RIGHT “I grew up watching Bryan Iguchi, among other Jackson [Hole, WY] legends like the Bluebird Wax crew, riding this ridgeline of north facing, benchy pillows and always wondered where it was. Guch and Mark Carter brought me there roughly seven years ago, and I always try to go back every year.”—Blake Paul Backside 720. Photo: Oli Gagnon Words Alex Yoder B e here now, they say. Ram Dass’ mantra has become one of those cliché yet fun-damentally true idioms we all strive to understand. Many doors are available for us to access the present. It’s found by some through rhythmic breath or reciting a mantra, playing music or dancing to it. For snowboarders, it’s often found by inserting ourselves into a concert of natural phe-nomena wherein gravity pulls us down a mountain, and our adrenalized focus on steering the ship mutes the monkey mind. In most cases, there’s a ramping up, an easing into that state so gentle that time seems irrelevant once you’re there. Conversely, the moment you hear that someone you love has died is one of the few life experiences that thrusts you into the present with such velocity that you crumble, pining to be anywhere but now.
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 21.2: Page 68
