Having a copy of David Benedek’s new book Current State: Snowboarding land in your lap is heavy. The two hardback volumes tethered together to create a four-page spread of photos and text weighs in at six pounds. But start browsing through and the real density lies instead in the work’s content—how we’ve gone from underground to “action sport,” the benefits and consequences of this evolution, and where our culture and tricks are headed. There’s so much material to explore that it’s like wondering where to begin on a first visit to Whistler-Blackcomb. Best to grab a beer and examine this thing little by little.
The introduction symbolically sums things up. The upper pages are ‘zine-like, all monochrome on thin, natural paper: snapshots of mayhem, rails and roadside jumps, friends riding with wide grins through fresh pow. There are hand written quotes too: “Sure, it brought more money into it. But money usually attracts the wrong crowd anyway. It’s like flies to shit.” Below, the pages are glossy and in full color: an Olympic medal, Pam Anderson scantily clothed and strapped in, ads for the National Guard and Shaun White’s Red Bull Project, a Wheaties box. The hardcore is superior, yes, but modern-day snowboarding wouldn’t be complete without industry support. There’s no doubt that this book is on our side, yet Swatch sponsored the making of it.
From here, the going gets deeper. The lower half recounts interviews with twenty-four icons from across snowboarding’s spectrum. As with off-piste, this section is reserved for the dedicated. There’s talk of corporations, competitions, and mass-media, but there’s also an ongoing analysis of style and trick progression that borders on the esoteric. Jake Burton is in there, as is Terje, and so is Scotty Wittlake. Travis Rice, too, and JP Walker, and Jeremy Jones. And a few industry people you’ve never heard of, but whose tracks didn’t leave snowboarding the same. Existentialism drops into snowboarding.
Meanwhile, in the matching pages above, glossy photos from some of snowboarding’s sharpest lensmen come across light yet potent as powder. Portraits of pros and of everyday riders, pow porn, mountains, roofs and no-footers and hippy-hops, some Parillo art, even excerpts from Blunt, in color and black and white: coffee table stuff. It’s like a book apart, but all that industry and tech chatter below would be ponderous, too icy and sketchy, without these images riding above. Current State: Snowboarding has good symmetry, it is well rounded and coherent like a proper piece of art, and artistic this book is. Benedek was an impressive pro rider, and his refined sense of expression is displayed here, along with his love for shredding.
Snowboarding is growing up, and as it does it’s good to take the hawk’s eye view once in a while to see who we are and where we’re going. This book is a look at snowboarding’s current state, but it’s also a party around the bonfire that is snowboarding. The greater snowboard community is concerned and represented here, hence the Japanese translation in the back. It offers insight, reflection, and stoke for everyone who rides sideways on snow.
Current State: Snowboarding, by David Benedek, 2011. 405 pages, printed and bound in Germany. Price: 135 USD (101 euros), available at www.almostanything.com.