
It’s the end of a section, and as the music reaches a crescendo a dude in unfeasibly baggy/tight pants drops into an unfeasibly large kicker/rail and proceeds to stomp the shit out of it. As he rides away – his arms casually dangling by his sides – he is engulfed by his ecstatic homies and… yep, there it is – the high five.
Since David Benedek, Travis Parker and the Robot Food crew put the ‘fun’ back in snowboard films, no edit would be complete without at least half a dozen high fives, a ‘slap-pound’ or two, a full-on bro hug and perhaps a quick game of scissors-paper-stone to decide who drops first. Truth is, we like nothing more than the warm touch of another man’s flesh…
In certain American movies, the bromance is taken to another level when riders are called on to introduce each other’s parts. Witness JP Walker’s gushing tribute to his buddy Lucas Huffman in 2003 MDP film Shakedown:
[full-on west coast drawl] “Loooocas! The epitome of the soul surfer; keepin’ it all hippie and organic… I ain’t mad atcha. Do your thing, bwoy!”
It’s enough to bring a tear to your eye, it really is. Hug it out, boys.