Melissa Belongea: Cultural Junction
In this guest post, writer and creative commentator Melissa responds to my recent What Is Snowboarding Culture? column
It’s hard to imagine my life without the influence of snowboarding. I went to school with mountain kids. As a suburban kid, I remember the mystique and enchantment that lay just beyond the foothills of the I-70 corridor on the way to Loveland and Berthoud Pass. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was life-changing to be exposed to snowboard culture so early on. Raucous, rugged, at the edge of everything I knew. Snowboarding changed the way I saw the world and became a reliable vehicle for personal and outdoor exploration throughout the past two-and-a-half decades. The self-possessed creativity of snowboard culture resonated immediately, and gave me the clues I needed to continue forging a path off the beaten track. But instead of marching along to the strict order of snowboard culture, I found myself on a different trail altogether.
