Rebirth. A phrase so elegant in its simplicity and power its easy to write it off as another piece of industry bro-down lingo. Ahmet is probably laughing at me somewhere for calling “rebirth” elegant and Hornbeck is announcing to an entire room full of god knows who, “dang, thats baaahhdd” in a deep midwestern accent. Both Ahmet and Hornbeck dropped the term “rebirth” on me repeatedly as they slayed rails through the midwest over the past week. I couldn’t help but put some serious thought in to the term during my kick in the nuts travel experience home. Rebirth is where “it” can go.
I’ve written articles on Freeskier about how “urban” is tired and it’s time for something new, creative and unique. Most of my writing was fueled by an intense boredom with an intense struggle to create art from an increasingly “standard” obscurity of rails that all look frightenly similar. The action of shoot these rails in itself, in my mind had become a “tired”, boring act of finding some new angle to push the same photo product year after year. Some photos have manage to blow .45 calibre holes in the this mold such as Erik Seo’s shot of Mike Hornbeck from a top down perspective. Seo’s work in this instance directly relates to “rebirth”. His execution of this angle and coordination with Hornbeck’s tireless determination is in and of itself a slap in the face, the photos say, “look at me or I’m going to kick you in the nuts.” Few other photos had shoved this in my face in the past few years..
Ahmet never fully explained “rebirth” to me. Doing so would slaughter the whole idea behind a mantra that best exists as a personal interpretation. Rebirth exists as simply as it is said, every day is new. Charge like you charged the day before, with new energy, a new perspective and a renewed willingness to blow minds. Athlete, photographer or embedded industry professional we can all learn from this. Rebirth is so effing simple its embarassing but not surprising that no one set it in motion before. Every morning I heard “rebirth” uttered by someone, like it had infected the entire crew as a subconcious motivator to be badass. Period. No excuses, no holding back.
I offer this: rebirth. Every day. Every rail. Every photo taken. Every deal made with another person in our industry or outside of our industry. Rebirth every morning you wake up to ski. Rebirth every time you crash.
Rebirth can happen just by saying it. “Rebirth” and hit the reset your mind, your motivation, frustration, determination or drive.
Rebirth and open your eyes to the possibilities.
