For competitive snowboarding, 2013 has been a year for reminiscing and good times; from legends’ sessions at O’Neill Evolution and the historical 20th Anniversary of Air&Style, to a genuine retro look and feel etched all over the Burton European and US Open. We also saw legends like Gian Simmen saying goodbye to the competition scene and moving on to new chapters in their lives.
Why have we felt so nostalgic this season? It might have something to do with the insane amount of progression the sport is currently witnessing; but we would like to stop for a minute, catch our breath and take five from concerning ourselves with the future and dive deeper into the marvellous tale of snowboarding.
It’s a rich narrative, filled with some illustrious characters, such as Tom Sims and Jake Burton who wrote and starred on the first pages. It moves on, with adventurers and immortal heroes like Craig Kelly, Terje Haakonsen and Shaun White. And the story does not end there…
Here at the TTR Pro Snowboarding headquarters, we probably own one of the world’s largest collections of competitive snowboarding footage. From TTR’s inaugural year in 2002 to the Tour’s inclusion of X Games in 2013 and everything in between, we have been there watching and documenting. Over the years we’ve supplied countless producers with some stunning material, and after all that we still found enough left to produce something we thought was missing: a series on the history of competitive snowboarding.
Teaming up with Swatch, we opened our archives, dusted off our historical material and searched for some missing chapters. We asked for help from many partners worldwide for footage to fill any missing gaps, and with that we have produced something truly incredible Our passion for the sport, combined with hard labour and hours spent in the editing room have resulted in a five webisodes series, of which we proudly present number four today.
“From Straight Lines to Triple Corks, the History of Competitive Snowboarding” is a remarkable piece, a part of that peculiar sub culture that snowboarding is. It takes us back through some glorious moments in the sport, narrated by the heroes, peeking behind the scenes. At the same time, we feel the series will inspire the viewer to go out and write another few chapters themselves.
In celebration of it all, the World Snowboard Tour has put its efforts in creating an interactive timeline, with the purpose to educate all enthusiasts on where it all began and how it’s still pumping.
