Words by Garrett Russell

Words are fun. You put them together and they make sentences. If you put a lot words together they will either make a run-on sentence or possibly yet, a paragraph.  They can even change your life if worded properly.

The word professional is a weird word in my opinion. It has many different meanings to many different people. I would prefer to not be labeled pro… I don’t know why. Maybe because I am on food stamps and I don’t get paid for skiing. Not that that matters. I hate money and what it does to this world. I can tell you I do have more sweaters and hats than any one person should. I want to sell them but then I usually just give them a way or hold on to them like they have some sort of sacredule (my own word — the meaning is whatever you want it to be).

I wouldn’t be writing this if my friend hadn’t asked me why I haven’t  written for his blog/website thingy. The last few hours I’ve been stuck thinking to myself as if I were writing or telling a story. I don’t even know why he would want me to write anything. I’m just a skier. But this wicked hangover is not helping my brain think of how to not think of things to write. So now I must write… I think I’m doing a horrible job so far.

Garrett, finding the elusive in Argentina this summer.

The snow. Lets talk about the snow. Where the fuck is the snow? I know Europe has it. I almost got to go to Europe for the first time this year. I felt like Europe was all I had left to do before I died. My book would have been complete. Instead, for some jackass reason I fatefully broke my collarbone skiing two weeks before the trip was to embark. Tickets were booked, everything would have been paid for. I would have been traveling in an RV skiing pow, a dream I think we all have, or at least I do.

Something weird I just remembered… when I broke my shit I hit my head pretty hard and didn’t know where I lived.  I knew I was in California, but I dreamed I just got back from Europe, or imagined I was there.  Do you think I warped? Perception is a hell of a thought.

Anywho, I haven’t been able to forgive myself or gotten the balls to get over it yet. I’ve spent days in my bed dwelling on how much of a little bitch I was or what would I be doing right now at that very moment if I were, in fact, in Europe.  The depression spiraled down fast along with the help of fucking downers like hydrocodone and blue skies. Those fucking endless Californian blue skies. God, why? It has been six weeks and it still hasn’t snowed and now my foot hurts from jogging for two hours the other day. Who the fuck jogs and how did I go for two hours? Is it possible to break a bone jogging… is this for real?  Reading this I sound like a wreck.  Just to let you know, I’ve always been a wreck and this is just a moving point in my life…

Back to the snow. I feel this sense of loneliness without it, a missing piece like the story of that round thing that endlessly searches for its missing piece. When it finds it, it realizes it doesn’t need it or want it, and continues on with its life. I think it was a rock, but who knows. Anyhow. When I find it (snow) I sometimes don’t know what the fuck I should do with it. It boggles me how snow dominates my life. It puts me in situations I can’t explain. It creates feelings beyond words I know.  Or I’m just too lazy to put those feelings into words…  this paragraph has a lot of “its” in it, doesn’t it?

I want to give a shout out to all the skiers and shredders out there who kill it on a daily basis or even just for one day. I’m not sure exactly what I think of these triples and crazy competitions these days. I guess I’m just getting old and skiing is doing a full circle back to its days before moguls and “freeskiing.”  Hold true to your dreams and cherish those moments with your friends and magical experiences in the mountains. I send my prayers to the Burke family and all families and friends who snow has touched so profoundly.  And just remember…skiing is a gift, a great blessing from the cosmos. Namaste, motherfuckers.

The Garrett Russell Experience. G-Funk. Garrett. Even if we all call him by different names, we can all rejoice in the fact that Garrett Russell is BACK. After sitting out last season rehabbing a torn ACL, chopping carrots, and drinking whiskey in Telluride, Garrett is back on his feet with a clean bill of health. 

While Garrett got his ski legs back under him in Argentina this summer when he wasn’t throwing his GoPro snake at me, he was mostly ferrying around 15 year olds from Long Island and soul shredding.  Now with the first video evidence of Garrett’s park ninjaship on the internet, I figured it was time to check in.

Brobomb: How’s your knee feeling these days?

Garrett: The knee is feeling great!  It’s this damn collarbone that doesn’t feel so well.  Just broke it last week at Northstar.  I would tell you how, but can’t remember… guess it might be time to wear a helmet now. Concussions are a headache.

Best thing about being back on skis?

I would have to say the best thing about being on skis is anticipating the good days when and if it will ever snow.  Nothing beats a deep storm day with a couple of friends or solo in the mountains.

Best meal you’ve cooked on a camp stove?

All the ones I’ve made while floating down the Grand Canyon… I wouldn’t  be able to remember just one or any of them I just know those taste the best after long days on the river.

What motivated you to move to Tahoe for this winter?

A  combination of things.  One, is no longer having the Alta Lakes Observatory in the family to take care of and maintain… good thing is that it’s in great hands and when I’m ready will be back to help with whatever.  Second, is the Mountain of Telluride was lacking appreciation of its homegrown talent and felt separated from the community. We used to have an insane park. Plus the person who is running the show I have no respect for, Dave Riley.  Third, I supposedly will be coaching at Sierra Nevada College for students who are interested in an experience that makes them understand skiing safely and creatively.  That starts January 20th.

Best thing about Tahoe so far?

Dinner Parties, plus the many new and old faces.  Also having access to four different mountains with sick parks and terrain for only around $800.   And getting involved with Search and Rescue.

Toughest thing you’ve had to do to keep skiing?

I think the toughest thing I’ve had to do keep skiing was not ski for a year after fucking up my ACL and having surgery.  I’ve gained a lot of respect for the many who have endured this and came back to slaughter it!

Who do you look up to the most in skiing?

I look up to the people you’ve probably never heard of… just people to whom shredding is their life, they love and appreciate it, doing whatever it takes to be in the mountains.  Most of them are guides and some are writers who share amazing stories or photographers who BBQ atop mountains waiting and hiking up whatever in anticipation of getting the shot.  My friends.

Favorite moment from this summer in Argentina?

I would say my favorite moment this summer was the day before I left Bariloche.  I survived the season.  Being responsible for fulfilling people’s expectations, friends vacations, and guiding in a foreign country can be quite heavy.  Not even a volcano stopped the family of SGT.  My dad had made it down to visit after not leaving the country since Vietnam and made it safely from Bariloche to Panama, which was my next destination.

I was chilling on the beach with my brother, friend Mauri Cambilla and his girlfriend Steph when it all hit me.  What a fucking insane experience the previous three months have been.  Fuck, the past seven years of endless winter intertwined with how many people I’ve been able to share the dream of living life freely as a skier.

What’s your attitude on drinking, drugs, and skiing?

I once asked an old friend and owner of a ski shop Bob how he’s done it.  Years of being involved in the scene from back in the 70′s to now and still be able to party hard and ski hard.  He responded the ski world is a party you just need to go with it and know your place in it… something like that.

Skiing is surrounded by partying like it’s its own culture.  The people in the industry like it, the gapers who travel to ski love it, and most athletes imitate rock starts.  Just do your best to keep yourself heathy, stay away from hard drugs, don’t drink and drive (not being allowed into Canada fucking blows) and use your head!

Best thing in skiing these days?

The best thing in skiing these days is the gear…  Its changed the sport a lot.  How long you can ski without using too much energy, keeping warm, touring farther, staying alive longer if shit hits the fan.  This also means more gapers lurking all over the place, which is not a good thing.

Dumbest thing in skiing these days?

The lack of healthcare in the sport.  That might change for up and comers with the Olympics and all, but who knows. I feel very fortunate with all my sponsors continuing to support me.  I just wish I could come up with a contract to give them so they could help me out with insurance.  That shit’s expensive!

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.

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:

Since Garrett moved to Telluride, Nimbus probably won’t let him into their chamber of monologues to pontificate on the finer points of style and friendship. This would obviously be a massive loss, so we’ve cleared some space on the internet for Garrett’s ideas on aesthetics, fun, tricks, and style.

I think kids want to know about your approach to selection of terrain. Actually, terrain isn’t the right word, but when watching a Garrett Russell edit it would be hard not to know its you. We all have access to a hundred edits a day, and there’s a lot of sameness, but there’s usually something different about yours. How would you explain your approach that makes it so different?

First of all, thanks man, that’s a great compliment. You’ve got originality and style, and what is style, it’s hard to even explain. I feel that my style of skiing is just creativity and trying to have fun; you know? That’s what it all comes down to, because if you’re not having fun then what’s the point? I used to do a bunch of competitions, but it was just frustrating so I kind of turned my attention away from it and let style create itself and become what it is today.

I’m completely inspired by snowboarding, skateboarding, music, and art. Bruce Lee said, “style is a crystallization.” If you have one style you can’t grow, so I’m constantly trying to intertwine my style with the feelings of the day, the terrain, or the park and just trying to make the best out of it. Life is too short to be salty.

You also do a lot of stuff that requires crazy control of your tips and tails like butters and noseblocks and stuff like that. You still don’t see a ton of guys doing that stuff.

Yeah man, tech mob. In Mammoth, I lived there for six years, and it was sweet because I would watch guys like Pat Bridges, the editor of Snowboard Magazine. I’d be watching him cruise around, and everyone is acting like you have to hit the big jump to work on spins and stuff, but there’d be certain days where I’d just want to do what Pat’s doing. So I’d just fuck around and do noseblocks, and just have fun. Knuckle tricks are really fun, and I just learned a lot by just messing around. The entire tip and tail thing is definitely different now, you can do so much with it and I hope to create new tricks. There’s no names for them, I find ‘em and try them out.

I’m trying to express that you don’t have to do doublecorks and extreme stuff. You can just cruise around and…I don’t know, creativity is hard.

This is going to be a ridiculous question, but what would you say the difference is between what you see when you look at a park and the what the average pro skier sees?

When I look at a park, what do I see? I try to look for stuff that is not there. I try to create something out of what is not there and that’s hard to even explain. I see a jump and I think, “Well, can I do something off that knuckle over to this tranny?” It’s a lot of tranny finding and looking outside the box.

Otherwise…rainbows?

All photos: Ed

BroBomb: Let’s go into trick tip mode. We’re going to talk noseblocks, mostly because I try to noseblock all the time and I suck at them. So I’m going to be completely self-serving and try to get some pointers from the master.

Garrett: Cool. It’s all about timing and waiting for your apex. It’s crazy because I see some kids do it, and I’m like, “Oh my god, they’re going to break their skis!” Don’t do it like that, I hate for kids to break their skis. I know a couple people who have and I’m sorry, but it’s super fun. It’s all about having the right snow, and you’ll learn that if you go into something icy you’ll die. But if it’s too soft your skis are just going to punch through.

Been there.

Yeah. It can work out though, it’s all about reading the snow and waiting for that one point where you come up to a point where the hill goes like this (makes a hill with his arm) and there’s a little bit of tranny where you slow down. You wait until you slow down, and that’s when you lean forward and bring your heels up to your butt. Then you kind of lean back and do any grab you want, like you’ve got the “backpacker” now.

It’s all about patience and waiting and finding that balance on the tips. Other than that just practice, I guess. But it all depends on where you do it. Like, when we’re going skiing I’ll do it in one spot and then I’ll keep going back to that one spot. Then I can slowly dig out these little tip steps in the side of jumps and it’s pretty cool.

So that’s noseblocks, and tailblocks…I don’t know.

The tail block?

Yeah, it’s a hard one. I feel like I’m going to throw out my back trying it.

Sounds dangerous. Are you working on the tailblock?

Well, if I have the time and the place to do it, and somebody inspires me maybe it can happen. There can be so many variations. You can do the screamin-semen noseblock and you step over to the other ski. I don’t know man. I’m thinking about it, it’s interesting.

Do you sit at home and dream up tricks to do?

There used to be days when I couldn’t sleep, you know, where I just had the greatest idea and I’m like “I’m going to do that!” It’s been years and I can’t do it still. I don’t even know what I was thinking about. Skiing is just constantly in my brain.

BroBomb is proud to present an edit from one of skiing’s good guys:

The fun is made possible by Line Skis , SASS, Smith, Full Tilt , Dakine, Marker, and Telluride.