Indie Spotlight: For Boarders By Boarders
HUCK meets the non-profit social enterprise putting on fun and inclusive snowboard, art and music jams across the UK.
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For many, summer means that the shredding is over as snowy mountain slopes turn to grass meadows. But in the UK, a whole new season of snowboarding kicks off as riders flock to indoor snow slopes for their fix.
But shredding in a fridge can be a sterile affair. Which is why For Boarders By Boarders (FBBB), a non-profit social enterprise, is helping making indoor snow more fun and inclusive with their snowboard jams that mix up art, music and more.
Starting back in 2006, three friends Mikee Chen, Luke Hemment (more commonly known as Chico) and Thom Boddington wanted others to share their passion for snowboarding by putting on their own snow-based event. With Mikee taking the lead in organisation, Chico taking care of the music and Sno!Zone Head of Park Thom crafting the slopes into something fun yet accessible for all, they put on their first night at Milton Keynes Sno!Zone, firmly setting out their alternative vision with a DJ booth that doubled as a kicker.
“There were loads of established comps and what not but there wasn't anything strictly focused on just having a laugh with your mates and newbies,” says Mikee. “[We wanted to] focus on progression and [create] a platform for expression. Not just in the riding itself but for the music, art and fashion.”
FBBB has since expanded to put on a full UK summer tour (with a stop in the Netherlands too) and skate jams as well as hosting a bar with an art twist at this year’s Boardmasters surf and music festival in Newquay. FBBB are also providing a platform for up-and-coming artists, fashion designers and musicians who add the extra creative dimension to their events. Says Mikee: “We always had the vision to branch out into other board sports, as we all love the different types of boarding - hence why were called For Boarders by Boarders.”
Although ambitions run high with plans to take their nights to a fully international level, they still all hold down full-time jobs and remain committed to the cause through their simple passion for snowboarding. As Mikee explains: “We’re all in this for the love, not money. Hence why we’re a non-profit organisation […] any profit we do make along the way gets pumped straight back into the grassroots progression so that the sport we all love can grow.”
Check out the rest of the FBBB Progression Series 2010 tour:
August 20 - SNO!zone, Castleford, England
September 4 - Snowworld, Landgraaf, The Netherlands
October 8 - SNO!zone, Braehead, Scotland
Riding the FBBB Temple of Death.
Boards and music.
Live snowboard art.
Riders.
Mikee.
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Indie Spotlight: For Boarders By Boarders (text) by Ed Andrews is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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