The UK’s steeziest snowboarder, Tyler Chorlton, has just announced his departure from Bataleon Snowboards, who have sponsored him for the past five years. He will now be riding for the French-based manufacturer Apo. Normally we hear about this kind of thing when a celebratory press release comes from the new brand, but in a strange move, his old ‘family’ at Bataleon were first to break the news – even posing with Tyler for this (somewhat creepy!) farewell photo.
“We can’t keep all of our riders with us forever,” pined the email. “Sometimes it is time for a change, time for some new adventures. And so with a heavy heart we say goodbye and good luck to our favorite Roastbeef Mr. Tyler Chorlton.”
As if that wasn’t heartfelt enough, Tyler himself got involved with this tearful Dear John note:
“Hey everybody! Well this is it, my last holla with Mr. B! I will miss the whole Bataleon crew, everyone has been like brothers for me the last five years and I have learnt a lot from the family and TBT! But it’s time for me to take what i’ve learnt and move on to the Apo team ( making sure they dont figure out Triple Base Technology… heehee). With that: ‘ADIEU!’ friends. Keep killing it and keep backing Mr.B!!! I may have left but I’m ‘Yeahforit’ for life man! That’ll never change. Peace out.”
All of which kind of begs the question: why the change?
