Pete Andersen's Column

Crispin Cannon: Talk Softly and Carry a Big Lens

2010-03-12T14:54:00Z

"Oh shit, I am not good at talking about my photos. That's why I'm a photographer I think. I'm a man of less words." This was the first thing Crispin said when I asked him to describe each of his shots...I couldn't think of a better way to introduce him to you; that is Crispin in a sentence. Obviously incredibly talented and humble, photographer Crispin has been a staple in the Whistler and global snowboard scene for just about a decade. He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, 31 years ago but moved to Oshawa, Ontario at the age of two. By the time he finished High School he couldn't wait to get to the mountains and ended up in Canmore, Alberta, just outside of Banff. After a season in Canmore he felt the inevitable draw to Whistler and hasn't looked back. After nine years in Whistler, along with a year-long stint in Southern California as the Photo Editor for Future Snowboard Magazine, Crispin's images have been published in every major, and not so major, snowboard magazine, umpteen websites and pretty much anywhere else a photo can be found. Now living in Squamish, BC, with his girlfriend pro snowboarder Priscilla Levac, Crispin continues his freelance career along with his day job as photo editor for King Snow Magazine.

How did you first get into photography?
I took a little course in high school that I was pretty stoked on, but that didn't really strike much. When I moved to Canmore, my friend Lyndon brought his camera snowboarding and we would shoot photos of each other. My photos just ended up being a little better than everyone else's so everybody always wanted me to take the pictures. These weren't good by today's standard in anyway...I just mean they were good enough to show your friends (laughing). It was just a slow progression from there. I moved to Whistler, bought a better camera, continued to shoot more and built up my contacts within snowboarding and it just grew slowly over five years.

Would you say you are fully self-taught?
Fully self-taught. I took another course when I bought my first camera that was one night a week for six weeks or something but that barely covered the basics. Other than that...fully self taught. I learned when it was all film too. That was gnarly. As a teenager I would buy boxes of film and barely have anything left for food (laughing).

Your photography has taken you on some incredible journeys. Are you pretty happy with your choices since high school and where do you see it taking you? What direction do you hope to steer your career?
Yeah, I am pretty stoked on where it's taken me for sure, especially more and more lately. I'm traveling a lot more and going to random places. In the future I see it taking me to more commercial photography, and more conceptual type photography. Where you take a group's idea where they are trying to tell some kind of a story or bring something across in an image. Then you can use an entire production to create that story in a single image, or a feeling in that image. That is more and more what I am interested in. I will always shoot snowboarding; I love shooting snowboarding but there's not much, uh, extra thought that goes into shooting. In snowboarding you are just kind of capturing what is happening. I kind of want to grow with the more conceptual ideas.

"This photo of Jamie Lynn, I shot it 2 or 3 years ago for this ‘Words of Wisdom' page at the end of the magazine at Future (Snowboard Magazine). I really wanted to do Jamie for his obvious influences on snowboarding. I think it's pretty cool because his glasses sitting on the chair and his look...he kind of looks wise."

Click here for Crispin's gallery of photos, complete with his commentary.

I'd like to thank every single snowboarder I have ever shot with and every photo editor who has ever printed one of my photos. My girlfriend Priscilla for her patience and support of my photo ideas, Lyndon Cormack and Chad Mcphee for making me taking the pictures back in the day. And I'd like to thank all the snowboarders and photographers that paved the way for me to do what I get to.

Equipment: My go to camera is Canon 5D Mark II body and the lenses are: 14mm, 15mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm. I've got a few cameras but my fav's are my iphone ha, but maybe just cause it's with me all the time, a Lomo camera that shoots 4 frames within 10 sec in a single 35mm frame, a Lubitel 2: It's an old box camera with a plastic lens. I heard some of the old staff from Polaroid are going to start producing polaroid film again. Pretty stoked about that.

To check out more of Crispin's work check out crispincannon.com.

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Related:
Deep Winter Photo Challenge: Day 2 with Crispin Cannon
Another Jewel in the Crown: King Snow
The Dano Portfolio

Meghann O'Brien: I'm on a Boat!

2010-03-01T21:24:00Z

Alert Bay, B.C. is a small fishing village on an island off the northeast tip of Vancouver Island. How small? A total population of 556 small. Everyone knows each other's nicknames small. The website for this place may still be under construction, but what it does have is bragging rights to being the hometown of super star sister pro shreds Meghann and Spencer O'Brien. The older of the two, Meghann, started her snow sliding early as a skier at Mt. Cain on Vancouver Island. At eight years old her family moved to Courtney, BC, and a few years later she started snowboarding. Her father, Brian O'Brien (yes, that's his real name...I'm not nearly funny enough to make this shit up), an avid snowboarder in his own right, spent just about every weekend driving Meghann and her sister to every British Columbia Snowboard Association competition he could find. After graduating high school Meghann spent a season in Switzerland and got a taste for big mountain riding. Shortly after she was transplanted to Squamish, BC, where she has taken full advantage of the backcountry that is just a few pulls on her snowmobile throttle away.

Meghann's snowboarding role models while growing up include the likes of Victoria Jealous, Annie Boulanger, Natasza Zurek and Romain De Marchi. At just 24, it is apparent that she is well on her way to cracking the A-list of snowboarders and making these role models her peers. Roberta Rodgers of Infamous Management noticed Meghann's raw talent and signed her up four years ago....now that's legitimacy. I managed to track down Meghann, who is currently spending some time at Crystal Mountain in Washington to avoid the Olympic melee, and she talked to me about what's been going on and how things are looking for the future.

What was it like growing up on such a small, secluded Island?
Growing up on a small island, and even Vancouver Island, was a really nice thing. It's just really grounding to have a home that is that small with such a tight knit community. I really like the rooting feeling I get from that kind of place. I'm really grateful to have had Alert Bay as a part of my life.

So why Crystal Mountain and where do you call home right now?
I came down to visit a friend from Bellingham and just kind of stayed. I've moved up to Prince Rupert. I moved up there in October. I fish up there in the summers with my Dad. I've also been working with a First Nations artist, who's a weaver. For the summer and the fall it makes more sense for me to be up that way.

Weaver? Like mats and tapestries and stuff?
No, no tapestries, more like basketry and regalia for dancers. I've learned basketry already, like cedar bark baskets, but he does raven's tail weaving and he is a fairly renowned teacher. He also does the ceremonial regalia stuff that people wear when they dance. It's kind of hard to explain, sorry.

Back to the fishing...how long have you been doing that?
I've been working on my Dad's salmon fishing boat every summer for about 8 years.

Whoa...are we going to see you on Deadliest Catch soon?
(Laughing) Yeah, I don't know...maybe. When I was younger, (my Dad) just made me fish with him (laughing). Now I'm thinking it would be good to learn to run my family's boat, you know, learn how to anchor it, read weather and all that stuff. Then I could combine it with touring on split boards or skis and go down the inside passage and find mountains to trek up that way. It seems it would be really possible to do instead of buying a lift pass or using a snowmobile. Just anchor out with some food for a week and also go catch halibut and crab etc. That's something motivating I want to work towards doing one day.

So no commercial fishing in the winters?
Nope, you know my dad, he snowboards (laughing). No room for fishing in the winter.

Do you think you were drawn to snowboarding, at least partially, due to it's tight knit community that is so similar to what you are used too from growing up on the Island?
Yeah...I think that I definitely lean towards a smaller place. I kind of have a distaste for cities. I'm drawn to them for about a week, maybe...when it's fun to go to and it's all glitzy and stuff, but I always like to back to a place where I know all the people. I get such a good feeling from those types of places, maybe a little less developed too. I have the same feelings about huge resorts like Whistler; I have never really felt at home out there or completely enjoyed being there all the time. It's just the type of feeling I get when I'm riding through the trees and they have chopped so many of them down or just dealing with huge line ups or expensive food that's really crappy, I don't really enjoy it. I definitely prefer the backcountry and more remote places. I find them more appealing...I'm more of a small town person in that respect. That's just what works for me.

The situation you and your sister, Spencer, are in is very reminiscent of the pro surf brothers Bruce and Andy Irons. Andy loves contest surfing and being in the limelight while Bruce kind of shunned the surf contest community, dropped out of the WCT and kind of shunned his sponsors so he could spend all his time ‘free surfing'. Does that sound familiar?
That sounds pretty similar (laughing), although I think having my sponsors is a good thing! Although if something came up where my own wants were against what a sponsor wanted me to do I would probably go in my own direction...but that does seem pretty similar.

What have you been getting up too the last few years and what are you looking to accomplish in the next few?
The last couple years have been good. I have definitely established some great relationships with a few photographers, mostly in Canada but a couple in the States. I have been getting more experience working with people...like what it's like working and riding with film crews and stuff. I really like that side of snowboarding. I like the team effort it takes to get through a day of sledding and shooting, and the way everyone helps each other and share what they know. That's been a huge learning experience for me, being out in the back country and figuring out all the other aspects of it that you don't get to see when you look at a snowboard shot. There is so much that goes into that whole production. That's been very eye-opening and humbling to realize how much time you have to dedicate to get to where you want to go, whether it be Alaska or whatever it is for me. I'm looking forward to continuing that and building on it. I'm really happy with the sponsors I have right now, Northface, Yes Snowboards, Spy Optic and Macrolife Naturals. I'm really pushing to develop my skills to the point where I'm capable of filming with a really solid film crew that knows what they're doing and has fun out there. I want to have a presence in the industry that inspires other people to enjoy themselves and not get pushed around by anybody.

What was that last sponsor, Macrolife? Like supplements and that sort of thing? Is that due to your inner hippie?
(laughing) Yeah, I guess...their two main products are Macro Greens and Miracle Reds.

I don't think you are the only snowboarder that has a ‘Macro Green' type of sponsor...speaking of which, now that you are on Yes Snowboards, have you been able to get in any days riding with one of the guys you have looked up to in snowboarding for so long, Romain De Marchi?
(Laughing) Oh...yeah... My first time riding with him I tried to double him up on my sled to a jump or something and I was so nervous and I ended up dumping us both and messing it all up, but he was really nice about it all.

Not that there is any room in life for regrets...but if you could approach anything differently in days gone by, what would it be?
I probably would have tried to have a stronger sense of myself earlier on. Roberta Rodger has helped me out a lot with that...to just really understand the concept that you can create what you want in this world and you don't have to accept what people say are supposed to do all the time. I think if I had realized that when I was a little younger, like at 18 or something like that, I probably would have been a little happier, but at the same time, that's just a part of growing up. It will really work out better if you just follow your own heart.

Footage from 2007:
(Please visit the site to view this media)

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Related:
Inside Infamous Management with Roberta Rodger
Spencer O'Brien: All Hands On Deck
Annie Boulanger: In A Category All Her Own

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Korath Wright: No Regrets

2010-02-22T21:27:00Z

Korath Wright announced a few years ago that he was going to try to be the first Bahamian ever to qualify for the Winter Olympics. This obviously caused quite a stir considering he was going to have to leave the sanctuary of the Canadian National Snowboard Team to do so. His story began 24 years ago when he was born in Nassau, on the island of Providence,in the Bahamas, to a Bahamian father and Canadian mother. At the ripe old age of one he moved to Halifax with his mother and sister before the three of them eventually settled in Calgary when he was six. When Korath (Kory to his friends) was nine he discovered skateboarding. Inevitably the snow came that winter and he had no choice but to try snowboarding and it's been a huge part of his life ever since. Learning the fundamentals of snowboarding was mandatory as his first training ground was Fortress Mountain. Edge and speed control were required to navigate the resort's vast and steep natural terrain. At 14 he entered his first snowboard contest and then started to follow the Alberta Snowboard Association circuit. Before long he moved up to the National Development Team and his strong riding and contest results eventually landed Kory a spot on the Canadian National Team, along with a professional snowboard career. From here his last few years have been a whirlwind mix of travel, jovial celebrations and heartbreak. Home in Calgary for the longest stretch in recent memory, Kory opened up about his decisions, good or bad, to leave the Canadian Team.

Your big claim to fame, other than your snowboarding prowess of course, is that you are a member of the Bahamian National Snowboard Team. How did that come about?
Well the first World Cup I was entered into as a member of the Canadian National Team was in Whistler and I ended up getting third. Nobody had ever podiumed at their first World Cup so that was enough of a story that it went across Canada in the paper. The articles mentioned that I was half Canadian and half Bahamian so the Bahamian High Council in Ontario picked up on it. Then I got a phone call from the High Council out there asking me if I would be interested in representing Bahamas, and asking me why I hadn't ridden for them before. It took me a while to really figure out what I wanted to do but I decided I wanted to represent my birth nation. To try and be the first Bahamian Winter Olympian was just something I couldn't really pass up.

So what happened with your Olympic bid?
I did qualify according to the I.O.C. standard to make the Olympics, but the F.I.S. put another standard on top it that stated you had to be top 40 on the world ranking list that they made based only on all the World Cups. The idea was to make everybody go to all the World Cups and make their sponsors happy and stuff.

When did that get implemented?
Well, it wasn't a standard for the last (Winter) Olympics, but it was for Vancouver. I actually didn't realize that this was a part of the qualification criteria. I thought that I was already qualified, because I was according to the old criteria, and kind of went about the rest of my season last year thinking I was already in. It wasn't until the last two World Cups this year that I found this out and those events just didn't come together for me, so unfortunately I didn't make it. I definitely messed up. I should have known and that shouldn't have been a surprise.

Has this unfortunate chain of events taken the wind out of your sails or do you think you will focus on the next Winter Games and get back to it?
I don't know...it's definitely a challenge. Four years is definitely a long way from now. Also, as soon as I didn't make it a lot of my support fell through so unless I can find a way to make my snowboarding (financially) sustainable again it's going to be tough to stay on this path. I mean, 2014...there's a bit of time (laughing).

Are you able to pursue a spot on the Canadian National Team again? I mean you are still a taxpayer and all.
Um, no, it's a pretty one-way type of thing. I wouldn't really want to flip-flop back and forth. I mean, it is too bad because one of the big things about switching to the Bahamas was that I saw the opportunity to create a really specialized support program. Even though the (Bahamian) government pledged over and over and over to support my snowboarding financially (they even went so far as to print the amount next to my name in the paper), I never did see a dollar of it. It's been really challenging as far as leaving a support system in Canada that was pretty top notch, even though I felt it was pretty generic. But granted, it's tough to create a program that works for every athlete. Anyway, leaving the Canadian support system was tough and if I knew that things were going to pan out the way that they did it would be hard to say that I would make the same choices that I made. I don't regret any of the experiences...it's definitely been amazing.

Now that I've beaten that topic to death and really rubbed salt in the wound let's talk about what's next for you. Are you pretty excited about not having to chase the contest circuit for at least a little while?
Definitely! This year I'm looking forward to getting an RV with some friends down in San Diego and working our way up to Whistler for the end of the season. I have some fun trips that I am definitely looking forward too. It's tough though, trying to make that side of snowboarding (financially) sustainable, with me being a half pipe rider and seeing as that's where all my support has been coming from this whole time. There is a lot I want to do in snowboarding and I'm certainly not done yet. It hasn't been long since this whole plan has changed so I am still figuring it out. It's all still pretty fresh.

You listed the Atlantis Resort as a sponsor. Do you mean that crazy resort they always have those giant poker tournaments at? What are your perks with them?!
Yup! (laughing) They pay me a salary but some other perks are free rooms, which is pretty bad ass because that hotel is amazing and I could cruise around there and pretty much do whatever.

Do you get any seats in those crazy poker tournaments?
I don't know. You know it's actually illegal for Bahamians to gamble in those casinos? I do it all the time because I look like a tourist over there (laughing).

(laughing) OK, I'll leave that part out....(no I won't). Moving on to something a little more wholesome, what is this I hear about a Bahamian Snowboard Camp?
Yeah! This past summer up at High Cascade Snowboard Camp at Mt Hood, Oregon, we teamed up and got the first ever Bahamas snow kid camp going. We got some sponsors from the Bahamas on board and got ten kids covered to go to High Cascade Snowboard Camp. For most of them it was their first time seeing snow and first time snowboarding for all of them. It was pretty cool because High Cascade has this new ‘Soft Start' program that is designed for people that have never snowboarded before. It was a perfect fit, and a huge success; the kids were pumped and it all came together the way I wanted it too.

The newest sensation in halfpipe riding is obviously the double cork, have you tried them or even thought about trying them?
Oh, I've thought about it...AND I've tried it. We were in New Zealand in August and I got real excited one day and kept on doing crippler 7's and Haakon 7's and I had been seeing this thing in my head over and over and I thought to myself, ‘OK, I got this.' I just went for it and came around one and a half and then got lost upside down, opened up and ended up landing on my neck on the coping and bouncing into the flat. It was a pretty traumatizing bail and I haven't tried it again since. A couple days after that we got to ride the airbag. The timing was a little off...we rode pipe for a few weeks and then for the last two days got to try out the air bag. I probably could have waited to try the double cork into the air bag (laughing).

Kory proudly rides for Atlantis Resort, John Bull Jewelers, Carbon 14 Watches, POP Headwear, Klass9 Snowboards and Global Cutter Shaping Technology.

Kory would like to thank Ed Fields, Inga Bowlegs, Robert Hollander, Alex Neun, Jon Franklin, Jon Lerch, Robbin Whachel, Frank Duran & Mom

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Related:
Put Me In Coach! Behind the Scenes with Halfpipe Coach Tom Hutchinson
Olympic Halfpipe Selection Process for Dummies
Size Matters: Marcello Centurione Breaks Down Snowboard Judging

Put me in Coach! Behind the Scenes with Halfpipe Coach Tom Hutchinson

2010-02-18T00:41:00Z

Tom Hutchinson is the man in charge of the Canadian National Halfpipe Snowboard Team. Born and raised in Val-David, Quebec, Tom still lives across the road from the house he grew up in. With a background in diving, gymnastics and freestyle skiing, Tom was a private coach for numerous athletes in a number of disciplines including snowboarders Dom Vallee, Brett Carpentier and Jasey Jay Anderson. The CSF approached him to help run a snowboarding halfpipe camp, and not long after he was asked to head up the team. That was nine years ago and he's still going strong. With snowboarding being such a young sport on the Olympic stage, when he started most everybody was learning through trial and error. More recently he has taken this experience and helped reinvent the selection process that hindered the Canadian team in the past. With the Vancouver Games on right now, it's just a matter of time to see if they have found a system that works, or if they need to go back to the drawing board.

Tom (in the shades) with the '08 National Halfpipe Team.

Before you started to coach the National Team, you didn't seem to have a lot of experience with snowboarders. What type of support staff do you have?
Whether you are skiing or snowboarding, holding the line is holding the line, and once you're in the air all these sports are pretty much the same...diving, gymnastics, trampoline and all aerial sports; the most important thing is the take off, and that's what we focus on. Going in to the Olympics I have Chris Decoste working with me as the technical coach. He's working more with the girls. He really gels well with them and I'm concentrating more on Brad (Martin) and Justin (Lamoureux), and then we also have Jesse Fulton as a private coach taking care of Palmer (Taylor) and Jeff Batchelor. It works out really good because each one of us can focus purely on a few people.

Justin Lamoureux

The Canadian Halfpipe Snowboard Team has been recently selected, and I'm sure it's been a very trying 18 months leading up to this. Are you happy with how the team came together leading into the Games?
Yes, I'm really happy with the team. I think it's the best team they could put together. I'd say it's equal to the 1998 team as far as strength goes. That 1998 team was Trevor Andrew, Derek Heidt, Mike Michalchuk, Brett Carpentier, Maelle Ricker, Tara Teigan, Lori Glazier and Natasza Zurek. This team, as far as talent goes, is equal to that team. As far as experience goes, all of our guys are doing double corks and each guy is bringing something different to (the trick).

Coming out of Torino did you have a checklist of things you wanted to see modified, like the way the team is run, the selection process, or something you wanted to focus on more going into Vancouver?
The major thing I wanted to do was to open it up to the pros. In Torino, because you had to be on the National Team, it ended up being a fight between six guys. Now we opened it up and we had guys like Charles Reid and Dustin Craven come in and they really pushed everybody. We progressed a lot faster in the last couple years than we did before and people that are on the reserve team aren't a part of the National Team at all. We managed to get everybody going head to head and we ended up with the three best guys and three best girls.

Sarah Conrad.

Regardless of what happens at the Olympics, do you have anything you would like to see change moving forward after Vancouver?
I'd really like to keep it as an open system. I think it would be a shame to just have the national team and that's all. I'd like to have more selection contests. That way people that are out filming or doing other contests can come in and have a chance to get some World Cup spots for a certain period of time. I don't think people should be selected to the National team for a whole year or two years; I think that system is stagnant. These selection contests would also let people go out and film and take part in other aspects of the sport while still having a chance at making the Olympics. In the long run it also makes them better snowboarders.

Brad Martin.

I would certainly say that is the general consensus amongst the snowboarding community. Where do you find the most friction while trying to implement these concepts?
I think before we had a bit of friction, but now the CSF is really open to it. That's how I asked it to be and they were very nice to go ahead and do it and stay positive about it. Tom McIllfaterick (head of the CSF) was a huge help with that; it's been really good. We haven't had too much friction, but I just hope it stays this way.

I'm really pleased how the people were selected for the Olympics. Obviously with any selection there is a way you could do it a little better and we'd like to hear from the snowboard community on how we could improve on the selections we've already done. I don't want to wait until the next group of selections for the next Olympics (2014) to make improvements. It would be really nice to have feedback before we start picking that team. It's really easy to turn around and say something sucks after the fact, but it's a lot harder to preemptively talk about what makes sense and what doesn't and to choose a good selection process before hand. A lot of ways make sense but just don't fit under the FIS or Canada Snowboard guidelines.

Alex Duckworth, Meredes Nicoll, Dom Vallee and Sarah Conrad.

There are umpteen ways to get feedback. How would you go about collecting high caliber suggestions?
Would it be better for us to have five contests with only Canadians over a short period of time, or is it better to spread it out over a year like we did this past year? I think what would be really good would be to go back and talk to guys like Michalchuk. Guillaume Morisset or Carpentier...all these guys that have been around for a long time and have gone through a few selection processes, and also include the guys that have gone through this one, and say, ‘hey, how can you make this better?' Let all these riders that have been involved say ‘OK, this is how we can make it better.' And I don't want this to be open just to Olympians. I want some of the people that have been involved in all the different disciplines, like freeriding and filming, and ask them, ‘how could this work for you?' Even the older guys, you know? Ask them, ‘so it didn't work for you in 1998 or 2002, but how could it work for someone like yourself now?' We need to get all these different ideas, and you are going to come out with some really great ideas along with some real goofy ones, but at the same time, you can put them all together and create the best possible selection process. We also need to get feedback from people that have been around the business for a long time. People from all different aspects of the sport and get their input.

I think we have done a great job this time around and I feel we have the three best halfpipe riders in Canada, both male and female, and that's what we wanted to do. Also, in the process, we have really opened up the team to everyone. The last time around (2006) there was a lot of grumbling because we were only sending the National Team. This time the people selected really deserve it. They beat everyone that came and tried to take their spot. Charles Reid came in, Dustin Craven came in, TJ (Schneider) came in...I mean, Dustin and these guys did great, but so have Brad, Justin, (Palmer) Taylor and everyone else that was selected. Everyone had to really step up their game and we are now as competitive as any other country out there. Even our alternates are great snowboarders. Any country out there would be happy to have these guys on their roster. Dustin Craven, Charles Reid, Alex Duckworth and Dom Vallee are all incredible snowboarders. It really takes the pressure off the rest of the team knowing that the alternates are such great riders. We have a great team and every single one of them have worked really hard to earn these spots. We should all be really proud of them.

Dom Vallee.

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Related:
Olympic Halfpipe Selection Process for Dummies
Size Matters: Marcello Centurione Breaks Down Snowboard Judging
Canadian Snowboard Team Has Best Season Ever

Size Matters: Marcello Centurione Breaks Down Snowboard Judging

2010-02-09T01:23:00Z

If I had a penny for every time I heard the line "I got robbed by the judges," then I would probably need to purchase a piggy bank. Maybe one of those bank's actually shaped like a pig with a cork in the bottom keeping all the change from falling out. Anyway, every time I hear that line I tell the idiot that let it fall out of their mouth that they got robbed by their lack of snowboarding skill and inability to perform under pressure. Today's upper level judges are highly trained, experienced and completely in tune with the sport of snowboarding. One of Canada's highest ranking judges on the global scale is Marcello Centurione.

At 36 years old, Marcello reflects on his first time snowboarding at Talisman Resort in Ontario 22 years ago, "after I finally finished a run from top to bottom I was like, ‘this is the best thing in the world!' I realized, and continue to realize that standing on this thing and sliding down a hill makes everything in life disappear, except for that moment. Snowboarding has brought me an incredible group of friends and extended family and you just can't put a price on that."

Currently living in Guelph, Ontario, with his wife of 13 years, five and a half year old daughter and three year old son, Marcello travels the world judging the most prestigious FIS contests all while maintaining a day job as a senior advisor for all data centres in the country for Environment Canada. After a month of mismatched schedules, text messages and voice mails I finally managed to catch up with him in his hotel at Stoneham Mountain in Quebec, mere moments after the 2010 World Cup event ended.

Both of these guys have been to the Olympics, but only one of them is Marcello. The other one has a ridiculous nickname. You be the judge.

Give us the ‘Cole's Notes' breakdown on how you got to where you are in the judging biz.
I started riding way back in the day, 22 years ago, after my brother brought home a Burton, uh, whatever [laughing] and I started riding with all the Ontario boys that you know...Scott Birke, Jimmy Corvese (RIP), Kraig Kinsmen, Dave Wright, Vince Jorgenson (RIP), Paul Chapman and the whole TMHC [Talisman Mountain Hardcore] crew. Then I competed provincially and at the National level and then all my friends moved out west so I wanted to make the move as well, but unfortunately had an injury that kept me in Ontario. It was nice to see younger riders that used to watch us like Jon Roth and Brad Martin go on to be successful riders and professionals in our sport. I eventually continued to compete in Ontario and during practice one day I blew my knee out working on 7's. The event organizers, Big Wheel Neil Wilson (who is one of my heroes) asked me if I wanted to judge, so I did, and from that point I realized two things. One, judging is really hard to do, and two, that there wasn't enough trick knowledge among the judges. So that's what started my whole judging thing. I've worked for 13 years now judging at the professional level. The first half of my career was at industry events, like the US Open, Nippon Open, European Open, X-Games and that sort of stuff. After that I wanted to start making a change within the FIS system so I started doing World Cups and that lead to me eventually judging at the Olympics in Torino. Since then I have continued to judge at World Cups and the World Championships and will be judging at the Olympics coming up in Vancouver.

Along with all that I am also an educator. I do a lot of the certification and teaching. I have pretty much focused my entire judging career on a primary goal, and that is to always make sure the athletes have the freedom to express whatever they want to do as a rider coming down a slopestyle course, a pipe, or whatever freestyle contest is going down. I didn't want to see this sport change in a way that started to dictate to the riders that they had to do certain things to maximize their score. I wanted to keep it as open as possible so that (the snowboarders) could be free to choose what style of riding they want, and if they do it well against the judging criteria, then they'll be on the podium. So that's been the big thing that I've been trying to push and maintain within snowboarding.

What exactly is your role at these events, and how does it break down for the Olympics?
I am a judge. I have head judged events in the past. I was the head judge for the the World Championships in Arosa Switzerland in 2007 and for 3 USSA Grand Prix stops this season. As far as judges at the Olympics are concerned, there are five scoring judges, one head judge and then there is what's called a score verifier and assistant head judge. The score verifier is actually a fully qualified judge that can act as a substitute in case someone gets sick or can't perform, and the assistant head judge is the same thing for the head judge.

Marcello and Canadian Olympic Halfpipe team rider Justin Lamoureux.

What type of experience is required to get to your level in the judging world?
I don't have the exact specs with me, but the basic idea is this: you need to be on the World Cup tour, you need to be a FIS Level A certified judge and you need to have judged a minimum of five World Cups or World Championships. Those are the basics.

How has snowboarding changed since you started and what influences the progression (or lack thereof) more: the athletes and their trends or the judges and what they tend to score higher?
There is no question about it...it's a pendulum. The riders and coaches will let us know what they think is the most difficult and what should be rewarded the most in a contest and we will try to bring that into our judge's clinics and things like that. We'll talk about it and reflect what we've learned from [the coaches and athletes]. Then, of course, we have to reflect against the eight judging criteria. It's important that you know all eight:

-Amplitude
-Execution
-Variety
-Difficulty
-Progression
-Combos
-Pipe Use
-Risk

Those first four, they are weighted a little bit more than the last four. A great example is what's going on right now with Jeff Batchelor. He comes down and he does a sick ass run that's huge, so we are rewarding him for amplitude and his execution because it's big and clean and powerful. But one thing that is really lacking in Jeff's run is that there is no switch. From a variety perspective he tends to grab tail a lot and he doesn't go backwards, so that's just an example, however it is amazing how Jeff is really pushing certain aspects of our sport. We want to make sure we reward the criteria fairly and riders like Jeff that are pushing certain aspects of riding. The risk we face of rewarding a run like Jeff's too much, is that riders would stop going switch and start just going bigger forward just to get the highest score possible. The same thing would happen if we only rewarded those super technical and difficult runs. So we have to be really careful because the judging, for sure, influences what the riders do, but at the same time, on an annual basis and throughout the season, [the judges] are having these discussions with the coaches and riders to make sure that we are in tune with what needs to be considered more difficult and rewarded. Obviously the judges can't do the tricks, but we need to keep our fingers completely on the pulse of what is difficult so we don't influence the sport in the wrong direction.

Marcello at Fortress Mountain, reminding himself why he does what he does.

You touched on this in your last response but I would love for you to delve a little deeper. What will it take to go home with Olympic gold in the halfpipe?
Basically you will need to go big and clean, no matter what you doing, and you need to make sure you satisfy the criteria of Variety and Difficulty. The fact that if you are throwing down doubles, then yeah, there is no question that you are pushing and better satisfying the Progression, Difficulty and Risk criteria. But they still have to be as big and as clean as the other tricks that are being thrown down, otherwise you are just bettering one of the criteria at the expense of another. You can't just say, okay, I'm going to throw a double into my run; you will have to throw a double into your run and still maintain a big, clean run top to bottom.

Not very glamorous, but these are the tools of the trade.

How difficult is it to tune out everything and check your emotion at the door to maintain a level playing field?
Obviously I can't speak for all judges, but for myself, it is basically a developed skill. You quite easily start to tune it all out over time. My job first and foremost is to be the most professional judge that I can be, and that means I have to tune out many distractions, such as the announcing itself, the music, the spectators and how they react to a certain trick. You really get into a zone and focus in on the run and evaluate it for what it was. It's actually pretty easy to tune everything out and then once you've put your score down, you can reopen and look at what's going on at the event. I mean, you want to enjoy what's going on that moment too. If you are at an event that has amazing riding being thrown down, you want to enjoy that moment. To be able to say, hey, I was a part of that. But after all these years it really isn't that difficult to tune out and focus on the riding.

Marcello has been known to show up in print now and again.

So what's next after the Olympics?
That's a great question [laughing], because at this point, with a young family, I am very happy with the influence I have made in the sport to this point in time in competition, so I am just going to start taking it year by year. I do want to leave a message for all the young kids though: keep pushing for freedom within our sport and be sure to strive to find ways to support snowboarding well into the future.

Lastly...do you still get a chance to strap in, look around, take a deep breath and get that same feeling from your first run at Talisman all those years ago?
Yeah....yeah I do. It's what I continue to search for every year.

Marcello would like to give a big thanks to everyone who helped and influenced him along the way, and most importantly, his family.

How are you gonna judge the Olympic pipe if you don't ride it yourself? Marcello sampling the goods in Torino.

------------------------
Related:
Jeff Batchelor: Sweater Vests and Monograms
Jumping Through Olympic Rings (I Mean Hoops) with Dustin Craven
Olympic Halfpipe Selection For Dummies

The Little Resort that Could: Canada Olympic Park, Calgary

2010-02-02T00:14:00Z

Winsport Canada Olympic Park, or C.O.P. to it's friends, is the epitome of the ‘local hill'. A mere 20-minute drive west from anywhere in Calgary and easily accessible by public transit, C.O.P. is the ultimate urban winter playground. Originally named Paskapoo, the hill was sold in 1984 and prepped for the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988. Due to the success of the games a legacy fund was created and has been utilized to help run the facility right up until now. C.O.P. continues to be a world-class training and event facility for all things winter: moguls, ski jumping, aerials, luge, cross-country skiing and more importantly to us snowboarders, halfpipe and slopestyle. The area plays host to numerous regional snowboard contest each year, along with global events such as the World Cup and Burton Canadian Open. It was during the final stages of the terrain park build for these two events that Wade Cose, former pro snowboarder and all around shred park guru, let me ride shotgun in his Snowcat so I could pick his brain about C.O.P. Wade, at 35, is married and has a two-and-a-half year old son and five month old daughter. He has been snowboarding for 17 years, living in Calgary for 12, building terrain parks at C.O.P. for 10 and his current title is ‘Venues Manager'.

Wade Cose, with his tool of choice and the fruits of his labours.

Give me your take on the terrain park and what your goals are when designing and building this park.
It's almost cliché now, but it really is all about progression. The majority of our user group are beginners learning to ski and snowboard, but we do have a high number of clubs, about ten or twelve, that train here. Some of those guys are on the World Cup tour, others are up-and-comers so it's really about making all of them happy. I need to have a kid be able to snowplow down through the park; we don't shut our park off to anyone, we allow anyone in as long as they wear a helmet, so it's open concept park building. Everyone can use it but it has to be safe and fun for everyone. We have to be able to create jumps and jibs and fun things for kids to play on that an eight year old can enjoy, but at the same time guys like Dustin Craven or Scott Shaw need to be able to go in and have fun too. We aren't about hundred foot tables, but we are about progression.

C.O.P.'s commitment to snowboarding right now is very apparent. How has that evolved in the twelve years you've been here and what do you see happening down the road?
It started as a side interest. They built a halfpipe and terrain park because that's what was happening. Other areas were doing it and kids were asking for it. It was built up slowly to make sure it complied with their whole "family model". Obviously, over the years, that has grown. We still have that family core, but now we have the clubs and the teams that want to come here and train. Also add to that big events like World Cups and the Burton Open and you can see that it's really grown. I never thought it would get this big. I always figured it would stay a more family oriented place, so it's great! We've learned so much over the years and it really shows in our final product these days.

One last thing...Why C.O.P.? Why not just drive past it en route to the Rockies?
Easy: it's by far the best warm up spot. For sure. If it's sunny and windy here and there's a chinook in town, (chinooks are a weather phenomenon in the Calgary area that can cause very warm conditions in the middle of winter) it's snowy and cloudy in the mountains, so you can spend the day riding here working on your jumps, keeping your legs under you, getting comfortable and then as soon as the cold weather rolls back into town here, normally the mountains will be sunny and nice. Then you go out there to get all the fresh powder, build booters and whatever else. C.O.P. is the perfect practice spot. You couldn't ask for much more. It's one of the best training facilities in the world.

C.O.P.'s pipe in World Cup mode.

Stats:
- 394' vertical drop
- 2 chairlifts and 4 moving carpets
- Night riding
- Terrain park, 22' pipe and 12' pipe
- 80% beginner to intermediate terrain, 20% intermediate to advanced
- Adult season pass: $599
- Student/youth season pass: $569
- Adult day pass: $39
- Youth day pass $32
- 22 foot Zaugg Pipe Monster
- 4 snowcats
- Some snowboard alumni's: TJ Schneider, Scott Shaw, Dustin Craven, Mike Suderman, Dwayne Wiebe
- More info: www.winsportcanada.ca

----------------------------
Related:
Canadian Open Halfpipe Finals (2009)
Push.ca At The Canadian Open: Slopestyle Finals (2009)
Billabong's Ante Up 2009 (video)

Media Tips From The Top

2010-01-26T01:15:00Z

You've got your 7's, 9's and 10's all 4 ways, double corks are on lock and your truck/sled combo is ready to tear the backcountry a new one. Now if you could only stand out from the crowd and start to get some love from photographers and magazine editors! I rounded up a few of my experienced friends in the pro snowboard world to help you out with this. These are people on both sides of the lens that have managed to get it done. These are not tips and tricks that might work, these are the tried and true methods of making it happen in the snowboard media realm from veterans of the game.

From the shredder perspective there are a number of things you can do to have the media take notice. One easy way is to call them back, or better yet be proactive and come up with interesting ideas for articles, photos, video shots...whatever you can do to standout from the crowd. Matt Belzile needs no introduction because he practices what he preaches and gets lots of media attention. "For magazines and photos you have to work with photographers. From my experience, photographers like hard working guys that are willing to work together on getting a good photo. Also, they are stoked when they get to go out with a couple of guys without a filmer; it's a recipe for productivity because filmers and photographers don't necessarily like shooting the same type of features. If you show a photographer a good work ethic and get him good images that get published, then he'll want to work with you again."

Matt Belzile works with photographers...

to get shots like this.

Scott Serfas has been a senior photographer at Transworld snow for what seems like eternity and tends to agree, "Once you're out, then make it work. Hitting something an extra time because the light's good, or whatever. I can't tell you how many times I've asked people to hit something one more time and they say "I'm over it" and then someone else in the crew hits it and that's the shot that gets used. A lot of times as the day goes on the light gets better, or I'll find a better angle and the guy that agrees to hit it one more time will get the shot." He also adds, "know when the sun is coming and when the snow is good. Call me five days ahead as opposed to calling me the morning-of. By that time I'm already in a crew and my phone's off. Track the weather and know when it's going to be good. Having something in mind is always good, but also having an open mind to hit other stuff. Hit things when it's right there and it's good. Sometimes we'll end up searching all day for nothing." If you don't have access to a photographer there are a number of ways to dig one up. Matt Belzile utilizes his entire network to get it done and insisted, "If you don't know any photographers, bug your sponsors about it. Chances are they have a staff photographer and your sponsor will be stoked on your a initiative."

When the photographer says "It's not about you, it's about the rock," Jake Blauvelt gets it.

Some of the best advice you will get is usually the most apparent. But, alas, common sense isn't so common. Rich Odam has been shooting freelance skateboarding and snowboarding for years with more than one cover to show for it. He added his two cents: "First and foremost, no divas or prima-donnas; there's too much talent out there to waste your time with people who have bad attitudes. Have a good work ethic and it'll take you a long way. I personally like to shoot with guys who I can hang out with and are easy to chill; if there's someone who is a good shredder and good to hang with, I'm more likely to call them first. Having a good time on a shoot makes it feel more like fun than a job." Devun Walsh, yes, the Devun Walsh reinforces that remark, "Just be nice to people. Never take a videographer or photographer for granted, and don't order them around or anything. Tossing them a little product doesn't hurt either. The main things are definitely being a nice guy, being on time, always helping out and keeping in contact." Devun adds a little more insight while laughing, "Oh, stomping shit helps too."

Priscilla Levac is arguably one of the biggest names in female snowboarding and would sometimes get proactive to make things happen. "I am always super willing to get involved with stories, interviews or whatever. I try to get back to people as soon as possible. Being available and keen to do these are really important. I was always in Mammoth because it was good to practice and compete there. All the contests were in California and Colorado. California definitely helped me get noticed and exposure, I spent a lot of time there. I was always really motivated and joining crews whenever I could. I worked with photographers as much as I could." By fishing where the fish are, Priscilla was able to make her mark on the snowboard world, but using a flashy lure can also help. Color choice when it comes to your board and outerwear is another sly way to stand out. "Bright colored clothes and bright bases are good for sure," Devun Walsh explains. "There's nothing worse than stomping something and hearing the photographer say, "damn, I just couldn't see your base, it blended in with the sky!"

I have two final tips for you, the first is most certainly the most obvious of them all, while the second, not so much. Rich Odam also felt it necessary to voice his conviction on the importance of the first one: "practice makes perfect and shooting with someone who is really consistent is a dream come true for a filmer/photographer. It's the difference between getting one good shot a day or three." Another great way to get three shots a day is being efficient. Devun Walsh, the hardest working man in snowboarding ended with this "Be motivated and want to film. Go up and lay tracks and build jumps on a grey day so it's easy to get in and get going the next morning."

Last, but not least, is an insiders tidbit I was reminded of last minute by the one and only Jesse Fox. "Load the tail! Throw a bunch of snow on your tail before you drop in to get that great snow trail behind you in the air that photographers and filmers like so much...trust me, load the tail."

-------------------------
Related:
Devun Walsh: Team Captain
Rich Odam: Set Your Phasers To Art
The Next Step with Jesse Fox

Dave Short: Slow and Easy Wins the Race

2010-01-19T01:49:00Z

Dave Short has always let his riding do the talking. His soft spoken demeanor and introverted personality may not be the best traits to getting big snowboard sponsorship gigs, but his slow and steady rise in the world of big mountain snowboarding proves that you still have to put your money where your mouth is to make it in this game.

Now 27, Dave has been spending his falls in Montreal attending Concordia University in pursuit of an elusive Philosophy degree that he started 10 years ago. In order to get his parent's approval for a move to Whistler back when he was 17, he promised he would get a degree in the off season. With only 2 courses remaining, he looks forward to fulfilling his promise while chasing his first love, snowboarding. Growing up in North Vancouver, literally on the side of Mount Seymour, Dave was exposed to snowboarding early and picked up his first shred stick at 12 years old and it's been downhill ever since (insert comical drum roll here). To find out what he's been up to since then I called him up in Montreal, where he had spent the weekend surfing a few standing waves in a river near the city, and caught him defrosting at home.

North Face seems to be your main gig right now, yet they are an unorthodox sponsor for a snowboarder. How has that been?
I have been with them for 3 years now and they have been really supportive. They are definitely my main sponsor.

You had a shop window at Burrard and West 4^th in Vancouver that had a North Face ad consisting of an 8 foot high picture of your face. Is that still up?
They took it down recently but I couldn't manage to get a hold of it. I was going to build a house and use it as one of my walls (laughing). People were telling me that they kept seeing me all summer even though I wasn't in town. The first time I saw it I was kind of taken aback, I mean, it was a 10 foot high mug of myself staring back at me, but, it's great. North Face is really conducive with helping their athletes and moving forward in all sorts of different directions.

Does North Face let you choose your own direction and allow you to do what you want to do?
They are pretty relaxed about things but they have high expectations as well. At the end of each year all the athletes have to fill out self-evaluations. Mine turned out to be like, pages and pages and pages, and then eventually you get athlete manager feed back on those, you know? It's just more to help people achieve their goals and aspirations. They like having everything out on the table too. They also have Expedition Proposals. Outside of the usual formula of what a sponsor provides, like salary, photo incentives and travel mainly, North Face does things like the Expedition Proposal. It goes through a few rounds and if yours gets chosen you get a bunch of funding towards a totally wild expedition. I haven't been able to get one to go through the whole process just yet. I mean these are coming in from mountaineers and stuff too. Like Everest climbers and endurance runners are also submitting them so it's not like every expedition gets approved.

You certainly seem to enjoy the big mountain arena. Is that an accurate observation?
Yeah, definitely. I have always been trying to do the big mountain thing. I mean, I grew up on Mount Seymour and that's kind of like big mountain features in small doses. I grew up always enjoying that aspect the most. I've just never been able to kick it, but I have a huge fear of big exposed, fall line faces. Things like spine walls and pillow walls are more 3-dimensional and I'm fine with, but those big wide open sheets of snow freak me out a lot. I try to do the mental planning regarding the route I'm going to take, like sluff management, but I love sluff management too. It's really fun.

Have you been getting into the climbing and mountaineering side of things with North Face behind you?
Well, you're always kind of billy-goating when you're doing the snowboard thing. Snowmobiles can only go so far, but I'm not really riding with an ice axe or anything yet (laughing). I have been on shoots with some of those guys and I kind of wish I did, you know? I like the big mountain riding, but I don't need death looming over me all the time, that's why I've always kind of done ‘mini-golf' big mountain, but I'm doing bigger and bigger elevation changes.

I stumbled across your blog on the information superhighway, how did that evolve?
I built a website a long time ago that was not really a blog; blogs weren't even really around at that point. It was just somewhere that I could upload media and direct people too. It's not like I was trying to advertise the site or anything. It's still not really anything but it's nice to have. If I get any kind of press I can put it straight on there and kind of immortalize it instead of, like, for a month it's in a magazine and then it disappears into some bathroom pile, you know?

I find the blog interesting because you are pretty soft spoken and not a huge self promoter, perhaps why you have had such a slow steady climb in snowboarding. You aren't out there waving your own flag, so it seemed like a bit of a contradiction in terms.
I like to let my actions speak louder...you know? I don't want to be known as the guy with the big ego. Back in the day when I was first getting sponsors I was doing a lot of my own stuff, self promotion work, and I actually sent out resumes. Now I actually wish that I had more drive to do that but I've got what I've hot and I work with them more. One thing though, I went after my last board sponsor. North Face picked me up but I definitely pursued the board company. The first time I contacted them I talked to the receptionist, you know what I mean? A total cold call. I wish I was doing a little more leg work I guess, but I have so much other stuff on the go.

What are your plans in snowboarding? Do you have an exit strategy down the road or are you just going to see what happens?
I'm just going to keep going, polish off school and see what I want to do in that respect. Hopefully just continue snowboarding and contributing to the industry. I have no plan of not stopping my steady climb (laughing). I love the community we've got going on. It's a global community, but it's so closely knit. I love that. On almost every continent most of us have great friends in abstract places just because of snowboarding. You've got to be thankful for that.

------------------------------
Related:
Video: Deep Winter Challenge Day 2 (2009)

Benji Ritchie's Not Done Yet

2010-01-12T01:13:00Z

It's no secret: times are tough. Company budgets are locked up tighter than the old man's liquor cabinet, which is making it difficult for pro snowboarders to put food on the table, let alone chase the shred around the world. 28-year-old Benji Ritchie knows this all too well. Born and raised ten minutes from Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Benji doesn't know, or want to know, anything besides a life filled with snowboarding. He made the move to Whistler nine seasons ago, but Quebec has always stayed near and dear to his heart. He hasn't missed a summer back in the land of poutine and beautiful women since he made the move out west (I prefer that the poutine and beautiful women are all mixed up in the same bowl...just sayin'). He even spent the better part of two years building a house, from "scratch", on a portion of his family's land with an old friend who owns a construction company in Mont Tremblant. Benji has been without a board sponsor for an entire season but still has a positive outlook and is not ready to hang up his outerwear for good just yet.

How goes the struggle looking for a board company?
Boards have been a nightmare to find anything from anyone. It's pretty hard. I would love to get something going with good boards, but fuck, it's hard. Nobody wants to do anything with super tight budgets. I'm not even looking for much. Just a little travel budget to get in a good season filming, you know?

How has that affected your filming crews?
Last year was my first year filming with Alterna for Elektro. I was in their movie about five years ago, I think. I was filming with Standard back then and one year I was cut from the movie but they let Carlo [Wein, Alterna Films] use all the footage for his movie back then. After that I was with WhiteOut Films. Two years ago I shot for the Grenade movie and also Sugarshack. Billabong got involved with Alterna so I got to shoot with them again full time last year. It was super good. I also did a couple days with the Transworld crew so I got a cameo in Get Real. Now I'm trying to figure out what I am going to do for this winter.

Besides the sponsorship issues, are you finding it more difficult to stay motivated in Whistler? The Quebecois support crew has definitely dropped off a ton the last few years.
I had a lot of friends that moved back to Quebec. Yeah, I was staying with a bunch of French guys for a long time; Renault B [Belisle] and J.F. [Pelchat] and those guys but for the last few years I've been with Mikey [Rencz] and Eero [Neimela] and we just never stop. We didn't have a slowing down period. We are super on it in the winter time and we have our own little film thing going on. Since Mikey started 8 Mile, they hired a filmer, so we created our own crew and when we were all in town and not shooting with anyone else we would go up with Trout, our 8 Mile Filmer, and we were able to manage all our own footage afterwards. We could use it for whatever we wanted. That worked out really good...pretty sweet. I never got thrown out there with anyone I didn't really know.

How about trying to stay motivated with all the economic issues facing snowboard companies these days? Teams are disappearing, budgets taken away...is it tough to keep your eye on the prize?
For sure...it's really been a mental game when it comes to finding sponsors and getting stuff going, especially after doing it for so many years with a good budget [laughing]. Since the major cutbacks and not having a major board sponsor for the last year now, yeah, it's hard a little bit on the mental, but, when it comes to numbers or budget or whatever, when I'm out there filming I'm just giving it 100% anyway. I'm just hoping that I can get up there just to do it, you know? We have to tighten the belt a little [laughing]. Try to make the most out of what I can get. It's motivating because I really want to prove myself still. I have so many more goals I want to accomplish in snowboarding. I want to ride a lot of different stuff. It's always been a dream to work as hard as I can to get one perfect year when everything comes together. I still feel like I haven't achieved every thing I can, so, I'm pretty motivated to get out there and get something better year after year and hopefully in within the next few years I will get that year. That year where everything comes together. When that happens I might not mind retiring, but I haven't got there yet.

Benji proudly rides for Billabong, Von Zipper, Grenade, Empire Boardshop and Airhole.

--------------------------
Related:
8 Mile: A Life Worth Living
In The Editing Room with Alterna
Party Your Socks Off with Mikey Rencz

Kale Stephens: He's A Ninja, You Idiot!

2010-01-04T21:45:00Z

The first thing I noticed about Kale Stephens, when I met him 13-ish years ago in the mean streets of Whistler Village, was that he had a certain presence about him. Not unlike a cube, it's as if he's as tall as he is wide as he is thick. Now 32 years-old, he still boasts the same physique and attacks snowboarding in the same manner, but somehow manages a certain level of gracefulness in his strong, aggressive riding style. A bit of an oxymoron, but that's Kale: not everything is as it seems.

Born in Newport Beach, California, Kale and his mom moved to Collingwood, Ontario, when he was just two years old. Living a stone's throw away from Blue Mountain, he started snowboarding at 10, then moved to Whistler when he was 18. In 2006 he left the hustle and bustle of Whistler to settle down in Squamish, just 45 minutes south on Highway 99. I caught up with this cheese-devouring conundrum just as he was "putting on his fancy pants" to attend the world premiere of the 8 Mile video at the Red Bull Lounge in Vancouver, B.C.

You made the move to Squamish from Whistler in 2006 and are now living in the Chateau up on the hill.
Yup! I'm up in the Garibaldi Highlands. Right now it's just me and Grandma and my girlfriend Billie-Jo. Mom's back in Ontario, but she'll be back out in February or something for a couple months to snowboard up at Whistler. She got a pass at Cypress, too. Yeah, it's been nice up here, living it up!

Your mom has been a big part of your life since day one. Are you a Mama's boy at heart or what?
Growing up with my mom being a single mother, she was always there for me. I started snowboarding at 10 and started competing when I was 12, so as soon as I started competing she was the one that drove me and all my friends around to all the competitions all over Ontario. When I got older she even traveled a bunch with me through the States on the pro tour when I was 16 years old. She would drive me to the US Open. She basically is my number one supporter, number one fan and agent since I was young. I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for her, that's for sure!

Your mom will spend summers back in Collingwood, and your grandma lives with you full time?
Yup, Grandma is here full time and mom comes out for probably 50% of the year. She'll be here for three months, go back home for five months, back for five months... she's back and forth.

You have been involved with a couple shred industry businesses. Was the Wildcats program your first kick at the can at being the part of a company?
That was the first one as far as a real company that went any where, but when I was a kid, 14, my buddy Doug and I started this company called Lipid which means ‘fat' for all you geniuses out there. [laughing]. We were Lipid, man, totally fat! [laughing] We made t-shirts, hats, toques and hoodies, too. That was my first deal. Actually, before that, when I was 13 I had a skateboard shop called the House of Boards. I started that up in my hometown. It was just in the back of this guy's mountain bike shop. He gave me a little 10-by-10 space, and basically I started that so I could go get free or cheap stuff from the skateboard wholesalers out there in Toronto.

Chris Brown, Browner to his friends, was a part of the Wildcats as well and now you guys have Airhole on the go, how did that come about?
We snowmobile together all the time, and one day we were talking about bandanas and how they all get iced up and hinder your breathing. This was in 2006. We were like, ‘man, we should get nice fleecy material, make it into a bandana and cut a hole into it so we can breath.' We eventually decided to start a company and get it out there because it's so comfortable, and we wanted to share it with the world. I then registered the company and me Browner and Jon Summers got on Grandma's sewing machine and made the first five or 10 samples. Right around then Karl Fuhre made a commercial out of us talking shit one day down at the I.S. Design office, without us knowing, and then posted it on his I.S. Design blog. About a week later people were telling us how much they loved Airhole and the commercial, and we were a little confused until we saw Karl's commercial. But after a while it caught on and Max Jenke, from Endeavor Snowboards, saw the potential and helped us get it off the ground and make it a reality. So he licensed it out and... uh, boom, there ya go.

Kale reppin' the Airhole.

Max licensed it? So the day to day stuff isn't really handled by you and Browner?
Well, Max handles the sales and production and all that. Me and Browner do a lot of the design. Well, I used to do a lot of the design, but Rob Dow now helps out a lot because he's a lot better on the computer. We still oversee all the designs and we take care of the team and just deciding the basic direction of the company. They do all the hard work and me and Browner do all the fun stuff.

That's a good set up!
Yeah, it works out real well.

So what's your next move?
Next move is to keep it moving! I'm not making much money in snowboarding at the moment, but I'm not giving up. I'll be filming for the new 8 Mile video and keepin' it poppin'. I want to keep it going with Airhole... The company has been growing really good every year, so as long as this trend continues we should be able to make a good go of it here and actually see some good profits in the future.

Kale Stephens proudly rides for Endeavor Snowboards, DVS Shoes, Airhole Ninja Masks, I.S. Design, Bluebird Wax, The Source Snowboard Shop and Drop Gloves.

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Related:
8 Mile: A Life Worth Living
Video: Stoked For Winter
Video: 8 Mile

Matt Beardmore: Onward and Upward

2009-12-15T01:04:00Z

Matt Beardmore has always spoken his mind, for better or for worse. Whether this shortened his pro snowboard career, or lengthened it, is open for debate. He started ski racing in his hometown of Revelstoke when he was 13 and a few years later, when ski racing became too expensive, he tried his hand at snowboarding and hasn't looked back. As soon as he graduated high school he couldn't get to Whistler fast enough and spent nine years there before moving into his own home in Brackendale, in the heart of sled land, two years ago.

Now 28 years old, Matt finds himself contemplating what's next; what will fill the next chapter in his life now that his snowboarding days are changing. A new found love for helicopters had him in the bush logging all summer to pad the bank account so he could try his hand at being a chopper pilot. I managed to get him on the phone mere moments after returning from his first helicopter flight in Pitt Meadows, near Vancouver, BC.

Where you living these days?
Still at my place in Brackendale, 15 minutes south of Whistler. But it seems like I might have to get a new residence or it's going to be some seriously ridiculous commuting to chopper school.

Whoa, Helicopters? Crazy... Let me catch up on your shredding and then I want to get back to your flying. For a while you were shooting with Absinthe and Alterna but last year you kind of dropped off, what happened there?
I filmed with Absinthe for a bunch of years, but last year I didn't have much of a budget so I couldn't be chasing down the Absinthe dudes. They were cool and would have put me in there on the "bro tip", because I didn't have any sponsorship money for them, but I just couldn't financially chase them all over the place. So I shot with Carlo Wein and Alterna, which was kind of sweet; I started out with Carlo, he was the first guy I ever filmed with and it's a nice way to end it off too, you know?

It seems you are mid-exit from snowboarding. Is this a conscious decision due to a change of focus or were you kind of nudged out?
It's both really... If I was still making a living off of snowboarding, I probably wouldn't have personally made this choice, but since it did happen I am almost thankful for it; you can't snowboard forever. I think as you get older it isn't as smooth a transition into a new career, you know? I've been starting to feel, I wouldn't say hamster wheel, but I've been doing the same thing for 10 years and I just wanted a new set of challenges. I want to learn some new things that will give me the same satisfaction as snowboarding. To be honest, I didn't even try to chase down any new sponsors, and seeing as I was already riding for Drake the boards just kind of happened. I didn't think it was realistic to think I would get back, financially, to where I was. Last time I checked, you need money to eat and function in today's society. [laughing] If I have to put my time and energy into something, I figured I would put it into something more sustainable than snowboarding. I would only have been interested in pushing my limits for another four years, tops... five, maybe. I just figured it was time to make the smart choice.

Do you feel you got the short end of the stick on anything, or are you comfortable with how things transpired?
No, I have no hard feelings, everything happens for a reason. With Atomic, I was working on my pro model, I had my artist, and they were investing a ton of money in me. I was doing really well and they all loved me. They would never have let me go if they had the financial means to keep me around, you know? Maybe they had some bad money management or whatever else, but it was out of my hands and they didn't have any bad intentions at all. 686 was the same thing. They only ended up keeping three dudes total: Louie Vito, Marco Feichtner and Pat McCarthy, so they pretty much axed 75% of their team. I didn't take anything personally.

Like I said, everything happens for a reason. Every year I get pretty tracked up. [laughing] Fractured skull, ribs, and if I do something, I'm the 110% guy. When I broke my ribs, it was like, two inches from my spine from when I rag-dolled through some rocks when I was filming for [Absinthe's] Optimistic. Once you hit a certain level, I'm not the kind of guy that wants to milk it for a pay cheque and just kind of keep it going. I would want to leave snowboarding myself if I felt I wasn't pushing my limits and pushing parts of the sport and stuff. I think it's better to leave when you're on top, you know? Instead of like, Michael Jordan-type shit. I think it was lame that he tried to come back. He should have quit when he quit. That's my opinion. so I just try to practice what I think, or preach. [laughing]

Air Beardmore.
[laughing] Air Beardmore! Yeah, but I might go up and film a little bit, but, I'm really excited, to be honest, because I'm a bit of a work-a-holic, and after all these years I don't think I went into the backcountry once without a camera. I've never shredded fun laps back there with my friends. I used to do it on grey days at the resort, but if I was spending the money on sled gas then there was always a camera, and when there's a camera you are obviously on an agenda and at the end of the day my pay cheques came from that agenda. I'm stoked to go out and just rip it up with zero pressure, and how I spend my day is how I spend my day, I'm just looking for good times instead of having to produce all the time. That's going to be fun, but at the same time it's going to be a whole new set of challenges with choppering.

What brought about your interest in flying helicopters?
At the beginning of last year I was looking for some new sled spots up the Squamish Valley in a little Cessna. I've always had an interest in helicopters from working in the bush and snowboarding. I always thought they were super sweet, but what made me make the full commitment was when the Cessna pilot, who was super cool, let me drive it on the second steering wheel. I was like, ‘holy shit, this is deadly!' [laughing] I loved the feeling and I can really picture myself doing it. I love being in the air and it seems like I am just prolonging my hang time.

Cool... Any last words?
I really want to say thanks to Taylor Loughran for being there for me last year. Everything fell through right before the beginning of the season last year. When that all went down he still doubled me around on his snowmobile all year and filmed me. He wasn't even getting paid or anything. He helped just because he was stoked on my shit. I think it takes a really rad person to do that just in the name of the shred, you know? Mad props and appreciation for him helping me out when the sponsor money wasn't.

Matt proudly rides for Drake Boards and Bindings, Northwave Boots and Von Zipper

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Related:
In The Editing Room With Alterna Films

Rich Odam, Set your Phasers to ‘Art'

2009-12-08T03:47:00Z

Rich Odam, A.K.A. Dick Odam, A.K.A. John Toyt, A.K.A. Dickie Oats. No matter how you slice it, this man takes a real sweet photo. Born and raised in Lima, Peru, his family picked up and moved to Toronto, Ontario when he was 18. Now 34, he lives in Vancouver, B.C. with his wife Denise, who holds down the fort while he is off gallivanting the planet, snapping pics of some of the biggest names in both the skateboarding and snowboarding biz. I have had the pleasure of knowing and working extensively with this fine human for over 10 years and he is second to none. I managed to get a hold of him while he was in California shooting skateboarding and staying with Jordan Hoffart in Cardiff by the Sea, narrowly escaping divorce by sending flowers home to his wife on a bi-weekly basis.

Rich Odam.

Start from the beginning: how did you first get into photography?
When I first moved to Toronto I was going to Humber College for Graphic Design. Eventually I realized I kind of sucked at that. I don't know, I think I saw some sort of photography presentation. You know how colleges put you in a sort of foundation year just to try and get more money out of you? Well I saw this presentation on photography, and I was like, whoa, you can actually make a living from shooting pictures? Interesting... That was how I started. I was also working at a skateshop at the same time so I kind of tied it together. I started taking some photography night classes to try and get some sort of portfolio ready.

What was your first set up?
I started with my Dad's camera which was a Pentax set-up, pretty sick. 35mm camera with 2 lenses. One wide angle and one zoom lens, and one or two flashes I think? I just rolled around skateboarding in Toronto with this little waist pack.

A fanny pack?
(laughing) Yeah, a fanny-pack, if you will. Except it had different compartments for extra lenses, batteries and stuff.

More of a utility belt, like Batman.
Yeah, yeah. (laughing) Kind of.

"Whenever Simon goes to Bear Mountain he's treated like royalty: anything, anytime, it's awesome. The idea for this shot came from him. We had a whole run closed down for us to mess around with stuff. Bear Mountain is pretty awesome 'cause the whole place is a really well designed snowboard park. Even I got down with a couple jibs myself...I ate shit though."
- Rich Odam

How did you get into shooting snowboarding?
Living in Ontario you don't have much choice. Six months out of the year I would be up at Mt, St. Louis or Blue Mountain.

What was your first snowboarding picture to get published?
Funny enough, I think it was (Dave) Cashen. The cover of Snowboard Canada. (Andrew) Sayer calls me one day and says, "we're going to Buffalo with Cashen to hit this insane rail!" So I'm like, "alright, let's go." I don't remember any snowboard shots getting printed before that, so I guess that was my first.

Snowboard Canada, Fall 2002.

How tough is it to get into the pro photographer's club? Is it a pretty tough grind or what?
Oh yeah! At the beginning it was super hard. I didn't know shit. I didn't know if my shots were good or not. I was pretty blown away that I got the cover of SBC. I was like, "what the hell?!" When I first started shooting skateboarding years before, Ryan Allen, the photo editor at SBC Skateboard, took a look at all my stuff and said "pretty much these all suck, they are all too dark." I was bummed but also kind of stoked. Ryan was pretty much my first reality check. Now, when people tell me they aren't going to use my photos it's mellow. At least they aren't saying that my shit sucks and they are too dark (laughing).

What are your goals for the next few years?
Just try to get more stuff into the US mags. As a skate photographer that's pretty much where you want to be. You get more recognized and you get to shoot with way more crazy skaters. Get your foot in the door, I guess. It's just like starting all over again down here in the States because pretty much no one knows who you are. It's kind of cool...starting fresh.

Rich's current set up:
Canon 1d Mark III, soon to be Mark IV
70-200L 2.8 
15mm 
50mm 
10-17mm
Tokina fisheye  

Hasselblad 500cm 
30mm 
80mm 
250mm  

Elinchrome Ranger RX packs with A heads 
Sunpak 555 flashes 
Nikon sb-28 flash  

Pocket Wizard radio slaves

Ricoh Gr1D

As I mentioned before, I have known Rich for years. I wanted to really showcase his personality so I dug deep in my video archives for this little gem. Odam on the left, me on the right and celebrity guest appearance, Dennis Bannock, as "Coach".
(Please visit the site to view this media)

Check out the full gallery of Rich's shots, along with his commentary. And don't miss his skate portfolio as well.

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Related:
Rich Odam: His Favourite Shots (skate)
Geoff Andruik: From Film To Digital

Parenthood: Has it Changed Your Game?

2009-12-01T00:43:00Z

Snowboarding is relatively young when compared to other forms of professional sports. We're just now entering an age where more and more members of the pro ranks have families. Snowboarding's first and second generation pros are getting to an age where the idea of getting hitched and having kids doesn't make them cringe... as much, anyway.

Parenthood has massive implications on the schedules, bank books, and mind sets of new moms and dads. Priorities need to be addressed and rearranged, budgets tweaked and alarm clocks become unnecessary as a baby's 5 AM feeding has a built in notification system. With such an unconventional way of life, pro snowboarders need to adjust a lot of obvious things in their schedules, but also a few things that might not immediately come to mind, like the risk-reward balance involved with their profession.

I caught up with a few pro snowboarders at different stages of parenthood to get their take. Devun Walsh and wife Julia are expecting their first child in April, 2010. Shin Campos and girlfriend Maria had a baby girl, Cora, last spring. DCP and partner (also a former professional snowboarder) Megan Pischke have a two year-old daughter, Leighli. Lastly, and the comparative veterans in this field, Bjorn Leines and wife Kristin, have two boys: 7 year-old Bearakhan and 4 year-old Micaiah Ryder.

What do you think will, or has been, the biggest impact on your scheduling when it comes to traveling?
Walsh: I think I'm just going to be more stoked to be around home. That's one thing that [my sponsor] DC is super good about. A lot of people at DC have families and are really cool about it.
Shin: For sure I now realize how others do it with time management as a priority, and my old selfish ways are now gone. Really, it's all about the baby. Making sure she's happy and well rested and well fed. As a dad, not only is there the baby to help with, but also Cora's Mom, Maria, as she really is the workhorse and glue holding it all together. When I have gone away, it's funny... I'm always wishing I never left because our little girl is changing so much these days that I don't want to miss any of those important milestones.

DCP: Well, it's hard to be away from your kid... I can't do more than two to three weeks, tops. It's a long time away and they grow up so much. Plus now, my daughter knows that I will be gone for a little while, so it makes it harder to leave.
Bjorn: I think the hardest thing for me has been the difference between summer time spent with my boy's and winter time on the road. It's a fairly drastic schedule change for us all. It's awesome how much time we get together, though; it works out to be way more time than your average working dad. It helps to live in Utah, so when the conditions are good it is easier to stay close to home and shoot. But the travel comes with being a pro, so we just deal with it. My wife understands what I need to do to provide for the family, so she's really supportive. Actually, we bought an RV so that they can come on certain trips, as well.

How will, or has, being a parent affected your riding and thought process when thinking about the risks involved with what you do?
Walsh: The risk versus reward aspect has already started to creep in; I have to fight the demons. [laughing] I don't think it will be any worse. I definitely won't be as risky without really planning things out or being more calculated. In all honesty I've always been really calculated, though; I'm not really a risk taker.
Shin: Parenthood has made me think about the future a lot more... before I was always living for the day and moment, where now it's about planning for the future and for her upbringing.
Bjorn: Having a family also can be a motivator to get the shot! You want to get as much accomplished as possible, so that I know I'm doing my best to take care of them. It really hasn't changed my mindset of going out and believing in what trick or line to take; even with the known consequence and variables of risk or getting hurt. I just simply try to minimize the risk factors. Being a pro snowboarder you have to remain in a constant state of evolution of how you ride; be confident and push yourself further.

How has becoming a parent changed the way you live and think on a day-to-day basis?
Shin: I was always pretty sure I didn't want my life to change too drastically when we had a child, but now as I look back at the last year and a half since Maria got pregnant and Cora was born, life has most definitely changed. I never look too deep into the meaning of life, but I now believe that bringing another human into this world is one of life's challenges. I mean this in the most positive and gratifying way, too. To accept the responsibility of raising another person with someone else is a test, a gift, an unconditional journey... OK, now I'm getting a bit cheesy about it! [laughing]
DCP: It's incredible to think you have a little someone to teach how to ride, and that you will be riding with you the rest of your life.
Bjorn: My family is a huge part of my strength to be in the right mentality of charging as hard as possible!

------------------------
Related:
Behind The Celtek Clan with Bjorn and Erik Leines
DCP is Fresh
Devun Walsh: Team Captain

Just Another Brick in Eddie's Wall

2009-11-23T23:04:00Z

Born and raised in Rome, Pennsylvania, Eddie Wall cut his proverbial shred teeth at Snow Mountain, a.k.a. Montage Mountain. Now 16 years deep on his board with the last a decade as a pro, Eddie is no stranger to the trials and tribulations that come with making a living sliding around on a shred stick. Coming off a healthy season for the first time in three years, he has his mind set on putting together another solid part for the infamous Forum videos that blow minds year in and year out. Using many different modern means of communication, I was able to put together the following juicy tidbits of information... straight from the work horse's mouth, if you will.

It seems you traverse between Mammoth Lakes and San Clemente. Where do you consider home, if anywhere?
I guess I would say San Clemente because I am actually here most of the summer. The winters are spent traveling the whole time. I used to just travel 12 months a year for snowboarding, and then also skating in the summer, but now I am happy to just chill on my down time.

Down time? Pro shreds aren't supposed to have down time... [laughing] What is your skate terrain of choice?
I've made friends with a few of the Circa skaters in So Cal. They have good spots and the keys to some of the private skateparks in the area. We usually go to the Zero T.F. and skate there ‘cause it's private and no pads are required, which is really nice, and it's indoor so weather isn't an issue. Otherwise we just skate the benches and tables we have at [Tony] Tave's house or go to the Etnies park.

I would say your snowboarding style definitely has a skate influence. Is that by choice, or is that just how it comes out in the wash?
I have never really worked or tried to make my style. If it has a "skate" style it may be because I grew up skating before snowboarding, and have continued to skate almost every day... maybe it's also because I enjoy filming in the streets and that's just because I feel like I can get far more creative with building and rails and stuff than anywhere else.

You and your Forum compatriots had a rough time with injuries these past few years... Tell me about it.
The level of pro riding has been getting pretty crazy these days; really tech tricks on huge rails and giant jumps. Almost everyone on the team has had pretty serious injuries. I've shattered my knee cap and also my collarbone over the last few years with a total of seven surgeries to fix them. Peter broke his back, John Jackson hurt his knee, [Jake] Welch hurt his knee, Stevie [Bell] hurt his foot... pretty much everyone's paying the price these days.

BS 3 to BS 3.

It seems like you either stomp it or head to the clinic for sure... Has your approach to learning new tricks or hitting new things changed?
My thought and actions have changed so much since I was younger... I used to jump down or huck myself off or onto anything. Now I am much more calculated and take every little detail into my mind: Looking at in-runs and out-runs for any obstacles; and when learning tricks I go over it for a long time before I actually just chuck my body into something.

Walk us through your routine before dropping in to hit a jump, line, rail, whatever, for the first time. What goes on inside Eddie Wall's mind moments before the cameras roll?
I am usually at the drop-in picturing myself doing the trick over and over in my head, just visualizing myself doing it perfect every time... just imagining going off the lip and into the air or onto a rail and being completely calm. Then once I drop in, I usually just sing a song in my head and don't think about anything at all; just call the trick and sing a song in my head and block out all thoughts. When you think about a trick as you're trying it, that's when you'll fuck it up. Your mind has to be blank. Like the Jedi's say: "Don't think, do." [laughing]

How are things now? Are you looking to be 110% for the upcoming season? How will you get there?
This last season while we filmed for Forever, I stayed pretty healthy the entire time, so I am really happy with my part in that. The ‘09/'10 season is coming up very soon and I have just been skating, surfing, and working out, trying to stay fit for the next winter.

What are your general plans for the next 12 months?
Just film the best part I possibly can; get as creative and gnarly as possible in the streets and in the backcountry... try to get as many photos as possible and maybe do a few contests here and there if they are able to work in between film trips. That's about it.

Switch FS 180 to BS Rodeo 5.

What contests are you looking at doing?
Maybe the Dew Tour, but I think Forum wants their riders focusing on putting out the best video parts possible, so I'm not sure. Maybe some rail jams; those are fun.

Are contests something you do more for the business side of snowboarding or do you still enjoy them?
I enjoy them if the course is good. If the jumps are 100 feet and the rails are quad kinks, then it sucks. But if you have good people there building all the features and the course is fun and progressive, then I always have fun.

What's going on for next year's video? I have heard mixed messages regarding another two-year project. Who will be working on that bad boy?
I am actually not totally sure. I have some ideas of what is going on. but I am not sure if I am allowed to talk about it yet... Maybe I can talk about it, but I am not sure, and I am not going to get yelled at! [laughing] But no matter what happens, Forum takes a lot of pride into it, and puts everything they have into making the best movies they can, so I am sure you can expect something good.

Do you have any surprises on the back-burner for the video, or are you more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of guy?
Fly by the seat... I always have a few little ideas of things I would like to try, like a certain rail trick or jump trick or wall ride or something, but I have found it usually takes being in the environment and seeing what you have to work with before you can call out any actual tricks. That's what I like about the city: you just drive around and imagine all sorts of new shit.

(Please visit the site to view this media)
Eddie Wall teaser for Forum's Forever.

Moving forward -- not that you're anywhere near finished with snowboarding yet -- but where do you see yourself after you hang up your outerwear for good? What's next?
To be completely honest, I have no idea... I definitely want to ride for as long as I can; definitely a few more years. As for the future, I have started playing a lot of guitar and writing a lot of songs, so maybe music. I just opened with a solo acoustic set in San Clemente a week ago for a pretty big band, and that was a blast. So music would be cool... Maybe work in the industry, too. Maybe host a TV show or something... I don't know. I guess I'll just cross that bridge when I get to it.

-----------------------
Related:
Forum Forever Toronto Premiere + Eddie and Peter Interview
That's "Mister" Peter Line To You

Spencer O'Brien: All Hands On Deck

2009-11-17T00:25:00Z

Alert Bay, B.C. is a small fishing village on an island off the north-east tip of Vancouver Island. How small? A total population of 556 small. Walk around the coast of the Island in an afternoon small. This place has only one ATM and one grocery store... but what it does have, is bragging rights to being the home town of superstar sister pro shreds Spencer and Meghann O'Brien. The younger, Spencer, was four years-old when the family moved to Courtney, on Vancouver Island. Still not a bustling metropolis, but certainly a huge city center in comparison to Alert Bay.

At 11 years-old, Spencer began tagging along with her sister on snowboard trips to Mount Washington. "I definitely looked up to my older sister Meghann," Spencer explains, "she's a few years older and is the reason I wanted to start riding and the reason I wanted to start competing. She's been a big inspiration for me throughout the years."

Spencer moved to Squamish when she was 17 and then on to Whistler at 18, finishing up high school through home schooling. Now, at 21, Spencer is living in North Vancouver. She made the move to not only escape the "Whistler bubble", but mostly to be closer to the airport to help ease her extensive contest travel schedule. Coming off her best year yet - she's currently the Women's Dew Tour Slopestyle Champ -- Spencer is spending time with friends and family, and keeping her mind occupied with a new found love in the kitchen before starting up the contest routine all over again in a few weeks.

What did you get up to all summer?
Well, at the end of May and June I went to Europe with my boyfriend for a month and a half. I had never been to Europe before, not even for riding, and I've always really wanted to go, so...we planned this trip and rented a car and drove through France, Italy, Croatia and Austria. We just kind of camped most of the way. It was really fun! No snowboard bags. I just totally wanted to do the traveling thing and check that out, because I've never gotten to do that when I'm going snowboarding somewhere. It was so nice to not be carrying 200 pounds of stuff with me. [laughs]

How long are you usually away when you go on your contest circuits in the winter?
Usually I will spend December and January -- I come home for Christmas every year -- but I will usually do the rest of December and January in Colorado doing contests. I try to come home as much as I can. I do like to ride Whistler, and if I have time I like to take my sled out, but last year that didn't happen very much. This year I have February off, so I am going to do a trip with Red Bull with Marie [France Roy] and Annie [Boulanger] and hopefully do a trip with Janna [Meyen] somewhere. I'm hoping to get some powder because I didn't get any of that last year. [laughing]

Speaking of Colorado, the Winter Dew Tour, in which you are the reigning Women's Slopestyle Dew Cup Champion, is coming up December 18^th to 20^th. Are you back on that tour to defend your title?
Yeah, totally! I am going to see how the first event goes. Because of the Olympics, all the rest of the events are really overlapping each other this year. Specifically the Dew Tour and the Burton Global Open. I am going to see how I do in the first Dew Tour and then make a decision from there. If I do well at the Dew Tour then I will probably be doing those stops, but if not then I might end up doing the Burton Global Open instead.

What's the reasoning for doing the Burton Global Open instead of the Dew Tour?
Well, my sponsor, Burton. It's obviously their event and they would be stoked if I did it. Plus it's a much larger grand prize if you do win the overall title, so that's some good incentive... but I do like the Dew Tour and I have a lot of fun at them, so I am just going to play it by ear see how I do and decide from there.

Have you been doing anything, besides baking, to get ready for the season?
[Laughing] Yeah! I've been working out with my trainer a bunch that Red Bull set me up with. He's awesome and is getting me good and strong for the season. I've just been working out a bunch and trying to relax and recharge my batteries.

You had a couple parts with Runway Films when they were up and running. Do you have any plans on getting back into shooting a video part, or will you just to continue to chase contests for a while?
I'm definitely going to concentrate on contests again for this year, but I do want to get back into shooting video parts again for sure. I really, really like filming and it's something I want to devote more time too, it's just kind of... I want to make sure that I'm not overloading myself; that I'm not doing a little bit of everything. I think sometimes, when people try to do everything, then they don't really do that well in anything. I'm going to keep doing contests while I'm stoked on them, and then when I have a bit more free time I definitely want to start filming again. But, no plans for this year, mostly just contests.

Now, most importantly, what have you been baking lately and how do I get some?
The other night I made lemon loaf, and ginger snap cookies. I can get you some next time you are in Vancouver. [laughing]

When did you get into baking?
Last fall I really got into the Food Network. I'm a total Food Network nerd. I started getting really into cooking and baking. I don't know; it's just a really good way for me to pass the time during the off season because I don't have much to do. Kind of like my new hobby...

From what I understand, baking is more chemistry than anything else. What's your take on that?
Yeah, totally, but you don't really have to think about it or anything because it's just all in the recipe. But it is [chemistry], you can't just do a little bit here and a little bit there, you have to follow the recipe and make sure the ingredients are right or else it's not going to turn out properly.

Kind of like my grade eight science experiment with the vinegar and baking soda?
[laughing] Exactly like that...

Spencer proudly rides for Burton, Red Bull, Dragon, Nixon, Lifetime, Etnies and Coastal Riders Boardshop.

P.S:

I managed to also track down Meghann, Spencer's older sister, for some insight...

Meghann on Spencer:

"My fondest memory of her is being a little girl with curly hair, when she was in dance class (she was such a good dancer!), and playing volleyball."

"My worst memory of her is her freaking out at Dairy Queen when she was 3."

"I knew she would be a snowboard force to be reckoned with when she learned her backside 180s when she was 14, maybe...then when she got rookie at US Open at 17"

"I'm super flattered that my sister is a pro because I encouraged her when she was little...or that she looked up to me. That's a nice feeling."

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Related:
The Award-Winning Marie France Roy
Spencer O'Brien Signs With Red Bull
Inside Infamous Management with Roberta Rodger