BroBomb: What’s your status these days?

Steve Stepp: Currently going to school full time and shreddin’ a ton. Amplid Skis and Saga Outerwear are hooking it up a ton, much appreciation. Same with Josh at Full Tilt!

A lot of people are claiming to have grown up at a shitty park these days. I happen to know a little something about Ski Roundtop and I can vouch that it’s in the running for the shittiest. How did that mountain make Steve Stepp the skier? And you can’t say work ethic, that’s been done.

Well firstly, I’m not about to talk shit on my home mountain…It’s where I learned to ride. When Dave Gruber was running the park, things couldn’t be better. I learned a lot at my home mountain, but I can’t attribute ability to how good the park was. I skied with good friends who all wanted to learn new things, and that’s really what moved my progression. Park features are a key component in learning new stuff, but I think having a crew to learn with is more important.

I remember a particularly shitty day at RT when one of your minions told me you were all working on your right side spins because it was so shitty. Do you still progress in such a methodical way?

I think that day was a rare exception where the current state of the features drove us to learn new tricks. Currently, I just work on a single trick over and over during the entire day until I get it. Then the next day it’s usually burned into my brain and I can improve it.

It’s not exactly trendy to talk about ski racing, but I’m pretty sure you grew up racing at RT right? Do you think as many kids are starting there, or just jumping straight to the park?

I did actually grow up racing, and I would advise anyone interested in trying to ski park to learn moguls or racing. Skiing’s about to become just like snowboarding… Kids see pros doing backflips and jump right into the park without learning any fundamentals. Soon skiers are going to be the ones flying down the hill uncontrollably gunning straight for the park.

How was coaching summer camp? What kind of coach are you?

Coaching this summer was amazing. I met a ton of cool kids, and learned a bunch myself. I try to coach as assertively as possible by let the campers hit features they’re interested in… but I still have to make sure they don’t sit around all day. It’s pretty rewarding to see your camper stomp a new trick and get stoked.

For those of us who haven’t been to camp…what’s the day look like? What’s the division between just free riding and actual X’s and O’s of different tricks?

Well the whole day is coaching, not much freeriding. Sometimes you”ll get an advanced group that doesn’t need much coaching at all, then its just lapping the park and freeskiing all day.

What’s the quickest progression you’ve seen from a camper? Like from what level of tricks, to the biggest thing that kid landed in 1 session?

Well progression happens at all levels. I’ve seen kids who can’t spin 360s learn spins up to a 9. I had one group this summer where every single camper learned either 9’s 10’s or some kind of invert. Pretty cool.

If you could have an unlimited budget for a ten minute Steve Stepp edit, what would it look like? (song, locations, tricks, features)

It would be filmed in Egypt with man made snow and mummies everywhere, and T.I’s  “You Don’t Know me” would repeat for 10 minutes. So epic.

What’s the future of your rail game?

I’ve been working on rail tricks that Casabon, Henrik and Hornbeck have innovated…. Lots of taps, nollies and 50-50’s. Im still stickin’ hard to the pretzel game though.