The blaring irony with hipsters is that they’re simply as involved as everybody else about what’s standard, maybe much more so. Snowboarding’s hipsters are not any completely different.
Whereas most individuals use mild, fashionable aluminum ski poles, hipsters are rocking bamboo poles. What they lack (or add) in weight, they make up for with their unusual, outdated appearance–which is exactly the purpose.
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Hipsters should not considering being nice. They don’t seem to be considering being greatest. They don’t seem to be considering being the quickest, the strongest, or essentially the most engaging. They’re considering being the farthest from the norm.
As an grownup who has grappled with tumblr aesthetics, “soul” surfers and skiers hanging out in parking heaps complaining concerning the prevalence of contests ruining the exercise they spend their free time on, and making obscure artwork to justify their lack of an actual job, I can admit that I’m not excellent. Hipsters irritate me.
To me, the presence of hipsters in sports activities current the strangest idea of all. The definition of a hipster is, loosely, “somebody who follows traits outdoors of the cultural mainstream”. Sports activities are outlined as “an exercise involving bodily exertion and talent during which a person or workforce competes towards one other or others for leisure.”
Why else would somebody turn into against the mainstream in sports activities until they merely can’t compete with mainstream beliefs of success?
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It’s true that maybe snowboarding, by definition, could solely be a “sport” when it’s a competitors. However competitions are loosely outlined. The Olympics is one sort of competitors. G.N.A.R. is a contest, kind of. Then there are the competitions of who can get essentially the most ski days in per season. There are the competitions of who can learn to snowblade. There are the competitions of who can put on the weirdest outfit and nonetheless ski–mostly–normally. It looks like many west coast skiers partake in that one.
I perceive there are points with categorizing an entirety of a inhabitants into narrow-minded generalizations. Deal with-bar mustaches. Flat-brim wool hats. Vests layered over outfits three out of 4 seasons of the yr. These bizarre, shiny sneakers individuals ought to by no means, ever put on outdoors of the workplace.
Shutterstock/Kichigin
Funnily sufficient, many of those aesthetic properties bleed into snowboarding. Males with lengthy hair and ’70s mustaches come to thoughts. Identical to that, these individuals who search to keep away from the mainstream have created their very own generic, and, gasp, standard look.
My principle for why there are hipsters in snowboarding is that most individuals understand, eventually, that they can not and will not be the very best in any explicit class of the game. For instance, and it is a true instance, I can sit right here and are available to phrases with the truth that I’ll by no means be the quickest slalom racer. I’ll by no means huck the most important cliff. I’ll most likely by no means hit a large characteristic within the terrain park.
That is okay, I inform myself, as a result of I am simply extra soulful than everybody else. I perceive the subtleties of a singular powder flip. I respect the rocker profile on a set of skis from twenty years in the past, and the best way it influenced the rocker on my skis right this moment. In different phrases, on the surface, I’m no higher than anybody else, however on the within, I can fake I’m.
In different different phrases: I’ve a giant ego. Earlier than you assume I am dragging everybody in the whole ski world, grasp on, for a second, as a result of this can come again round.
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Ian Greenwood has mentioned ego’s place in snowboarding earlier than, noting {that a} shift in values can show, nicely, invaluable. I agree with him wholeheartedly, and I’ve one other principle so as to add to the dialogue.
Egos could be, however should not essentially, good. Ego is what gave Shane McConkey the boldness to ship us all into laughing matches together with his alter ego “Saucer Boy”. Ego is what let Scot Schmidt ship these strains off The Palisades, propelling him into stardom for us all to get pleasure from. The egos of others are sometimes the suppliers of leisure, knowledge, and tales.
Ego is why individuals get pleasure from sporting fart-bags and leaping off cliffs. Ego is why individuals make ski edits. Ego is why fashion exists within the first place.
Writers could not have jobs if individuals all of a sudden grew to become egoless. I would not need to reside in that world. Additionally, I get pleasure from recognizing unusual outfits on the hill. Hipsters, that is my apology.
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