The ART of snowboarding.

When talking about art no one really connects it to snowboarding, however there has been a recent wave of artist coming out 

to collaborate with snowboarders. Sure there are artist that are paid to design the graphics on the board, but a new art gallery can be found on the slopes of Mammoth Mountain. I'm talking about the JLA Art Park. This was a new feature added to the mountain last season in tribute to Jeff Lin. Anderson (JLA), a pro snowboarder from Mammoth Lakes, CA who died back in 2003 at the young age of 23. The unique thing about this set of rail and jumps is the art work on the sides of the rails, its creative and eye catching and encourages on looks, as well as riders, to come check out this new park. This creative idea to connect two different hobbies together was thought up by JLA himself. The first art rail was designed by Jeff and brought to life for the US open. Not only is he a passionate snowboarder but was an artist as well. When talking about snowboarding and being a snowboarder I never thought of myself as an artist or the sport having art involved. After this new terrain park came out I realized that snowboarding is art, and everyone has their own creative spark to add to the sport and this gallery on the mountain is the best way to represent JLA and his contribution to the world of snowboarding. I love that this was made possible even after he left us. I believe that this is truly what he would have envisioned when he designed his first rail.

I had Jeff's mother as my eight grade teacher and I remember how excited she was that his dream was coming true, she worked very hard on this project as well as the Volcom Brother Skate Park, a skate park in memory or her son. She made shirts and stickers and gave it to everyone in the class. At the opening of the skate park she even got some of the guys from Jack*** (the movie) to show up. This park is more than just another terrain park at another mountain; this park has passion and motivation behind it and inspires many riders to follow in Jeff's footsteps. Many snowboarders live by this inspirational quote "I'm not new to this, I'm true to this" by JLA. My Friend/ Pro-snowboarder Tyler Flanagan even go this quote tattooed on his arm, as see in the picture.