Yesterday on the Facebook group -
History of Snowboarding (which is a good group that you should all join), Snowboarding
Legend Mike Ranquet (to use his full name) asked this question:
“When, why and how did the
majority of snowboard magazines turn into the equivalent of ‘Tiger-Beat
Snowboarding’? When I look at Thrasher or most any skateboard and or surf
magazines they don’t make me feel alienated and old; yet most of the major
snowboard magazines do. The snowboard mags have the same MO as any
pre-teen/teen gossip magazines; they don’t seem to care about where they came
from or where they’re going, just living in the now. Wouldn’t in depth
interviews or features including anyone over 30 (or 40 in my case) be of
interest to most?
When I open a new
snowboard mag I have no stoke or excitement as too what’s going on because.....
well I just don’t care, yet I know that when I open a Thrasher there will be
photo’s and articles that I want to look at and read. Skate, surf and even rock/music magazines
make me feel young and evoke a feeling that I’ve been harboring for years and
it stokes me out, but snowboard magazines make me feel old. I know I’m old
(41), but that’s not the point; the point is that these mags should make me
feel young but haven’t for the better part of a decade.
With the exception of the ‘token’ old guy 1/4 page
shot here and there, the significant history of our sport has been swept under
the rug. Not upset, just confused as to why other board related sports have
been able to keep all demographics of its participants interested yet snowboard
mags fall short.”
Next thing you know it’s kicking off and there
are 145 comments. We wanted to add our own 2 cents to the debate, but there wasn’t
enough space in a Facebook comment to get across all the things we wanted to
say on the topic so here you go…
