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Mike Taylor skiing as a young man.
Powder’s Art Director Mike Taylor is the happiest son-of-a-bitch alive. English-born, Canadian-raised and American-employed, he goes through almost every minute of life like he just found a hundred bucks under a box of kittens at the end of a rainbow that shits Skittles. He also makes InDesign his little bitch and is responsible for making BroBomb contributor Cody Townsend look really, really good on the cover of last year’s September issue of The Skier’s Magazine (admire that snow blending perfectly into that storm cycle!). Self-admittedly not a big reader, “Basher” is here to give you all a few books and blogs to check out while the snow sadly melts (or falls) outside your window.
Name: Mike Taylor
Age: 24
Party? Of course.
What was the last book you read? World War Z by Max Brooks.
If you had to be stuck on a lift and could only bring one piece of reading material, what would it be? How long would I be stuck for? If it was a long time I probably bring one of the Twilight books and use it to start a fire to keep me warm.
Top 5 places to go for inspiration: The mountains, galleries, the internet, my house, the bookstore.
Top 3 blogs for design nerds? Designspiration.net, magculture.com, ffffound.com
Before this interview, had you ever heard of BroBomb.com before? Yes, but because of you.
Author’s Note: Ryan Dunfee gave me back my login name. That means I’ll be posting terrible stories in the future, much to the dismay of BroBomb Founder Jon “Bleeding” Hartley. For more regular posts, click here.
New am movie due to come out next fall with the likes of Calgary hoods Dane Ulsifer, Rob Huele, Mike Henitiuk, Sash Lazic, Tanner Davidson, Ryan Waddell, Nate Wood, and other Canuck goons. I think we could get down with this. But to do some due diligence, we got Ulsifer’s take on what these Calganucks are wasting their time doing this winter. Despite the international relations beta I learned watching every episode of Trailer Park Boys, apparently these Canadians don’t just drink, hide hash in the driveway, and steal shopping carts. Soiler alert: They just want to have fun on skis. If you weren’t expecting that.
-Where did the title come from?
Haha, we wanted to just call it something random. Cream of spag is the Lazic household version (fucked version) of cream of wheat…. i think.
by Brody Leven (above photo by Ian Matteson)
As I ride a bus for 12 hours through rural Colombia, destined for Pablo Escobar’s hometown, the first and most intriguing skier I think of is Ian Wade. Perhaps that is because the Colombian girl in front of me is blaring reaggaeton through her knock-off Nokia, the same cell phone that Ian rocked when he was 14. After having the pleasure of skiing with him at Surface Week at Windells this summer, my appreciation for his skillset has only been augmented by his affable self. With a Brobomb-approved style and an entrepreneurial spirit, he’s a Salt Lake mainstay approaching success from a variety of angles.
BRODY: Hey Ian. How’re things?
IAN: Hi Brody, I’m doing well. Just kicking around, working on projects in the store and trying to get some climbing days in before winter.
BRODY: You own and operate Fresh, a clothing boutique in Salt Lake. What the heck? I thought you were a skier, implying a severe lack of realistic initiative and outside influence.
IAN: I was fortunate enough to meet our boy Mike Schneider [Surface Skis president] at a young age while he was running [the late] Union skate shop. He had a huge influence on me. The stuff Mike was doing at Union seemed far ahead of what anyone else was doing at the time, and I knew I wanted to be part of something like it. Years later, when Helen, my business partner, started cooking up an idea of starting a clothing store, I had to get involved.
JP Auclair. Orage photo
After 8 years on the job as the figurehead of the Orage team, JP Auclair is leaving Orage. He’ll now be donning the garments of the company he part owns, Armada, and will be helping them step up their backcountry-minded offerings. BroBomb’s Jon Hartley got the scoop.
BroBomb: How was the split with Orage? How did you handle it? How did they? What brought it on?
JP: The split with Orage was pretty emotional, just like any 8 year relationship, it definitely felt like a break up. I think both Orage and I handled it well. Keeping a cool head as best we could and looking at the facts. I think the mutual respect helped a lot. There is no bitterness whatsoever on my side and I’d like to think that there is none on Orage’s side either. I’m very proud of the work I’ve done with Orage and when I look back on the years I spent working with them, it brings a smile to my face.
Photos courtesy of Ryan Hackbarth
At 16 and bored with the outdoorsy Tahoe routine, Moment skiers Jordan Spohr decided to pull off an ambitious prank that involves crashing through the ceiling of the local Rite Aid in a ridiculous outfit during business hours – what ended up being a solid 22-foot plunge. While Spohr escaped the store and mobbed into a waiting car, the crew were quickly identified and Spohr went to juvenile detention for felony vandalism. Here Jordan recounts his colorful teenage days:
How did you guys come up with the idea for this prank?
Growing up in Truckee is a bittersweet thing, especially in the summertime. You can only hike and camp and do hippy stuff for so long without getting bored. At 16, I was more reckless than I am these days, which says a lot.
“Holy shit there are still skiers at Loon and Waterville??” was my reaction when I saw this video the other week. While the pair of NH hills has grown and hosted stellar ski scenes in the past, and used to even have some rad ski contests like The Weekend , Waterville and Loon have lately been known as snowboard-only mountains. So it was to my surprise to see a stellar edit of a kid (yes, in tight pants) shredding the signature orange and red rails. We thought it was worth getting to know this anomaly and hear his thoughts on the Loon scene and East Coast skiing in general, although we’re not sure how strong the Venice analogy is…
My name is Mark Pomykato. I am a male human being from New Hampshire. What I’m doing currently is attempting to cool down my apartment since they decided to turn the heat on when it was 65 degrees outside. I live on the fourth floor. Heat rises.
How you got on Surface?
Pretty much just sent them a video from my season and they were stoked. Ended up going to hood for surface week at windless and met all the dudes with Surface. Its a rad crew I’m stoked to be riding for them.
What’s the COP (Canadian Olympic Park) scene like:
COP is pretty funny its full of little senders and there is lots of ski clubs. Also if you’re lucky you get to dodge a dad taking his 4 year old kid through the big jump line. But all in all sick having a fun park right in the city that’s also open at night, it makes it easy to always fit in time to go skiing. It also helps that its 10 minutes from my house.
We sit down on a chairlift in California in the ides of June with Moment skier Jordan Spohr to discuss his obsession with trains and new trainhopping hobby. Ski wangsters are advised not to attempt the advice proferred in this short film.
…also in case you forgot what Jordan skis like, here’s how he skis…like.
Defenders of Possum II from MOMENT on Vimeo.
Ninthward is one of the least-understood brands in the ski world, yet one that managed to keep Henrik Harlaut on their skis for a good while after getting picked up by Oakley and Monster until he ultimately decided to part ways and head over to Armada. And despite not being among the most outspoken companies in skiing, Mickael Descheneux and Rory Silva – two of the sport’s more eccentric and mold-breaking personalities to date – are still heavily involved in the company . Earlier this summer, we took a minute to see what was going on with one of skiing’s most elusive brands. Responses are from Ninthward’s Shane Chandlee.
We don’t hear much from Ninthward these days. Where are you guys at as a company?
As a company, the past 10 years Ninthward has supported and maintained skiing core revolutionary structure, now proud to say producing hand crafted skis in an advanced manufacturing facility in Quebec.
Ninthward has been forced to hunker down three times due to manufacturing relocation from USA to Europe and back to North America. As a small company, time nor money never seems to be on our side, however patience helps when you want to produce the best ski on the market. The move process takes a year from conception to prototype and this past year’ss move from Europe to Canada was essential to achieve the future of ski technology.
Henrik Harlaut during the Ninthward days.
HHow did you guys manage to keep Henrik Harlaut on the team for so long as he was getting picked up by progressively bigger sponsors? Did his family’s champagne empire have anything to do with it?
No, E. Harlaut Champagne had nothing to do with Henrik’s move to Armada.
Henrik’s strong passion for Ninthward involved him at 14, and he still believes in the brands loyalty. He realized Ninthward is like no other brand in the market. He stuck his heart and soul out there for us therefore deserves to live as a very successful life as a professional ski athlete in whom Ninthward could no longer increase the support needed for him to achieve his maximum potential. Armada seems to be doing well and Ninthward hopes the best for Henrik and prosperity. I speak with him from time to time and we miss him dearly.