Ornette Coleman once said, “Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” Coleman is a pioneer of free jazz known for further breaking down the art’s already unconventional sounds in the early 1960s, and creating beauty through his chaotic approach. Street snowboarding has its own Ornette Coleman. Coincidentally, his name is Cole, and he’s the man—a man of few words at that. Cole Navin is a humble-natured, heavy-hitting rail rider; a young metal maestro at the cutting edge of East Coast avant-garde. Like the saxophone was to Ornette, the snowboard is to Cole—a means of self-expression.

Cole grew up just outside of Worcester, MA and, like most East Coasters, spent his time at nearby resorts lapping hard-packed parks with a focus on rails. He spent warmer months skateboarding around the city, and says blending those two worlds was natural. “In the winter, we’d be looking to recreate the same energy that comes with filming skateboarding around town,” Cole says. “So we didn’t always want to go to the mountain to ride. Instead, we’d go film street.”
Worcester is Massachusetts’ second biggest city, and has the infrastructure to match. By the age of 14, Cole had tapped into it. “Maybe it’s a bit of a claim, but I think Worcester is one of the best places for street snowboarding,” he says. “Massachusetts in general is a gold mine for filming. The state is so small that I’ve been able to hit spots in Boston and Worcester in the same day.”…

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