At 37 years of age, Pat "The eYe" Bridges is one of the most influential individuals in the snowboarding realm. Being at the head of Snowboarder magazine for longer than some of have known you could go down a hill strapped to a piece of wood, he has helped a lot of riders put their faces on the map either in magazine itself, on the website or at any of the events he's put together, like Superpark.

A living legend among his peers, Pat is as real as you can get and always speaks the truth about snowboarding, which is pretty rare these days. He stomps almost every handplant in the book, still rides more than a 100 days a season and stays on lock with every young kid that tries to make their place in one of the hardest industries to get into.

Like any good editor given an pulpet, Pat speaks his mind. The interview ran a bit long, but stick with it, it's all valuable insight from someone who knows things.

Pat Bridges, T-Bird and Huggy at Mt. Hood.

How long have you been editor of Snowboarder and how did you get there?
I have been editor of Snowboarder since November of 2002. Before that I was senior editor for a year and field editor before that. I started writing about riding as a partner with Mark Sullivan, Mike Gardzina, Lance Violette and Evan Rose in the east coast zine East Infection in 1995. After that disbanded Mark went to work at Snowboarder as associate editor in 1997. Mark had me produce some freelance work for Snowboarder and my first piece was printed in the magazine in January of 1998. When it came to snowboarding I was always better at it from a mental standpoint than a physical one. I didn't have much natural talent. I always knew that I could only go so far as a sponsored rider because I was a fat lush. Writing seemed to be a perfect way to travel and snowboard all the time and still make a living. In 1999 I blew my knee in the US Open big air and that pretty much made the transition to full time writer permanent. 1999 was also the last time I could grab my toe edge with any semblance of style or consistency.

What are you looking for when you are building an issue of Snowboarder?
This is a complex question to answer because there are a lot of things to consider that wouldn't occur to the reader. I'll cover the stuff that is obvious here. Basically we try to make a balanced issue with a variety of riders, style, terrain, perspectives and topics. At times we achieve this better than others. To put it simply our goal is to entertain first and educate second. If we could provide a vicarious escape for our readers and somehow transport them from wherever it is they are at to the slopes then we have somewhat succeeded. Everybody looks for something at least slightly different from a snowboard magazine. To totally cater to any one person's tastes would be to alienate a majority. At the same time I think it is important for magazines to maintain a critical voice for when it is really needed. Videos generally don't editorialize about the issues which face our sport and the brands themselves have, for the most part, become complacent with this as well. My role is to assign stuff, get people paid and then organize shoots and features. I spend most of my time writing but I am more of a humorist than writer. For the record I hate writing and always have. But I love snowboarding so writing about it is what I do.

Pat knows handplants.

You've been riding since 1985, what's the best thing about riding after 26 years?
I have actually been riding since November of 1985. What my job enables me to do is get paid to do what others pay to do. This has never been lost on me. As far as the longevity aspect there is a lot to reflect on. When I started finding any place to ride that wasn't a golf course was a real hassle. In 1985 saying that snowboarding would be universally accepted or an Olympic sport was like saying that there would be colonies of humans on the moon one day. It was something we believed in an overly optimistic sense. To see that happen is incredible. There was a time turning was a trick in and of itself and every time we jumped there was a good chance that one or both of our feet would fly out of our bindings. It wasn't even uncommon for a binding to simply break off the board. Making gear that didn't break was a huge breakthrough. Huge!

The development of terrain can't be understated. I seriously didn't know what a steep landing was until 1994 when I went to Mt. Hood over the summer. Three years ago I rode a halfpipe with Todd Richards and he was riding his Sims Halfpipe board from 1991. That day he went five feet higher on every hit than he ever did in 1991. That proved to me how much the terrain has changed.

You're known to be outspoken about our sport, so what's you're take on the snowboarding world right now?
I went to a Dew Tour event two years ago and looked around and all I saw was parents with their kids everywhere. Then I thought back to where I went with my parents when I was 15. It occurred to me that anywhere my parents wanted to take me when I was 15 wasn't anyplace I wanted to go to. My dad did take me to the US Open in 1986 and I think he was crazy because there were like 20 parents there with kids and literally 100's of stoned and drunk college kids at the event. Needless to say my old man was a cool dude but there definitely weren't hundreds of drunk, stoned or sober college kids at that Dew Tour event.

This whole mainstream growth of snowboarding has made for strange times. Lately I have been frustrated by the displacement of compensation. If we are going to have these entities throwing their money around the least that they can do is throw it at real riders who are actually pushing it. Shaun White aside, there is agent-based cronyism at play and it is inflating the exposure, bank accounts and egos of some very mediocre riders. The shitty thing is that companies that on the surface seem to get it are drinking the punch now and actually buying into agents' bullshit.

And tailblocks. Pat knows those too.

You opened up my eye on handplants back in the day, what're the top five hardest ones you know?
I'll give you the five I know how to do and five I wish I knew how to do. Let me preface this by saying that any I know how to do aren't really hard. After all I am 37 years old and I haven't grabbed my toe edge since 1999. Mandrecht, which is a backside andrecht to fakie the hardway. Inplant, which is an frontside alley-oop layback performed on the backside wall (Mikkel Bang does one at the end of In Color. The Inplant is not to be confused with the implant which is done on the frontside of a well endowed naked girl who is laying on her back on the lip of a pipe.) McEgg, which is a backside mctwisting egg plant rotating around your front hand which is planted. Double Poke Andrecht To Fakie on the frontside wall. Switch Backside Andrecht.

Now for what I can't do. Any frontside invert (landed four ever). Elgeurial to Mandrecht like Dustin Craven did at the Grenade Games in 2009. The T-Bag, which is a frontside invert to fakie like Scotty Shaw or Shane Flood. One Foot Andrecht to Fakie on the frontside wall like Pat Moore. And The Warlock, which is kinda a backside rodeo to andrecht like Dustin Craven popped off in NZ two summers ago.

Who is the first Canadian snowboarder you ever published and interviewed in your mag?
I wrote a story about Brohme Ridge in the fall of 1998 and I spoke with Kale Stephens, DCP and Allen Clark about the scene there. Mike Page's IPO was the first real interview with a Canadian I did and that was in 2000.

Way back to '02.

Who do you think is leading the way in Canadian snowboarding right now and what's your view on the evolution between them and the older guys that started it all up here?
There are a lot of riders on the come up in Canada that are really solid. I think for park style jumping Sebastien Toutant, Mark McMorris and Charles Reid are all insane. I remember seeing Seb do that 1080 to win the Shakedown when he was 13. I knew he was going to only get better at chucking from there. Surprised he didn't do the first triplecork. Charles has been in the mix for a while as well. He made the Open slope finals when he was like 15. I hung with him for a week that year at Mt. Hood after he got the boot from Windell's for stealing cigs from the gas station next door. His English has improved since then and so have his pipe skills.

I also really back Jake Kuzyk, Matt Belzile and Mark Sollars. They are all down to earth shreds whose styles are so clean. And Jess Kimura is seriously rewriting the standards for what it means to be hungry in women's snowboarding. It is weird because all of these riders have been around for a bit but it only seems like they have been getting real support this past year.

These snowboarders aren't much different from earlier Canadians. In general I think riders from up north have a more pure take on snowboarding. Maybe that is because there is less hype up there. They are less jock. Of course you still have a few jocks here and there but they'll disappear for another four years. Canadians like to get after it off the snow as well. It isn't much different today with 8 Mile than it was with the Wildcats, or the Whiskey crews.

You've obviously got an eye for snowboarding, what are you looking for in a rider these days?
Seriously, I look for riders who aren't over it. Those that would be riding and pushing it if even if there weren't camera's around. I know this seems obvious but with my schedule I am constantly at an event or shoot. You'd be surprised how hard it can be to find riders to take laps with. It is bullshit. I am a fan of anyone who can make snowboarding look fun. Then again there is something to be said for those who can do the seemingly unfathomable.

Modern jibbing is mind boggling to me. What is possible is constantly being redefined at a rate well beyond the pace being set by halfpipe pros. Of course being able to do back-to-back double overhead double corks isn't something to sneeze at either. There is too much homogenization in halfpipe though. Something about the judging and atmosphere have sterilized the scene too much. There are only a few riders out there really separating themselves by their choices of tricks. Jack Mitani, Danny Davis, Lago and Luke Mitrani are doing it somewhat but Elijah Teter is the only one who drops in to a wholly unique run. It rules. Sure he has the switch method and he does it every run but he is the only one who does that. It is like it used to be with Guy Deschennes. Guy had the backside fives with the sick pokes and his airs to fakie were the best ever, ever! Then he had the cab seven to one footer. Where is that originality any more? Mike Michalchuck emerged with a bag of tricks that was all his own. I miss that and it is lame how pipe no longer has riders willing to take a risk on making a run unique. Weird how riders will risk their lives learning the same tricks as everyone else but they won't risk not making the podium by doing something original. You did it. You baited me into a rant.

I feel like there's a really lame 'green thumb' joke to be found in 'handplants'...I just haven't come up with it yet.

What were the highlights of the Canadian editions of Superpark at Lake Louise? Any chance of a comeback on this side of the border?
I would love to have Superpark back at Lake Louise. I have already started to put it out there to the Lake so hopefully this public forum will help. I have to say that having Superpark at Mammoth has been incredible and because of their support the event is bigger and better than ever. Having it back in Mammoth would be great as well. Still, to keep the event fresh we are exploring new backgrounds and though the Lake has held the event before it is much different today than it was six years ago.

The backgrounds at Lake Louise are all time. The alpine vistas are truly unforgettable. Makes everything they frame seem so much more dramatic. Then there are the people. Good folks up in Banff. I think a lot of people know that I think that Hardingham, Dustin, Jonas and the rest of the scene in Banff is about as good as they come. Hoodoo, Aurora, Rude Boys, Jordan, Mineki, Patterson, Corner and everyone else in town all treated Superpark real well up there. Did you know that Rude Boys has a link right on their site to their TaTa Tuesday shots? Score.

What's your heads up for someone who would like to go behind the scene and work at a mag like Snowboarder?
Wait for me to quit and then apply. You may think I'm kidding but I like what I do a whole lot and this whole internet and blogging deal has already made this line of work pretty crowded. Plus I only went to college for four months so I am not educated enough to give advice on anything. Ok. To be serious, from

experience I can only suggest that someone learn to wait tables so they can live in a mountain town and ride as much as possible. Then write every day. When I started freelancing I got less than a quarter a word. This meant that I had to write at least 300 words to make $75 a day, which at the time seemed like a wage I could survive on. At the time I wasn't getting nearly enough assignments to achieve that but I still wrote 300 words a day whether it was for someone for free or just for myself. Today I would have a blog and that'd be that but back then I figured 300 words a day would be the load that writing fulltime for a magazine entailed and I wanted to be ready.

Keep him away from your sister...he'll handplant that too.

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Related:
Superpark 14 Super Post
My Olympics Blog: At Men's Halfpipe
The "eYe" Interviewed