1. An Investigation into Downhill Snowsports and Marijuana Use
Rocky Mountain High
An Investigation into Downhill Snowsports and Marijuana Use
Silas Phillips

2. https://zenpype.com/5-habits-of-a-responsible-stoner/
Stoner

3. Stoner

4. Abstract
This intensely physical activity contradicts stereotypical ‘stoner’ behavior.
“Why do people ski or snowboard and use marijuana?”
Ethnographic exploration of the culture of downhill snow-sports (skiing and snowboarding) and its interplay with the use and experience of marijuana.

5. Methods 9 participants, ages 18-35, 6 male, 3 female Snowball sampling
4 participant observation sessions
Semi-structured interviews

6. Theoretical Framework
Understanding Drugs and Drug Use
Biochemical Approach
Anthropological and Social Science Approach
Social constructivism: Becker, Derrida
Psychological Theory
Flow Theory
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Flow:The Psychology of Optimal Experience

7. Findings

8. Marijuana Specific Findings
Inductive assignment of indica vs sativa
Head high, body high
Smoking vs. eating: manageability
Marijuana as a learned experience

9. Performance Related Findings
“One thing that pot does is it narrows your view to where you’re focusing on one thing.”
“It brings your awareness into your body.”
“You don’t see an end. You only see the start. Like the next 10 feet.”

10. Social Findings
“I ski with people more than I ski alone and that’s often a friend, or sometimes a group of friends.”
“There are people that I’ll go to the mountain with and smoke with and there are people I’ll just go to the mountain and ski with…different social groups.”
“I feel way more conscious about not getting hurt when I’m alone. I’m definitely a little more bold with people.”
“It’s an excuse to slow down… like you’re thinking about smoking that weed, but sitting down, hanging out with people, that’s what you wanted out of the experience.”

11. Conclusions
Two emergent motives for why people smoke marijuana and go skiing. Both hinge on the idea that marijuana’s effects result in a narrowing, focusing, or directing of one’s attention.
Focus on internal experience
Focus on external experience

12. Internal Experience
Enhancing a sense of self-consciousness. “It brings your awareness into your body.”
Awareness of one’s bodily perception while skiing. Form and technique, muscle tension, pain/soreness.
Connected to indicas and edibles. ‘Body high.’
Connected to solo skiing.

13. External Experience
Loss of self-consciousness. “I’m more in the moment. I’m fearless, more so. I don’t think about all the consequences.”
Accessing psychological states of flow.
Connected to sativas and smoking as a medium. ‘Head high.’
Connected to skiing with people.

14. Social Constructions Indica/sativa inductively assigned by users
Socially constructed domain applied to substance
Chemical realities far more complex
Becker and Derrida

15. Sociality and Reflection
Skiing is individualistic
not conducive to conversation, group sociality.
Social nature of marijuana: opportunity for…
Rest
Reflection: intellectual understanding of intuitive ‘flow’ state.

16. Conclusion
People smoke marijuana and go skiing and snowboarding for a sense of presentness.
To “let muscle memory take over.”
To “take a moment, to collect.”
To have a blast with their friends.