Rebelling Against Rebellion

Call me a rebel against rebellion.

Jake Burton Carpenter is once again striking the tired old song that snowboarding is all about–or to a large extent about–youthful rebellion and the tastes.

At issue is the nekkid-chicks design of some of their snowboards called the “Love” line. (For some other commentary on those boards, see Shayboarder on October 23, October 27 and Adam at Highly Obsessed.)

Well, Adam came through with more news on the “Love” story, which confirms that Mr. Carpenter is stuck in the past. He quotes from an op-ed that JBC pens for his hometown newspaper.

We also make boards for 18-year-old guys. This age group is the foundation of snowboarding, and we wouldn’t be here today without them. Thirty years ago, they were the ones who were willing to buy our boards out of a box, hike up the mountain and teach themselves how to ride it, and I owe everything to them. A very important factor to this crew is that what they are riding and wearing is something their parents would never be caught dead in. It was like that when I was 18, and it’s like that now.

JBC seems stuck on the 18-year old market. That may be a smart business move, since 18-year olds (and younger) are a very large part of the snowboarding market. But they’re not the only market.

I’ve had my issues with the Burton company before–notably, its poaching marketing stunt and continued whining about being denied access to all of three ski areas in the country.

But as to snowboarding being a form of rebellion. Uhm, yeah. In the 1980s some people were so upset about snowboarding that they couldn’t keep their ski tips uncrossed. But has anyone else noticed that middle-aged mothers think that Shaun White is cool, we had a 60-year old presidential nominee (John Kerry) who snowboards, and that snowboarding is widely accepted?

And will 18 year-olds be rebels? To be sure, 18-years old is always going to be a fine time to be a rebel, real or imagined.

I’ve passed that stage a long time ago, as, I suspect, many riders who are up there in years. Now if we could just fine some companies that don’t expect all their customers to be teenagers.