VITALS
ANARCHIST ATHLETE is a company focussed on providing quality knowledge, advice and sport science services to aspiring surf, skate and snow athletes. The provocative combination of the words ‘anarchist’ and ‘athlete’ is my take on the paradoxical union of board-riding’s original counter culture foundation and the current pursuit of high performance. It is related to the fact that board-riding is fundamentally an anarchist punk rock ride focussed upon a flawless aesthetic.
Board-riding sports, once considered the pastimes of social misfits and subversive, drug affected nomads reneging on adult responsibilities, have fast become premier athletic disciplines. The sports themselves are subsequently struggling with the juxtaposition of their traditional ideals of freedom, hedonism and rebellion and the somewhat contradictory ideals of athletic discipline, control, and continual performance enhancement.
Anarchist Athlete lays the foundations for a bridge between these two vastly disparate cultures; one associated with sporting disciplines that possess an underlying anarchistic and antiauthoritarian ideology, and the other associated with sport science and its quest to enhance athletic performance. Although undertaken with consideration of the traditional philosophies and emphasis of the board-riding community on the more stylistic and subjective aspects of these sports, Anarchist Athlete is strongly focused on innovative methods to improve high end athletic performance and competition judging reliability.
Talented board-riders are currently unable to detach themselves from the connotations and underlying motives associated with the term athlete, whether the expression fits the community’s underlying cultural ideology or not. I believe individuals considering a profitable career as a professional surfer, skateboarder or snowboarder are now required to utilise sophisticated training concepts and coaching practices that are normally applied within more mainstream sporting disciplines.
Raw talent will only take an individual so far in an environment where competition and free-riding performance levels are elevated on a daily basis. Those that are accepting of this fact and are willing to utilise innovative athletic preparation methods 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. Some additional, innovative training practices however, will play a major role in the long term success of an elite-level board-rider.
As a result, Anarchist Athlete routinely conducts, publishes, and promotes sport science research focused on board-riding performance, conceptualises novel competition formats, integrates innovative judging protocols, and additionally provides sport-specific training protocols, athlete fitness testing, talent transfer opportunities, innovative performance assessment solutions, and photo / video services for athlete promotional purposes. Anarchist Athlete essentially provides new objective ways of visualising surf, skate and snow sports disciplines whilst maintaining a strong emphasis on the importance of style.
Thanks for checking in.
Jason Harding
Founder Anarchist Athlete
Email: AnarchistAthlete@gmail.com
Skype: anarchistathlete
Website: www.AnarchistAthlete.com
