Snowboard lifestyle is about more than clothes and films. These things come to mind because we like watching movies and looking cool, but it’s also about the culture surrounding the sport. That lifestyle presentation is how we invite people into our community, and how we passively tell some people they don’t belong.

At some point you thought snowboarding looked cool enough that it was worth trying, so you gave it a shot. But what if you never felt welcome in the community, or saw someone you could look up to after you became proficient? What if the only people you could identify with were shown as accessories to equipment instead of riders?

Finding Community

Anyone reading this is likely a core rider and snowboarding is how you spend your winter leisure time. It’s a way to enjoy the snow and make new friends. These friends might even be the ones who talked you into going snowboarding in the first place. It’s the days spent riding with this crew that makes the best memories. Why else would we tailgate in the winter and plan road trips to the mountains when everyone else is heading to warm beaches?

That community is something that everyone deserves to experience, no matter what sport it is. Good friends can make great days epic, and bad days into hilarious memories. Days when it’s 15 below zero, snowing sideways, just you and your crew on the mountain, these are the days that make epic tales. Getting left behind because the group only cared about themselves can turn them miserable, or even deadly in some cases.

What if along the way, you never felt welcome and never found people to ride with? What if the language and imagery used by people and brands made you feel like you don’t belong; that you’re not “one of them”? Or you kept getting left behind because “no friends on a powder day?” Everyone wants to belong to have friends within any activity they participate. In this case, like you’re welcome in to the group that is “snowboarders”.

Active Listening Skills

Snowboarding draws people from a lot of different backgrounds. Everyone who has ever tried this sport has done so for different reasons, and had different struggles with it. What if the person teaching you how to ride had told you “you’re stupid for being afraid of this”? How often have you told someone that same thing because they didn’t feel comfortable in the industry?

Hearing the words someone says isn’t “listening”. Listening is a desire to understand someone through information gathering. Communication is the ability to adapt your speech to whom you are speaking with so that a message gets across. More importantly, communication is a growth mindset; a willingness to listen openly so that you understand what someone is trying to tell you.

Any time you’re struggling to learn something new, trying to fit in, it’s intimidating to see people who make it look easy. It’s made worse when those people are inconsiderate to beginners or people from different backgrounds, different life experiences. We tell them with words how fun it is to snowboard, and with actions show that we’re a bunch of inconsiderate jackasses. Helping someone else become a better snowboarder won’t make you worse. Being inconsiderate might make them stop trying.

As a business, as an industry, the same thing is true. We have to pay close attention to what groups of people are saying if we want people to feel welcome. It might not be fun to do, but in the long run it pays off. Whether that be fiscally for a business, or personally for an individual building better relationships.

It’s Just Snowboarding, Lighten Up

It seems like any time you speak out about the “bro culture” in snowboarding, you get waylay-ed. You’re met with “it’s just snowboarding, don’t take it so seriously”, sometimes personally attacked. People insult you and ignore anything you have to say cutting you off while you speak, even if you listen patiently while they rant. Then as soon as you try and point out how they’re making snowboarding less fun for someone else, you’re the shitty person. You’re flagrantly wrong and need to shut up. “Lighten up man, it’s just snowboarding. Get over yourself.”

We all have our own struggles in life, and for many of us snowboarding is a way to escape them. But what if the way you speak or act makes being a part of the snowboard community a struggle? Wouldn’t you rather build a culture in snowboarding that allows as many people as possible to have the ability to enjoy the sport you love?

What if your friend or spouse is one of those people who can’t lighten up because they’re made to feel unwelcome in the world of snowboarding? One of the people who silently walked away because it wasn’t worth fighting another fight. Left snowboarding because they didn’t fit in. Would you listen to them, or are they just being stupid and petty in your eyes? What if this is why the same amount of women learn to snowboard as men, but far more women leave?

There is a reason there are so many women specific groups in the industry. Just because you know women who aren’t offended by the culture, doesn’t mean that there aren’t thousands who are. You can ask this of any social out-group and likely come up with the same answer.

Lighten up to help someone feel welcome, not to tell them they need to learn how to “deal with it”. Lighten up in a way that makes snowboarding fun for more people, rather than an attempt to silence someone else. Just because you’ll never make it through life without offending someone, doesn’t mean you should use that as an excuse to be inconsiderate.

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“Us With the World” vs “Us Against Them”

We’re generally pretty terrible at communication, and our varied backgrounds make it even more difficult. And when no one wants to try, when you’re told “just get over it” and “learn how to deal with it,” that’s what you do. You form private groups away from the difficulty. You look for the people who are most likely to listen, who make you feel welcome and unafraid. Can you imagine how much someone must love snowboarding if they’re willing to go that far?

The origin years of snowboarding were often structured with this “us vs them” dichotomy. For many in snowboarding, some of this still exists. Now it’s noticeably snowboarders against snowboarders. The very ones who tell the frustrated and outspoken to “lighten up and get over it” are often the most belligerent and offended when called out. It’s easier to be angry at someone “not like me” than it is to engage in self improvement.

It’s this group of people who make all of us look bad and cause people to walk away from a sport, if they even try. They’re also the ones who cause exclusionary groups to form.

Defend Respectfulness Rather than “I Don’t Want to Change”

I’ve seen male industry professionals pay the highest bro compliment to one of the strongest women I know in snowboarding by “treating her like one of the guys”, only for her to feel insulted. Then watched the conversation unfold as she called them out for it, both parties left dumbfounded and confused: one party feeling respectful and the other disrespected.

This failure in communication completely changed the tune in the parking lot. From happy go lucky opening day to angrily lacing boots talking about what had happened. These sorts of situations aren’t uncommon.

There is no perfect individual. Even if you feel like this article isn’t for you, we can all improve. It’s sad that so often we don’t learn to listen, to communicate well, until we cause irreparable damage. When a lot of people are telling you something is wrong, you should listen to them. Perhaps some self examination is in order if your fun is more important to you than someone else’s frustration.

Snowboarding is an Extension of Life, Not an Escape

While this may not be about snowboarding to you, it’s about snowboarding to me. It’s about making people feel welcome in a sport that I’ve dedicated my life to. While snowboarding might be an escape from “real life”, it’s still a part of life. And if it brings more frustration than joy, why continue in it?

So this should be about snowboarding to everyone who snowboards, because it affects all of us. People should feel welcome to this industry, not like they’re an afterthought. I want to see snowboarders build a culture so that people don’t need to form protected groups where they feel accepted and welcome; treated as an individual. That in snowboarding we all find friends, respite, reprieve. No one wants to be the person who pushed someone out of snowboarding. So listen closely and act like it before you do.