Nature, Nurture or Neither

It’s a generational thing for Jimmy Goodman and his son Peter (age 4) at Mammoth Mountain, CA. Photo: Andrew Miller
It’s a generational thing for Jimmy Goodman and his son Peter (age 4) at Mammoth Mountain, CA. Photo: Andrew Miller
Words: Alastair Spriggs 

Has snowboarding become an inherently generational pursuit?  

Given snowboarding’s mainstream breakout in the ’90s, it’s inevitable that the offspring of old heads are finally coming of age. Riders like Ellery Manning, Liam Gill and Nils Mindnich all have early memories of their parents on boards. The generational handoff is natural in snowboarding.

Take the Mindnich brothers who, at just 8 and 10 years old, recall their dad, Karl, ditching them for first tracks at Stowe, VT. They followed a cat track to find him with a shit-eating grin after the deepest run of his season. Some parents get it, and kids notice. As Nils points out in his story beginning on page 56, today, these roles have flipped. 

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