In the Nowness of Pow

Have you ever wished for a snow storm in the winter months? If you have, the odds are high that you can get up early in the morning for fresh powder, in search of rhythm and lines that play with gravity.

Ever since I was able to strap my feet onto a snowboard, I was in search of freeride moments in nature, with wings to fly over frozen water. During my three years of life experience in Vermont, I learned to ride the edges of my board the hard way in the Green Mountains, where conditions are usually less akin to powder 24/7.

Days of pow wow meant being in the backcountry of Mount Mansfield, hiking up with the board strapped to your backpack, a few feet above tree line at top. Those are days of thankfulness, riding between trees, finding a line below the pine to connect with nature.

“It’s not an escape, it’s where everyone should be”

– Craig Kelly on freeriding

One of the world’s backcountry pioneers was without a doubt Craig Kelly, multiple snowboard champion, who was at the epicenter of boarding in the nineties. Craig eventually stepped away from the competition circuit, where he won everything, and moved onto the quest for pow. “Let it ride” tells the story of Craig and snowboarding.

He was an engineer-oriented person who massively helped Burton’s material development, a stylish artist with a unique riders dna, who enjoyed playing out of bounds and was afraid of dying while being serious and believed that life means playing, having fun living.

To this day, I feel that’s the soul of snowboarding, where it’s up to you to make it happen, screw etiquette, to be a snow punk that challenges lazy consumerist escapes in the nowness of pow, which is deeply rooted in my life’s play with gravity.

3 comments / Add your comment below

  1. You know how to keep a reader entertained, I was moved to start my own blog and get out into the pow!

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