In life, just like in the mountains, we sometimes lose our way. As FreeRiders, if we feel disorientated in the mountains, or just wanna be sure we’re headed in the right direction, it’s second nature to reach for our compass. 

It’s the same deal with The Republic Compass, it helps us make sure as a community, we’re headed in the right direction or making the right calls. It brings together our manifesto and our lores. Mostly your own instincts and intuition guide you, but every now and then it’s handy to check nav for a little reassurance that you’re making the right calls.

Hopefully that all makes sense, if not – then this might help…

Imagine a bluebird powder day, you’re standing above a beautiful untracked line with your buddies. You rose early and worked hard to get to this point, conditions are perfect, your snow stability test checked out and stoke levels are off the scale. Everything is set for an incredible descent, but scanning the line in more detail reveals a small rope barrier marking the edge of a protected wildlife zone that isn’t shown on your map. What do you do?

1. Feed the stoke and hit the line anyway. If you don’t, someone else surely will and you’ve earned it. You can always make a donation to the WWF when you get back home.
2. Respect the protected area and ride a different line – even though you suspect other riders will duck under the rope. It’s a bummer but there’s stoke to be found elsewhere on the mountain.

If you have FreeRide in your DNA and chose option 1, it’s a safe bet the line didn’t quite deliver for you. Disrespecting the wildlife zone spoiled the vibe. How do we know? Because we’ve been there. If you chose 2, it’s an equally safe bet you had an awesome day, even if you didn’t find a line with quite the same promise as the one you passed up. How do we know? Well, because we’ve been there too.

Whichever choice you made, if you recognise the conflict, then you understand the tension and the harmony that exist between our values of Stoke and Respect. 

Want to learn more about the Republic and why we think everyone should be getting into the good stuff?  It’s all here — how it started, our manifesto and our values. You can also check out our lores, lexicon and a load more.