The Pirates Bottom Line Is… Danny Larsen (Part 6)

Arthur Longo – BS 5 | Photos: Lorenz Holder

Words: Christian Bach

So here we go: the Bottom Line… is that snowboarding is a picture made up of a lot of different cultural strains. It is not only happening on mountains and in cities but aligns a lot of different art forms and therefore can be found in each of these art forms too. Danny Larsen for example – he started off as a rider in the Pirate movie Lubedence (2006), he kept his foot in the door of the gates to hell (which Jonte Edvardson had previously opened) by introducing Mosh and Metal to the formerly reggae-driven crew. It started with a pizza box scribble ending up in the Lubedence Art Book, went on with a Pirate T-Shirt and went on and on and on… Meanwhile there is a lot of Danny Larsen product to be found featuring his very own charcoal and pencil drawings. Which reflect his “metal” approach to snowboarding. Either way it is fair to say the Pirates offered Danny an initial forum and created the opportunity for him to present himself to a broader group of people.

Danny, did you ever think the Pirates would be a platform for you to publicly develop into an artist?

DANNY: No, it never really occurred to me before I was asked to do some artwork for the Pirate book. I was drawing some stuff here and there but wasn’t as into it as I am now. I think it’s pretty cool that they offer the possibility for riders to develop yet another artistic side. It sure has helped me develop my art – even though I feel like a pretentious prick calling my drawings art.

Where does your art connect with your snowboarding?

It’s all about doing something unexpected in my point of view. Giving people something that makes them stop for a minute and have a reaction. Personally, I think it’s way more interesting and fun to see people putting their personal touch to the riding and coming up with new stuff instead of just seeing hard tricks over and over. I guess you can compare it to people doing reproductions of the Mona Lisa, impressive but not very interesting.

Check out the rest of the Pirates Bottom Line Is… series below