Our former head ninja and spirit animal Alexis de Tarade has cooked up some falafel philosophy to explain what holds Board World together within its innermost folds. Enjoy!
Hold tight and keep your doubt tucked into your back pocket until I’ve gone through my verbal slide show. I know this sounds nuts, but while watching snowboarding I have seen people stretch time and perform acts of evolution that should take generations yet instead elapse over mere seconds. All with the power of the mind (and a sprinkle of THC).
A few months back, my theories materialized in front of me as I watched the finals of the Rock A Rail snowboard contest from my bird’s-eye perch on a scaffold above the wall ride, high on some sort of sativa Sweet Tooth Siberian Skunk Isolator. Or something along those lines. It was my third year at this jam. The snowboarding is always incredible and it has the vibe a modern-day Colosseum as well.
The energy fed by the crowd to those riders is what amplifies the chances of the break in the membrane of the established reality. It’s insane that maneuvers once considered miraculous are now mundane.
There is a mix of a few factors that can explain the accelerated progress. Some will say that training and improved equipment are to thank, but I dare to throw into the discussion theories of evolution, collective consciousness and quantum physics. Fuck it, let's roll up some falafels! The scientific, measurable proof can catch up to me later.
Okay, let’s lay down the blanket theory that "mind over matter" is true. Thoughts do control matter on the physical plane but it's quite intricate how it works, it is a product of collective consciousness and time warps.
First of all, one needs to realize that evolution happens much faster than in the past and much faster than you could imagine. Actually, literally just as fast as you can imagine it. Most think that it is a slow process, like the elasticity lost in your underwear band after ten years rocking the same skidmarked pair, but in reality it’s more like the elasticity of a slingshot.
So basically evolution starts with a thought, an idea. When birds first took flight... Well, since they evolved from dinosaurs, this means the early stages of Archaeopteryx, Pterosaurs or Pterodactyls. Anyway, it all started with a thought.
As the water levels rose, land became more scarce and these feathered lizards needed to leap from tree to tree to survive. Naturally, the ones with the physical attributes that optimized flight and hang-time passed on their genes and soon enough their descendents were whizzing around with the help of hanging skin flaps (aka wings) and feathers.
But it all started with a thought: trying to fly. That first dino, thinking, “fuck, I am hungry in this oak tree, I need to get over there, in the berry tree”. The physical world, eventually, followed suit. The creatures of that species saw the successful attempts of their more courageous brethren and in turn also believed that the impossible might be possible.
A swell of evolution rolled in…
But before we delve too deeply into the falafel balls of times long since past, let’s bring it back to our digital era and snowboarding, before I lose the 3 people who have made it this far. So... what exactly does any of this have to do with snowboarding and accelerated evolution?
Let’s call it “insta-evolution", or evolution in a single lifetime, also known as epigenetics. This insta-evolution often seems to happen in your early 20’s, perhaps from a past evolutionary obligation, when man rarely lived past the age of thirty. Beyond that point, our bodies and minds become increasingly less malleable.
There is only a small window for change, so it has to happen fast. This age group also happens to also be the age of most snowboarders, at least the ones that are still progressing. It’s your time to throw your 2 cents into the pool of progress. Take for example Scott Stevens, his tricks don’t come first try, he bangs on the door of established limits, insisting that the laws of physics will bend until they do. And by watching Scott do the "impossible", it makes you that much more likely to try it yourself. Do yourself a favor and watch his 2013 Videograss part again.
Collective consciousness is obviously apparent in snowboarding, and heavily affected by the constant barrage of videos dropping with their reality-bending new tricks. People seem to be progressing without going through the process, they are able to absorb through some sort of osmotic process or mirror neurons someone else’s physical trials and tribulations simply by watching a video.
The mind seems to decipher little between 1st person and 3rd person actions. For example, I doubt Max de Vries has ever watched a Nate Bozung part, but Lucas Magoon sure did, and I am sure Max has watched some Gooner parts. It might even go beyond the passing of trick "genes" from one individual to another. It seems to be, in fact, that anyone who tries something makes it easier for all snowboarders to do something.
This collective consciousness, or mental network if you will, is updated when videos come out and the peer group witnesses new levels of snowboarding. We all benefit from it.
Let's face it, the physical attributes of a snowboarder haven't changed much, but their ability has progressed astronomically. Take all this leaping from one rail to another like Kas, Louif or Gerry are prone to do, or the flipping triplets like Sven, Torstein and McMorris. This passing down of skill is believed and conceived because the mere nonchalance (some call it “lazy style”) the rider does his tricks with convinces the viewer that "this is easy".
I realize this might go against my insta-evolution theory from a little earlier, since I am now claiming that it is the "upgrading" of gray matter that allows us to change and not the actual physiology of the rider. But again, it is the mind that instigates change, the shred-cebo so to speak.
Now here is where it gets super freaky.
So if we're not accelerating evolution or exchanging understanding through a subconscious WiFi, then may I present the biggest falafel of them all: some riders, through a concoction of confidence, adrenaline and gumption, are able to bend time and space!
To make room for the impossible to happen on the physical plane, they have not moved faster but instead slowed down time. Science has proved that time is not a constant and can vary. Would it be so far-fetched to imagine time moving at different rates in different individual spheres?
Back to the Rock A Rail in Holland, the rider that seemed to fully demonstrate this super-power was Sparrow Knox. His aberrant approach to the course was chaotic and honestly caused fear in me. He was ollieing around the course, searching for what seemed like the most unconventional routes. Not only was he able to hurdle over the close-outs like he was putting on an equestrian show, it seemed like he was able to find more time than should be allowed to add shifties and 270 outs. It seemed like the world around him slowed down to make room for his movements and create the new standard of what is now possible.
Just watch this video of Sparrow closely, those aren't video ramps, he is bending time!
Then again, maybe they are aliens or maybe I was just high as fuck in a stoner’s Disneyland.
Hope you enjoyed chewing on my falafel balls!
ADT