Industry News
“Please slow down everybody and don’t take one minute of this life for granted.”
This is the advice from one of snowboarding’s first true stars who was involved in a fatal car accident last month near Auburn, California. Although seriously injured, his words should be a life lesson to all of us.
43-year old Kevin Jones, winner of nine X Games medals and named the industry’s Rider of the Year three consecutive seasons, was driving his truck southbound on U.S. Highway 49 as 55-year-old Arthur Blankenship tried to turn onto 49, pulling in front of Jones, whose Ford F-150 struck Blankenship’s Mercury. Unfortunately, Blankenship was pronounced dead at the scene, which Jones didn’t take lightly as he addressed the accident in a social media post on Instagram:
“This is not the way I thought it would happen,” Jones wrote. “I thought I would be doing something ‘dangerous.’ Anybody who knows me knows I hate driving. My worst nightmare (well close to) happened Monday morning when a gentleman pulled out in front of me at 5:30 a.m. while on my way to work. I escaped with a broken c6 in my neck only millimeters from my spine. The other gentleman was not so lucky. I pray for his family.”
Jones, who’s now a father, suffered a broken bone in his neck but it sounds as if he’ll recover. A fantastic talent and supremely influential in the sport, he has become disenchanted in recent years with what he feels snowboarding has become–transforming from a grassroots pursuit into a mainstream, athletic extravaganza, explains theinertia.com:
“Next thing you know, there’s an X-Games commercial on and your face is on that thing and you can’t stop it because now you’re in the system. I hate it,” he said last year. “I hate what it’s done to my life. I hate what it’s done to the people around me. I hate that the industry has created an aquarium for people to get famous…I’m sorry about being snowboarding’s first super-pro.”
lol @ *tons* of media coverage and significant income. He boarded 3 comps a year in the 90’s.
Put down the crackpipe.
Actually I’m in the sports industry and
It’s no mystery to me that the industry uses up people then spits them out .
I’m not using my real name because I don’t want to be fired for expressing
My opinion. It’s horrible what happened to Kevin Jones, but what does the accident have to do with the sports industry ? I spent 5 days in a hospital ICU
With sepsis and I don’t blame my job or the sports industry for almost dying. I’m grateful for being alive and having a job .
If you don’t like what your doing, quit !
He made a good living and is probably in a much better place for his involvement in the snowsports industry . Everything has its price, everybody makes compromises for what they want and how they get it.
He’s talking about the “who’s up next” media boosting. Your not privy to the ugly side of what promoters ,media,TV,etc do to people and then just spit them out with NO REGARD FOR THEM OR ANYONE AROUND THEM. That’s what he’s talking about. As far as the $$$$,he should earn as much as he can without the dog eat dog crap!!
Not much gain there.
Snow sports didnt used to be a “get famous” opportunity as much as they are now, so he is speaking on that. Happens anytime a fringe activity gets adopted by the masses. When skateboarding went mainstream, many hardcore skaters hated it. Same goes for snowboarding. When someone does something they love, and manage to get even a few bucks for it, they should be happy. But ehen it comes at the cost of ruining the underground scene it started in, its difficult to deal with. Look at legalization of MJ and its the same formula… now that its massively accepted, those that have partaken for years are annoyed at all the mainstream attention. Not everyone is a vanilla plain, accept the mainstream, mentality. Thank you Kevin, for keeping it real.
He hates it but what about the financial
Gain ? Did he have a significant increase
In income as a pro athlete ?
If it’s so horrible why do it ?
It can’t be a huge mystery that your going to be a role model and have tons
Of media coverage and be a part of the extreme sports franchise ? You want the cake but bitch when it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.