The Snowboarder's Journal - The Snowboarder's Journal 21.2
FOREVER LAME
Words: Ben Shanks Kindlon 2023-10-24 08:46:09
Rusty Ockendon filming Matt Belzile in the Whistler, BC, backcountry for an upcoming ManBoys release. Photo: Sean Kerrick Sullivan
It was a typical night for 13-year-old me in 2004, chilling in my bedroom rewatching Robot Food’s “Afterlame” for the umpteenth time. Typical until I reached the section of the film featuring Mike Basich, David Benedek and Josh Dirksen’s trip to Alaska, scored to Weezer’s “Lullabye for Wayne.” Gradually, I became overcome with emotion. Admittedly, that night “Afterlame” became the first film to ever evoke tears of joy from me. Tears of something, at least.
Nearly 20 years later, it’s still difficult to pinpoint the exact emotions it stirred up. But ultimately the experience evoked a palpable sense of purpose within my young, impressionable self. From then on, if nothing else I knew I’d be a snowboarder till the day I died. It confirmed that, aside from family and friends, nothing mattered more to me than snowboarding. And in the two decades since its release snowboarding has remained one of my most prominent driving forces, a sport turned lifestyle which has shaped my path both in the mountains and off them. When I say that movie changed my life, I’m not being facetious—it did.
A lot of snowboarders have similar stories. The other day I read a heartfelt comment on an Instagram video from a rider saying he revisits the beloved Standard Films’ “TB2” at the start of every season, and something along the lines of how nothing hits quite like it. Whether it was a certain video, magazine cover, live event or even catching a random X Games performance on TV, plenty of people have a piece of media that stands out in their mind as the pinnacle source of sideways sliding inspiration—an early focal point in their love story with snowboarding.
Now, when it comes to videos, some folks will tell you they just don’t make ’em like they used to. And it’s true, they don’t. Times have changed and so too has the media landscape. But at its core snowboarding hasn’t changed all that much. Nor have lifelong snowboarders.
I personally think “Afterlame,” along with its prequel “Lame,” are the best snowboarding films of all time, partly because of how I connected with them in that time and place. I found what I was looking for when I didn’t even know what I was really looking for in the first place. That guy from Instagram would probably argue “TB2” is the best film of all time for equally subjective reasons.
In the future, some person out there is going to reference something that hasn’t even come out yet as the coolest thing to happen in snowboarding since disc bindings. And maybe that something will be a video or photo of yours. You never know who’s watching.
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FOREVER LAME
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