Remembering the Snowboarding Body

Abstract

Dating the birth of snowboarding is impossible. People have been standing on sleds and trying to slide on snow for hundreds of years; recent ‘discoveries’ include a board dating back to the 1920s and a 1939 film of a man riding a snowboard-type sled sideways down a small hill in Chicago. Snowboarding as we understand the activity today, however, emerged in the late 1960s and 1970s in North America with a new piece of equipment that appealed to the hedonistic desires of a new generation of youth. In this chapter I offer a brief history of the development of snowboarding culture. This is followed by a critical discussion of the cultural politics involved in the construction and reproduction of this historical narrative, which examines how some snowboarding bodies are remembered while others are forgotten, and reveals the production of the snowboarding cultural memory as an implicitly political process complicated with various socio- cultural- economic factors. First, however, I offer some brief comments on the importance of history and context for understanding contemporary physical cultures.

There is a growing interest in the history of snowboarding because our sport is finally at a point where we can look back and speculate. Now I feel there is actually a history. Ten years ago it seemed silly to think of snowboarding in any historical sense, as it was still so young. Now there is some depth, people have stories… There is a lot of interest for me personally in the history of snowboarding because these were the years that shaped my life. (Steve, personal communication, June 2009)

The history of snowboarding definitely seems to be getting more important to me as I get older. Possibly it could be more about me trying to maintain a connection to the sport… or a longing for the good old days… When I read stories or watch footage from earlier periods it provides that nostalgic feeling. I remember making my first pair of pants… sawing off parts of my bindings… cutting the toes out of my boot liners.… The young kids today have no idea, and I don’t think many of them really care, but I do. This is our history, and I feel like I was part of something special. (Nathan, personal communication, June 2009)