With a serious lack of creative jam competitions like this one, there’s very little room for quirky non-doublecorkers in skiing. Garrett Russell stands out as a member of a small club that has rejected the jock norm and carved out a separate space. We talked to him about being a badass ninja renegade, and what it’s like to do such weird tricks.

It seems like snowboarding has room for a bunch of guys who are never going to hit the big jump or do tricks you’d see in competition. What would you say has kept skiing in this mindset of correct, or better, tricks to be done on a particular rail/jump?

Its background. Coming from racing the seed is planted in there and it’s really hard to get away from it. Skiing came from racing, so you have to ski with ski poles and you have to do this or that. Growing up we were, or for me, I was watching Shane McConkey and Scot Schmidt and those guys were extreme and they stepped outside the boundary.

I think, just recently snowboarding has started that where it’s kind of like skateboarding. Like the Think Thank crew, they’re just crazy creative. I think skiing will catch on to different kinds of variations. I think Traveling Circus is a type of variation. Will we ever see Andy Parry do a doublecork? I don’t know, but maybe we’ll build a backcountry jump and he’ll try it. It will be pretty funny, but that’s just for shits and giggles.

As someone with some perspective on the industry, would you say there’s starting to be room for people who are doing it differently?

I think it’s slowly growing into that. Remember back in FREEZE, it was the same five people over and over again. I was pretty excited during this X Games because there were a whole bunch of new cats, new people. That’s pretty cool.

I think there will be room for it because at some point people are just going to want something that’s different and appeals to a different public. I read that only 3% of the US population skis. It’s so crazy and it’s such a gift that we get to live this life. Some people just don’t see it; they come from money, they ski, and they expect everybody to know who they are. You can tell there are a lot of professional skiers who came from a background of money and racing. I didn’t come from that, and I know that if I didn’t have sponsors there’s no way I’d be able to afford to ski like this. So I’m super appreciative of those guys who have helped me, and I just want to get the public stoked on skiing. That’s what will keep the sport alive.

I’ve heard, second hand, that you have this theory that there’s way more to be done on boxes than on rails.

Yeah…who knows? I guess it depends what you consider fun and what you want to do. I mean you’ve got finger flips to putting your boot in on the box or even fastplants. Skiing is not skateboarding though.

I hang out with lots of snowboarders because they’re my bros, and they’re like, “Why do you guys call that a nollie?” But I didn’t name it, dude. So I’ll call that a “just the tips.” So I’ve got the just-the-tip 270 where you spin off your tips and onto the rail. There’s tons you can do on a box, and some people are going to think it’s whack and some aren’t. It’s up to them.

Do your snowboard buddies give you shit because we’re calling something a nollie?

They do, but they always tell me, “You guys aren’t going switch, it’s brownstar.” My buddy has this company called Snow Dice and he’s going to make it for skiers now. Instead of the word “switch” there’s going to be a little brown star.

Naming stuff is funny. I did the “English muffin” and I didn’t have a name for it, it was just a tip and tail grab. Then kids started saying I just did an English muffin. The funny thing is I would get judged by people asking why I would name a trick like that, but I didn’t name it. The name found me, I guess.

If you’re unfamiliar with all the silly tricks Garrett is talking about, check this edit from last year at Mammoth: