“Rav at home in Salt Lake City, most likely after cooking up something really good.” Photo: Ian Boll Despite all of Mike’s success, he noticed over time that his relation-ships outside of snowboarding, both with his parents and significant others, were deteriorating. He had developed a habit of convincing himself that poor communication and the subsequent distancing of others were the result of their actions, rarely taking accountability for his own. After years of running from problems, placing blame on others and using snowboarding as his blinders, Mike decided to slow the ma-chine, kill his ego, and look inward. “Lying is easy, and lying to yourself is even easier,” Mike says. “Once I started snowboarding, there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t thought about it. It totally possesses you—in a good way, but later on you learn it can also be in a bad way. Anything that takes over control of your life and makes it so you can’t realize the things going on around you is not so great in some ways. It played into me being totally vacant as time went on. Snowboarding was a way for me use landing a trick to make myself think that everything must be good. You justify everything by building on your dream, clawing at it however you can. But unfortunately, a lot of it was at the expense of my ignorance toward others. “I had to make a million mistakes, but then I started tuning in to the little things that people would tell me, whether it was a girlfriend, friends, or my parents. At the time they don’t make sense, but now I look back and think about some of these little jabs that people have taken at me, and they really helped me. I realized I was being selfish for a long time and just kind of self-centered. I had to take the time to reassess myself because after some time, you have to stop lying to yourself. You can’t keep going into denial and pushing it away by going into new scenes or whatever. You can spend so much time wrapped up in like your dream, like, ‘I wanna be this’ and ‘I wanna do that,’ that you kind of lose track of who you are, then you gotta refind it. Being a snowboarder has gotten me through hard times, but that alone isn’t going to get you through everything forever.” Mike realized that happiness comes from within. That it’s not something to be obtained through possessions and achievements, but can be found in humility and relationships. These days Mike has a good rapport with his parents. He’s grateful for all the privileges they’ve afforded him over the years and for their patience through the growing pains. Recently, he spent some time with them in upstate New York, where he was visiting his good friend, Johnny O’Connor, in Wyndham. Johnny broke his arm while filming for a project he, Mike, Austin Visintainer and Kaleah Opal started working on last winter, so Mike took the train east to lend a helping hand at the O’Connor’s pub and inn. Mike speaks very highly of the area due to its slower and more relaxed pace. He says it’s highly possible he’ll settle down there one day. Following his trip to New York, Mike traveled to Bend where he’s been staying with his girlfriend, Naima Antolin, as she heals from overdue shoulder surgery. Mike still pays rent in Salt Lake City although it’s been a while since he’s been there. It’ll probably be a while longer before he returns. For now, he’s just jammin’. BY THE TIME Mike finishes stretching, a few more heads have rolled into the Ponderosa Skatepark. After numerous runs on the mini-ramp followed by a bite to eat, it’s back to the house. As evening falls, Mike grabs his blanket and guitar and heads to a nearby pond for a sunset jam session. After he arrives he takes his time, gets comfortable. He consistently practices what he preaches about being present and pa-tient. He says these learned behaviors have enhanced his boarding, music, poetry and art, and they have clearly improved his perspective. “When I was clawing at my dreams, I was making some progress,” Mike says, “But I was digging myself holes as well. I know now that these things come in perfect time. All the things that we want to be have to be when they willingly flow into existence, not when they’re pried. When I gave up on clawing at the dream, I was able to flow through that dream even further than I could have even imagined, and I’m still floating now.” MIKE RAVELSON 043
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 19.1: Page 43
