Our “Reasons” series touches on the motivations and inspiration that lead an athlete/artist/friend-of-the-brand to where they are now. So for our newest “Reasons” edit, we knew it’d be a good thing to get John Cardiel and Bryan Fox together for some turns at Boreal and a cup of dirt in the van while shooting the shit about what got them there in the first place.
It almost goes without saying, but it’s all these little influences and life occurrences that made Cardiel (and all of us) the legend (and regular people) he (we) is (are) today. Whether it was growing up in Half Moon Bay, California, skimboarding along the coast as a kid, riding big mountains with snowboarding gods, or all the puckering around that had more of an influence one way or another, you can’t really say. But in some way, shape, or form all of these reasons made him, him.
Cardiel’s taught us all so much through the years-the badassery of fearlessly charging into features and the importance of riding for the right reasons. His lessons continue today around the value of being appreciative of every minute on the mountain and sometimes digging deep and mentally rewiring when you need to, always with the ambition “Forward Ever, Backwards Never”.