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Jeff Schmuck on Our Poll

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

We’ve heard Chris O’Connell’s take on the print side of things, but Mr. Schmuck comes to you from the biggest online freeski forum/community in the world: Newschoolers.com.

Check it out, and add your 2 cents to the conversation. These guys are giving honest and candid responses, but your perspective is just as legitimate.

“The process of how I determine who gets coverage on Newschoolers is pretty informal, and admittedly there’s times when I fly by the seat of my pants a bit, as we have a bloodthirsty wolfpack of an audience who likes to be fed with as much content as possible, so I have to stay on top of making sure I’ve got a stockpile of meat for them to chew on. As a result of that we don’t have as much time as the magazines to sit around and consider/plan different editorial options, so at the end of the day I’m basically open to interviewing or doing a story on any athlete who’s of some significance, whether it be because they just won X Games or put a cool edit online that everyone thinks is the bees’ knees.

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What the Industry Thinks

Monday, August 30th, 2010

I have sent some requests for comment on our recent poll, but as yet only Chris O’Connell has responded. I was going to go with some short quips, but his response is so thorough and accurate that I’d be doing it an injustice by only excerpting the juiciest bits. I’ll let him handle the introduction, enjoy:

Here goes…
So for a bit of background to start: At SBC I work as Editor as well as Photo Editor and I have different approaches for each when I’m planning out the magazine as far as who gets play and who doesn’t. Overall though, to unfortunately quote a moronic beer commercial, it’s all about balance.
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Surface and Skullcandy (not the press release)

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

As you may or may not have heard, Surface is teaming up with Skullcandy for a line of co-branded skis, poles, headphones, and other trinkets. The press release has been posted and reposted on most skiing related websites, but there were still some nagging issues we wanted to clear up. We decided to ask Mike Schneider, the man behind the “the fastest growing brand in freeskiing,” a few questions.

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Tags: skullcandy audio, surface skis

Literate Skiers: Erik Olson

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

literate skiers

Erik Olson leads a bi-coastal nomadic existence. You can catch him in all of the offerings from Meatheads Films, and in several webisodes of Traveling Circus. He’s currently posted up in Oregon and shredding Mt. Hood between the raindrops. He took some time to plug back in and answer some questions about books.

Have you ever gotten any reading done on the chairlift?

No way, that doesn’t sound like any fun. For me, skiing is about being on the mountain. I make an effort to leave all distractions at home. I never ride with music, and rarely have my phone with me. The same kind of idea applies to when I read, just creating a favorable environment for whatever I’m doing at the moment. The only time I can remember seeing someone read on the lift was probably five years ago. It looked miserable… snow, wind, cold. I just remember thinking this kid must have been the biggest nerd on earth. Click to continue »

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Tags: erik olson, literate skiers

Literate Skiers: Blake Nyman

Friday, May 28th, 2010

literate skiers

Blake Nyman is a fixture in the Nimbus videos and webisodes. He recently took some time away from filming all forms of slashes, nose butters, and pow turns with the homies to catch up on his roadbiking and sightseeing in the Big Apple. Twitter tells us he’s headed back to snowy Oregon with Banks Gilberti, but he still found time to recommend some books to expand your tiny minds.

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Tags: blake nyman, joystick, literate skiers, surface

Literate Skiers: Mike Rogge

Friday, May 21st, 2010

literate skiers

As a BroBomb reader, you likely harbor an inner-nerd. If not, you would be too busy working on your trampoline triple-cork to bother with something like reading. In celebration of the nerds that grow up and create all the interesting stuff that makes up our little subculture, I present to you: Literate Skiers the Mike Rogge Edition. Mike has recently graduated from running Ski The East to being the new Associate Editor at Powder Magazine and California’s newest resident. We hear the Ski Show will be back in business shortly, but in the meantime enjoy his reflections on winter reading. Click to continue »

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Tags: get extreme with a book, reading is FUNdamental

The Michelle Parker Interview

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Michelle Parker, initially a Tahoe jib rat, was one of the first female skiers to really try and send tricks in the backcountry, and still has one of the most confident-looking styles in the good ‘ol BC. No estranger to the comp scene, Michelle has Dew Tour podiums under her belt as well as enough knee injuries to fund her surgeon’s car payments, mortgage, and private school tuition for the kids. Michelle is core as it gets, and has injured herself landing on rocks, off jumps, and over-rotating a 360 off a 60 foot cliff way before any other girls would even look over the edge.

After a solid year off the hill Michelle is “hungry,” both to get back to slaying it on her Hellbents and also for the organic roasted corn pudding she has spent the winter perfecting. Michelle, creator of the healthiest munchies in the snowsports industry, has been skiing lightly since February and took the time to answer some questions from BroBomb.

michelle water photo: Joe Carlino

BroBomb: There are a number of female skiers, Ingrid Backstrom, Kaya Turski, Sarah Burke, and yes, Michelle Parker, whose skiing just blows you away, but for a long time, the talent dropped off relatively quickly. It didn’t seem like a lot of new blood was getting infused into the group, but now it seems like we’re seeing more up-and-comers. Why do you think women’s freeskiing took so long to grow? Were all the good athletes snowboarding or racing?

Michelle: That’s a tough question. I think that the ladies you mentioned have been continuously progressing and there are a lot of hungry young girls out there right now. Being that I was injured for the last year, I got to judge some female competitions and I was really impressed with some of the up and comers throwing down. It seems, to me, that every company has their girl. They’ve got that one girl that represents them. At least that was how it went for a while, not leaving much room for the young talent to move in a make a mark on the industry. Aside from the lack of female competitions (that’s a big one) it’s incredibly difficult for girls to get film parts and not because of lack of talent or commitment. They are out there and when the opportunity presents itself, they throw down!! It’s just a shame there aren’t as many opportunities (like a U.S. Open).

michelle parker cliff photo: Collin Wiseman

Biggest female-specific grievance about being a pro skier?

Being that this is a sport dominated by men or boys (in many cases), I tend to flock with them, travel with them, and spend every waking moment with them. That’s all fine and dandy because I appreciate every one of them, but men/boys have this annoying tendency to snore. It’s okay with me when they snore in synch, but when it sounds like my brother trying to learn the French horn; I have to draw the line and request to sleep elsewhere. Usually the team manager takes care of that in advance and I’m okay with a little less sleep on occasion…I can deal. Really though, I mean really…I’m a pro skier and life is good.

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Tags: michelle parker, physical therapy hall of fame, slow food

Telluride Wednesday? Still Garrett

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

100_0386

Wednesdays are good too. Our weekly discussion with Master Garrett continues with a discussion of skis, the ancient arts, and summertime fun.

Goals?

It feels like I’ve jumped away from the scene of the ski industry, but I feel like I’m actually building a different level for my skiing career. That’s the backup plan. I don’t know if I’ll ever become pro, and I don’t want to be pro. I don’t even like that word, it’s just a label. I want to be a master of it, a full-on ninja. I want to totally figure it out so I can do it forever, as long as I can ski.

You could be skiing’s first ninja.

My name means “warrior” and I’m out there battling the mountain, you know? It could easily take my life.

What skis are you on now that the Anthem and Elizabeth are gone?

I’m on the Mastermind now. The first couple runs I was just like, “Whoaah, edges!” I could have died, but then I just found a file and took all the edge off. Then it was fun, but just doing a noseblock felt different. They’re a little bit skinnier and it took me a second to find out where my balance point was on ‘em. Then they just felt like a regular ski, but I haven’t ridden on a ski that narrow in a long time.

I’ve got a pair of EP Pros too, I’ll mount those up as soon as I get some more bindings. Those things are like my broadsword. I’ve got my katana, and then those are my broadsword.

I love this ninja analogy, you’ve really thought it through.

I don’t know man. I love Japan, I love that culture, and it’s fun. Ninjas are dope, and they did exist.

Did you study any martial arts?

No. I got kicked out, I think. I kicked a kid. I was young and I never did very well in karate classes or anything like that. I wasn’t much of a person to follow authority. I couldn’t do teamwork either; I did terrible in soccer. I’ve never been able to do anything team oriented—basketball and baseball, I did not fit in at all.

I was kind of an outcast in middle school and high school and just found sanctuary in the mountains.

How about the summers?

Most people surf or do something like that for their escape. I like to fly fish, because it’s not extreme. You can just hang out by the river and learn the ways like Siddhartha.

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Tags: garrett russell, ski ninja, telluride tuesday

Telluride Tuesday: Just the Tip

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

vista garrett russell telluride ninja

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.

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Tags: brownstar, garrett russell, just the tip, snow dice, telluride tuesday

Level 1’s Freedle Coty Talks “Superunknown”

Friday, March 26th, 2010

superunknown 7

Each year the ski internet buzzes with predictions for who will win Level 1’s Superunknown competition. As each wave of finalist edits are released, the speculation only increases. This year, Alaska native Logan Imlach took the honors by mixing backcountry with some creative and burly urban. Level 1’s Freedle Coty was kind enough to answer a few questions about judging, past winners, and Logan’s future with the crew.

This is the seventh year of Superunknown– has the contest changed now that most of the contestants are already minor celebs with edits all over the internet?

Not necessarily, first off there’s plenty of people we haven’t heard of as we don’t have time to sit and watch every edit, all day. Every year a few kids come out of the woodwork that are unknowns even in the internet edit culture. This year I personally had heard of, or knew, 5 of the top selections. Kids who watch edits religiously definitely have a better tab on this kind of stuff on a day to day basis.

How aware were you of Logan prior to the contest?

Not aware. I had never heard of him.

When the edits are submitted, what does the judging process look like?

We go through all the videos one by one when they come in, that’s the mind numbing part. This year Berman did all that himself because no one else was around; he has a good eye for that. Sometimes you can tell right away what will make it or not and from there we select a top tier, and watch those more closely. Now with the amount, and the level of talent, it comes down to two tiers, and that’s what we released on Vimeo. The top tier we show as many people who are close to or in our crew and try to come to a consensus. It’s not democratic necessarily, nor is it a “best edit” contest which I think a lot of people confuse for. We look for an overall impression of talent and personality primarily, with potential being the biggest factor. It’s not easy. The last two years we struggled on choosing the winner, but this year I think it was slightly easier.

Does it ever get like a draft, where you’re looking to fill a particular hole in your “team”?

Yeah, I guess that can be a factor, but it’s not really the deciding one. There isn’t a rulebook for it, we want diversity. It definitely helps to choose somebody who adds to our crew and movie in some way.

Freedle keeping his opinions to himself.

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Tags: freedle coty, level 1 productions, logan imlach, superunknown