[series align=’left’]

How would you follow a season of a life time? Your own successful web series with Red Bull, a Volcom feature film devoted to your riding, winning the X Games’ Real Backcountry contest and to top it off, a feature interview in Whitelines. Hard to top really.

Which is why this season Pat Moore is using the return of his Blueprint webisodes to focus on his friends’ riding, those that have fallen short of the spotlight recently. And while this does result in a fair bit of bromancing and backslapping, it’s commendable.

This season Pat Moore is using the return of his Blueprint webisodes to focus on his friends’ riding, those that have fallen short of the spotlight recently.

As we’ve seen countless times over, resulting in a fragmented international contest scene, for the most part professional snowboarders have a tendency to become self serving – not that they’re to blame, it’s the nature of a career with such a limited lifespan. Rather than unionising for the greater good, it makes more sense on an individual level to cash in while the getting is good and before the rug gets pulled out from under you.

Which is exactly what happened to two of the riders featured in this episode: Jake Welch and (jibbing) Jeremy Jones. The former took a step back after Forum was disbanded, the latter has just confirmed that the rumours are true and he has been dropped from Burton. It’s good to see someone so in the current media spotlight, like Pat Moore, genuinely giving back to the scene, supporting his friends and riding buddies out with what he can.