The Divergent Line

Aug 18, 2008 03:06 AM

I’m pretty sure he wasn’t a snowboarder, but someone once said something about two trails diverging in the woods. He claimed there was some subtle, but overwhelming, value in taking the trail that most people overlook or shy away from. Probably true.

But snowboarding has always taken his idea a step further. Since rearing its lawless, uncultured head about thirty years ago, it has said:

Screw both trails and cut your own.

Though we sometimes stumble and have to figure things out along the way, the SDS has tried to live up to this ideal. We’ve always looked to cut that divergent path. In design, in art, in the riders we listen to, in expressing the ideas we think are valuable, we’ve always tried to do our own thing. To create our own way.

When it comes to your own snowboard life, leave a unique imprint on it. Screw the trick police and the style Nazis. If it feels good, do it. If you like the way something looks, zip it up. Don’t look to other people to make your snowboard decisions.

Build a back-yard park. Cut a trail. Film your own perspective. Discover a new spot in town. Load the car and move west. Paint your own graphic. Head deep into the backcountry for a couple days. Find a new gap to ollie. Build a log slide. Road trip somewhere you’ve never ridden. Take a sharpie to your new bindings. Open a shop. Organize a local contest or session. Start a company.

Cut your own divergent line and listen only to yourself.

It makes all the difference.