NZsnowboard.com

10th November 2008

By: Hannah Tatton

 I spent about forty-five minutes in a magazine shop in downtown Auckland City the other day. Call me cheap but I was getting my snowboarding and surfing fix without having to buy 10 magazines (except for a copy of TWS). I then walked out into the city smog and followed a sea of suits doing the Queen St shuffle. Screw it, I think I'll leave the suckers to the rat race and take that 5m of snow this weekend thanks.

While flicking through those hundreds of pages I realized what such awesome values snowboarding emanates; adventure, travel, friendship and the miracles of Mother Nature, perseverance and courage but mostly about coming home with new stories for the memory bank after all, material things are one thing, but life is about experiences.

For many, the upcoming northern hemi season will be another layer of travel, eye-feasts, obscure drinking stories and tales of epic experiences to be added to the beer bellies and D12-malnourished pale thighs of riders. And for those staying behind to equal it out with a bit of surf, I'm sure you could do both in one day and even stay warm if you head to Whakapapa the day after Christmas.

But the thing I enjoy most about being amongst snowboarders is their go getting attitude whether they are a professional or just geriatric old mate up at the ski lodge who you noticed has been doing slow s-bends since you first signed up for a bunk 10 years ago. While some may talk more than they walk, more often than not, they're walking. And no matter how 'cool' one may seem, egos stripped aside, everyone seems to have this underlying passion to get out there that drives and unites them. Just for the love of it.

As snowboarders we must have our heads in the right place, because who on earth wouldn't spend any opportunity to have a day on the mountain where the air is as pure as a block of ice with an angel sitting in it. A sport with a laidback culture is good for the soul. Especially those highly-strung-during-the-week business owners who need a slap of reality to ground them and realize that hey, life doesn't have to be all that serious so loosen the heck up! The average young snowboarder is pretty wise to follow what they feel they have the most fun doing. After all, you only live once so why limit yourself?

And for those who may not live and breathe snowboarding, it's a retreat and an escape, and if you leave it, you're bound to come back to it.  If you start talking about it, you're bound to have someone talk about it too and if you do it, you're bound to have a full car load of mates before you can say 'oh shit, the girlfriend.'

Coming from a typical outdoorsy upbringing, when I was younger getting thrown into the car at 5.30 in the morning to head down to Ruapehu for the weekend was the norm. I think Dad was in such an excited hurry once that my foot even got jammed in the car door. Since then my memory banks been maxed out with epic days riding with good company and brimmed with classic funny stories. Dedication and the love of it certainly got me the year I drove the three hours from the Mount to Ohakune every single weekend of the season from open to close, staying in a room in an old house which we'd contracted for the season whose owner no doubt used to dabble in a bit of this and that.

So as someone, somewhere once said, "Go somewhere weird. Come home with a story. You have your whole life to exaggerate the shit out of them but you have to lay the foundations for this bullshit now."

 

As my last article, that's me signing over and out for the season. Get amongst it!

 



- Hannah Tatton