Nicolas Muller Admits to Being Snowboarding’s Problem
It seems you can’t open Facebook these days with out seeing another an article about the poor snowboard industry and its dwindling budgets. What will the super pros do now? How will we ever exist without 40 movies a year explaining to us what snowboarding is? This week, the Board Sports Source poses the question “what does snowboarding need” to Nicolas Muller, who is currently struggling to fund his two-year film he feels will ” help steer the industry out of these troubled waters.” His answer:
It needs more of Jay Adams, of people who really live the culture and don’t sell out. You know now there are brand teams full of people who now have 300,000 followers on Facebook thanks to the Olympics. I’d rather have 1,000 likes from people that really care, rather than 100,000 likes from people watching for a couple of days during the Olympics. This is just my opinion, but there were phases where skateboarding looked like it was dead – but now look at it! If something’s real, it’ll never die.
In other words, Nicolas, who rides for Nixon (Tri-Atlantic Capital Partners and Billabong), Oakley (Luxottica) , Nike (NKE), and is rumored to be on the verge of riding for a wakeboarding company, thinks snowboarding needs to be more punk rock. Well, how about this. You don’t want to be a sell out? You don’t need funding for your movie. Ditch the heli, hike for your turns, craft your own no boards out of wood you found in your backyard, and film your two year project about your meth addiction and jail time, not your boarding.
From the sound of things Nicolas thinks people doing what he’s doing are the problem with snowboarding. To us, this all sounds like one big über entitled first world issue. Now, for the last time, is it fucking winter yet?
Read the whole interview here for even more glorious contradictions!
Arbor snowboards is now being supported by some wake company. They are basically feeding them money to keep it alive.
yo, this dude could be the fucking spokesman for pro puppy abuse and I would still look at him as a fucking God. You look awefuly silly when you take shots at actual living legends of our sport. A snowboarder that im sure in some way has put money in your pockets.
Brooke has been so salty lately cause she’s currently experiencing menopause
u’s a bitch. that’s why.
“core” stuff is usually shitty. I wish Toyota made snowboards. I bet they would be good quality. i’m drunk. and u mad.
i beat the shit out of puppy’s idgaf
i hate anything tht’s core i just like money. fuck you.
fuck travis rice
I’m just here to read the comments.
What a load of asinine, ignorant, hypocritical bullshit, Brooke Geery.
It’s ‘punk rock’ as fuck for any pro rider to milk the corporate world for all they can get!
It’s up to the average snowboarder not to ‘sell out’. Just because non-snowboarding companies like Nike are willing to pour craploads of money into snowboarding, does NOT mean we have to buy their products.
Want to be ‘core’? Then no matter how or where you ride, do it with products made BY snowboarders FOR snowboarders – so the money (no matter where it originally comes from) stays in snowboarding.
What Nico meant is that the industry is throwing money in the wrong direction i.e. Olympics/espn/xgames.
Him riding for Nike is not being a sellout, neither is Austin Smith, Jed anderson, etc.etc.
We want our favorite athletes to be well compensated because we want them to continue to do what they do.
Anyone who talks shit on Nico is an idiot.
https://vimeo.com/83248257
This is core as it gets https://vimeo.com/83248257
I agree Jay Adams was a dick and a homophobe. I’m just a hobophobe. Afraid of bums.
Nicolas Muller is just being honest. We should reward him for it. Nico would do the same shit for free. he also sets a good and encouraging example for kids looking to take snowboarding to the next level. In Travis Rices last movie- one of the most confusing and complicated tricks was a 360 done by Nico. The reason he needs his own movie is because people can’t understand him in between people getting lucky on triple corks, when a ton of them are just as lucky to make a front 3 on the same jump. Nicolas is an artist and needs a gallery. The dude could have rode for any company he wanted to, but choose to stay at Burton because he didn’t like the flex of some other big brands. He and Jake Blauvelt are setting a standard people should recognize. They hit obstacles that most filmers wouldn’t even take their cameras out for, yet they make them iconic Magazine covers or unforgettable video shots with there style. And don’t forget, the Olympics are corrupt as fuck, hence no country will even host the next one.
Brook Geary is a journalist. Which means some times playing devils advocate to generate public discussion; like this long ass thread here. journalist don’t only say their personal opinion(well the ones on Fox News and Huffington post do)(fucking dolts). A real reporter states what they believe some of the readers questions/judgements may be to open a dialogue. A person who only writes what they believe is a novelist or crackpot. Brook is highly ironic and well educated, some of which flys right over the heads of many snowboarders. Sorry but it’s true. This is why Yobeat has been around for fucking ever. Ads or no ads.
snowboarding sucks because of this ^. Snowboarders put themselves into margins, then hate on the others who fall into different categories. We suck thats why snowboarding sucks. As a skateboarder i’ve noticed there’s an underlying quality that ties us all together, appreciation for art wether that be a no comply from mark gonzales to a 9000 yard fifty by nyjah, skateboarders appreciate skating and everything that comes along with it. when will snowboarders live breath and appreciate snowboarding, where all bunch of dress up kooks buying next years hipster facemask.
UPSTATE DOING THANGS.
CHANGE THE SUBJECT PLEASE.
“PUNK NOT DEAD.”
Brooke has been witty and harsh since she started in K-ton in 1997. Actually, I might still have an old sticker. Probably not because I seem to remember they were cheap paper ones. 😉
Yeah, anyfuck… Bobby Meeks rulez, Nike can piss off, Nico snowboards for a living and does it well.
Support snowboard companies, local shops and buy good gear.
we could all try to get along and just snowboard…
Wait. Did someone just hate on Nike-las miller?!
Or everyone could just pay full price for a board ect and stop trying to get sponsored to keep companies alive
I have a feeling no one at yobeat has a solid stalefish. Just stale topics.
Can we just establish once and for all that it is impossible to “sell out” in snowboarding because it is so goddamn corporate to begin with? I mean almost 75% of the board companies currently with uber-cool-awesome team riders were founded out of ski companies, i mean seriously, a lot of you core fags need to take a step back and realize that your favorite snowboarder most likely rides for the snowboard division of a ski company, or for a company that is able to maintain a snowboard division by operating in business categories outside of snowboarding.
well staying at burton was a poor choice wasn’t it..
AK heli trips are so core bro. Getting dropped by burton but still getting $50K a year from nike is as core as it gets bro.
If someone says “core” one more fucking time…
Screw the industry. Let’s start a community that grows veggies and makes snowboards out of recycled milk cartons and make outerwear out of humanely annihilated overpopulated rodents, like raccoons
This is the dumbest shit ever written, talk about white people problems! Money makes the fucking world go round, if you don’t like it then shut your salad garage. Everything has an economy, the us, your community, and the fucking snowboard industry as well. People are gonna buy snowboards regardless, being sponsored allows snowboarders to take some of that money back.
We do it cause we love it, which attracts the kooks, who buy from mega brands, who then write checks to their teams, who can then get their filmer friends jobs and bring some of their non sponsored friends on trips and spread some of the love to the rest of the people who made snowboarding cool in the first place. Whether or not people are sponsored by these big brands, the brands still get caked up. Sponsorship is a way to bring some of that money back around. Jesus h Christ take a fucking economics class. I’m sure Brooke hasn’t been dicked down good in a minute but you have no excuse mike.
“Want to actually support snowboarding? Get a full time job and spend retail price for your equipment. Accept snowboarding for what it is and stop acting like a sport that has been built on rich fuck and corporate money since day one is anything but.”
quoted for truth
The realest Hondo.
Stop caring and go snowboard. Its fun.
Internet kill the DVD star
this.
i feel like michigan still is pretty core. places like pando, mulligans hollow, nubs nob all show that shit can still get done while not selling out and staying true
cannonsburg, although dope, isnt as core..i mean come on….monster energy park?
Upstate. You’re officially #core. Now lets see how well the industry stays afloat without the market that these corporations support…the brutal truth is, the average snowboarder doesn’t even know why Nico is as influential as he is. They just see that big corporate ad, say “whoa sick, can’t wait to shred” and buy a full price setup. There’s your paycheck.
#endcoresnowboarderwelfare ?
Fucking retards. Everyone. Talking about being core and punk, yet the person who wrote the article takes checks from Nike. Just stop. “Core”, what the fuck are you talking about? You prob grew up in a white stucco mansion, going on trips to your white stucco ski mansion in Vail. Scott Wittlake is the only “core” dude to strap in. Ever. This whole thing is fcked. Snowboarding is broken. Just ride, who gives a shit. Everyone has their head up snowboarding’s ass; how bout that?
someone has to take a hit for the team. Heck, no other magazine is pulling shots like this (partially because it’s one of the most fucked up things ever to actually talk shit about Nico, especially when he’s done nothing wrong. Unforgiven.) Brooke, you may have dug your own grave, but at least you won’t have to lay down in it for a little while. Keep it up, but you’re still super annoying. SO props I guess. Someone has to keep the kooks in check. Maybe next time make sure it’s the real kooks, not fucking Nicolas Mueller.
you started it
Nico should ride for Rome.
They are so core!
Their office is less than 30 minutes from the hill, and they also like to preach to people about what is right/wrong with snowboarding.
do golfers and tennis enthusiasts have these same conversations about “what’s wrong with golf these days” why is it that snowboarders think snowboarding is so much more than it is? it’s an activity, sure a really fun one that can change people’s lives. every company in snowboarding is out to make money and don’t let them tell you any different. that’s the entire goal behind a company, no matter how “core” they are. it’s snowboarding, no companies are core. the core thing would be to build your own board and not pay $100 to ride a resort
nico’s part in twel2ve blows me away everytime
Monster is pretty core man. I mean they fund all the k3wlest videos coming out today and thats pretty c0re 2 me.
Yawn
Aaaaactually, golfers do. Golf is in a similar state to snowboarding with the 18-34 demo down 30-something%. They are starting to make courses with 15″ holes to make it easierm to try and attract more young players/women and some courses are turning to “soccer golf” to try and boost revenue. The Golden Bear said 10 years ago he was working on dozens of courses in the US and today that # is ZERO.
I’m very familiar with how the industry works, but thanks for the “lesson”? You think companies sponsoring people is a way to “ring it back around?” HAHA. It’s how companies use people to sell their shit. Without it, companies would not still their shit. It’s a business relationship. The companies aren’t doing it to help a homie out. What I was saying is, for someone that is so highly regarded in the snowboard world, maybe he shouldn’t be bitching that we need “core” without doing something about it? A fucking video project is not the answer, even though every company seems to think it is. Snowboard shops are dwindling, while REI and Dick’s snowboard sales are up. Pass prices are fucking laughable. People still somehow think they need to start kids on skis when I’ve seen 18 month old’s snowboard. The fact that I can name 20 people off the top of my head that had to quit snowboarding solely because they can’t afford to do it anymore. These are some of the issues with the “industry” and not that there aren’t enough Jay Adams. Sure, snowboarding is 90% kooks and I more than anyone want to see more rad shit…but until the people that can actually make a difference decide to do something instead of trying to pretend it’s still 2004 and that people “just aren’t buying the stuff”, then we’re still fucked.
oh haha