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To celebrate the upcoming über-games, complete with CGI and 3D dramatics, we locked our brains in a room with the ghost of Winter Olympics past and selected a few choice memories that we hope you enjoy in anticipation of further mainstream commercialization of snowboarding.

The Timeline:

1998: The IOC (International Olympic Committee) gives jurisdiction over all Olympic snowboarding events in Nagano to the International Skiing Federation (FIS), figuratively crapping on the International Snowboarding Federation (ISF), despite the ISF’s sanctioning of events long before the Olympics. Read between the lines: The IOC is an old-boys’ network that only allowed snowboarding in the Olympics to increase ratings among young people, and was clearly opposed to objective decision-making (bribes and burned account records, anyone?).

1998: Terje Haakonsen calls the IOC a “mafia” and refuses to participate in either the ’98 Olympics or the ’02 Olympics. Terje goes on to found the Arctic Challenge and continues to push the progression and future of freestyle snowboarding. Read between the lines: “The Legend” wasn’t down for the Olympics, nor was he for its media partners and sponsors profiting off of snowboarding by pimping the athletes to major sponsors and broadcast television.

1998: Ross Rebagliati (Gold, Giant Slalom, Nagano) tests positive for pot and gets his medal stripped by the IOC, who later return it after protests from his coaches that the positive test was due to second-hand smoke inhalation, and that pot is not a performance-enhancing drug—no shit. Read between the lines: The first Olympic snowboarding scandal resulted in the IOC looking like chumps, while Ross got his medal back and is now pursuing a career in Canadian politics.

1998: Austrian snowboarder Martin Freinademetz has Olympic credentials stripped after a hotel rager gets out of hand and results in $4K of damage. Read between the lines: Martin wins our Gold Medal for knowing how to have a good time.

2002: Games sponsor Visa insists on placing a highly visible patch on the US snowboard uniform, pissing off many in the snowboard community who prefer to limit the commercialization of the sport as much as possible. However, with pro athletes becoming international stars, riders begin to ask the question, “Would you rather be broke and hungry or put up with the Olympic rules and regs for the sponsor potential and the paycheck?” Read between the lines: Americans sweep, and snowboarding won a leading role in the Olympic corporate machine. Not exactly a scandal but controversial if you were going broke trying to have an epic winter, film a banger, and stay true to the sport and the culture.

2006: Shaun White and Hannah Teter live up to the hype, Burton releases a classy baseball-inspired, pinstriped US snowboard uniforms, and snowboarders behave like perfect angels, while the mainstream media latches on to the unfortunate moniker, “The Flying Tomato,” and the rest of us shudder with cold sweats. Read between the lines: TV ratings were lower than previous winter games, especially among the coveted 18- to 49-year-olds who chose to either go snowboarding, watch The O.C or practice their gang signs instead.

2010: Danny Davis* claims that the best snowboarding won’t be seen in the Olympics and then lays down a flawless halfpipe run with three super-clean double-corks in the Mammoth Grand Prix, edging out Shaun White for the win. Sports journalist Christine Brennan enrages the snowboard community in an interview with ABC News following Kevin Pearce’s injury (to learn more, read TJ’s article in this month’s newsletter). Burton releases the US Snowboard uniform: a show-stopping, kickass conflagration of rock & roll muscle-shred ’mericana, basically proving that snowboarding is tired of following the IOC’s rules on looking and acting like a clean-cut automaton. Read between the lines: Danny is right; the best snowboarding won’t be seen in the Olympics, and all the drama, hype, and buildup by NBC will just make a mockery of a sport that can’t possibly be neatly wrapped for moms and tots watching at home on the flatscreen.

Whether you get a snowner watching the Olympics or boycott the whole affair for being a mainstream, corporate-ratings fiesta with 3D commercials and suit-and-tie commentators, we thought the dancing man, Louie Vito, might be able to shed some light on the whole issue and put it to rest so we can go ride. After all, snowboarding is about individual expression, personal progression, and fun with friends.

*At the time of writing, Danny Davis and Kevin Pearce are both injured and we wish them strong recoveries.