The Snowboarder's Journal - The Snowboarder's Journal 21.3
BE COOL
Words: Ben Shanks Kindlon 2023-12-06 10:57:03
What’s cooler than being cool? Arguably, Alex Pashley in a penguin suit on a boat in Antarctica. Photo: Alex Pashley
“WHAT’S COOLER THAN BEING COOL? ICE COLD.”
André 3000 told us that alongside Big Boi in Outkast’s 2003 “chart-topping hit, “Hey Ya!” Despite the upbeat nature of that certified bop, if you’re able to stop shaking it like a Polaroid picture for long enough to really listen to the lyrics, you’ll notice that André’s not using “cool” in a positive light. This iconic line signifies a theoretical character in a contentious relationship taking a cold shoulder to below-freezing levels. Granted, that very same line used in a different context could be (and has often been) interpreted as, well, almost the exact opposite of what it means in the song. That’s the cool thing about the word cool: It can be used to describe temperature, temperament or, in a more colloquial sense, something or someone in a generally admirable, desirable way. That is, of course, only up to the point of being “too cool.”
Cool is like cologne and there’s truth to the notion that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Cool is a funny construct because it’s so uncertain, fleeting and, above all, subjective. What’s considered cool changes with peers, perspective, time and context. Paradoxically, as soon as one truly starts to believe they’re cool, and even more so once they’ve started to exude that belief through their actions, is exactly the point at which they’ve stopped being as cool as they were. Yet sometimes that’s exactly when such a person will be described using the very same adjective they had strived to embody legitimately. Only this time, the descriptor will be used facetiously. Enter cool guy.
I’ll never forget my first time in the terrain park at Catamount Mountain Resort, a small ski area located on the border between Massachusetts and New York. I was 12 or so at the time. My big brother, Jake, and I sat in the cold beside features we were too scared to try ourselves, watching. Two college-aged snowboarders were there who were particularly talented. Oozing effortless style on every hit, it was easy for us impressionable young groms to deem the duo the coolest cats at Catamount.
A few laps later, we watched as another group made attempts on one of the park’s most challenging rails. One of the riders tried a backside boardslide through the down-flat-down and got bucked to his back. Jake and I were impressed he even went for it. But the two cool guys from before happened to be directly behind the rider who’d slammed, and they did their best to make a mockery of the mishap before sliding through the same kinks. Jake turned to me, shook his head and said, “That’s not cool.”
That’s the catch-22 of coolness. I wondered, “Can people really be that cool when they think they’re that cool?” My findings: ultimately, nah. In this instance, what was cooler than being cool turned out to be a couple of ice-cold, insecure young men exposing themselves for who they really were. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to meet countless boarders who ride better than average yet manage to not have such inflated heads about them.
Despite some outliers, I’m grateful to see our culture shift continually toward positivity, inclusivity and mutual support of fellow riders. From my fleeting subjective perspective, those things are pretty damn cool. Nowadays it seems that judgmental knuckleheads are outnumbered 10 to one by folks who really know what it means to be cool. Because cool is as cool does; to be cool is to just be. Cool?
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BE COOL
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