Conflicted Dirt Artist says:

As one who has been involved with the progression of mountain biking and an advocate for the sport’s continued access to public lands my first thought is – WOW – what magnanimous private land magnate has green lighted such a project on their forested fiefdom? I can’t imagine a public land manager saying that it is cool to top living trees on public land to build a maze of jumps to promote Red Bull’s insatiable quest for market dominance of uber-radness. And if this is taking place on private land (Baldface Lodge?) – don’t you think that should be identified clearly and up front?

Where the Rampage on dirt is a questionable, albeit impressive, use of public lands where the purpose built jumps will eventually wash out to the sea – how do we justify the cutting of live trees to ‘improve’ upon nature to promote our over-caffeinated youth? The modern myth of man vs. nature?

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a bleeding heart tree hugger nor holier than thou – but I’ve sat in enough meetings where the conservation community and land managers point to such videos / events as reason to ban us from public lands.
My criticism of the evolution of bike porn, and now snowboarding, is that the modifying of nature to our creative will is sanctioned as the benchmark of what is cool, trendy and expected without any accountability.

Where does the buck stop? When companies like Specialized on one hand write a fat check to IMBA to support the Public Lands Initiative and on the other their marketing department is going bigger than ever promoting the unsanctioned use of public lands – how does this story end? Where is the industry responsibility and accountability – their bottom line? Where is Red Bull stepping up to promote responsible land access? They should be writing fat checks for land access issues – not just their talented stable of athletes. Sponsor me – I’m a ripping advocate geek?!

My only suggestion might be that in the opening credits of such videos or print advertisements that the appropriate disclaimer / explanation of how or where the depicted actions were officially sanctioned – otherwise keep a lid on it and just be super heroes in your own minds. At some point in the near future – the industry will be their own worst enemy when it comes to land access. What company, magazine, athlete or production crew wants to step up to promote a public land ‘stamp of approval’ on their advertising or life work?

I can only hope that the promoters of the Red Bull Supernatural will address ‘The Future of Snowboarding’ with an eye on the full ramifications of the message.

Be rad – but be accountable.

My 2 cents…