Stuff stuff stuff…

I love snowboarding… of course I do, we all do.. at least everyone reading this, I’m guessing. But I’m trying to be really honest about what I love about it, because the simple fact is, I live in the UK. So I get to go properly (2 hr snowdome trips not counted) once, maybe twice a year. So to have such a dedication to a sport where I realistically never get that much better at it whenever I go… seems strange.

I spend all year looking forward to a trip, then it’s over in the blink of an eye and I’m back to waiting again. So what keeps me interested all this time? Having spent some time soul searching, I’m gonna say something that may immediately rank me as a Jerry or a dreamer, but here it is. I LOVE STUFF!

This may not be that strange to most of you, particularly men… we love stuff. Not just the buying, but the research, the internet scouring for the best deal, the purchase, the set up, and the use. Plus there’s the talking about stuff, sharing info on different stuff with mates, comparing your set up of stuff to theirs… and the list goes on. It’s awesome.

I took up wakeboarding a year ago and, if I am completely honest, it’s better than snowboarding. The feeling of gliding across the water is like the best floaty pow day you can imagine, plus the added benefit of getting to do it every week in the sun 10 minutes away from my house… also there’s beer afterwards. But that being said, it is a little bit lacking on the stuff front. This is a problem.

Don’t get me wrong, wakeboards are just as pricey as snowboards. Then comes the shock that the bindings are mostly even costlier than the boards… but once that’s sorted, you’ve really only got a helmet, a wetsuit, and an impact vest. None of these are particularly trendy or stylish, so once you’ve got them you can wear them until they wear out. Unlike my snowboard outfits, which I can’t wear anymore because they’re out of style.

But that’s it… get your kit, you’re sorted. Snowboarding, on the other hand, the list almost never ends… are you ready? Snowboard, bindings, boots (that’s a grand right there, easy), helmet, goggles, gloves, base layers, mid layers, jackets, pants (need a few of these, can’t wear the same outfit every day), snoods, socks, backpacks, hip flasks, stomp pads, etc etc etc… it never ends. And with each bit of stuff comes expense (obviously), but also opportunity, the opportunity to be sat at the end of the sofa, fully absorbed in your phone while Love Island’s on the TV, looking at flex ratings, waterproof stats, and camber profiles.

Maybe you spot something you like the look of, so you share it in your snowboarding WhatsApp group so your mates can give their two cents, and they do the same back to you. When a mate of mine buys a new board or whatever and posts it in the group, I’m almost as excited as when I buy one myself. It’s great.

It seems that whatever sport we get into, the stuff is as important as the sport… given how expensive it all is and how little use we get out of it, I’m convinced of it. (Now when I say how little use we get, I’m not referring to the amount of times we use it… there’s a real calculation of ‘cost per use’ that you can use to convince yourself that almost anything is of relatively good value.) No, I’m talking about how we buy a product that has been designed to take world champion-level riders all the way to their 5th X Games gold medal, and we use it for a week in Meribel where we refuse to even ride switch, plus the occasional snowdome day where the plan is to hit a rail for the first time but chicken out on the approach. We don’t need stuff that’s this good… we want it.

Getting back to the cost per use thing, this is where it gets even stickier. And I simply cannot justify my spare room full of snow gear at all here. If you are into road cycling or golf, for example, (that stuff is likely even more expensive than snow stuff.) A full basket of golf sticks has got to be crazy money, and a carbon fibre road bike… I wouldn’t even like to guess (also, it has to be carbon fibre, there’s no question about that). But with each of these sports, you can get out and do it fairly often… hell, if you’re really into it, you could do it every day! So the cost per use starts to make sense. But I simply cannot claim this with snowboarding, I just can’t.

All I can say is, my name is Andrew, and I’m addicted to stuff.

And that’s ok.