Old Favorite

By: Paul Gemignani

This is one of my favorite snowboard articles I kept from a long time ago. Maybe circa 02'-03 or something. Anyways the reason I share it today is because I feel some people don't really know what it is actually like to be a snowboard "bum" and I always thought this article painted a nice, simplified version of the lifestyle us grungy snowboarders live sometimes. The article resonates a lot with me, because I can relate to it very personally and maybe some other people will feel a connection with it to. Check it out and enjoy!

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WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A SNOWBOARDER
By: Jennifer Sherowski

Not everyone who rides a snowboard is a snowboarder, but for those who do bear this illustrious title, it's an undeniable way of life. High school ends, and the road starts calling- off to mountain towns and the assimilation into weird, transient tribes full of people who work nighttime jobs clearing toilets or handing you your coffee in the early mornings, all so they can shove a fistful of tips in their pocket and ride, their real motives betrayed by goggle tans or chins scuffed raw by Gore-Tex. In this world, people don't ask you what you "do", they ask you where you work - knowing that what you do is snowboard, just like them and any job you might have is simply a means for it.

Now, this life is not for everyone. You have to take guff at work from rich tourists peddling snobbery; steal furtive nights' sleep on lumpy, odd-smelling couches; take fearful rides down in ski patrol sleds with a broken wrist or blown knee; spending holidays in the stink and sweat of a restaurant job - far from home and family, and of course, surrender carefree college fun in favor of a different rite of passage. However, for those who live it, all this is part of the reward - freedom from the chain-link fence of a nine-to-five and the privilege of being outside in the mountains every single day.