Time Magazine asks the age old action sports question: Is Snowboarding Getting Spoiled by Big Money, and Big Risks? Writer Christina Crapanzano then dives into the now cliché story of Shaun White vs. Kevin Pearce. It’s the over-simplified story of one snowboarder who risks everything learning a new trick and goes on to become a huge celebrity and the other who took the same risk and ended up in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury.
As the money and risks rise, the loss for snowboarding could be the very things that draw so many to the sport — its accessibility, esprit de corps and sheer pleasure. “I really believe that it will never lose that — it can’t lose that primarily because snowboarding is really fun,” Rice says. “That’s the base of it. It’s as simple as that.”
We have to agree with Travis. Forget all the Olympic hoopla, the media, the big dollar sponsorship and go hike a hill. It’s still fun. And they can never take that away. Not even in the pages of Time Magazine.
[Link: Time.com]
It wasn’t the big money that pushed Pierce to doing the doubles, it was the progression of the sport. Every single snowboarder wants to get better and when you’re good enough, learning new tricks get riskier.
The Pierce family isn’t exactly broke… i don’t think money is the motivator. It’s a reward for hard work.
Kevin could have just as easily gotton the same injury doing a 15′ frontside air in an icy Vermont pipe.
I agree, the factor is not money, it’s progression. To me therer is 2 way to progress :
– do more, like spin to win, bigger air, more step stairs, higher bomb drop
– do different, like shred, unusual places to ride, hiking, natural terrain, Tweak, alley oop, contraray grabs, smoothness
I’m a Big fan of Pipe, and I don’t really enjoy a run full of double, even when I admit that there is something missing in a run without it. And the famous Double BigMac (twist) is pretty uggly to see.
It seems to be human to always going further, faster, stronger….somethinger. When just looking what you have, stepping aside and creating new things (tricks, trips, attitudes) is tributed to “hardcore” and “deviant” people.
It reminds me the current ecological thinking, stop growing, start economise and think
Edd
This is not about the dough it is about the progression.
I don’t know, I still have fun snowboarding so I’d have to say no it not ruined.
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