look at surfing and skateboarding-these two groups respect their legends; guys like duke, tommy zahan, gene 'tarzhan', curran, phillips, blender, hosoi, gurrero, gonz, etc.

snowboarding needs to do this and depending on what mags/journals one reads, some do pay homage to snowboarding's backbone (covering the likes of such greats as chuck barfoot, tom sims, guch, ranquet, kelly, etc.).

however, the ration of riders that do know and respect their elders (if you will) are far outnumbered than those that are clueless.

case and point, look at all the dumb-ass diaper hat kid-bots with their beyond lame neff hoodies who would never even think or know who invented things like the rodeo (a gift from former canadian shred pro, kevin young) to that of andy 'the dog' coughlin, to bob klein to adam merriman (o.g. log god father) and stevie 'atlas' alters (pioneer of the controlled and overly styled flat spin), etc.

the problem with snowboarding, i feel, is we have every company wanting a piece of the youth market, companies like; eXpn-although i do watch the x-games (seeing skating and snowboarding at a bar with a pint in-hand is soothing for me) and i like t.r.'s commentary-to the brainwashing of the marines adverts to that of the sweet smells of right guard deodorant to the sugary goodness of mountain dew (aka hillbilly heroin) telling us what to watch, what to wear and who we should look like while drinking the correct drink.

this becomes evident, as a lot of snowboarders begin to look/act like all the same; a dumb fucking kid dragging his board on the road while walking to the lift in some ape drape get-up thinking he's 'dope' because he can do a three foot five and a 270 onto a box.

what happened to the riders that, what seemed to be, all the mags used to cover that ripped shit-up and let their riding do their talking (dudes like, quinn sandvold, tarquin robbins, ali goulet, chris roach, etc.)?

now, instead we get coverage of these party-boy posers all the while, these 'riders', are 'fronting'/pretending to be hard with their canted-out new school era hats and oversized jingle bell hoddies while hiding behind fucking bandannas-are you kidding me? this isn't snowboarding, this is a retarded circus act on bad acid.

it seems as though, kids are all caught up in looking like every other hollywood pro with their absurdly gross neon patters des jour while voting for the best 'flying tomato' (on espn.com) and thinking at the same time that they are independent of all trends.

perhaps this is how some snowboarders see things when they are confined to riding only the weekends-do they view it as a 'sport' rather than a lifestyle? i would ask these yo-boarders this question, but i would be too afraid of their neon clown suits burring through my corneas.

shit, i went off on a tangent (again) and forgot where i was going.

First Descent is a pretty balanced overview of the history, current views and future direction of the shred. I'd recommend it to anyone curious that wants to learn more..

i don't think you can sum anything up in one movie or book, t.

'lines' to me makes more sense-that and some earlier flicks, like 'the hard, the hungry and the homeless', '20/20', 'roadkill', 'subjekt', and all of whitey's flicks. you know, early 'tb' stuff, as well.

its appeeeealing to the freshies and pretty informative & easy watching.. they really tried to bring it all together while progressing it forward at the time, plus I don't remember much special interest driving the flick (MD funded, Burton was heavily involved, yet it stayed pretty neutral). Thanks for keeping us up on the ins and outs and upside downs, LJJ..

(somebody sure rolled over with an opinion this morning, huh??.. )

White is great in the pipe, but good god. it is infuriating to see the other 4 guys paving the way before him, and I have never heard him show respect. In Last Descent, white saying he isn't ready for that part of his riding to develop(Big Mountain). Seems like he is in it for the contests and the glory; the other 4 are completly the opposite and have been vocal about doing it for thier passion of the sport. Hilarious that the other 4 are epitomy of style, and white is a robot.

This poll and the fact that most people think that Jake Carpenter invented snowboarding(eventhough he can not be credited with 1 inovation that progressed snowboarding) goes a long way to prove the power of main stream MARKETING.

Never forget your roots!

as a non-fan of 'the man' aka 'the machine' aka burton snowboards, to say that carpenter "can not be credited with 1 inovation (spelled 'innovation', by the way) that progressed snowboarding" is just stupid.

burton for a long time really pushed boot and binding technology, as well as overall interfaces (boot to binding to board, etc.). so much so, that many other companies piggy-backed their ideas, like anatomical baseplates, etc.

now, companies like salomon, ride/k2 and even flux have stepped-up big time in all areas because of what burton has achieved in market contributions.

now, i do hear you in that burton has done a lot of shady shit, most notably the cap strap which was jacked from technine (both companies agreed to share the patent-guessing because t9 did not have the money to go up against burton. however, the agreement was further complicated when flux stepped into the picture saying that they owned the cap strap patten...anyways, back on course).

mom, if you are going to come to the table and say something to the effect that burton has not given snowboarding shit in terms of innovations, then you need to give us examples; yes, burton is the ford/chevy of snowboarding-they make and own everything, and they are just another k2 to me that is privately owned (for now) but you've got to back your shit-and you haven't.

that poll blew me away too. i click to vote and when i see the results it has shaun white at 50%. He really doesnt deserve to be up there with those other guys.

whatd you expect, its an expn poll. over half the kids who see it have only ever heard of shaun white

its representative of their market audience more than anything..

Terje is just on his own level, imo. He has put in his time, laid it down and paid his dues. Him bustin out at TAC keeps him up w/the grown up grommets, and every shot and inch of his film is the stuff epics are made of. Always much respect to CK too..