As "Dear Rider (2021 release; 95 min.) opens, we are at "Vail, Colorado, February 29, 2020", site of the Burton US Open for snowboarding, and people are paying tribute to Jake Burton Carpenter, the "badass grandfather of snowboarding", according to one of the current pro snowboarders. We then go back in time, as Jake talks about growing up on Long Island. He had a dream of "surfing on snow" at a young age that eventually drove his passion for snowboarding, except that snowboarding didn't really exist. At this point we are 10 min into the documentary.
Couple of comments: this is directed by Fernando Villena ("Giving Voice"). The movie's title refers to open letter that Jake writes each year for the company's catalog, always starting with "Dear Rider" (and finishing with "Jake"). Let me state upfront that I am not a snowboarder, and that I had never heard of Jake Burton Carpenter before. The documentary is as much about growing snowboarding as a sport than it is how to build a snowboard manufacturing company (Burton Boards) into a dominant force in the industry. Along the way we of course get a very personal closeup about Jake and his wife Donna, who married in 1983. I certainly appreciate that Jake built something substantial, and that snowboarding today may be more popular than skiing, but does this make for a compelling documentary? While the documentary certainly is not 'bad', neither is this truly memorable. For example, when I compare this to the recent documentary mini-series "100 Foot Wave', I can't help but conclude that for me (and I realize that this is a subjective assessment and that others may feel differently), "Dear Rider" isn't anywhere near as compelling as "100 Foot Wave".
"Dear Rider" premiered on HBO earlier this week, and is now available on HBO On Demand and soon as well on other streaming platforms (and eventually also on DVD/Blu-ray). If you have any interest in snowboarding, be it the sport or the business side of things, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.