ANARCHIST ATHLETE

Anarchist Athlete is a website dedicated to the publication, discussion and promotion of innovative ideas targeting enhanced athletic performance, judging protocols and increased mainstream reverence associated with elite-level surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding.

The provocative combination of the words ‘anarchist’ and ‘athlete’ is a direct result of my personal perception of the attitudes and underlying cultural ethos associated with talented boardriders - individuals who dedicte life to perfecting their technique and overall approach to oceans, mountains and urban transitions.  This incessant pursuit to push the boundaries of human capability possesses an anarchistic and lawless counter culture foundation however it has always retained conflicting traditional athletic aspirations.  It is an anarchist punk rock ride focussed upon a flawless aesthetic.  The disregard for socially responsible routine and for the proper utilisation of one’s timeline in life is anarchistic and non-conformist at its foundation.  The talented however, are seemingly unable to detach themselves from the connotations and underlying motives associated with the term athlete, whether the expression fits the practice community’s underlying cultural ideology or not.

This website is the somewhat rickety bridge between two seemingly disparate cultures; one associated with sport science and its quest to enhance athletic performance and the other associated with surf, skate and snow sports disciplines; endevours that have arisen from derelict depths of vagrancy and social exile to become some of the most popular youth orientated activities of today.  I believe individuals considering a profitable career as a professional surfer, skateboarder or snowboarder in the near future will be required to utilise training concepts and coaching practices currently applied within more mainstream sporting disciplines.  Raw talent will only take an individual so far in an environment where competition and freeriding performance levels are elevated on a daily basis.  It is believed that those willing to utilise innovative athletic preparation methods in addition to the routine daily focus on indivudal style and the execution of technical lines will be those that will rise to the top of the competitive pile.  This does not mean the fun (the underlying reason why everyone began these pursuits in the first place) has to be sucked out of these sports.  I just believe that some additional, innovative training practices can play a major role in the long term success of an elite-level boardrider.  This website publishes and promotes sport science research concepts, athlete training protocols, novel competition formats, innovative judging protocols and new objective ways of visualising surf, skate and snow sports disciplines; disciplines that have been trained and assessed via purely subjective measures since their inception.  Check out the surf, skate and snow project pages to see where I am up to and feel free to post or email me a comment when you get the chance.

Jason Harding

Founder – Anarchist Athlete