At Equilibrium

Like the ubiquitous Coca Cola came appearing in Africa in the 80s, the American invention of snowboarding has been exported to nearly every snowy locale in the world. But access to snowboarding in most former Communist countries and the Near East didn't even formally exist before 1990 - all you could get were black market decks, bindings and magazine scraps smuggled in from "free" European countries. The residue of economic and cultural isolation still lingers. At the same time, the contemporary snowboard scene in the Near East as well as in Eastern Europe is strong. Snowboarding is not a counter-culture symbol like it is in the playgrounds of the affluent - it is about as robust an outlet of personal expression and freedom as you can get. They don't just "get it", they truly live it.