“At first, I didn’t think the riders would have enough speed to make it to the top of this Montreal, QC feature. But once again I was wrong, and Cole muscled out a frontside invert.” Photo: Darrell Mathes Words Ben Shanks Kindlon O rnette Coleman once said, “Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” Coleman is a pioneer of free jazz known for further breaking down the art’s already unconven-tional sounds in the early 1960s, and creating beauty through his chaotic approach. Street snowboarding has its own Ornette Coleman. Coincidentally, his name is Cole, and he’s the man—a man of few words at that. Cole Navin is a humble-natured, heavy-hitting rail rider; a young metal maestro at the cutting edge of East Coast avant-garde. Like the saxophone was to Ornette, the snowboard is to Cole—a means of self-expression. Cole grew up just outside of Worcester, MA and, like most East Coast-ers, spent his time at nearby resorts lapping hard-packed parks with a focus on rails. He spent warmer months skateboarding around the city, and says blending those two worlds was natural. “In the winter, we’d be looking to recreate the same energy that comes with filming skateboarding around town,” Cole says. “So we didn’t always want to go to the mountain to ride. Instead, we’d go film street.” Worcester is Massachusetts’ second biggest city, and has the infra-structure to match. By the age of 14, Cole had tapped into it. “Maybe it’s a bit of a claim, but I think Worcester is one of the best places for street snowboarding,” he says. “Massachusetts in general is a gold mine for filming. The state is so small that I’ve been able to hit spots in Bos-ton and Worcester in the same day.” The area surely provided plenty of choice hits for Cole’s breakout ender in Stumped’s Root 9 . Just before his junior year of high school, Cole shifted his studies online to free up time for snowboarding. He then dove headfirst into shooting the grassroots film with Parker Szu-mowski, Bar Dadon, Eli Olson and a few others. “It may have been a little ambitious, but it worked out really well,” Cole says. “When you take the time to film a movie in the street it shows that you’re more invested than someone who just rides park. I think that’s what gave our video way more attention than we ever intended, especially consider-ing we started filming it when we were 16.” Root 9 jump-started Cole’s career and launched him into young adult-hood. Juggling both school and filming helped him to become more re-sponsible and develop time-management skills that most high schoolers don’t pick up on until college or later, if ever. He says he owes a lot of his growing up quick to the support of his sister, Lizzie, his mother, Amy, and his father, Christopher, whose work as a professional photographer contributed to Cole’s love of imagery and adventure. “My family has always facilitated whatever I’ve chosen to pursue, and are always willing to back me up in any way they can,” Cole says. “They were supportive when it came to letting me finish high school online, and to make other decisions for myself at a young age. I think that really shaped me. And the opportunities that snowboarding has presented me with have been my greatest education to date.” 034 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal frequency 15.3 : Page 34
