Keeping the dream alive

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They say it takes one to know one. In snowboarding this is one of our universal truths. No matter how big snowboarding gets, inside of our weird, insular little world there will always be a contingent that demands "legitimacy" above all else.

Keeping it real

Nine rider-owned companies doing it for the love. Launch Gallery

What does that mean? It is impossible to answer, really, and is the subject of many an ongoing message-board flame war. For the sake of argument here, let's say that "legitimate" is a title bestowed on people who make decisions based on their love of the pure act of snowboarding, and the culture that surrounds it, and never on how much money they think they can make off of it. Small, independent, truly "rider-owned" companies are hallmarks of this creed.

We're not talking about a "started by snowboarders, but now controlled by suits" or "the CEO snowboards on the weekends" type company. We're talking about companies whose day-to-day operations -- or in some cases, lack thereof -- are run by the living, breathing, stinking snowboarders who started them. We're talking about companies founded by people so completely obsessed with the simple act of riding a board down a mountain that they would rather put their vision of what that means out into the world than worry about how they're going to get rich making snowboards.