Less is More

Blair Habenicht contemplates myriad opportunities in Hakuba, Japan.
Take it all in, savor the moment, then be present for the ride. Blair Habenicht contemplates myriad opportunities in Hakuba, Japan. Photo: Tsutomu Endo
Words: Jonathan Van Elslander

If there is a defining frustration of modern life, it might be that someone wants more from us at every turn. More money, more investment, more devotion, more time. Replace cooking with expensive delivery so you have extra bandwidth to shop, stream and scroll. Replace your CDs with an app for $9.99 (and growing) every month for the rest of your life. Replace the sound of the birds with more music, more podcasts and more ads. What if snowboarding is no different?

Magazines, VHS, DVDs, web-edits, and now endless app-based clips, watched, studied, rewatched, maybe memorized. There is joy in this consumption, but when does it start to feel like an obligation? “You’ve lost the plot if you haven’t seen this clip. Why didn’t you go to Japan? You haven’t heard of this hot new rider? You haven’t heard this old head’s podcast episode? There’s a new brand you should know about. No Japan trip planned? There’re a thousand new products… can you tell them apart? Take out a loan for your trip to Japan!”

When do we stop consuming snowboarding, and when does it start consuming us?

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