INTERVIEW

Tell us a little about yourself?
I’m 25 years old, from a small town in Saskatchewan called Battleford. I currently live in Golden, BC via Canmore, AB.

How do you express yourself? What do you do?
I ride powder. I ride about 80 days a season in the backcountry via a snowmobile. We can be in the alpine in about a half hour from our driveway. We shred powder all day, on snowboards and sleds.

How did you get your start?
I first started snowboarding in about 1990 on a toboggan hill a couple blocks from home back in Sasky. My brother Devin and I had a Black Snow that just had little loops to slide your feet into for bindings. We rode that thing for a couple of years and then graduated to Black Snows with strap bindings and metal edges. That was when we started hitting the lift accessed slopes.

What's your home hill?
Table Mountain, Saskatchewan. I think its about 300 vertical feet or so, there’s about 10 runs. It was pretty fun, we had a really sweet shred posse growing up there. I don’t really have a home hill anymore. I had a season pass at Kicking Horse this year but I wouldn’t say that it’s my home hill. I guess the backcountry surrounding Golden is.

Park, pipe or big mountain?
I used to ride park all season. Now I prefer the powder. Its just so much softer. The riding in the backcountry around here is insane, its nearly endless and there is hardly anyone here.

What is an average day for you?
Shred season days go kind of like this…
Wake up, eat, then get ready to go shredding. Go shredding. Come home, eat supper. Go grooming. Come home, go to sleep. Wake up and do it again. Times of day these things happen are ever changing.

Who are your influences?
People that snowboard because they love it. That’s it.

Advice to those coming up?
Quit school or your job or your life, whatever it is that takes up the majority of your time and just shred because you love it.

Words to live by......
“Grip it and rip it bro” -Sergio Gonzalez

What music is in your IPOD?
All kinds. I listen to a variety, depends on my mood and the time of day. I mostly listen to Neil Young, CCR, Zeppelin, Biggie Smalls, Method Man and Wu Tang, Gang Starr, Lost Boyz, Corb Lund…tones of different stuff.

What's on your desert island?
My girlfriend, a sweet beach with a beach break, a mountain with snow on it year round, a fishing rod, maybe a pet dog, not too much, easy living.

You're successful when you're......
Smiling everyday.

What's in your pocket right now?
Just my wallet.

What do you spend your summers doing?
Working. I try to do between 50 and 60 hours a week from May until November. Save as much as I can while paying off as much debt as I can. It’s a constant battle, its hard to go forward when you only work half the year.

Tell us about your worst spill?
I eat it all the time. Worst one though? I’d say either kneeing myself in the face in the backcountry in Valemount this season or belly flopping a quarter pipe at Lake Louise a few years ago, that one had a high speed ambulance ride to the hospital in Calgary. Knee to the face was the scariest and most painful at the time but the belly flop took a while to recover from and super scary once I was at the hospital.

What's the goal for this coming season?
Don’t get hurt. Ride pow with my friends.

Last words....
Thanks to everyone at Arson: Dave, Matt and the staff at Unlimited, Randy at Olive, D’Anderson, Tim and Battrum for all the gear. Brain, Kelly and the Calgary dudes for teaching me how to sled. My friends, for being positive about shredding everyday no matter what the conditions. My family, for understanding that this is what I do. Renee, for putting up with me. That’s all.