Damn am I ready for Hesh to pop it’s scummy head from the rips, flannel, and faded black (no pun intended) and make a resurgence into action sports. Sure we love the squeaky clean image that the adoption of our sports into the Olympics and the major media attention of the X-games has brought, but we have not forgotten our roots.  The days of Minor Threat, careless rebellion, and complete ‘thrashin’ should not be lost in the way our subculture has grown… I mean it is a financial crisis created by the fall of inflated sub prime loans and mortgages created by Wall Street’s financial systems, can’t we rebel against that?

For those unfamiliar with the term ‘Hesh’, it had its birth in skateboarding and has grown to inhabit a body of attitude and culture (similar in it’s utilitarian word use as ‘emo,’ yet not at all similar in nature).  Our faithful generation-Y source, Urban Dictionary describes it in the first entry as “in the skating world; hesh is the style that says you don’t give a fuck.” Although, it best described by entry 3: “Hesh comes from 1980′s skateboard and crossover heavy metal vernacular, derived from ‘hessian’ to denote Germanic warriors and soldiers. Fashionwise, ‘hesh’ people took cues from the 2nd wave British heavy metal, LA hardcore, and Mexican ‘cholo’/lowrider ,and ’80′s skate-rat subcultures. ‘Hesh’, when used as an adjective, means cool, courageous, reckless, and describes the nihilistic, hedonistic lifestyles of these modern born vigilantes.” I could not have described it better myself.

Every heavy metal head banger and punk rock vigilant of their teenage years fondly remembers their hesh days (my apologies if you missed this phase because it was a damn blast). Studded belts, cigarettes, and most importantly sending yourself with no care in the world at the sport in which you choose. At the core, it was about having fun and not thinking about health insurance, with a passion for pushing your sport without ironing your shirt.

In snowboarding, Shawn Farmer perhaps introduced the Hesh scene in the early 90s, with a PBR in hand and a freshly stank attitude, that just the subculture needed for separation.  As an anti-culture (when compared to the yacht-like ski resort culture of the time), snowboarding was already blurring into the scummy lines of hesh, when Shawn Farmer showed up as the anti-establishment poster child of the scene. With his grip of “degenerate characters; an x-rated Village People line-up with only a love of snowboarding, a keen sense of mischief and a hatred of skiers to bind them Dan Donnelly, Damien Sanders and Steve Graham [and Farmer] (ed, whitelines.com),” Shawn created a cultural wave of youth thinking ‘I want to be like that!’ With the release of Totally Board 1 we were quickly introduced to the antics (before there was Jackass), rebellion, and ‘tude’ that created a board culture just as it did in skateboarding.

Flash more than a decade later, and this same notion of culture spawns another wave of skateboard sub cultural authenticity. Jake Phelps is the skate guru and generational voice constantly reminding us of the peaks and valleys in skateboard popularity that the sport has endured with Hesh-like scene-waves. Initially, Hesh brought us into the thick of the sport with George Powell’s, Bones Brigade back in the 1980s. Giving the kids the right to scum and skateboarding on a mainstream level. And then we all follow as the scene shifted to the ‘streets’; Literally, as street skating took off and so did the quasi gangster street influence. Although, we like those fats beats, Greg Lutzka can shine his K Swiss kicks all day long, but Darren Navarette and the crew of Creature Skateboards are just fine with the fact that your shoes rip, your shirts fade, sweat stains, and at some point you just don’t give a fuck. In fact, it is exactly the Creature ‘rats’ who brought back another peak in the skateboard popularity sound-wave (which Jake Phelps may or may not argue) with Hesh. Once again punk rock, head-banging degenerates start a wave of mutilation in ‘extreme’ sports. Let’s put another tick on the board for Hesh.

So as the snowboard world looks around for a place amongst the new school jib kids in skiing, with the tall tees and sagging, Hesh still holds its bearings in the faithful world of skate. Although, in my opinion it won’t be long until its fungus like nature goes viral and spreads to the unsuspecting sports waiting to fulfill an attitude and image. So us kiteboarders, mountain bikers, and parkour runners, look at each other in optimistic hope for a disease like return. Personally (as an avid kiteboarder, skateboarder, and snowboarder), I can listen to filthy dub-step all day long, but at the end of the day I will always meet back at my roots in heavy metal, stoner rock, and sludge. I am not sure if anyone in this particular culture (kiteboarding, mainly) shares my craving for Hesh (especially with the nerdy nature of the engineer types that the sport attracts) but in my mind it is only a matter of time before Hesh applied, spreads like a gasoline fight wild fire.

- Jenna