Everyday Heroes
As a part of building pre-season energy, I like to immerse myself in snowboard culture through media, literature, or other. I just finished one of the most impactful books I've read in a long time.
It's an enthralling book with an unhappy ending: The Darkest White by Eric Blehm. It's a story that chronicles the life of Craig Kelly and the Avalanche that killed him.
It's a piece of history. It's a piece of our culture and is a keystone in snowboard literature.
I'm not going to summarize the story, or even give it a review, but I wanted to lift some inspiration out of it and share it here with you.
To set the stage for Craig's story, Blehm describes the very beginnings of our sport, to which Craig was so closely tied. The first portion of the book is a history lesson and pays homage to all those that paved the way to bring snowboarding to what it is today.
At the high point in his career, Craig is invited to be the guest editor of a 1999 issue of Snowboard Life, a well-known snowboard magazine. Rather than run a featured article on the superstar of the day, he chooses a splitboard guide, unknown to those outside the guiding scene.
In his article Craig wrote, "While I will always have the utmost respect for the superhuman out-of-bounds freestyle and extreme stunts that seem to continually progress beyond our imaginable limits, my highest appreciation goes out to the simple rider who's out there just for the experience."
Think about that for minute.
When I was younger, after one of my first seasons in Whistler, I had returned to Montreal for summer work. Mid-summer, I crossed the country via Greyhound to go back to Whistler to attend the Camp of Champions for a week.
After three days on the bus, I arrived at the COC office in Whistler and announced the journey I had taken to get there. Ken Achenbach, a snowboarder who's legend was unknown to me at the time, told me that I was his hero. In fact, on Day 1 of the camp, he pointed me out and announced it to the whole camp.
Ken and Craig held the highest esteem for regular shredders who had the stoke and grit to follow where snowboarding took them.
As snowboarders, and especially as snowboard teachers, we too can follow their example and recognize the stoke, grit, and curiosity that brings snowboarders into our lessons.
Our students are pushing themselves. They're pushing their boundaries. They might be learning their first turns, or they might be learning their first 540s, or dropping into their first double-black diamonds. Regardless of where they are in their progression, they are pushing their boundaries and following their stoke.
As teachers, we are the ambassadors of our sport and of our culture. Let's make sure this season that we bring our highest appreciation to the students in our lessons. They signed up for the experience. Let's shepherd them through it, recognize and respect the motivation inside them, and regard them as our heroes, as they push their boundaries.
Let's treat them like Ken and Craig would; we are all snowboarders.