about to drop in on a good bottle of red. You can imagine the French repair man who came out to see our wagon, complete with Wolfy merrily swigging red wine, thinking his day couldn’t get much worse. It’s the precursor to one of the best times of your life – a season.

It’s a story that all snowboarders know well. Now when I was 18, I wasn’t in any snowboard school, wasn’t already on a fast track by a brand, and was pretty much still learning to snowboard so doing a season with like-minded people was amazing. Off we headed to Val d’Isere to work way too many hours and snowboard every spare minute, drink a fair bit, and sleep as and when it allowed. It was amazing, and sometimes seemed that the people “doing a season” have been consigned to people just drinking and not reall getting anywhere snowboardingwise. Now on the second season in Val d’Isere we would spend many a day building jumps and trying to huck something off them for the rest of the afternoon. On one such afternoon, when I was actually stuck in the kitchen, word came through from a couple of the other kitchen staff of a very good-looking English girl doing a season over in Tignes who was doing backflips left right and center. They were A) Impressed, B) In love, and C) Jealous beacause none of them could really land any of their tricks at the time.

No, this is not Jenny Jones, this is the author back in his seasoning days. Pulling a punter frontflip. To flat.

Throughout the season this girl continued to turn heads with her amazing riding, and information filtered over to in Val d’Isere about her. It turned out she was working in a chalet over there – she was one of us! Remember, this was before Facebook, and pretty much in the early days of email, so information didn’t spread as quickly as today.

Fast forward a couple of months, and she cleans up at the Brits and very quickly we find out this girl’s name is Jenny Jones. That’s right: the Jenny Jones. Her of X Games fame. She didn’t go to snowboard school, she didn’t get special coaching, she wasn’t on some fasttrack by any brands, she was, well, doing a season. That’s sometimes all you need as a snowboarder: not a coach, not some airbag, you just need time on your snowboard.

Jenny went on from there to then win a few more events and become a pretty big deal in the UK, with deals on Salomon and Oakley supporting her from the outset. After a couple of injury setbacks along the way, including one dryslope injury (yes, we hear you scream, why did she try dryslope?) Jenny really started writing her own history a couple of years ago with her first slopestyle gold medal at the X Games. People still say that they are surprised to hear of a snowboarder from the UK living the dream… damn, Jenny is making the dream her own. So a year later, Jenny goes back, and again walks away with a second gold medal in one of the most emotional finals ever. Good work EXPN.

Then with all the hype around an X Games moving to Europe, it was with baited breath that the industry traipsed over to Tignes, France, to check out our very small accommodation, and the ‘interesting’ slopestyle course. They always say, though, “the course is the same for every rider so get amongst it”, and that’s exactly what Jenny did. It was a challenging course but she made it her own, and wrote history by becoming a threepeat X Games Gold medalist. An amazing achievement, which she made even more special by dedicating her victory to the gathered thousands of British Chalet girls on the hill that day. She was effectively saying to them: “Look, if I have done it, why cant you?”  And she is so right. Jenny has become one of the most successful female athletes of our sport, and I know everyone from the British scene is so proud of her for flying the flag for us.

Here's Jenny with one of her 3 X Games golds, and a drunk-yet-impressed member of Onboard's editorial team.

The only sour note of the whole thing was that the day after the X Games I was watching Sky News, waiting for the news report of Jenny’s success… and it didn’t appear. There must have been a problem with the report, or there must have been a delay, so I waited. And nothing. Just more football. I tried BBC, and the same. Checked all the newspapers, and the same. Now I love football as much as the next man, especially when Swansea City are running the Championship as they are right now, but this, well, it was a a joke. We have the most successful female snowboarder in X Games history coming from the UK, and it didn’t make TV or the papers? Our media needs shooting. In Europe sometimes our media is so backwards, and they wonder why kids only want to play football – it’s so damn impossible to get anything else any screen time. Either that or the PR agency for X Games and Jenny need a good prodding.

So what’s the moral of the story? Well, I’m  just saying that winter is here, we are mid-way through a recession, and jobs are hard to find. So if you’re stuck for what to do and can’t find work at home, just sack it off and head for the hills. You will make friends, snowboard a bunch, and have the best time of your life. You might even becomes the next Jenny Jones. It just takes time, and belief in yourself.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, he identifies what it takes to be one of the best in your sport or chosen fieled, and he found that you need on average 10,000 hours at whatever it is to be prolific. Well, I just think Jenny has probably done 10,001 hours, as she is in a league of her own.

The Wangl Tangl - a perfect example of what snowboarders can achieve by getting off their arses.

Jon Weaver is back with another installment of Gossip From The GoodLife, this time round he’s drumming up some pro-active get-up-and-go mentality to push snowboarding onwards.

Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
- John F. Kennedy

Now think of this mantra applied to snowboarding?

Ask not what snowboarding can do for me, but what can I do for snowboarding.

After all, snowboarding is responsible for giving each of us reading this a shift in our life’s direction, whether that be a simple decision to spend a week in the snow each year, or if you have given everything up to do seasons, or further still if you are traipsing the world as a pro. Snowboarding has given us all an amazing passion and having such a thing is a hugely positive for your life. People who don’t have a passion for something can seem a little, well, empty.

So going back to my first point, I have heard so many riders say: “What deal can I get? What video will you put me in?” etc etc, from riders around the world and more often than not I just think, “Come on. Do something yourself,” whether it be starting a movie project with your friends online, a blog about your travels, an event at your local slope or something to get new kids into riding.

The great thing about snowboarding is that we have a very creative platforms whereby the sport can progress. If you want to do an event, you can easily just start it up and maybe even get it into the TTR. The very best events have started small and grown huge – think about Air&Style. In 1994, founder Andrew Hourmont wanted to have a small event for friends and to grow snowboarding around Innsbruck, and before he knew it a few thousand had turned up to watch. Every year since it has progressed to the point we see now, with three of the biggest events ever going back to back this season. It’s similar with the Wängl Tängl in Mayrhofen (easily the best independent event out there and started by the Ästhetikers) – this contest is a showcase of what creativity, snowboarding and progression are all about. Those two events are only there because of the amazing work from both crews.

The Air&Style started off as an idea to bring a few dudes together in Innsbruck. Look at it now - Innsbruck, Munich and, on Saturday, Beijing.

It’s not just events, either. After making two of best snowboard films of all time with 91 Words for Snow, and In Short (and playing a huge part in the Robot Food Trilogy), we hear that David Benedek is months away from releasing a book on the world entitled Current State. I know, it wasn’t enough that this guy reinvented snowboarding a good few times over, produced some amazing movies, invented some new tricks (double corks in a quarter, switch back double 12 etc etc), he is now coming back with a book to adorn all of your coffee tables this winter. David is the perfect example of a rider not content to sit back and let things happen for him.

So what got me onto thinking about this whole thing? Well, a couple of weeks back we were doing our thing for Banterbox down in Schladming for the Pleasure Jam, and one night there was a premier of the new movie from Seppi Scholler, Loveolution 2, featuring Marc Swoboda, Dominik Wagner and the rest of the crew over there. Now the movie didn’t have the big budget of Travis Rice and That’s It That All, didn’t have helicopters, and I think the closest they came to rolling in Hummers and using sleds, is Swoboda’s Mercedes that has been around longer than Marc has. So what does it have? It has a tight crew of friends, travelling the world, doing it purely for the love of it, and just putting it out there for all the kids to watch for free and get stoked on their local heroes. Anyone who has seen Swoboda’s part will also know that his riding would stand up alongside any of the world’s best in any video.

Seppi Scholler knows where the love is at.

The Love movie will help build the scene in that part of Austria, and for that matter the whole of Austria, which is great, as we are still stuck under the rule of the FIS who don’t seem to understand the snowboarders amongst us. They are getting it, but it’s taking a while.

So next time your complaining or thinking why someone didn’t get a deal or someone isn’t filming with a crew, think to yourself, why don’t they just stand up and make a difference for themselves? Much the same as Seppi is right now: it helps build a scene, gets more kids into snowboarding, and supports what it’s all about. Start small and core, and grow from there.

I made a snowboard movie a few years back, called Hungerpain, (which I will make free for the world to watch soon enough, if anyone wants to see how British Snowboarding was looking a few years back) with a group of friends dedicated to making it happen. As I say it’s not groundbreaking, it didn’t smash any world records, and, damn, I must have lost about 6000 euros in the whole project… but would I change anything? No, I would do it all again, and probably spend even more on the premier parties. The thing it makes you realise that with a little get-up-and-go anything is possible in our industry. After all, how easy do you think it would be for me and you, and a bag full of cash, to say to FIFA: “Ok then, we have a new event which should rival the World Cup. We shall call it the ‘Onboard League of Nations’”. See, no chance. Whereas we could easily set up any event we want and get it on TTR pretty quickly with the right backers…

So anyways, lesson for this week? Grab a camera, start a website, start a magazine, build a following where you live, encourage more people to get into it, and just go from there. You will never regret building something for yourself.

Marko Grilc on his way to winning last year's Air&Style. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi.

In his latest Gossip from The GoodLife column, Jon Weaver raps on the logistical nightmare that is a pro snowboarder’s winter season and the dream of a streamlined events schedule…

If you take a quick look at a snowboarder’s calendar from mid-August to mid-March, it looks like one huge globetrotting spider’s web crammed full of TTR contests, Dew Tours, X Games, Freestyle.CH, local events… and that’s before the riders have even thought about filming a video part or shooting some pictures. Oh, and of course most riders also have to do a few FIS events to keep their national team funding going until the next Olympics, which is a whole other story. The contest scene has always been a big part of snowboarding, as in essence it is in such circumstances that riders can test their mettle, win some money, hopefully get on the podium, and do it in an arena to keep the public happy and entertained.

However, we seem to be at a crossroads now, which is almost going to become like a pile up at Oxford Circus. Overcrowded and not very pretty. The riders’ season starts off down under, and then comes to Switzerland for Freestyle.ch before heading to the states for the Dew Tour, then back here for the O’Neill Evolution and Burton European Open, before jumping on the plane for another Dew Tour and X Games back in the States. Guess what happens then? Back to Europe for Air&Style, Arctic Challenge, then back to the US for the Open. It basically means that riders spend more time in the air than George Clooney, which obviously takes a toll on them physically and mentally, before setting to work on a video part.

Seeing as he won the TTR, BGOS, Olympic silver, and even popped up at the Freestyle.CH to bag third, Peetu must surely have spent more time in the air than Clooney. That's without strapping in either. Photo: Daniel Burrows.

Now, no one is at fault for this pile up, I mean everyone wants to have the best event they can local to them, but at the same time sooner or later there has to be some kind of streamlining of the system. I know at the moment there are regulations there cant be two TTR 5 and 6 star events on the same continent at the same time, however we have examples like the 4 star Big Air in Stuttgart falling at the same time as the qualifications at the O’Neill Evolution, and due to the prize purse in Stuttgart a lot of riders are questioning which to do, and who can blame them?

It would just seem, though, that we need to bring everyone into some kind of order. I know the TTR are trying their hardest to do that with some of the big US events, which would be great for the industry as with Europe being arguably a bigger market for some brands than the US, who wouldn’t want US riders to play a part of this flagship tour.

If you look at surfing, they have 10 events that are the main events through the season, which seems to make sense for the riders on that level. The good thing with this is that the average Joe, or average Jon in my case, can understand much the same as Formula 1. Every 2 or 3 weeks, along comes another event with amazing streaming quality which you can watch, and then we have a crown at the end of the season, which Kelly Slater just won for a tenth time. Congrats.

Will there come a day when the X-Games, Dew Tour and current TTR events sit under the same umbrella? Antti Autti at last season's X Games Europe.

In snowboarding it seems less clear-cut. We have a TTR winner, Burton Global Open series winner, Dew Tour Champion, X Games Gold Medalist, Olympics, and now we hear in 2012 there will be a World Snowboard Championships, so we can add the world snowboard champion to the list of accolades which a rider can win. That’s 6 major titles. Surely it would be easier for the man on the street to understand if it was like, “This year’s winner is XXX”. Well, that’s the very admirable goal that TTR are heading for, and we hope they achieve because it would be great to bring some cohesion to the sport. It’s a shame that the people in charge at those events not complying don’t see the benefits it would bring.

Imagine if we could bring some form of cohesion to the whole thing, where we had the big 10 events, every 2 weeks, so the weeks in between the riders could try and film some stuff, or even “ride for themselves” (which I know for many of the contest guys is something they wish for but due to the tough schedule they never seem to find time to do). In order for that to happen it would mean the governing body – be that TTR, WSF or whoever else – would have to actually take a stand and start telling events when they happen, which when big sponsors get involved would be like pushing water uphill. We would then need a serious webcasting formula of each event, much the same you see at the World Cup, with a presenter, studio, pre-produced content, and it becomes a focal point so snowboarders around the world know that every other Saturday afternoon there is the latest stop on the snowboarding world tour, and they’re able to watch perfect quality streaming of it in their living rooms.

So what is the point of today’s words? Well, just really a call to arms for everyone to work together for the good of the sport, and for the riders, so we can make snowboarding understandable and accessible to all, which would in turn help grow the sport we all love. Only by doing that can we seriously increase the numbers of participants in snowboarding.

Danke bitte.

Jon will return in roughly two weeks time for more musings on snowboarding, depending on how much time he spends Clooney-ing and growing his slightly disturbing mustache. In the meantime, check out his blog: www.the-goodlife.co.uk

Coincidentally, our German ed was on the same trip Weaver mentions in his post. Does this look like the rock'n'roll life? Kevin Backström, Jamie Nicholls and Gjermund Braaten in Halifax.

A New Generation – A New Way of Thinking

Following on from my last column about snowboard schools, I spent the next couple of weeks on the road along with riders who have been through the school’s process, and are now living the life they have been waiting for. Travelling the world, winning big contests, and enjoying everything that goes with it.

However, this generation seems a little different…

Now, back in my days as a very average snowboarder, preseason to me would mean working hard, saving money, and maybe going to the gym once in a while. Even to pros in the upper echelons, only a few years ago, early season would mean a good few nights out on a movie tour, and a good few late mornings trying to shake off the alcohol or ladies from the night before. Whichever was nastiest.

On our tour through the UK last week, visiting Halifax dryslope with the British wonderkid Jamie Nicholls, whenever we got some downtime, the riders were stretching, going to the gym, squeezing a quick run in (admittedly to the Apple store), but throughout they were all very conscious of the toll that travelling can take on your body.

Jamie's house he said? Here you go. 100% ghetto, innit?

When you think about snowboarding, every year the standard gets higher and the level just to get noticed gets notched up a bit. Jamie Nicholls is now getting recognition around Europe for his consistent riding and amazing attitude, but if he’d had those tricks on lock just two years ago, he would have been heralded as the new King of the Free World. It all means that now the bar has been raised so high, you’re having to put your body through the mill day in day out and then to make it even harder you have to travel the world to actually show everyone what you’ve got.

I imagine you all know one local guy at your resort, or your local park, who rips and everyone says, “That guy should be pro, he’s amazing!” Just before you join in the chorus, ask yourself would he ride that well if he travelled 200 days a year, and rode a different park every day all season? Probably not.

So how can riders now put up with this constant abuse their bodies receive? By being a lot more professional about everything is the short answer. The days of riding hungover or drunk, as many of us will have tried at least once, are behind us. Today many riders have gym routines, plans for how to get over sitting in aeroplanes, how to get ready for events and how to recover faster after riding. Many riders also have physios and coaches behind the scene as well. You might never see them at an event – in fact, that’s the point: Keep up the image of being the rock star who rolls in and wins the event, but more and more riders are looking after that stuff, too.

When you look at our friends from the surf world, its not uncommon for them to have physios, chefs, and everything else they might need when on certain trips or at contests on-hand, and in that respect it seems the surf world is perhaps a couple of years ahead of us. Maybe it’s because we don’t see the dark side of surfing and also that the physical build of a surfer is more impressive to the naked eye, but when you see some of them they do look like they could leap mountains in a single bound. We aren’t there yet, but we are mighty close.

Gjermund Braaten's idea of pre-season antics.

Whilst some might scream that having these kind of outside forces involved in our sport takes away from how we all see snowboarding in a perfect world, if we want to continue to see the sport evolve, and provide us with new superstars and tricks every season, then their off snow exploits have to make sure they are 100% ready to drop the hammer when the time comes.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that snowboarding remains one of the sports on the edge of the term ‘sport’ and laugh every time I see the things which make snowboarding true to its roots. I have found riders in fields asleep, I had riders missing planes, disappearing into dodgy parts of Spanish cities, with equally as dodgy looking women, and just generally overdoing it more often than not. That is still commonplace.

In fact only this weekend, I had a rider miss a plane, but he did a great job of using planes, trains and automobiles to get to where he had to go, which is where the rider back in the day might have said: “You know what, fix me a new ticket.” I just get the feeling the new generation is slightly different. A little more grown up, a little earlier, and ready to work for it.

Check back in two weeks time for more of Jon’s thoughts on snowboarding. In the meantime, check out his blog www.the-goodlife.co.uk!