Nate Bozung

This photo was one that almost didn’t see the light of day, and the wait to see if this shot would turn out was stressful. It was shot on film and at the time they had turned up the power on all X-ray machines at airports, which caused any film that made it through the machine to be fogged and ruined. I had unknowingly left the roll of film in a pair of snowboard pants that went through the dreaded machine as opposed to being packed as carry on. Imagine my relief when I showed up at the lab to see that somehow the rolls of film had survived with only a slight color shift.

The extra stress was that this roll was from the first rail trip for the True Life video. At that time, going on trips specifically for rails wasn’t happening. We had heard Chicago got a bunch of snow, so we booked flights with no plan in place. These were the best of times and the worst of times. The bad part was the endless days driving around a city with no idea where you were going. The best, was the fact you knew what rails or ledge you did find would be NBD’s. This ledge is in Chicago and it was originally just being utilized on the smaller down section. Nate was on fire this trip and decided to step up to the big section airing off the kink. It’s definitely one of my favorite images from my all time favorite trip in snowboarding. — Rob Mathis

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This month, we take a dive into the archives of Rob Mathis. Few photographers have dedicated more days to this craft, logging countless rolls of film, sleepless nights, and traveling the world with some of the most dignified riders in snowboarding. Among them: the Forum 8. This iconic group, consisting of Peter Line, Jeremy Jones, JP Walker, Bjorn Lienes, Joni Malmi, Chris Dufficy, Wille Yli-Luoma and Devun Walsh, led a freestyle revolution that would launch snowboarding into the hearts and minds of people around the world. These candid moments from a bygone time in our culture capture a movement in its infancy, and serve as a reminder that their influence is still felt to this day.


Those Days is a new, weekly series from Snowboard Mag that gives photographers a platform to share some of the most memorable moments from their careers. Each month, we give a different photographer the platform to share photos that spur feelings of nostalgia, triumph, pain, happiness; anything with a story they want to tell. Our culture’s history is vast and full of these special, fleeting instants in time. Those Days is here to bring them to you.