8 410 6 THE M OS T PRO LIFI C ZIP CO D E IN THE WO RLD ' S M OS T PRO LIFI C SN OWB OARD IN G TOWN Wo r d s & P h o t o s b y A n d y Wr i g h t
I’ve got some not-so-breaking news — if you want to pursue a career in snowboarding, there’s no better place to live in the world than Salt Lake City. What Hollywood is to the aspiring actor/director/filmmaker, SLC is to the aspiring pro rider/photographer/ videomaker. Epic mountains minutes from a major city that gets blanketed with snow throughout the winter. Add in an international airport and relatively cheap cost of living, blah blah blah. This a worn out story that’s been written dozens of times over the years— and will surely be penned many more times in the future. I’m guessing most of you have long since figured out that Utah’s capital city is the place to be. The more interesting question is where exactly in this epicenter of snowboarding is ground zero? And I’m not asking for a neighborhood per say, as those boundary lines are somewhat f lexible and often overlapping. I want an official border that is universally accepted and not subject to debate. Zip code maps provide just that and while Salt Lake has great ones to choose from, I’m here today to make a case for the 5 digits of 8-4-1-0-6. Actually what sparked this whole idea was a recent trip through my photo archives and a realization of how many considerable photos I’d taken over the years basically within a mile or 2 of where I slept at night. Now this might not seem that extraordinary to some, but when you consider it in the context of traveling thousands and thousands of miles each season, sometimes on the opposite side of the globe, all in search of photographing epic street snowboarding, it does have personal meaning.
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What also struck me as a good basis of this argument was the overwhelming number of snowboarding industry elite – riders, media and magnates – are or were at one time home owners in this zip code (see side bar). Most of these are people came from other states or parts of the world, lived in a few places around town, could have settled anywhere but all picked this zip code to plant roots in. And finally, I should mention that the photos featured here are all based on street riding. This type of snowboarding has provided an opportunity to make a living for many of us, but it was only a bonus reason for either coming to Salt Lake – or sticking around for those raised here. The mountains are the anchor of this whole valley, and ease of access to them while still living blocks from Whole Foods might be the best argument of all. Whatever the case, as long as your zip code starts with an ‘8-4’ you are pretty damn stoked each winter. I just happen to think that in the context of snowboarding history, the one ending in ‘1-0-6’ is Salt Lake’s most notorious.
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Issue 1
SID E BAR
arkademagazine.com
Home Owners | Past & Present -
JP Walker Mikey LeBlanc Bode Merrill Chris Grenier Justin Bennee Jake Welch Jon Kooley
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Cale Zima Chris Beresford E-Stone Benny Pelligrino Tonino Copene Kevin Zacher Stan Evans
