Commercial Snowboarding—Good?

A NY Times article talks about Shaun White’s lucrative endorsements, but the question is: does this go counter to snowboarding’s roots?

This past Saturday, March 17, 2007, the New York Times ran a piece by Matt Higgins entitled White Finds the Motivation to Reach New Heights.

Higgins talks about how snowboarding’s Olympic gold medalist Shaun White’s commercial endorsements and publicity appearances have detracted from his competitive success.

Undefeated in the last Olympic year, White recently failed to win in a few major competitions.

But, at 20 years old, he’s still pulling in millions from sponsors like American Express and Red Bull.

Nice work if you can get it.

Question is: is this what snowboarding is all about?

Hang out at any ski resort terrain park and you’ll find kids coaching each other, encouraging each other, and generally offering each other positive reinforcement as they try new moves or attempt to perfect new tricks.

It’s a spirit of cooperation, not competition.

And, yes, I understand why talented snowboarders would want to be able to appear in the Olympics.

And, I understand why they’d want to be rewarded with cash prizes and product endorsements.

Still, I think it countermands the basic attitude that has pervaded snowboarding since its inception.

Phenomena like Olympic and World Cup ski racing were considered stuffy, formalized, restricting. Even World Cup freestyle skiing, which was restricted to mogul skiing and aerial jumping, had succumbed to commercialism’s straight jacket.

Riders rejected all that.

Okay—at first they were rebels. But, given that most early snowboarders were young males, that attitude would be expected. And, in their rebelliousness, they banded together to form a kind of self-sustaining support group.

No more?

Well, from outward appearances, not on the highest levels.

That’s sad. On some level, at least.

Yet, the original cooperative spirit does remain. You see it still when you pass through most terrain parks. You hear it when you talk to the park rats. And, better still, with the rise in popularity of freestyle skiing, it has spread from snowboarders-only back to skiers.

Let’s hope it’s not lost in a blizzard of dollars.

Related Article: Snowboarding’s U.S. Open