WEBVTT - Chris Benchetler 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.640 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back the Bob Left That's podcast. My 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:19.800 guest today is skier artist filmmaker Chris ben Scheffler. Chris, 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:21.479 how'd you get involved with the Grateful? 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:27.440 Did straight to the punch? That is a long winded question. 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.840 Luckily we're on a long form podcast here. Ah. I 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.240 got introduced to the music by let's call him an uncle. 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.080 He's a family friend, but he comes to all the 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:39.879 holidays and has been a part of my life for 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:43.360 quite some time now. And he's been following him since 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.839 he was sixteen and gone to many, many hundreds of 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:51.320 shows and listened to him in the car pretty NonStop. 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:56.680 And it's slowly in my early twenties, just started infiltrating, 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.120 infiltrating my mind a little bit, and I started listening 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:04.080 into them more and more. And it is very synonymous 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.080 with mountain culture and growing up in the mountains and 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.800 being a skier. It was always around and always something 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:14.639 that I was really into, and so I just kept 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:19.000 getting more into it. And then twenty sixteen, when Dead 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.880 and Co started touring, I believe that was when it 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.520 was might have been twenty fifteen. He took me to 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.600 my first show and I got to see the magic 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:31.679 in person and just see Shakedown Street and see the community, 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:35.080 and I was hooked ever since. And then around that time, 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.400 I picked up a guitar started playing songs myself, and 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.400 then it just kept going. And I can keep talking 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:42.600 if you want, because then we'll go. 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.240 Into no no keeping talking. 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.560 I'm listening, Okay, Okay, Well, I just don't want to 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:51.960 say too much. But then it keep fast forwarding. Get 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:57.880 to twenty eighteen. An offer comes across my desk to 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:01.080 help make some Grateful Dead skis. The Grateful Dead had 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:04.520 success in the snowboard community with Burton Snowboards for a 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:08.480 few years, and I have my own skis that I 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:11.400 designed with Atomic. I'm also an artist, so I do 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:13.880 the artwork on my skis, and I'm also a fan 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.040 of the music at this point a big fan. And 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:22.120 then I get the offer to do do a ski 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:24.959 with the Grateful Dead. And instead of just putting artwork 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:28.800 on a ski, because I'm an artist both on skis 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.480 and with my paintbrush, I wanted to create something more meaningful. 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.280 So through that process I get introduced to Mark Pinkis 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:41.600 and David Lemieux, and I pitched them this concept of 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:43.440 Fire on the Mountain, which was a film. 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:49.000 Okay, okay, second, okay, you're sitting in Mammoth Lakes, You're 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.080 fucking around. All of a sudden you get an email 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.520 out of the bloom about the Grateful Dead. 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.919 It's not entirely out of the blue. I'm glad we're 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:02.079 backtracking here. So uh, this guy Todd Jones, who owns 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.600 a production company in the ski world called Teton Gravity Research. 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:10.040 His son skis on My skis on Atomic, and we 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:14.160 were doing this little film in Mammoth kind of born 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:17.200 on Bent because I called my skis the Bent Chetler 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:19.520 because my last name is Ben Chetler and the skis 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:23.880 are rockered, so little play on words there. We're filming. 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.320 I'm playing guitar. I also have a nice vinyl collection. 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.920 Dead is a part of that vinyl collection. I can't 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.120 quite recall if a record was playing, or if I 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.080 was playing Ripple or going down the Road. And Todd 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:40.200 had this light bulb moment because this other gentleman, Brian Francis, 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:43.960 was moving from New York and helping Todd launch an 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:49.200 apparel business within TGR and Brian Francis had done a 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.960 dead license on some shoes. I don't believe it was Nike, 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.880 but some shoes or something. Previously in New York, Brian 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:00.000 asked Todd, do you know any ski companies that would 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.440 want to do a Grateful Dead license? Todd sitting on 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.520 my couch, We're playing dead music, and the light bulb 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.680 hit him. He introduced me to Brian, and then the 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:11.960 story continues to unfold from there. 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.320 Okay, Mark pinkis who runs Rhino Records, which distributes the 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.240 Grateful Dead stuff. You reach out to them and tell 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:21.000 us exactly what you pitch them. 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:27.080 You're testing my memory here. I pitch them a concept 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.160 because I'm a fan of the music, because I'm a filmmaker, 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:35.400 and because of my past life experience. I had this 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:43.400 concept to invent led skeleton suits and make these skis 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:48.000 with the Grateful Dead and make a film that was 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:54.200 inspired by their improvisational music. Because their improvisation ties directly 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.839 into how we ski and snowboard and surf and move 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.160 through the mountains and kind of riding the pulse of 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.120 the universe, if you will. It's very connected to music. 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:08.240 So I pitched this idea. Mark didn't get it, so 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:12.880 I tell Mammoth Mountain, who's another sponsor and supporter of mine, 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:16.800 that we I'm gonna be doing this ski with the 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:21.159 Grateful Dead, and we are going to be licensing their music. 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.640 And I stretched the truth a little bit because at 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.640 that point Mark did not agree to me licensing the music. 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:30.719 So I knew I believed in myself enough that my 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.479 concept and my past experience. I did another night film 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:38.039 years prior with a company called Sweet Grass, and the 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:40.960 movie was called Afterglow, and so I knew what was 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.480 possible and I knew what was living within my head. 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.719 So we filmed the segment at Mammoth, sent it to 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.680 Pinkis and Lemieux and they gave two thumbs up. 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.799 Basically, Okay, you're gonna make a film. How much money 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:55.600 were you asking what was the budget? 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.760 The budget was not nearly enough. It was a passion 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:04.000 project and it was there was no real budget because I, 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:08.960 as an artist, tend to create these things and invest 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:13.479 in myself, believing in this overall creation of the artwork. 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:17.280 So the budget was coming from there was you know, 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:21.760 tens of thousands of dollars from the Atomics and Mammoth 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.640 and these places. And then of course Mammoth was putting 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:29.719 in resources like cat hours and employees and operators and 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:34.080 all of these things. So I was scrummaging together money 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.599 anywhere and everywhere I could to create this concept and 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.719 through sponsors, through different outlets and fundraising, just like you 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:43.200 do to make an indie film. 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.720 I guess, okay, you have the concept. Does the ski 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:51.839 come out before or simultaneously with simultaneously? 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:56.000 So this concept was to be a marketing effort and 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.279 an art piece that would tie directly to the skis 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:04.599 Because of my relationships with other brands, I then tied in. 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.240 I introduced The Grateful Dead to Smartwroll and some of 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:12.080 my other sponsors and TGR obviously, so I gave this 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.600 film in this concept. I directed it and produced it 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:17.520 and created it, and then I gave it to them 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.600 for distribution. And at that time, Brian was launching the 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:25.520 apparel business which then licensed TG licensed Grateful Dead as well. 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:30.920 So it was this big, this big uh I guess 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:35.000 capsule if you will, of different products and the film 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:37.840 and all of these things that just kept growing and growing. 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:40.640 That will obviously get into as you continue to ask 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:41.760 me questions here, But. 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:46.400 Okay, if someone wants to see the film today. Can 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:47.680 they They can? 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:49.640 It is on YouTube for free. 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:54.880 Fire on the Mountain is okay, let's go back a second. 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.280 You're gonna make this ski with the Grateful Dead. How 0:07:58.280 --> 0:07:59.680 do you decide how many to make? 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:05.280 That is negotiated between the Grateful Dead and Atomic Skis, 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:13.640 and they wanted something valuable. There was work on my end. 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.800 Atomic is an Austrian based ski company. The Grateful Dead 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.200 are not big in Austria. I had to educate them 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:22.240 on what the Grateful Dead was, why it was so 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:25.200 important to me all of these things. And they believe 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:30.000 in me through the decade plus of what we had 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.000 created together and the success of my skis, so they 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:36.080 trust me. And so the first release we did was 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:38.760 not a lot of skis. I want to say it 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.440 was three to four hundred skis or so. I can't 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.320 even recall the number, but they sold out immediately. So 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:50.199 then the Grateful Dead and Atomic worked on the second 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:54.920 year after things kept going, and I think our second 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.079 release was around fifteen hundred pairs. And then that's all 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.320 dictated by I mean, I know you're a skier just 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.400 based on our conversations at the sphere, but that's all 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.679 dictated by all the different brands and how successful Atomic 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.160 is and what wastewidth ski you're gonna put it on, 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.760 and all of the things. And I was putting it 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:17.280 on a powder ski, which inherently sells less skis just 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.880 because there's not as many powder skiers as normal skiers 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:21.280 out there. 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:27.800 Okay, is this relationship with Atomic the Grateful Dead played out? 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:29.600 Or will there be any skis in the future. 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.680 There will definitely be skis in the future. There's a 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:35.800 pair of sitting in Bernie's office right now. 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:41.679 So Bernie Bob Weir's manager. Okay, In any event, you 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:45.800 get the go too to make this ski, how do 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.079 you come up with the concept and the artwork you're 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:49.160 going to employ. 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:56.080 Luckily, my creation of art is the same, and I 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.280 just approach it with an open mind and an open heart. 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:04.520 I don't I obviously have decades of iconography to pull from, 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.920 but I wanted something to be an extension of me 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.760 and a representation of my love for the music and 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:15.120 the deep history of some of that iconography. I'm putting 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.440 my own spin and twist on all of these things. 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:23.920 So how I paint is quite literally and figuratively, just 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.960 with colors, and compositions and emotion, and I don't go 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:29.959 to the canvas being like I'm going to paint a 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.360 skeleton right now. I start with fluid acrylics and I 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:38.320 let the paint kind of do its thing, and through 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:42.199 the process of days, weeks, months, that starts to take shape. 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.640 And I just help bring this painting out into the 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.280 world kind of through me as a as a vessel, 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.120 if you will. So I just paint a lot in 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:54.080 my studio, and then once I land on something that 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.360 I feel represents what I want it to represent, I 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.720 then take a ski template on the computer with my 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.559 art scanned in, and then I start moving the template 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:07.600 around the different pieces of artwork, deciding compositionally what looks 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.760 good onto long pairs of skis and so on and 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:11.320 so forth. 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:16.920 So, okay, this is the first project, but you've continued 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:19.840 to work a lot with the Grateful Dead. Tell me 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:21.440 I have. 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:26.440 So let's just stay on this project for a moment. 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:31.360 So I send the footage to David and Mark. They 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:35.200 obviously get Bernie's sign off on it as well, and 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:39.400 then I need someone to narrate the film. So that 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.640 same friend that introduced me to the Dead is also 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:46.800 vary into traditional sports. I do not play any traditional sports, 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:51.240 nor do I watch them on television. Really, and I 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.440 knew who Bill Walton was more from the dead community. 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.720 So my friend Conrad and David Lemieux suggests that I 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:03.000 reach out to Bill Walton to do this, to see 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:06.080 if he'll be willing to narrate my film. So I 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.559 sent a cold call or an email in this case, 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:13.360 to Bill Walton explaining my whole idea. He deletes it, 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.560 moves on to the next thing. But luckily, as I 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.400 explained earlier, I have a very successful scheme of atomic 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:22.160 His assistant at the time owned a pair of my skis, 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:24.760 knew who I was, brought the email back out of 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.920 the trash, and Bill read it again. Didn't understand it still, 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:33.120 so Bill, I left my phone number. Bill cold calls me. 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.440 It's like, first I believe he told me. He called 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.760 Pinkus and Lemieux to verify that I was really who 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:43.520 I said I was, and they confirmed. Bill calls me. 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:46.199 We end up talking for an hour or more and 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:50.520 have He just had a lot of passion and was 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:54.960 very happy and inspired by what I was hoping to 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:59.680 accomplish and what I was creating and signed up to 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.640 help me, help me to bring it to life. So 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:09.400 we go and record Bill Walton for the narration. Then 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:12.760 a lot of other things happened. There's other sports within 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:17.040 this film, and Rob Machado is a surfer Hall of 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.120 Fame surfer and a very good friend of mine. He 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.280 actually lives in San Diego and knows the Machado family 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:24.199 and the Walton families know each other. There was more 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:28.560 synergy happening as this continued to unfold, and then Bill, 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.200 it was we were releasing the film at the World 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.680 of McIntosh. Our world premiere was going to be World 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.280 of McIntosh in New York, which they did the Wall 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:41.320 of Sound for the Dead in nineteen seventy four, I believe, 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:46.160 and Bill's birthday was the following day, and Dead and Co. 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.240 Were playing at NASA Coliseum or I don't know if 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:54.120 I pronounced that correctly. They were playing at NASA, and 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:59.679 he came to our world premiere we were doing a 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:04.839 Q hosted by GQ. Bill kicked off Will Welch, who 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.440 was director or editor in chief of GQ, I believe, 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.240 and brought up Mickey Hart on stage and then so 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.840 that was my introduction in person to Mickey. We did 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:18.920 this Q and A together talked. Then Carol invited my 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:21.960 wife and Rob and a few of us to the 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:26.120 show the following night. Carol is Mickey's wife, and we 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:30.880 went to the show and things just kept building and progressing. 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:37.120 And then fast forward to COVID and Bill's relationship with ESPN, 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.200 and we had all of these amazing photos that were 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:43.200 gonna go unseen just because print is not what it 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:46.920 once was. So I pitched once again to Mark and 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:50.120 Bernie and David to do a coffee table book and 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:55.120 a vinyl LP of the soundtrack. And so I created 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:59.760 this big coffee table book size of a vinyl record, 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.240 and in conjunction with that, I called Bill again and 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.080 asked if he'd be willing to do a behind the 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.520 scenes to kind of talk about his involvement. So he 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.960 introduced me to Burke Magnus over at ESPN and we 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:17.200 did a sixty minute special. Once again, Micky got involved 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.520 with us. We all did some Zoom interviews, had this wonderful, 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:28.040 wonderful release on ESPN that was widely appreciated, I guess 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:31.440 you could say, And my relationship with Mickey and Bill 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:35.280 kept growing fast forward to twenty twenty three Dead We're 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.400 doing their final tour, and Mickey wanted to use the 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:42.960 footage for drums in Space, and so I sent him 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:45.240 all the footage that he wanted to use and that 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.240 was great. And then keep fast forwarding, I learned about 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.880 the Sphere. I called Bill and Mickey asked Mickey what 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.280 he had planned for his drums and space for the Sphere, 0:15:56.320 --> 0:16:00.160 and pitched him this whole concept of his rhythm and 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.600 his drumming bringing the mountains to life. So Mickey came 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.840 up to Mammoth, we shipped his drums, We built this huge, 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:09.920 beautiful sculpture, and Mickey played the drums as we were 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.840 jumping over him, and we had all this incredible footage 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.440 that we're creating for another film and so on and 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.800 so forth. And then it was part of his drums 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.520 and Face at the Sphere, which you and I watched together, 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:29.440 which was great. 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:36.320 Okay, just to get into technology here, you shoot this 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.560 stuff at Mammoth with Mickey. Is it as simple as saying, 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.560 project this in the sphere or do you have to 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:45.640 go through all these different chapters to get it so 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:46.920 you can see it at the sphere. 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.760 There's hundreds of chapters to get it there. Yes, so 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:57.000 we there was a lot of complications. But the Sphere 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.520 team also came up to Mammoth. They have a camera 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:03.560 called Big Sky Camera. I don't pretend to know anything 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.119 about the technological side of that, but it shoots out 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.080 a very high resolution and they invented it specific for 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.240 the Sphere. It shoots in a certain way. So we 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.160 had their team come up. We had cranes for their team. 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.280 How should I say this. I took every effort possible 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:20.080 to make it as good as it could possibly be, 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.360 and all the while not knowing if the camera could 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:26.600 shoot in that low of light because we were shooting 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:28.960 at night, and if the camera shoots that well in 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.040 the cold, and there was a lot of limitations up 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.359 against me. So I had my team of filmers capturing 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:39.040 additional eight K resolution content. Because we're making a film 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.280 in conjunction with The Grateful Dead as I don't want 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.119 to call it a sequel because it's not. It's just 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.399 an abstract art piece and an extension of the last film. 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.720 But we were already working towards something and so when 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:54.199 I learned about the Sphere, I talked to Mickey we 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.800 added this whole element to it, and then the Sphere 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.399 team came up and those shots actually didn't end up 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.080 working because of those things that I mentioned, because of 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.239 I think the cold, because of certain lighting things, and 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.680 a number of things. So our footage ended up saving 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.280 the show to some degree. And because, as you saw 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:16.879 in Drums and Space, because it was built in Notch 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:23.119 and fragmented into kaleidoscopic different pictures and images, it didn't 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.080 have to be at the same resolution as the entire 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:31.520 Sphere camera. So technologically we were okay at eight K resolution. 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:37.160 Because Mickey was playing in real time and they were mixing, 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:39.840 every show was different, and so they were mixing in 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:45.000 our footage wherever wherever it worked with those live programs. 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.720 They had a Notch operator on site at the Sphere. 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:52.560 Every time Mickey hits a drum a different beat and 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.960 things then translate back to the screen and all the 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:59.240 technology I don't understand, but our footage was a part 0:18:59.280 --> 0:18:59.520 of that. 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:03.479 I'm gonna ask again, which in the terms of the 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.840 money the budget, because to create an overall Sphere show 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:08.600 is unbelievably expensive. 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:15.000 Yes, So this second film, I now had a proof 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:19.240 of concept. I once again fundraise it for fundraised in 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.679 the same way I did the first time, but I 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:24.080 had something to show for it, and I had more 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.600 belief in my ability to create this art, and so 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:32.639 my sponsors came forth with more support and it's all 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.040 being spent once again to make the art. And it's 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:40.880 not it's hard for corporations or people to quite comprehend, 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:45.600 like I have no interest in this being a return 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:48.200 on investment, and so for a company to get involved, 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:50.119 that's a very big risk on their part. They have 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.159 to be the right company for the right reasons and 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:56.199 all the things. And fortunately my sponsors, I mean, I 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:58.359 have a couple decades now in the ski industry and 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:02.480 a successful career, and Architeix is my clothing sponsor, and 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:08.440 they're based up in Vancouver and there they've been massively supportive. 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:13.320 And Atomic is being massively supportive. And another really good 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:17.320 friend of mine, who is from the Jack Daniels family, 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.680 has his own distillates and that he is helping make 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.359 this come to life. It's high and wicked whiskey and 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:27.320 he has tequila and things. And there's a few key companies, 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.240 Mammoth being one of those, or the whole greater group 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.440 that you're probably familiar with, al Tara. They own Mammoth 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:37.680 and CMH and Mike Wiggley and all these different operations 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:39.840 that we're kind of using to make this thing. And 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:44.960 then Kelly Slater's surfranch was extremely helpful with us capturing 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:49.640 some of the footage of rob and everyone just believed 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:52.800 in art for the sake of art, which is wildly 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:57.760 unique in this day and age. And so you're not wrong. 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.800 It's been very expensive, it's been very stressed. I think, 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:02.480 I don't know if you watched it, but I might 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:04.280 have sent you a couple of clips of me being 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.800 pretty stressed out creating this whole thing. So it's been 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:09.080 it's been an experience. 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:11.240 Okay, there are a lot of questions I want to ask. 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:14.520 It ultimately come out from the beginning. So let's get 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:17.639 some facts. You're born, where you grow up. 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:23.320 Where I'm born in Bishop, California, just south of Mammoth Lakes, California, 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:26.280 where I live now. My parents met in Mammoth in 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:31.960 nineteen seventy one, I believe, and they lived in Mammoth 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:35.080 in the eighties. You could not have babies up here 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:39.199 because there was no pediatric that you had to have 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:41.840 your babies, and Bishop so and they were sick of shoveling. 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:44.680 Had my brother and I lived in Bishop for a while. 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:47.600 Then in my early teens, my father died and we 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:50.080 moved bat. My mom, my brother and I moved back 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:53.760 up to Mammoth and I grew up skiing here, grew 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:54.680 up on the race team. 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.720 All those Okay, wait, wait before we get there. Were 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:01.320 your parents refugees from the world so to speak? Were 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:05.159 they hippies who said, you know enough of La or Denver, 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:07.360 wherever the hell they came from, We want to leave 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:08.560 the ski bomb life. 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:11.919 Yes, it's funny you use the word refugee. My dad 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:15.960 was quite literally a refugee from Hungary. They escaped Communism 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:19.560 in nineteen fifty six and he was only six years old, 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:24.600 I believe. And my grandfather and grandmother were ballet dancers 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:28.040 in the bullsh or sorry, in the Hungarian opera, and 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:31.200 my grandfather was also a tailor, and so he made 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:35.040 the costumes and things for the ballet in Russia for 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:39.359 the Bolsha, and so he was living a quite prestigious lifestyle, 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:44.200 but didn't believe in where the country was going and 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:48.720 all everything that was happening during that revolution. So they escaped, 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:52.959 ended up in New York in a refugee camp, and 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:56.840 then ultimately landed in South or North Carolina, I believe, 0:22:56.920 --> 0:22:59.879 for a while till my grandfather earned enough money to 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.719 get to California. And then my dad definitely grew up 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:07.040 a surfing hippie, listening to the dead and all the things. 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:09.280 And now, I mean, he died when I was sixteen, 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:12.159 So it would be so fun to share some of 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:16.640 the past, Like I've heard stories from my grandfather, who 0:23:16.880 --> 0:23:20.320 also died quite some time ago, but of him, you know, 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:23.439 going to jail in Mexico and my grandfather having to 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:27.280 go and use his street smarts and take his Russian 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:30.040 visa from back in the day and wear a white 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:32.800 suit and get escorted across the border to go get 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:34.960 my dad out of jail and do all these things. 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:38.600 So he was certainly he was certainly having a good 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:44.359 time and living in California in the sixties and came 0:23:44.440 --> 0:23:45.800 up here and never left. 0:23:47.240 --> 0:23:50.879 Okay, that's a very traumatic experience to have your father 0:23:51.080 --> 0:23:55.240 died at age sixteen, you know, so what was your experience? 0:23:56.160 --> 0:23:56.520 It was? 0:23:56.680 --> 0:24:01.520 It was difficult, for sure, but it also shapes me 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:05.400 as a human, shape me as an artist. It's I'm 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:09.040 grateful for it, really, because it's the one thing none 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:11.280 of us are going to be able to escape his death. 0:24:11.440 --> 0:24:15.400 And I think when you learn that young, and you 0:24:15.720 --> 0:24:20.080 appreciate the life that I got to live and all 0:24:20.119 --> 0:24:24.640 of the good that came with the risk and effort 0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:28.160 that my grandparents and my father and all the however 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:30.760 I got here, if I really would strip it back, 0:24:30.800 --> 0:24:33.200 and if I started stripping it back at a young age, 0:24:33.240 --> 0:24:36.359 which I was, it was difficult. I had to My 0:24:36.600 --> 0:24:39.160 dad was a builder, a contractor, so I had to 0:24:39.280 --> 0:24:41.760 drive him to work every day because he got diagnosed 0:24:41.760 --> 0:24:44.960 about fourteen, so fourteen to sixteen, he was extremely sick 0:24:45.000 --> 0:24:51.439 with stage four lung cancer. And I was a fourteen 0:24:51.520 --> 0:24:53.760 year old kid, So of course I was complaining and 0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:57.639 didn't want to be working and missing school and doing 0:24:57.680 --> 0:25:00.639 all the things that I was doing. But I was 0:25:00.640 --> 0:25:03.760 still getting to ski. I was still getting to have 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:08.159 this amazing life in the mountains, and so it just 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:11.440 it just gave me perspective. It was. It was certainly difficult, 0:25:11.480 --> 0:25:14.680 and just selfishly, or I don't know if this is selfish, 0:25:14.680 --> 0:25:16.960 but I would love to you know, have another day 0:25:16.960 --> 0:25:19.520 to ski with my dad and just ask him all 0:25:19.520 --> 0:25:22.160 the adult questions that I never got to ask. That's all. 0:25:22.280 --> 0:25:25.439 That's the only real sad part about it is you 0:25:25.560 --> 0:25:28.720 just don't get to learn some of those important things 0:25:28.760 --> 0:25:32.240 that your parents went through from their perspective. 0:25:32.640 --> 0:25:34.719 Okay, so tell me your mother's backstory. 0:25:35.800 --> 0:25:39.159 Mother's backstory is a little more simple from what I 0:25:39.200 --> 0:25:41.040 know of. I mean, her father was from Italy, but 0:25:41.400 --> 0:25:45.040 she grew up in Culver City in Los Angeles, and 0:25:45.080 --> 0:25:48.840 her father was a furniture maker, and she came up 0:25:48.840 --> 0:25:53.719 here after high school and just wanted to just wanted 0:25:53.760 --> 0:25:56.480 to check it out and be a skier. She's not. 0:25:56.680 --> 0:25:59.159 My dad was a very passionate skier. My mother is 0:25:59.160 --> 0:26:02.359 more of a fair weather. She goes a couple times 0:26:02.359 --> 0:26:05.560 a year only when it's sunny and soft and beautiful out. 0:26:05.960 --> 0:26:09.680 So she certainly came up here, I think more for 0:26:09.720 --> 0:26:13.359 the social atmosphere of it and just escaping the hustle 0:26:13.400 --> 0:26:19.159 and bustle of the city life. And she has worked 0:26:19.200 --> 0:26:22.359 retail for the Mountain, so she works for Mammoth Mountain 0:26:22.480 --> 0:26:26.119 and Alterra and she's in a manager role, and she's 0:26:26.480 --> 0:26:32.040 quite social and loves it, and I think she's, yeah, 0:26:32.280 --> 0:26:39.040 just a happy, happy She's she's had tough life too. 0:26:39.080 --> 0:26:41.720 She did get remarried and that has been sadly died 0:26:41.800 --> 0:26:45.200 unexpectedly too. But other than that, she's she's very happy 0:26:45.240 --> 0:26:47.159 living in the mountains. Let's just say that. 0:26:47.520 --> 0:26:53.040 Okay, your father dies, she's a contractor. Doesn't that mess 0:26:53.119 --> 0:26:54.560 up your family economically? 0:26:55.920 --> 0:26:59.520 It does? But right at that time, I at sixteen 0:26:59.600 --> 0:27:02.720 years old, I was just getting my first sponsors and 0:27:02.800 --> 0:27:08.040 becoming a professional skier. So because we sold our house 0:27:08.040 --> 0:27:11.360 and Bishop and my mom bought a house in Mammoth, 0:27:11.520 --> 0:27:14.800 I was able to support myself By being able to 0:27:14.800 --> 0:27:17.560 live with my mom, I could buy my food and 0:27:18.119 --> 0:27:20.080 pay I didn't have to pay rent, so I could 0:27:20.119 --> 0:27:23.119 purchase my snowmobile and invest in myself for my career. 0:27:23.440 --> 0:27:27.400 And as that began to blossom, it became a legitimate 0:27:27.440 --> 0:27:32.520 career that then was able to obviously support myself, purchased 0:27:32.520 --> 0:27:34.520 a home and went down that road. 0:27:34.960 --> 0:27:39.360 Oh okay, So when do you first put on skis 0:27:39.720 --> 0:27:41.080 and how much are you ski? 0:27:43.359 --> 0:27:47.639 I before I can remember, so two years old, I 0:27:47.720 --> 0:27:49.960 probably was put on skis. I was told I did 0:27:50.000 --> 0:27:53.920 not like it, and my mother did save a little 0:27:53.960 --> 0:27:57.120 illustrated book that I made of from second grade that 0:27:57.640 --> 0:27:59.879 says that I want to and am going to be 0:28:00.040 --> 0:28:04.720 I'm a pro skier. So clearly, somewhere early early on, 0:28:05.080 --> 0:28:09.840 after I apparently didn't like it, I turned my love 0:28:09.880 --> 0:28:13.400 around for it and then skied every chance I can remember. 0:28:13.720 --> 0:28:16.560 Okay, if you're growing up in Bishop, which is about 0:28:16.640 --> 0:28:19.080 forty five minutes through now depending on the weather, away 0:28:19.119 --> 0:28:23.399 from Mammoth Lakes, and you're going to school, you're basically 0:28:23.440 --> 0:28:26.000 skiing on the weekends or what's going on. 0:28:26.520 --> 0:28:31.080 Yeah, early days, But I was starting to show some 0:28:31.359 --> 0:28:34.760 promise in ski racing, and so I started living with 0:28:34.800 --> 0:28:38.280 my friends in Mammoth and my parents were supportive. I mean, 0:28:38.320 --> 0:28:40.160 my dad was a ski bomb at heart, and so 0:28:41.120 --> 0:28:43.520 I was living his dream. So he was letting me 0:28:43.600 --> 0:28:46.520 as long as I got a's in school. He was 0:28:46.600 --> 0:28:51.320 letting me miss school. And I wasn't necessarily academically gifted, 0:28:51.440 --> 0:28:57.080 so I was doing the school and probably not the 0:28:57.120 --> 0:28:59.200 best way. I was having my friends help me with 0:28:59.280 --> 0:29:01.880 homework and all the things, just to make sure that 0:29:02.000 --> 0:29:06.840 I can I could keep skiing and keep missing missing class. 0:29:06.920 --> 0:29:10.360 And so that went on until he died, and then 0:29:10.480 --> 0:29:14.720 I did. I joined what's called independent study, which is 0:29:14.760 --> 0:29:17.680 at school you go to once a week and you 0:29:17.760 --> 0:29:20.400 turn in your work and take a test. And the 0:29:20.480 --> 0:29:24.280 teacher saw promise in my skiing, so I would take 0:29:24.320 --> 0:29:26.800 big chunks of time off from that, just turn in 0:29:26.840 --> 0:29:30.640 all my work at once and carried on. And I 0:29:30.760 --> 0:29:33.280 was able to finish school early just by completing all 0:29:33.320 --> 0:29:36.600 the work. And I never actually walked in a graduation. 0:29:36.840 --> 0:29:39.880 So I just finished my high school and focused on skiing. 0:29:41.000 --> 0:29:43.400 Okay, when did you express an interest in. 0:29:43.480 --> 0:29:49.800 Art before skiing? I drew on every blank piece of paper. 0:29:49.840 --> 0:29:53.000 I still am the classic doodler, but in class I 0:29:53.080 --> 0:29:57.720 was always drawing on my homework or any any paper 0:29:57.760 --> 0:29:59.719 in front of me. So I was kind of pinned 0:29:59.720 --> 0:30:02.760 as the kid that could draw in school, and so 0:30:03.200 --> 0:30:05.840 I always took an interest in it. But until I 0:30:05.880 --> 0:30:10.040 had my own ski, that's when I could share my 0:30:10.240 --> 0:30:14.680 art with the world. I guess, and that I never 0:30:15.280 --> 0:30:20.640 sought to become an artist per se. I was focused 0:30:20.680 --> 0:30:24.040 on my ski career and art making was always a 0:30:24.120 --> 0:30:27.280 passion in conjunction with skiing. And then once I had 0:30:27.280 --> 0:30:31.600 a ski that represented me and my style of skiing, 0:30:31.760 --> 0:30:34.720 and the top sheet and the base where my artwork. 0:30:34.840 --> 0:30:39.280 That then gave me this global my artwork a global stage, 0:30:39.320 --> 0:30:43.840 if you will, and almost like became its own gallery 0:30:44.120 --> 0:30:47.720 to some sort. And then because my ski was widely 0:30:48.120 --> 0:30:51.400 appreciated in Europe and China and Japan and all of 0:30:51.480 --> 0:30:55.600 these different places, then people started expressing interest in my artwork, 0:30:55.640 --> 0:31:03.640 and then that just continues to grow. 0:31:05.640 --> 0:31:09.000 Okay, you're a racer racing and free skiing, although a 0:31:09.000 --> 0:31:11.880 lot of racers end up in free skiing. But when 0:31:11.920 --> 0:31:15.040 you're young coming up, how good a racer were you 0:31:15.120 --> 0:31:17.640 and how did you make a transition into free skiing? 0:31:18.720 --> 0:31:22.440 Well? I wasn't good enough, So that's why I transitioned. 0:31:23.440 --> 0:31:27.000 I just I don't have the fire that you need 0:31:27.040 --> 0:31:31.440 to be the best. I'm way more of a creative 0:31:31.720 --> 0:31:34.760 and way more of an artist, and I always cared 0:31:36.160 --> 0:31:39.520 more about having fun and racing felt like a job 0:31:39.560 --> 0:31:43.120 to me, and wearing a downhill suit in the cold 0:31:43.200 --> 0:31:47.600 on a powder day and training gates when my snowboarder 0:31:47.640 --> 0:31:50.920 friends were riding powder just did not sit well with me. 0:31:51.080 --> 0:31:55.800 So as soon as I as soon as I my 0:31:55.880 --> 0:31:58.800 parents let me, I quit racing, basically, and that was 0:31:58.840 --> 0:32:01.600 around age fourteen, right around the time my dad got sick, 0:32:01.640 --> 0:32:05.040 and then that very first year the terrain parks. So 0:32:05.120 --> 0:32:09.080 I'm thirty eight, so when I was fourteen, let's call 0:32:09.160 --> 0:32:11.840 that I could do some fast math. I'm born eighty six. 0:32:11.880 --> 0:32:15.000 So in two thousand, as around that time, the terrain 0:32:15.120 --> 0:32:20.760 park was getting really big, and I all of the 0:32:20.880 --> 0:32:23.400 industry came to Mammoth because Mammoth was one of the 0:32:23.400 --> 0:32:27.719 first terrain parks that allowed both snowboarding and skiing. All 0:32:27.800 --> 0:32:31.480 the professionals came here and I was recognized, given a 0:32:31.520 --> 0:32:32.600 free pair of skis and. 0:32:32.960 --> 0:32:36.000 Who wha, wha, wha, wha, Wait a little bit slower, 0:32:36.560 --> 0:32:41.320 because it's really a religious issue. Did you ever snowboard? 0:32:42.280 --> 0:32:45.440 Because what happened was everybody went to snowboarding, and then 0:32:45.480 --> 0:32:48.640 all of a sudden, the skiers started performing amazing tricks 0:32:48.640 --> 0:32:51.280 in the pipe and skiing became hip again. Where were 0:32:51.280 --> 0:32:52.440 you on this spectrum? 0:32:52.960 --> 0:32:58.080 I am the young side of that generation that invented 0:32:58.120 --> 0:33:02.160 the free ski movement. I guess you could say there 0:33:02.160 --> 0:33:05.520 were people certainly before me, A couple of my mentors, 0:33:05.640 --> 0:33:08.520 one in particular that died in an avalanche. But his 0:33:08.600 --> 0:33:12.360 name was JP Elclaire, and they called them the Canadian 0:33:12.400 --> 0:33:15.960 Air Force. There was a few of them that helped 0:33:16.000 --> 0:33:19.840 invent Solomon's first twin tip ski and then once you 0:33:19.880 --> 0:33:23.520 could ski backwards. I was just coming out of racing, 0:33:23.720 --> 0:33:26.880 and now my brother had switched to snowboarding. He's two 0:33:26.960 --> 0:33:29.959 years older than me, and his best friend was one 0:33:30.040 --> 0:33:33.920 of the world's best snowboarders. I was a skateboarder. All 0:33:33.960 --> 0:33:37.040 of these things, I was headed in the snowboard path, 0:33:37.200 --> 0:33:40.719 but right at that time, skiing, as you said, was 0:33:40.840 --> 0:33:43.520 just being reinvented. So I was on the forefront of 0:33:43.600 --> 0:33:47.840 helping reinvent it and shape it into something where I 0:33:47.920 --> 0:33:51.800 was taking influence from the snowboard culture and putting that 0:33:52.000 --> 0:33:53.600 into the ski culture. 0:33:54.800 --> 0:33:57.360 In terms of the terrain park, because you're most famous 0:33:57.440 --> 0:34:00.560 is a big mountain skier. In terms of the terrain park, 0:34:01.720 --> 0:34:04.200 how much time did you put in it? How good 0:34:04.240 --> 0:34:05.880 were you? What was your experience there? 0:34:06.960 --> 0:34:10.160 I put in a lot of time. That's how we 0:34:10.239 --> 0:34:12.440 had to learn how to do all these tricks. We 0:34:12.480 --> 0:34:16.600 didn't have air bags and trampoline, foam pits and all 0:34:16.719 --> 0:34:21.560 these things that they use nowadays to train. So everything 0:34:21.600 --> 0:34:24.120 I did was done in the train park and I 0:34:24.200 --> 0:34:27.280 had broken femurs and collar bones and all the things. 0:34:27.560 --> 0:34:32.719 So it was it was trial by error basically, and 0:34:34.120 --> 0:34:36.680 that once you get enough of a base, like you 0:34:36.760 --> 0:34:39.360 learn the basics the back flip, the three sixties, the 0:34:39.400 --> 0:34:41.920 seven twenties, and you kind of build every there's a 0:34:41.960 --> 0:34:44.439 structure that you build upon, and then you just keep 0:34:44.440 --> 0:34:47.080 taking it. More spins, more flips, all the things that 0:34:47.160 --> 0:34:49.680 you see today if you were to watch the Olympics 0:34:49.760 --> 0:34:55.080 slope style or X Games or anything. And I once 0:34:55.120 --> 0:34:58.040 I got to a point where I felt like I 0:34:58.080 --> 0:35:01.200 had the basics down, then I put all of my 0:35:01.880 --> 0:35:05.480 effort into the backcountry, and then I became more obsessed 0:35:05.520 --> 0:35:09.000 with how a ski turns, and how to slash like 0:35:09.200 --> 0:35:12.480 they do with surfing, and how to read the terrain 0:35:12.640 --> 0:35:16.440 quite creatively and differently. And I was on the forefront 0:35:16.560 --> 0:35:20.319 of rockered skis and being the first to kind of 0:35:20.600 --> 0:35:25.480 experiment with these different, fatter, wider ski shapes and just 0:35:25.640 --> 0:35:32.200 influencing my ideas into actual ski engineering and technology, even 0:35:32.239 --> 0:35:35.000 though I'm not an engineer and I don't under pretend 0:35:35.080 --> 0:35:38.200 to understand how all the layers do what they do 0:35:38.360 --> 0:35:41.320 and why you put in certain types of wood versus others. 0:35:41.360 --> 0:35:43.879 But what I do know is how it feels under 0:35:43.880 --> 0:35:47.239 my feet, and I have a pretty strong knack for 0:35:47.800 --> 0:35:52.720 flex patterns and with and how torsionally how a ski feels. 0:35:52.880 --> 0:35:56.480 So okay, let's go back. How's your body today? 0:35:57.600 --> 0:36:01.360 Well, it's funny you should ask I was. It's not good. 0:36:01.480 --> 0:36:04.200 At the moment, I was skateboarding. I was in San 0:36:04.239 --> 0:36:08.319 Diego and I was skateboarding to get a coffee. And 0:36:08.440 --> 0:36:12.160 I used to skateboard a lot, don't skateboard nearly as 0:36:12.200 --> 0:36:15.960 much anymore, so I'm a little rusty. And I hit 0:36:15.960 --> 0:36:18.879 a rock unexpectedly, went flying and hit my hip, and 0:36:18.960 --> 0:36:20.680 I thought I just had a bruised hip. But I 0:36:20.880 --> 0:36:24.240 just got an MRI result like yesterday, two days ago, 0:36:24.600 --> 0:36:26.640 and I have a couple of little fractures on my 0:36:26.760 --> 0:36:29.640 hip right now. So I've been limping around a little 0:36:29.680 --> 0:36:32.960 at the moment. But I thought I went skiing. I 0:36:33.040 --> 0:36:35.360 was just in Canada, and I've been trying to push 0:36:35.360 --> 0:36:37.800 through the pain, thinking I was just being a baby. 0:36:37.880 --> 0:36:42.000 But it turns out I have a little fracture in 0:36:41.440 --> 0:36:43.400 my top of my femur. 0:36:43.560 --> 0:36:51.000 So okay, irrelevant of this recent accident, you've broken certain bones, 0:36:51.080 --> 0:36:53.480 you know, what have you in pain as a result? 0:36:53.920 --> 0:36:56.879 You know you're moving okay, or basically you're fine, just 0:36:57.080 --> 0:36:58.240 came out the other side. 0:36:58.800 --> 0:37:02.160 Ah, there's pain. But I take good care of myself. 0:37:02.200 --> 0:37:05.959 I eat quite healthy in the grand scheme of things. 0:37:06.040 --> 0:37:09.759 I have two small children, so I am their garbage 0:37:09.760 --> 0:37:12.800 disposal on all the casadillas and things they don't finish. 0:37:12.960 --> 0:37:18.439 But I eat relatively healthy, and I rock climb a lot. 0:37:18.520 --> 0:37:20.880 I used to rock climb a lot more before I 0:37:20.880 --> 0:37:24.280 became a filmmaker. This la last film has been taking 0:37:24.320 --> 0:37:28.000 all of my time. And then I mountain bike and 0:37:28.040 --> 0:37:33.439 I'm very active, so my body is in constant use, 0:37:33.560 --> 0:37:36.600 and I feel like that keeps me pretty limber and loose. 0:37:36.680 --> 0:37:41.239 And I've gone through stages of yoga and jim like 0:37:41.280 --> 0:37:43.360 if I do have an injury, once I'm able to 0:37:43.600 --> 0:37:45.840 rehab this, I'll spend a little bit of time in 0:37:45.880 --> 0:37:50.960 the gym, but traditional working out is a bit stale 0:37:51.040 --> 0:37:53.319 to me. So I like to go climb up a rock, 0:37:53.520 --> 0:37:57.279 and I live close to Yosemite and Bishop so I 0:37:58.120 --> 0:38:00.920 have the world's best right right in my front and backyard. 0:38:00.960 --> 0:38:04.319 Basically, Okay, he kind of answered the question. But I'm 0:38:04.320 --> 0:38:07.080 gonna go there again? Are you the type of guy 0:38:07.080 --> 0:38:11.399 who cuts the cast off early and defies the doctors 0:38:11.520 --> 0:38:14.759 and pushes through very much? 0:38:14.800 --> 0:38:18.200 So, since a very young age, I was that guy. 0:38:18.320 --> 0:38:22.800 I broke my wrists wrists plural, maybe six to seven 0:38:22.840 --> 0:38:26.640 times when I was a young kid, and I got 0:38:26.719 --> 0:38:28.560 to the point where I would bring my ski pole 0:38:28.600 --> 0:38:31.040 in so the doctor could form my cast around my 0:38:31.040 --> 0:38:34.360 ski pole because I was going to ski anyways. So yes, 0:38:34.880 --> 0:38:40.120 very much. I'm always pushing and I just I need 0:38:40.160 --> 0:38:42.000 to be I need to be moving. I don't sit 0:38:42.200 --> 0:38:42.680 very well. 0:38:42.800 --> 0:38:45.399 Okay, let's go back to the park. For those who 0:38:45.400 --> 0:38:48.560 don't know, Mammoth is the epicenter with the best park. 0:38:48.960 --> 0:38:52.480 You're there, you live in Mammoth, whatever. People have no 0:38:52.880 --> 0:38:56.520 idea how big a deal it is to get sponsored 0:38:56.880 --> 0:38:58.560 and get a free payer of sky. So there's this 0:38:58.719 --> 0:39:03.680 threshold there. Everybody's talking about getting sponsored. Tell me your experience. 0:39:05.120 --> 0:39:11.080 It was very humbling, exactly that, like my peers, my friends, 0:39:11.200 --> 0:39:15.839 my mentors. There's so many people. Everyone was in this 0:39:15.960 --> 0:39:19.640 movement trying to get seen and recognized. But there's a 0:39:19.840 --> 0:39:24.080 very very very small percentage of people that stand above 0:39:24.120 --> 0:39:27.279 the rest. And if you're in racing, you're just the 0:39:27.360 --> 0:39:32.160 fastest in our world. It's creativity, it's style, It's all 0:39:32.239 --> 0:39:35.720 of these elements that you can't really teach or coach. 0:39:36.160 --> 0:39:40.439 You just are born with it and you it. It's 0:39:40.480 --> 0:39:43.080 the same as how I started this podcast, how my 0:39:43.239 --> 0:39:46.120 art comes through me. It's just something that lives deep 0:39:46.160 --> 0:39:49.360 within and is maybe from a past life. I don't know, 0:39:49.680 --> 0:39:56.560 but it is. Style is very much how how someone 0:39:57.080 --> 0:40:00.200 is looked at as unique and different. And you can 0:40:00.000 --> 0:40:03.560 and see that in the style that Jerry Garcia played 0:40:03.680 --> 0:40:08.480 the guitar. It was very different than anyone else and 0:40:08.960 --> 0:40:11.319 that's why he stood out and was what he was. 0:40:11.640 --> 0:40:15.840 So okay, so who was your first ski sponsor? 0:40:16.719 --> 0:40:20.720 K two was my first key sponsor and I stayed 0:40:20.719 --> 0:40:23.160 with them until two thousand and seven and then I 0:40:23.239 --> 0:40:27.719 switched to Atomic. So I think, as I mentioned, I 0:40:27.760 --> 0:40:31.440 want to say I was fifteen, fourteen, fifteen when so 0:40:31.560 --> 0:40:34.640 about ninety eight ninety nine when K two sponsored me 0:40:35.200 --> 0:40:38.880 and then switched over to Atomic in two thousand and seven, 0:40:39.000 --> 0:40:42.759 and then we built something truly remarkable at Atomics. 0:40:42.880 --> 0:40:45.359 Okay, let's go back. Why just switch from K two 0:40:45.400 --> 0:40:46.080 to Atomic? 0:40:48.360 --> 0:40:59.680 Instinct and opportunity and the ability to express my artistic concepts. 0:41:00.120 --> 0:41:03.719 So K two had the best team in this new 0:41:03.760 --> 0:41:07.040 skiing movement, and I was just one of many, if 0:41:07.040 --> 0:41:10.400 you will. Atomic on the other hand, was so solely 0:41:10.440 --> 0:41:14.320 focused on racing, and they had Darren Rahlves and Body 0:41:15.040 --> 0:41:17.360 and some of the people that you know, and they 0:41:17.920 --> 0:41:23.440 were crushing it in a race environment, but so focused 0:41:23.520 --> 0:41:27.760 on the European skier they did not understand North America. 0:41:28.800 --> 0:41:32.000 And so as we talked about, with the influence of 0:41:32.000 --> 0:41:37.560 snowboarding and skiing was on this huge uprise, Atomic was 0:41:38.640 --> 0:41:43.600 falling way behind. So this gentleman Jordan Judd, who I'm 0:41:43.600 --> 0:41:46.040 now working with again on some Grateful Dead stuff, which 0:41:46.080 --> 0:41:50.840 is story for later. But Jordan Judd got brought on 0:41:51.040 --> 0:41:55.200 to help ramp up that North American market. He called me. 0:41:55.400 --> 0:42:00.319 It was just after one of my more successful seasons. Say, 0:42:00.400 --> 0:42:03.560 I'd had the cover of Powder magazine, the Photo Annual, 0:42:03.640 --> 0:42:07.960 which is a highly acclaimed cover. To have it's like 0:42:08.160 --> 0:42:13.600 the in the top issue of that year, I guess, 0:42:13.640 --> 0:42:17.080 and so that was amazing. I had a segment with 0:42:17.160 --> 0:42:20.440 Warren Miller over in Japan. I had the closing segment 0:42:20.640 --> 0:42:25.360 in a Poor Boys production, which is closing and opening 0:42:25.360 --> 0:42:29.000 segments are generally seen as the two most important segments. 0:42:29.120 --> 0:42:36.560 And then I had a segment with I think I 0:42:36.640 --> 0:42:40.399 might have well. So there was another nimbus independent which 0:42:40.440 --> 0:42:44.799 I ultimately helped start. The next year had made a 0:42:44.800 --> 0:42:47.879 film called Idea, and I had a segment in there. 0:42:47.920 --> 0:42:51.680 So anyways, I was just widely spread in that two 0:42:51.680 --> 0:42:55.400 thousand and seven year, and Jordan came to me asking 0:42:55.440 --> 0:42:58.399 for my help to put Atomic on the map. And 0:42:59.160 --> 0:43:02.719 because K two was doing so well and Atomic was not, 0:43:02.960 --> 0:43:05.680 I saw this as an opportunity for me to be 0:43:05.719 --> 0:43:08.480 able to put my art on skis and to design 0:43:08.480 --> 0:43:11.520 a shape and do all of these things that felt 0:43:11.640 --> 0:43:18.800 more like an extension of me. And so I believed 0:43:18.800 --> 0:43:21.640 in Atomic. Atomic believed in me, and I was kind 0:43:21.680 --> 0:43:25.600 of at the forefront of what they're known as today, 0:43:25.640 --> 0:43:30.600 and they're the number one globally recognized ski brand, which 0:43:30.640 --> 0:43:31.640 is pretty incredible. 0:43:31.719 --> 0:43:37.040 So, Okay, you're now in this world. You talk about 0:43:37.280 --> 0:43:41.239 cover of powder and different other things. It is a 0:43:41.440 --> 0:43:45.640 very small community. Everybody knows everybody. Was it just the 0:43:45.680 --> 0:43:48.440 fact that people knew you or were you working it? 0:43:48.520 --> 0:43:50.680 Were you saying, man, this is what I want to do. 0:43:51.120 --> 0:43:54.000 Let me talk to these people when you get an opportunity. 0:43:54.360 --> 0:43:57.600 How did these covers in these opening and closing segments 0:43:57.680 --> 0:43:58.680 actually come together? 0:44:00.239 --> 0:44:04.960 The covers in the segments came through performance and creative ideas. 0:44:05.239 --> 0:44:10.360 But I certainly, as you know, just based on our conversations, 0:44:10.760 --> 0:44:16.319 I have the personality that likes to likes to meet 0:44:16.360 --> 0:44:22.680 people and so and build relationships, and I think I 0:44:22.760 --> 0:44:26.839 have an ability I'm realizing more and more to just 0:44:27.160 --> 0:44:32.120 build build meaningful relationships with people and connect with them 0:44:32.160 --> 0:44:36.120 on a very authentic level, so that just it kind 0:44:36.120 --> 0:44:38.200 of goes hand hand in hand if you will. 0:44:38.680 --> 0:44:42.120 Okay, how does it go for you? From the pipe 0:44:42.160 --> 0:44:43.040 to big Mountain? 0:44:44.719 --> 0:44:47.400 It was an easy transition because I and I was 0:44:47.400 --> 0:44:49.920 more of a slope style skier, which is the jumps 0:44:50.200 --> 0:44:53.439 and pipe I did. Everyone did everything back in those 0:44:53.440 --> 0:44:57.440 early two thousands. But pipe always terrified me actually because 0:44:57.880 --> 0:45:01.359 your margin of error is so minimal. You're either land 0:45:01.440 --> 0:45:03.840 if you screw it up, you're landing on complete flat 0:45:03.880 --> 0:45:06.000 on the top, or you're missing the whole transition and 0:45:06.080 --> 0:45:09.000 landing in the bottom. So I hated the pipe just 0:45:09.000 --> 0:45:13.720 because I never quite figured it out. But the park 0:45:14.200 --> 0:45:17.000 was an easy transition because, like I said, once I 0:45:17.040 --> 0:45:21.000 figured out how to do all of those tricks, my 0:45:21.160 --> 0:45:24.440 true passion and my true calling was in the mountains, 0:45:24.600 --> 0:45:29.840 and so hiking up mountains and being active and riding powder, 0:45:30.520 --> 0:45:34.520 all of that was deeply inspiring to me, and so 0:45:34.840 --> 0:45:38.200 it was it was very easy to just merge those 0:45:38.200 --> 0:45:39.280 two worlds together. 0:45:40.360 --> 0:45:42.359 And how about the Free Ride World Tour? 0:45:43.640 --> 0:45:48.239 I never did the Free Ride World Tour. It's it's unfortunate. 0:45:48.360 --> 0:45:54.520 It had has potential, and it's just once again going 0:45:54.560 --> 0:45:57.879 back to my racing days, any of my competitive days, 0:45:57.920 --> 0:46:01.000 I'm just not a competitive person, way more into the 0:46:01.080 --> 0:46:04.400 artistry and the creation of it all. So I just 0:46:05.360 --> 0:46:08.360 never had any interest in competing in it. And I 0:46:09.760 --> 0:46:12.719 didn't need to compete in it because my creativity was 0:46:14.600 --> 0:46:19.600 making enough of a splash, if you will, or it 0:46:19.640 --> 0:46:22.279 was grabbing attention of my sponsors and things, so I 0:46:22.320 --> 0:46:25.080 didn't have to go prove myself in a competition setting. 0:46:32.880 --> 0:46:38.279 Okay, that's the key element, you said, sponsors. He gets 0:46:38.280 --> 0:46:40.720 skis from K two. This is where you were mentioning 0:46:40.760 --> 0:46:42.560 this earlier. I didn't want to stop you. Then you 0:46:42.600 --> 0:46:47.200 have a cornucopia a sponsor. How did you build all that? 0:46:48.440 --> 0:46:52.080 It goes really to the relationship building and the trust. 0:46:52.480 --> 0:46:58.880 And I think the two decades of proving that I 0:46:58.920 --> 0:47:04.120 have a work ethic that is desirable. I take every 0:47:04.160 --> 0:47:08.439 effort and I also invest in myself, which is rare 0:47:08.719 --> 0:47:14.480 most athletes. Most people just expect everything to be given 0:47:14.520 --> 0:47:19.120 to them, and they want everything handed to them on 0:47:19.239 --> 0:47:24.600 a silver bladder. And I had just a deeper respect 0:47:24.680 --> 0:47:26.719 for what I was getting to do and a work 0:47:26.760 --> 0:47:30.440 ethic that kept wanting to push further and push new 0:47:30.480 --> 0:47:35.319 concepts and ideas and creations, and so sponsors take note 0:47:35.360 --> 0:47:38.120 of it. When you have when you have video segments, 0:47:38.120 --> 0:47:42.279 when you have magazine coverage, when you have relationships of 0:47:42.400 --> 0:47:45.839 other athletes or other team managers. People like you said, 0:47:45.880 --> 0:47:49.040 it's a small world, So people talk to people and 0:47:49.160 --> 0:47:53.880 they see what you're capable of creating. And my ideas 0:47:53.920 --> 0:47:57.160 were always new and fresh, and I just keep putting 0:47:57.320 --> 0:47:59.920 ideas like the Grateful Dead film, or I made some 0:48:00.120 --> 0:48:02.880 films with GoPro when I was early on in GoPro 0:48:03.000 --> 0:48:06.160 as one of their athletes and did some pretty uh 0:48:06.719 --> 0:48:08.719 successful films with them as well. 0:48:08.880 --> 0:48:12.000 So when you say you invest in yourself, what exactly 0:48:12.000 --> 0:48:12.279 do you. 0:48:12.239 --> 0:48:17.440 Mean Financially like if you need to go spend the 0:48:17.480 --> 0:48:22.319 time in Alaska and pay for helicopter time that your 0:48:22.320 --> 0:48:25.120 sponsors aren't going to cover because you want to get 0:48:25.440 --> 0:48:28.720 the right footage that represents your skiing in the right way, 0:48:29.320 --> 0:48:33.920 or if you travel to Europe more than you initially 0:48:33.920 --> 0:48:38.680 agreed to, or if you like I just take opportunities 0:48:38.840 --> 0:48:42.320 and efforts to get myself out there and get myself 0:48:42.320 --> 0:48:47.080 in front of in front of opportunity, if you will, 0:48:47.280 --> 0:48:52.520 And situations like if I a film project that sounds interesting, 0:48:52.800 --> 0:48:55.080 if a sponsor is not going to pay me to 0:48:55.120 --> 0:48:57.239 be in it, I would still choose to be in 0:48:57.280 --> 0:49:00.080 it because I believe in it. 0:49:00.160 --> 0:49:05.880 So okay, very granular. You start with K two, who's 0:49:05.920 --> 0:49:06.840 the next sponsor? 0:49:08.600 --> 0:49:11.719 Dragon? I wear so my goggles I've been on for 0:49:11.800 --> 0:49:14.239 over twenty years now, which is incredible. I still have 0:49:14.280 --> 0:49:19.080 them today, which is amazing. So them and Dekine, which 0:49:19.160 --> 0:49:24.239 makes gloves and backpacks, and I left to Kine a 0:49:24.239 --> 0:49:28.840 few years ago for Artarix clothing, but I was with 0:49:28.960 --> 0:49:31.640 Dekine for a long time, and then I've been with 0:49:31.719 --> 0:49:34.640 smart Wolve socks and bass layers for quite some time, 0:49:34.840 --> 0:49:38.120 and I've been with Mammoth since day one, Mammoth Mountain 0:49:38.200 --> 0:49:42.600 has has a very strong marketing presence in the world 0:49:42.640 --> 0:49:44.960 of mountains. I guess you could say like they use 0:49:45.160 --> 0:49:47.840 they utilize me a lot, from my go pro videos 0:49:47.920 --> 0:49:52.400 to my photos to whatever, like billboards when you're driving 0:49:52.400 --> 0:49:55.360 from LA to Mammoth a lot of times are myself 0:49:55.520 --> 0:49:59.080 or there's all these different opportunities that they use with 0:49:59.160 --> 0:50:03.160 me and then pro. I've been on this for over 0:50:03.600 --> 0:50:07.680 over a decade as well, and I've now invested in 0:50:07.760 --> 0:50:11.520 some companies and kind of have part ownership if you will, 0:50:11.719 --> 0:50:15.000 and in some different concepts and ideas, and then atomic 0:50:15.160 --> 0:50:18.120 like we mentioned, and I'm probably forgetting a few, but 0:50:18.200 --> 0:50:21.640 I've been very supported in my career. So the thanks 0:50:21.719 --> 0:50:22.880 to everyone that's listening. 0:50:23.160 --> 0:50:27.359 Okay, there's in kind sponsorship where people give you the 0:50:27.400 --> 0:50:31.960 goods and then there's cash involved. In the racing world, 0:50:32.440 --> 0:50:35.319 you know, they have victory schedules, so if you're successful, 0:50:35.400 --> 0:50:38.239 the pay goes up whatever. Traditionally in free skiing, I 0:50:38.239 --> 0:50:42.000 haven't seen that. So how does a compensation work. 0:50:43.120 --> 0:50:48.480 It's annual or multi year contracts, and it is I'm 0:50:48.520 --> 0:50:50.880 at a point in my life I'm approaching forty and 0:50:50.960 --> 0:50:54.440 I've proved myself for over twenty years that I don't 0:50:54.480 --> 0:50:58.080 do any in kind sponsorships anymore. That's very much when 0:50:58.080 --> 0:51:01.000 I was getting started. That's how you have to start. 0:51:01.040 --> 0:51:03.400 You have to get yourself out there. You have to 0:51:03.440 --> 0:51:09.839 prove yourself. But I certainly don't have the I mean, 0:51:09.960 --> 0:51:12.440 I have a family to support and mortgage and all 0:51:12.480 --> 0:51:16.239 the things. So it's what's your time worth basically, It's 0:51:16.280 --> 0:51:19.880 just like anything. So generally speaking, I try to align 0:51:19.960 --> 0:51:24.360 myself with sponsors that I see a very long career 0:51:24.440 --> 0:51:30.000 path with and a roadmap into a legend stor legacy 0:51:30.080 --> 0:51:32.640 status like a Glenn Blake, for instance. He still has 0:51:32.680 --> 0:51:36.120 a lot of sponsor support because of what he built. 0:51:36.320 --> 0:51:39.600 And I mean, I know this is a podcast about me, 0:51:39.680 --> 0:51:42.080 but I want to know more about your skiing and 0:51:42.120 --> 0:51:44.600 where you've skied and who you've skied with it stuff. 0:51:44.840 --> 0:51:48.279 Okay, I'll make it very short because you know I 0:51:48.320 --> 0:51:51.759 want to make it about you. I grew up. I 0:51:51.760 --> 0:51:54.080 grew up in Connecticut, so that your weekend skier that 0:51:54.160 --> 0:51:56.760 we got a house in Vermont. I was on the 0:51:56.760 --> 0:52:00.000 ski racing team at Bromley, which is skiery and Vermont. 0:52:00.440 --> 0:52:03.719 I was a shitty ski racer. We could basically talk 0:52:03.760 --> 0:52:06.719 about that. I went to Middlebury College and Vermont because 0:52:06.760 --> 0:52:09.919 the college had its own ski area. I skied more 0:52:09.960 --> 0:52:12.680 than anybody there. I'm type person if it's raining whatever, 0:52:12.719 --> 0:52:15.840 I'm still out there. And the last year I was 0:52:15.880 --> 0:52:19.840 at Middlebury was a really shitty year, and I wanted 0:52:19.840 --> 0:52:22.759 to go where the most guaranteed snow was, which it 0:52:22.840 --> 0:52:27.279 was Little Cottonwood Canyon, Alton Snowbird, Okay, And little did 0:52:27.320 --> 0:52:30.200 I know at the time that was the epicenter of 0:52:30.239 --> 0:52:34.600 freestyle skiing. You know, it's really spread. So everybody was there, 0:52:34.680 --> 0:52:38.200 Scott Brooks Bank, you know, all these other people. So 0:52:39.360 --> 0:52:42.040 the second year, I mean, this is really kind of 0:52:42.080 --> 0:52:45.960 funny because I broke my leg in a freak accident 0:52:45.960 --> 0:52:49.680 at the beginning of the year, got to Snowbird in January. 0:52:50.360 --> 0:52:54.080 Snowbird closes, it doesn't anymore, and we all want to 0:52:54.120 --> 0:52:58.160 ski more. So we all went to Mammoth for the 0:52:58.200 --> 0:53:00.160 month of May seventy five. We all agree with the 0:53:00.200 --> 0:53:03.400 best time of our entire lives. Amazing and you know, 0:53:03.719 --> 0:53:05.479 and you know we were these you know. 0:53:05.600 --> 0:53:07.600 I wonder if you met my parents, Well. 0:53:07.520 --> 0:53:09.640 I know your mother wants in a retail thing. But 0:53:10.160 --> 0:53:12.440 you know, we were the guys from Utah. You know, 0:53:12.520 --> 0:53:16.040 in May there aren't that many people there. We're cutting 0:53:16.080 --> 0:53:19.320 figure rates off of Philips just to the side of 0:53:19.360 --> 0:53:21.879 there what you can see from their lives. And they say, 0:53:22.239 --> 0:53:24.360 you know, did you see it? They go, yeah, no, 0:53:24.560 --> 0:53:27.200 these guys did it. So I was skiing with the 0:53:27.239 --> 0:53:30.040 best skiers in the world at their level. And then 0:53:30.239 --> 0:53:32.399 you know, the freestyle thing is very official. I mean 0:53:32.680 --> 0:53:36.040 Park Smally he came. You know, there's all these people. 0:53:36.080 --> 0:53:39.800 At the beginning, I knew yeah, and then I competed 0:53:39.880 --> 0:53:42.640 the next year, and then I realized, wait a second, 0:53:43.320 --> 0:53:45.560 this is you know, people like Brooks baking. There are 0:53:45.600 --> 0:53:48.960 people who thrive on competition, and we're better in competition. 0:53:49.800 --> 0:53:52.560 And you realize to get over that hump so you 0:53:52.600 --> 0:53:56.200 don't choke. That's going to take years. And they say, 0:53:56.280 --> 0:53:58.759 and there's only some. There was a guy, Dirk Douglass, 0:53:59.120 --> 0:54:02.280 who skied with a who did a flip in Vermont 0:54:02.440 --> 0:54:06.440 and became paraplegic. He still is a youthais a photographer 0:54:06.920 --> 0:54:10.040 and as a result, you know, they banned in vertage 0:54:10.120 --> 0:54:14.000 and the whole scene died. And this is sort of 0:54:14.040 --> 0:54:16.080 you know, one thing I want to get back to 0:54:16.080 --> 0:54:18.000 you with you because I had the world's worst case 0:54:18.040 --> 0:54:22.000 of mononoucleosis from we went to a competition in Keystone 0:54:22.520 --> 0:54:25.000 and then I went to Aspen Highland. You know, I'm 0:54:25.000 --> 0:54:28.799 really going too deep here. Back in the day, the 0:54:28.840 --> 0:54:31.320 only Aspen mountain that you could get a pass at 0:54:31.360 --> 0:54:34.560 was Aspen Highlands. That's where all the locals were, and 0:54:34.760 --> 0:54:36.960 that's where my friends keied and we all shared a joint. 0:54:36.960 --> 0:54:40.279 And I got the world's worst case of mononucleosis. So 0:54:41.280 --> 0:54:43.839 I ended up going to law school because my father 0:54:43.880 --> 0:54:45.680 said he would always pay because I was sick. I 0:54:45.760 --> 0:54:50.720 was down and out, and then until twenty eleven twenty twelve, 0:54:50.760 --> 0:54:53.000 which is a really shitty ski season. The worst ski 0:54:53.080 --> 0:54:56.399 season was seventy six to seventy seven, which I used 0:54:56.400 --> 0:54:59.479 to bring this up all the time and people would say, huh. 0:54:59.520 --> 0:55:01.920 But when it was so bad at twenty eleven to twenty twelve, 0:55:02.000 --> 0:55:05.719 they started writing about seventy six seventy seven. So I 0:55:05.760 --> 0:55:07.160 called all my friends and you took us. I was 0:55:07.160 --> 0:55:09.359 gonna drop out and said, this is Christian time, this 0:55:09.400 --> 0:55:13.000 is before it's snowmaking in Western resorts. And they said, 0:55:13.320 --> 0:55:16.480 you know, we're going home for Christmas. There's no snow. Okay. 0:55:16.920 --> 0:55:19.919 So I found with some girl. It carried me through 0:55:20.000 --> 0:55:24.040 law school, just talking about the skiing thing. If you 0:55:24.239 --> 0:55:29.359 ski every day, it is very difficult to ski occasionally 0:55:29.840 --> 0:55:33.000 you're gonna look as good to everybody else. But there's 0:55:33.040 --> 0:55:36.040 a very fine edge that, you know. I used to 0:55:36.080 --> 0:55:38.279 say it take thirty days. It's talking about a thing. 0:55:38.480 --> 0:55:40.759 Maybe you can do it in twenty days. It's like 0:55:40.960 --> 0:55:45.839 you're just recovering in this circumstances whatever. Yeah, And then 0:55:45.880 --> 0:55:49.799 in ninety six, this is all music business people, and 0:55:49.880 --> 0:55:51.920 I'm leaving that side of my life out. So I 0:55:52.080 --> 0:55:56.200 was skiing fifteen to twenty days because it was too 0:55:56.239 --> 0:55:59.440 painful to be honest with you. And this friend of 0:55:59.480 --> 0:56:02.480 mine said, come out. I got a place in Veil 0:56:02.600 --> 0:56:04.360 and I was going to cancel at the last minute, 0:56:04.400 --> 0:56:06.840 and I literally called to cancel and they said, oh, 0:56:06.880 --> 0:56:09.080 he's got his wife over so excited you're coming, blah 0:56:09.120 --> 0:56:12.840 blah blah blah blah. So he moved to Aspen and 0:56:12.880 --> 0:56:15.359 had a convention. I just came home from there. So 0:56:15.600 --> 0:56:18.879 now I'm skiing like twenty twenty five days a year, 0:56:19.400 --> 0:56:22.560 getting it. You know, you know, the equipment is a 0:56:22.640 --> 0:56:26.920 thing unto itself. Let's not talk Marcel Herscher, who's really 0:56:26.920 --> 0:56:30.440 about the angle of the boot whatever. But the boots 0:56:30.440 --> 0:56:32.040 are the skis. You have to I mean, every once 0:56:32.040 --> 0:56:34.040 in a while you louck into it and it works out. 0:56:34.080 --> 0:56:36.319 Other times you gotta work. This is not really if 0:56:36.400 --> 0:56:39.919 you've really lived for this, not something you can do occasionally. 0:56:40.719 --> 0:56:45.640 Then my girlfriend turns out her family had a condo 0:56:45.760 --> 0:56:48.960 in the Logit Veil since the seventies. I don't know 0:56:48.960 --> 0:56:51.480 if you know veil, but Logit Veil is the closest 0:56:51.520 --> 0:56:55.799 place to the lift. And I used to pooh, pooh veil. 0:56:56.160 --> 0:56:59.839 Oh it's so flat, et cetera, et cetera. But as 0:57:00.000 --> 0:57:03.279 I get older, so I ski a lot. I mean 0:57:03.360 --> 0:57:06.440 last year I skied eighty nine days. Oh wow. Oh 0:57:06.520 --> 0:57:10.200 usually I ski like two years before, probably sixty or 0:57:10.239 --> 0:57:13.919 seventy days before that. For like the last twenty years, 0:57:13.960 --> 0:57:15.320 forty to fifty days. 0:57:15.719 --> 0:57:17.800 You're gonna have to come back to Philip's. Take a 0:57:17.880 --> 0:57:18.400 run with me. 0:57:18.800 --> 0:57:23.560 Absolutely. I just remember skiing Philip's. Now, now there's video 0:57:23.600 --> 0:57:26.720 of all this stuff, because Philips, you're skiing straight in, 0:57:26.760 --> 0:57:28.800 you're skiing right toward the rock and then you got 0:57:28.800 --> 0:57:29.680 to make that left. 0:57:29.880 --> 0:57:32.640 Yeah, yep. I remember the first time I skied it too. 0:57:32.640 --> 0:57:35.320 I was terrified, and of course, you know, skiing the 0:57:35.320 --> 0:57:38.880 hole in the wall back in the backside of Mammoth As. Listen, 0:57:38.920 --> 0:57:42.440 what people don't understand about Mammoth is there's very serious 0:57:42.480 --> 0:57:45.880 skiing at Mammoth. You know, in the seventies they didn't 0:57:45.880 --> 0:57:48.919 have a lift up Lincoln Peak, but now they have that. 0:57:49.440 --> 0:57:52.760 But you know, all the stuff you know, off the 0:57:52.840 --> 0:57:56.200 cornice whatever. I mean, there's just really serious skiing there. 0:57:56.640 --> 0:57:59.080 And you know, it's got a Southern California culture, so 0:57:59.120 --> 0:58:03.560 there's more snow orders in Manmit than anywhere else. So 0:58:04.280 --> 0:58:05.560 I got a lot of skis. 0:58:06.720 --> 0:58:10.560 That's awesome. You have any atomics, I don't, Man, we 0:58:10.640 --> 0:58:11.520 got to change that. 0:58:12.680 --> 0:58:16.800 I was always into French skis, okay, the old days, Rosie. 0:58:17.120 --> 0:58:20.080 Then I got really into Dina Star. Dina Star turns 0:58:20.120 --> 0:58:24.120 it a certain way that I love. But listen, we're 0:58:24.120 --> 0:58:27.240 all connected. So you call you somebody and you're getting 0:58:27.240 --> 0:58:30.360 them at like maybe twenty five cents of the dollar, 0:58:30.440 --> 0:58:32.720 at most sixty cents of the dollar, and then you 0:58:32.800 --> 0:58:35.320 got a pure of skis Yo, these keys are not 0:58:35.480 --> 0:58:39.680 that great, okay, in that they turn what they don't hold. 0:58:40.400 --> 0:58:43.040 And then it's because you haven't been on atomics. We 0:58:43.080 --> 0:58:43.320 got it. 0:58:43.480 --> 0:58:47.320 But then I actually, two years ago I paid retail 0:58:47.360 --> 0:58:50.000 for a couple of seas because they let me demo everything, 0:58:50.720 --> 0:58:53.160 and it was not what I thought. You know, a 0:58:53.160 --> 0:58:56.080 lot of people like those stokely storm writers. They're silky, 0:58:56.120 --> 0:58:59.160 they're shitty and in the bumps. You know, the Nordica's 0:58:59.480 --> 0:59:02.120 the hype of about the Norda because I don't understand whatsoever. 0:59:02.200 --> 0:59:03.200 They're planks. 0:59:03.400 --> 0:59:05.320 Okay, they're great. I tend to agree with. 0:59:05.640 --> 0:59:10.320 And the Blizzards are similar. So I got a bunch 0:59:10.360 --> 0:59:14.720 of K two's and still have a couple of des Stars. 0:59:14.760 --> 0:59:17.200 And then Body sent me four pairs of his skis 0:59:17.600 --> 0:59:22.080 Oh Cool, which are very interesting. Skis the eighty eight 0:59:23.080 --> 0:59:26.200 not good, and therefore he told me he designed that 0:59:26.320 --> 0:59:29.240 off of Vlon was the only ski that wasn't an original, 0:59:29.440 --> 0:59:31.240 and he redid it this year. I don't have a 0:59:31.280 --> 0:59:34.320 pair at this point in time. Yeah, and you know, 0:59:34.400 --> 0:59:37.760 if you're in veil, the average with in veil is 0:59:37.800 --> 0:59:41.320 a ninety something. Okay, this is what people don't understand. 0:59:41.320 --> 0:59:44.440 You need certain numbers of skis. You need your ninety 0:59:44.440 --> 0:59:46.360 five to ninety nine, you need your one hundred, one 0:59:46.400 --> 0:59:48.520 hundred and ten, you need your one hundred, one hundred 0:59:48.520 --> 0:59:50.080 and fifty, and you need your one hundred and sixty 0:59:50.320 --> 0:59:52.120 two hundred and twenty because you got to have the 0:59:52.240 --> 0:59:54.560 right tool. You know. People say, oh, yeah, you know, 0:59:54.920 --> 0:59:56.600 and then they're the instructors. I got no type of 0:59:56.640 --> 1:00:01.680 instructors over they're scheming on their seventy eights. Why why 1:00:01.920 --> 1:00:06.600 beyond your seventy eighth? So boty skis ski like a 1:00:06.720 --> 1:00:10.000 French ski, which is you know, the one oh four 1:00:10.360 --> 1:00:15.000 is a great ski that just stands above the other ones. 1:00:15.040 --> 1:00:16.840 I have. The ninety eight to one tens are good, 1:00:17.680 --> 1:00:20.320 but the one oh four because normally a one oh 1:00:20.400 --> 1:00:24.440 four is too wide for all day every day, but 1:00:24.560 --> 1:00:27.400 for some reason it's not the other thing about it 1:00:27.440 --> 1:00:30.400 for skis like that because they're not heavy whatever they hold, 1:00:30.760 --> 1:00:32.720 which blows my mind. I mean I was out on 1:00:32.720 --> 1:00:34.480 a pier today. 1:00:34.680 --> 1:00:38.560 So yeah, when I switched from K Twoto Atomic, it 1:00:38.640 --> 1:00:41.160 blew my mind because they had been making the best 1:00:41.200 --> 1:00:43.400 skis in the world for the racers for so long 1:00:43.480 --> 1:00:46.320 and they're still hand crafted in Austria. 1:00:46.520 --> 1:00:51.520 Well, you know, Atomic in the seventies had limited distribution 1:00:51.720 --> 1:00:54.520 and limited sales in America. They had these orange skis 1:00:54.680 --> 1:00:56.919 they set atomic in the front in the back. People 1:00:56.960 --> 1:00:59.640 call me atomic atomics. And then of course in the 1:00:59.720 --> 1:01:03.320 her era, you know, that became about a top. I 1:01:03.320 --> 1:01:06.680 mean the thing about atomic race skis. You know this 1:01:06.720 --> 1:01:09.840 is before your time when they had the dampening systems, 1:01:09.840 --> 1:01:13.160 the vas on the rosies, that was when the first thing. 1:01:13.680 --> 1:01:18.800 But you had the atomic duel deck and now they 1:01:18.840 --> 1:01:22.400 have a double deck. Now they have those little you know, 1:01:22.560 --> 1:01:26.919 like silver things in that and you know it's it's 1:01:27.000 --> 1:01:28.560 in the old days. In the seventies you went to 1:01:28.600 --> 1:01:32.800 a shop, they had everything. Now shops only by certain stuff. 1:01:33.760 --> 1:01:37.360 Now in terms of you know, skiing is a sport 1:01:37.360 --> 1:01:40.680 where everybody boasts. You know, I go to college at Middlebury. 1:01:40.720 --> 1:01:43.160 I mean it's like, oh, I don't I'm a great skier. 1:01:43.200 --> 1:01:47.280 You gotta everybody talks. But I have a friend big 1:01:47.320 --> 1:01:51.160 in the live business who got very into Hella skiing, 1:01:51.600 --> 1:01:54.360 and he keeps telling me, oh, at the time I 1:01:54.400 --> 1:01:57.760 had a pair of s seven's, you know, the rosie 1:01:58.160 --> 1:02:01.520 who won seventeens. And now I have a pair of 1:02:01.560 --> 1:02:06.520 the K two one sixteens. He says, oh, you're hell 1:02:06.600 --> 1:02:09.680 is skiing. The standard is the one twenty bench chiller. Yeah, 1:02:09.720 --> 1:02:12.040 whatever you have, it's nowhere near as good as that. 1:02:12.480 --> 1:02:14.640 Blah blah blah blah blah blah. I mean he really 1:02:14.680 --> 1:02:17.880 put me down one night we were at shit what 1:02:18.000 --> 1:02:20.960 venue is in that la b l ray. It was 1:02:21.000 --> 1:02:22.040 really kind of funny. 1:02:22.240 --> 1:02:24.160 They'll have to thank him for me. I'm glad he 1:02:24.320 --> 1:02:24.880 likes to right. 1:02:25.040 --> 1:02:27.080 You know, as I say, you're not going to have 1:02:27.120 --> 1:02:31.840 a need for a one twenty most inbounds places. But 1:02:32.720 --> 1:02:35.280 the days that you have the one fifteen, you know, 1:02:35.400 --> 1:02:39.640 one sixteen, the days you have them, you want them. 1:02:39.880 --> 1:02:42.920 Yeah, and there is that's similar with the one twenty. 1:02:43.000 --> 1:02:46.440 It is. It's it just gets skied out so fast 1:02:46.480 --> 1:02:50.280 on resorts nowadays, is the issue. But if you go 1:02:50.360 --> 1:02:53.120 over to Europe, they still seem to just be so 1:02:53.280 --> 1:02:57.840 widespread and lifts and resorts connected lifts and resorts and 1:02:58.120 --> 1:03:01.320 valleys and it just stays fresh for a bit longer. 1:03:01.360 --> 1:03:04.600 But I still ski the one twenty pretty often actually 1:03:04.640 --> 1:03:08.720 on Mammoth here. But I also know exactly where I'm 1:03:08.760 --> 1:03:12.120 going and where to find all the fresh pockets. 1:03:12.280 --> 1:03:14.440 You know. The good thing is, I mean I have 1:03:14.640 --> 1:03:16.640 the you know, since we're right at the foot of 1:03:16.640 --> 1:03:19.680 the mountain, you can change them because you don't want 1:03:19.680 --> 1:03:21.360 to ski, you know, you're un here. One to fifteens 1:03:21.360 --> 1:03:23.000 are good for a couple of hours and then the 1:03:23.040 --> 1:03:26.360 rest of the days. I know, I want something different. Okay, okay, 1:03:26.600 --> 1:03:30.040 let's get back. Hey. Are you a gear freak? 1:03:32.080 --> 1:03:36.520 A gear freak know in the sense that I don't 1:03:36.600 --> 1:03:39.920 research gear and try to find out every little nuance 1:03:39.960 --> 1:03:42.080 about it, but a gear freak in the sense that 1:03:42.280 --> 1:03:45.440 I'm very intuitive and I know what I want it 1:03:45.560 --> 1:03:49.280 to feel like. So my translation to an engineer and 1:03:49.320 --> 1:03:53.600 to the people building the skis is very productive and 1:03:53.640 --> 1:03:57.360 they appreciate it, and they always are surprised. They'll give 1:03:57.400 --> 1:04:00.400 me like a blind test on different flex patterns things, 1:04:00.400 --> 1:04:04.360 and I can sniff it out really easily and like 1:04:04.960 --> 1:04:10.320 tell them down to down to very minute changes what 1:04:10.440 --> 1:04:13.280 I want to see. And so yes in the sense 1:04:13.320 --> 1:04:17.680 of performance. No, in the sense of I just don't 1:04:17.680 --> 1:04:19.600 have enough time in the day to dive deep on 1:04:19.640 --> 1:04:22.120 the internet to find out what does what and why 1:04:22.160 --> 1:04:27.480 it does what it does and all those things. 1:04:32.360 --> 1:04:35.480 Okay, let's start outside the skis what boots. 1:04:35.240 --> 1:04:37.520 Do you use atomic as well? 1:04:37.800 --> 1:04:39.840 Okay, which model? I use? 1:04:39.960 --> 1:04:44.160 The Hawks one thirty, the X Extended XTD because it's 1:04:44.160 --> 1:04:46.720 it has a walk mode, ski tour a lot, and 1:04:46.760 --> 1:04:49.240 it has the BOA system on the lower lower half 1:04:49.280 --> 1:04:51.440 as well, which I'm a big fan of in the 1:04:51.480 --> 1:04:52.320 last couple of years. 1:04:52.400 --> 1:04:54.400 Why are you a big fan of Boa? 1:04:54.720 --> 1:04:59.600 It's just my feet in general get freezing. I have 1:05:00.120 --> 1:05:03.120 I think what's called raynods. It's like a circulation disease, 1:05:03.440 --> 1:05:10.040 and I can never for two decades now, could never 1:05:10.520 --> 1:05:13.000 use my lower buckles because I have a high instep 1:05:13.200 --> 1:05:15.320 as well in my arch, so that top buckle would 1:05:15.320 --> 1:05:18.440 always just cut off circulation to my foot. But now 1:05:18.440 --> 1:05:21.800 with the Boa system, it really pulls everything evenly and 1:05:21.840 --> 1:05:26.360 wraps the shell around your foot versus applying pressure points 1:05:26.400 --> 1:05:29.600 into locations. So it just makes a ton of sense, 1:05:29.760 --> 1:05:35.400 and it's designed well. It's robust. I snowmobile to access 1:05:35.520 --> 1:05:37.840 terrain a lot, and if or if I kick it 1:05:37.840 --> 1:05:40.720 off on a rock hiking or anything, the BOA systems 1:05:40.760 --> 1:05:43.520 made to detach and just pop back in. So I 1:05:43.600 --> 1:05:46.840 personally haven't had any issues with it, which has been great, 1:05:46.880 --> 1:05:51.600 but I am. I am a fan just for maybe 1:05:51.960 --> 1:05:54.400 getting my boots a little more snug, because, as you know, 1:05:55.480 --> 1:05:59.160 any little minute adjustment you make, it starts with your boots. 1:05:59.200 --> 1:06:01.360 That's what's going to roll your ski over on edge. 1:06:01.480 --> 1:06:04.160 So I like a stiffer boot. I have one thirty 1:06:04.280 --> 1:06:06.160 is the stiffest I can get. I might even go 1:06:06.200 --> 1:06:10.080 stiffer if they offered it, but that's a rare occurrence 1:06:10.160 --> 1:06:11.360 unless you're skiing world. 1:06:11.440 --> 1:06:13.800 Well, I always skied in layings till my feet. I 1:06:14.040 --> 1:06:16.640 almost had to give up skiing, and I skied in 1:06:16.680 --> 1:06:20.200 the Nordicas for a while, and then five years ago 1:06:20.280 --> 1:06:23.720 I went back to the RS one thirty and it 1:06:23.720 --> 1:06:28.160 has a very progressive flex. Nordica is a little hard 1:06:28.240 --> 1:06:32.280 on the initiation. Then you go, we're the laying irrelevant 1:06:32.320 --> 1:06:34.960 of its reputation. I just got a new pair of 1:06:35.000 --> 1:06:37.080 the new ones because I woke up and I said, 1:06:37.400 --> 1:06:39.560 the liners I'm gonna get to the middle season want 1:06:39.600 --> 1:06:41.440 new boots, and they're not gonna be No one's going 1:06:41.480 --> 1:06:42.360 to have them. 1:06:42.560 --> 1:06:46.040 Yeah, and liners are important too. I do a foam. 1:06:46.360 --> 1:06:48.800 I like a foam injected molded liner. 1:06:49.480 --> 1:06:51.120 Oh well, who does your foaming? 1:06:51.400 --> 1:06:54.120 The factory that I go over to Austria. 1:06:54.320 --> 1:06:57.640 Okay, wait wait, I'm really interested because there's this uh. 1:06:58.080 --> 1:06:59.960 I mean it's great talking to someone because most people 1:07:00.040 --> 1:07:01.800 then you get really deep things. They don't care, they 1:07:01.840 --> 1:07:05.000 don't know because on Instagram they got this place hun 1:07:05.160 --> 1:07:09.120 Sport in Austria and they show their foaming whatever. And 1:07:09.160 --> 1:07:12.640 now the guy works for leg he's in French. Okay, 1:07:12.800 --> 1:07:16.120 you go to the factory. Hey, what do they do 1:07:16.200 --> 1:07:16.920 for a footbed? 1:07:18.080 --> 1:07:23.080 I actually use a it's not a custom, it's it's 1:07:23.280 --> 1:07:27.040 there's three different models, but I have a sponsor and 1:07:27.080 --> 1:07:30.440 a collaboration with a footbed that's always worked or not always, 1:07:30.560 --> 1:07:32.680 it's worked well for me. I've been trying it for 1:07:32.720 --> 1:07:35.960 the last little bit and it's called remind in Soul. 1:07:36.400 --> 1:07:38.040 So I use that for my footbed. 1:07:38.440 --> 1:07:40.800 Well, before you know, if there are three different models, 1:07:40.800 --> 1:07:41.880 what's the difference. 1:07:41.920 --> 1:07:44.240 Is the medic like the medium model? You just find 1:07:44.280 --> 1:07:45.200 what works best. 1:07:45.000 --> 1:07:47.800 For well, it's high for that okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. 1:07:47.600 --> 1:07:50.840 Exactly, and so I slip that in. Then I go 1:07:51.000 --> 1:07:54.440 foam foam injected at the atomic factory. 1:07:54.640 --> 1:07:58.040 Yeah okay, I mean you know I have pham boots 1:07:58.080 --> 1:08:01.440 back at the beginning, like Boa in the begin you 1:08:01.480 --> 1:08:03.240 can get a bad foam job. 1:08:03.680 --> 1:08:06.840 Oh you can, And so I use who used to 1:08:06.840 --> 1:08:10.360 do Marcel's? I was told that I think Marcel went 1:08:10.400 --> 1:08:14.000 through forty boots one season when he was in his 1:08:14.080 --> 1:08:18.200 prime racing at Atomic. He's no longer there, but I 1:08:18.600 --> 1:08:22.080 can't remember the name. And I'm so sad. He'll be 1:08:22.160 --> 1:08:24.439 sad if he ever hears this. But he's amazing. He's 1:08:24.439 --> 1:08:27.559 been at Atomic forever and he's done a lot of 1:08:27.640 --> 1:08:29.320 foam liners. Let's just put it that way. 1:08:29.680 --> 1:08:31.840 And how dense is your ful? 1:08:32.080 --> 1:08:34.360 I go as dense as possible. I go with what 1:08:34.800 --> 1:08:36.759 they're given the World Cup skiers. 1:08:36.840 --> 1:08:40.200 And then to what degree is there a breaking period? 1:08:42.240 --> 1:08:46.160 That varies, as you know, depending on how long your 1:08:46.160 --> 1:08:50.080 skin and actually ski touring, so walking uphills breaks in 1:08:50.120 --> 1:08:54.519 your boots pretty fast, which I enjoy because you're you're 1:08:54.560 --> 1:08:57.200 constantly flexing back and forth because you put it in 1:08:57.280 --> 1:09:00.160 walk mode. Now your boot's flexing backwards and forwards. So 1:09:00.640 --> 1:09:02.679 they break in much faster than they used to because 1:09:02.680 --> 1:09:06.040 skiing around the mountain, you're just absorbing, You're hitting bumps 1:09:06.040 --> 1:09:08.800 and absorbing, and they're just doing their little minute adjustments. 1:09:08.800 --> 1:09:11.679 But once you start doing big strides and walking yourself 1:09:11.760 --> 1:09:16.800 up five thousand foot peak or whatever, five thousand feet 1:09:16.960 --> 1:09:22.000 vertical of a bigger twelve thousand foot peak. Really but yeah, 1:09:22.080 --> 1:09:25.519 that really happens fast. 1:09:25.840 --> 1:09:28.000 Oh okay, you know you have the hawks? Do you 1:09:28.000 --> 1:09:30.880 have any red stors for inbounds? Did? 1:09:30.960 --> 1:09:35.160 I went that way? But sadly, I probably skied less 1:09:35.200 --> 1:09:37.439 than you last year, which makes me sad to hear 1:09:37.560 --> 1:09:41.400 myself say that. But I because of this project, because 1:09:41.400 --> 1:09:44.200 of my ambitions, because of my artwork, because of all 1:09:44.280 --> 1:09:48.640 these different things, I don't ski as much as I 1:09:48.640 --> 1:09:51.519 would like to in that and I also have two 1:09:51.600 --> 1:09:53.640 small kids, so a lot of my skiing on the 1:09:53.680 --> 1:09:57.240 mountain is with them, which is amazing, and it's just different. 1:09:57.360 --> 1:10:01.880 So I try to get used to my boots so 1:10:01.960 --> 1:10:04.439 that way, if I get called tomorrow to go on 1:10:04.479 --> 1:10:07.360 a Helli trip in Canada, I'm skiing the same boots 1:10:07.400 --> 1:10:11.120 that I was skiing on the hill. So I've been 1:10:11.320 --> 1:10:13.439 pretty much the last couple of years just sticking to 1:10:13.520 --> 1:10:14.639 one boot a season. 1:10:15.080 --> 1:10:18.200 Okay, And every season you get a new pier. Yeah, 1:10:18.240 --> 1:10:20.680 and at this point you only have one pair, you 1:10:20.680 --> 1:10:21.719 have multiple piers. 1:10:21.880 --> 1:10:27.720 I have multiple I luckily have access right, Okay, but 1:10:28.160 --> 1:10:33.320 bindings bindings also atomic, but that's the one technology that 1:10:33.680 --> 1:10:40.240 Atomic actually companies widely share. Solomon had the Solomon Shift, Yes, 1:10:40.360 --> 1:10:43.559 the shift and for touring, and then that they had 1:10:43.560 --> 1:10:47.280 an sth binding which is now called the strive, which 1:10:47.439 --> 1:10:50.280 I ski of fifteen to sixteen din because I don't 1:10:50.320 --> 1:10:53.240 like to come out, so crank them down. 1:10:54.280 --> 1:10:56.160 I've only been hurt when they came out. 1:10:56.520 --> 1:10:59.479 Yeah, exactly, you want to stay in there. So yeah, 1:10:59.520 --> 1:11:03.280 that's than the most bomber binding. And I've I skied 1:11:03.320 --> 1:11:06.760 it long before I was on Atomic. They just have 1:11:07.360 --> 1:11:09.960 if it's not broke, don't fix it kind of mentality. 1:11:10.840 --> 1:11:13.720 Well, do you on your back country skis you ski 1:11:13.800 --> 1:11:17.280 on the shift? I do, yeah, And so the shift 1:11:17.720 --> 1:11:21.800 allows you to move the mounting point, move the setter. 1:11:21.840 --> 1:11:24.880 Not necessarily frontward and backwards. It's not on a track system, 1:11:25.040 --> 1:11:27.640 so it's still mounted toe piece, heel piece, but it 1:11:27.760 --> 1:11:29.960 allows you to click the heel down and then put 1:11:29.960 --> 1:11:32.120 it into walk mode. So now your heel releases. 1:11:33.000 --> 1:11:34.960 Oh I guess that body skis And I mean he 1:11:35.040 --> 1:11:37.360 was telling me that you could move them back and forth. 1:11:37.760 --> 1:11:38.880 That's not what I ski on. 1:11:39.840 --> 1:11:43.680 Yeah, there there's one that was called the tracker that 1:11:43.720 --> 1:11:45.640 you can move forward and back. I'm pretty sure. But 1:11:45.680 --> 1:11:48.679 the shift, the shift is mounted directly into the ski, 1:11:49.080 --> 1:11:51.320 so and stays stays put. 1:11:51.960 --> 1:11:55.160 Okay, So mounting point. 1:11:55.800 --> 1:11:58.360 Mounting point this is this is useful. Actually, I should 1:11:58.400 --> 1:12:00.679 do this on a ski podcast. I get that question 1:12:01.080 --> 1:12:06.200 more than any other question. I because I create my 1:12:06.240 --> 1:12:09.200 own skis. I now have a model that is an 1:12:09.240 --> 1:12:13.360 eighty five, a ninety at one hundred, a one ten, 1:12:13.640 --> 1:12:16.439 and a one twenty, and so I try to put 1:12:16.479 --> 1:12:20.040 the factory line. There's there's lines that go above the 1:12:20.040 --> 1:12:22.000 factory line and lines that go behind it, and I 1:12:22.040 --> 1:12:25.080 try to put the factory line at where I personally 1:12:25.200 --> 1:12:29.759 love to skim. And the one twenty we just changed 1:12:29.800 --> 1:12:32.880 the mold. We had carbon stringers in the mold for 1:12:32.960 --> 1:12:35.759 a long time and we just took those out because 1:12:35.800 --> 1:12:38.479 they have a new wood core that they were able 1:12:38.560 --> 1:12:42.960 to accomplish the same flex pattern and actually a little 1:12:42.960 --> 1:12:47.040 stiffer in the tip while again the same I guess 1:12:47.080 --> 1:12:50.720 rebound and everything. The ski performed equally, but it was 1:12:51.120 --> 1:12:54.960 a lesser impact on the environment to just have wood 1:12:54.960 --> 1:12:57.720 in there. And so they built that mold with my 1:12:57.800 --> 1:13:00.320 one ten and my one hundred, so we were able 1:13:00.320 --> 1:13:02.280 to test it on those skis years prior, and now 1:13:02.280 --> 1:13:04.960 they implemented it in the one twenty. But because I 1:13:05.080 --> 1:13:08.280 told you how sensitive I am, the factory line stayed 1:13:08.280 --> 1:13:11.320 where I've always skied it. But now, because the tip 1:13:11.400 --> 1:13:17.080 is just a minute percent stiffer, I now move one 1:13:17.080 --> 1:13:20.519 and a half centimeters behind the factory line. So moving 1:13:20.560 --> 1:13:25.200 forward everything is like years out, sadly, but moving forward 1:13:25.360 --> 1:13:28.719 in I want to say in the twenty six twenty 1:13:28.760 --> 1:13:31.759 seven ski, the factory line will not be correct again. 1:13:31.920 --> 1:13:35.120 But we've only just figured this out in the more 1:13:35.240 --> 1:13:37.639 recent years, so it will take time to implement. 1:13:37.800 --> 1:13:47.360 Okay, nail this down. The ski redone got a stiffer tip. Yeah, 1:13:47.400 --> 1:13:49.880 you're mounting it minus one point five. 1:13:50.280 --> 1:13:54.160 Correct, And I recommend it for general people to even 1:13:54.200 --> 1:13:57.960 go back minus two because I personally spin and flip 1:13:58.040 --> 1:14:01.280 and like my tails to release turns, and I do 1:14:01.360 --> 1:14:03.720 what's called butters where I jump into like a three 1:14:03.880 --> 1:14:06.680 sixty and push my noses into the snow, and so 1:14:07.560 --> 1:14:10.559 swingweight is important to me, but it swingweight is also 1:14:10.640 --> 1:14:14.080 important for anyone skiing powder in the trees, and how 1:14:14.120 --> 1:14:17.320 the where the tip releases and how the tails release, 1:14:17.520 --> 1:14:20.840 so I do recommend staying close to where I ski, 1:14:20.960 --> 1:14:24.599 but a little more tip for people that never jump 1:14:24.760 --> 1:14:28.760 or go backwards or spin is always is always a 1:14:28.800 --> 1:14:30.639 good thing because the more tip you have, the more 1:14:30.640 --> 1:14:35.599 float you have. So I personally like them at minus 1:14:35.600 --> 1:14:38.559 one point five, but I think that in between that 1:14:39.400 --> 1:14:42.360 minus two all the way to minus three range is 1:14:42.400 --> 1:14:44.679 great for the everyday directional skier. 1:14:45.040 --> 1:14:49.280 Okay, but the line that comes on the ski is incorrect. 1:14:49.880 --> 1:14:53.559 Is incorrect. It's still skis great there, but I'm just 1:14:53.640 --> 1:14:56.400 so sensitive and it is the line that comes on 1:14:56.439 --> 1:14:58.719 the ski is exactly where it's been for the last 1:14:58.800 --> 1:15:02.280 however many years, so atomic had no way of knowing 1:15:03.080 --> 1:15:05.439 until I had enough time on them to be like, 1:15:05.520 --> 1:15:08.479 wait a second, this isn't feeling right. Let's try this. 1:15:08.600 --> 1:15:10.880 So I played around with it for quite a while 1:15:10.960 --> 1:15:13.519 until I landed on exactly where I want to go. 1:15:13.680 --> 1:15:20.559 But luckily, more often than not, people mount wherever they 1:15:20.640 --> 1:15:23.240 feel like they should be mounting their skis, So a 1:15:23.240 --> 1:15:26.839 lot of people go all over the place anyways, and well. 1:15:26.640 --> 1:15:28.599 You know, they used to have that mark or binding. 1:15:28.680 --> 1:15:32.200 We could the skitzo, we could move faster. But you know, 1:15:32.479 --> 1:15:35.080 there's so much discussion on this in line, but unless 1:15:35.080 --> 1:15:37.240 you're someone with a lot of skis a lot of stuff, 1:15:38.120 --> 1:15:41.040 people don't have the opportunity to try on all these 1:15:41.080 --> 1:15:43.120 different mounting points totally. 1:15:43.360 --> 1:15:46.680 And what I hope happens someday it would be so 1:15:46.840 --> 1:15:51.839 amazing is that all binding companies get together and decide 1:15:51.880 --> 1:15:57.680 that one universal hole pattern is agreed upon, and then 1:15:57.760 --> 1:16:01.480 skis could come pre drilled with in set inset screws, 1:16:01.520 --> 1:16:03.840 just like snowboards, and all you have to do is 1:16:03.880 --> 1:16:07.640 move your toe piece heel piece. When you travel overseas, 1:16:07.720 --> 1:16:09.800 you could take your binding off and it's easier to 1:16:09.840 --> 1:16:13.719 pack like. There would be so much benefit to everyone 1:16:13.800 --> 1:16:16.080 being in the same hole pattern and not having to 1:16:16.160 --> 1:16:19.600 drill skis because you can. You can. It's contrary to 1:16:19.680 --> 1:16:22.479 what people believe. You can drill skis a lot, especially 1:16:22.520 --> 1:16:25.479 if you're plugging the holes just for water proofing the 1:16:25.520 --> 1:16:28.840 wood core. But you can drill and re drill and 1:16:28.880 --> 1:16:32.599 drill and redrill quite a lot. I've done five six 1:16:33.200 --> 1:16:36.680 different binding mounting points and skis still feel great and 1:16:36.760 --> 1:16:40.479 have the same response and liveliness and stuff. So as 1:16:40.560 --> 1:16:42.320 long as you're plugging plugging holes. 1:16:42.400 --> 1:16:45.040 It's it's fine, let's go back to the beginning. You 1:16:45.240 --> 1:16:47.760 make this deal after seven years, the K two with 1:16:47.880 --> 1:16:51.680 Atomic and what's the first ski. 1:16:52.840 --> 1:16:55.439 The bent Chetler. It was the bent Chetler. It was 1:16:55.479 --> 1:16:57.439 a one to twenty three at that point in time. 1:16:58.200 --> 1:17:00.360 And so I don't know if you would have met 1:17:00.360 --> 1:17:04.519 this gentleman, but he was widely respected and appreciated. His 1:17:04.640 --> 1:17:09.400 name was Rupert and he went by Keighley, and he 1:17:09.479 --> 1:17:12.880 worked for Atomic for sixty years. He just recently passed away. 1:17:13.400 --> 1:17:19.000 But I came on board myself, Darren Rahlves and the 1:17:20.800 --> 1:17:25.240 Eric Gay. He was a ski racer and I want 1:17:25.240 --> 1:17:27.320 to say he had a brother too. It was there 1:17:27.400 --> 1:17:32.479 was a few of us and mostly racers and myself 1:17:32.680 --> 1:17:36.240 and we were testing the very first prototype of my ski, 1:17:36.439 --> 1:17:39.479 this other ski called the Atlas, and kind of figuring 1:17:39.479 --> 1:17:43.719 things out in Alaska and Wolfgang the president of Atomic, 1:17:43.840 --> 1:17:46.200 was there, Keighley was there, a lot of the senior 1:17:46.280 --> 1:17:49.280 leadership was there to try and figure out where we 1:17:49.280 --> 1:17:55.400 were taking the brand. And the skis performed horribly. My 1:17:55.560 --> 1:17:57.960 ski did the very first proto. They were just an 1:17:58.000 --> 1:18:01.519 all gray top sheet, black bass and just the first 1:18:01.560 --> 1:18:05.160 iteration of what I tried to translate to the Austrians, 1:18:06.000 --> 1:18:09.720 and so Keighley and I sat down, marked them all up, 1:18:09.920 --> 1:18:12.799 decided exactly how we wanted them to look and change, 1:18:12.840 --> 1:18:15.519 and he went back. This was we skied Alaska in April. 1:18:15.560 --> 1:18:18.040 He went back had a new prototype for me to 1:18:18.080 --> 1:18:20.040 test in the middle of summer. So I flew over 1:18:20.080 --> 1:18:22.719 to Austria and skied them on a glacier without any 1:18:23.320 --> 1:18:27.599 powder whatsoever, and they performed. Like I said earlier, I 1:18:27.600 --> 1:18:31.800 can very much feel how they'd perform, and they outperformed 1:18:31.840 --> 1:18:34.680 anything I've ever skied in my life. And so we 1:18:34.880 --> 1:18:39.960 committed to it and released them that January of two 1:18:39.960 --> 1:18:42.240 thousand and eight, I want to say, or really really 1:18:42.280 --> 1:18:48.400 early in two thousand and eight, and they just built 1:18:48.640 --> 1:18:51.479 built steam, I guess you could say it just like 1:18:51.960 --> 1:18:54.920 kind of became a cult following to some degree, and 1:18:55.439 --> 1:18:58.320 then it just kept building and building and building, and 1:18:58.560 --> 1:19:01.719 it won. The skis won some awards over the years, 1:19:01.760 --> 1:19:04.960 and just we kept pushing and progressing the mold and 1:19:05.000 --> 1:19:08.240 trying new shapes. And I took a lot of influence 1:19:08.280 --> 1:19:11.400 from the way Rob Machado shaped surfboards and tried some 1:19:11.479 --> 1:19:16.360 different horizon tech technology where there was multidimensional rocker, and 1:19:17.160 --> 1:19:20.439 just because I don't understand hydrodynamics like a surfer does. 1:19:20.479 --> 1:19:23.840 But Rob is one of the world's best surfers. So 1:19:23.960 --> 1:19:27.320 his glide and how he can where he can gain 1:19:27.400 --> 1:19:31.320 speed on a wave and how he rides on top 1:19:31.360 --> 1:19:34.720 of water translates well to frozen water as well. So 1:19:34.920 --> 1:19:37.280 I talked to him all the time about different concepts 1:19:37.280 --> 1:19:37.679 and things. 1:19:37.960 --> 1:19:40.920 Okay, let's start. The original one was a one twenty three. 1:19:41.320 --> 1:19:44.160 Why'd you change the standard to a one twenty. 1:19:44.880 --> 1:19:49.479 Because as we were testing rocker profiles, and then once 1:19:49.560 --> 1:19:56.120 we came up with the horizon tech the multidimensional rocker. 1:19:56.640 --> 1:19:59.800 When you have something that's bent on the edges too, 1:20:00.120 --> 1:20:03.200 you have as much or more surface area than if 1:20:03.200 --> 1:20:06.679 it were to flat, so you're actually getting a similar 1:20:06.720 --> 1:20:10.080 amount of floatation, so you can change the shape, and 1:20:10.160 --> 1:20:13.640 though that's not underfoot where your tip is floating in 1:20:13.680 --> 1:20:16.519 the powder and not diving. We were just testing different 1:20:16.520 --> 1:20:20.519 things there. And then for that same swingweight concept, the 1:20:20.680 --> 1:20:27.599 narrower the ski, the less less reaction time it has 1:20:27.680 --> 1:20:30.800 if you are spinning and doing things you want. If 1:20:30.840 --> 1:20:33.400 you go too wide and too fat, it just it 1:20:33.520 --> 1:20:36.040 just doesn't work. I've tried all different kinds of things, 1:20:36.080 --> 1:20:38.400 so there is there is a very fine balance on 1:20:39.000 --> 1:20:42.120 where you want that waste width to be, and I've 1:20:42.160 --> 1:20:46.320 found one twenty to be just a very sweet spot 1:20:46.439 --> 1:20:47.719 for fresh powder. 1:20:47.920 --> 1:20:49.320 Tell me about Horizon Tech. 1:20:50.479 --> 1:20:55.400 Horizon Tech was exactly that, just to gain more surface 1:20:55.439 --> 1:20:58.960 area and more floatation without changing the width of the 1:20:59.040 --> 1:21:02.240 tip and actually slimming down the ski. Like I just said, 1:21:02.280 --> 1:21:06.040 So we wanted to bring things down but not lose 1:21:06.080 --> 1:21:10.759 performance and flotation. So it was just we beveled edges, 1:21:10.840 --> 1:21:16.000 we added like a whole spoon concept, like just plastered 1:21:16.000 --> 1:21:17.719 it on the ski. We tried a bunch of different 1:21:17.760 --> 1:21:21.559 stuff until we landed on the horizon tech. But how 1:21:21.600 --> 1:21:25.559 it cuts through snow and where if you have an 1:21:25.680 --> 1:21:28.280 edge all the way around, even in variable snow, you're 1:21:28.320 --> 1:21:30.400 still going to get hook a tip from time to time, 1:21:30.479 --> 1:21:34.479 And so how that smears through variable snow was also 1:21:34.560 --> 1:21:39.559 another thing I was trying to to accomplish. And and yeah, 1:21:39.600 --> 1:21:46.320 it just had a number of different a different reasons, 1:21:46.400 --> 1:21:48.519 I guess you could say, of why I wanted it 1:21:48.560 --> 1:21:49.559 to be the way I wanted to. 1:21:49.720 --> 1:21:51.799 Okay, you get a pair of skis from the factory. 1:21:52.280 --> 1:21:53.679 You dull the tips and tails. 1:21:54.520 --> 1:21:54.920 I do not. 1:21:55.360 --> 1:21:56.160 I do not either. 1:21:56.240 --> 1:22:00.400 I don't believe it factory factory. I don't. I don't 1:22:00.400 --> 1:22:03.240 even wax them. I do after a time, but I don't. 1:22:03.560 --> 1:22:05.880 I'm on the exact same page. I never had this 1:22:05.960 --> 1:22:09.439 problem they're talking about. No, Okay, the original skis, what 1:22:09.600 --> 1:22:12.600 was inside of them? There was. 1:22:13.479 --> 1:22:16.679 Now you're testing me because we've gone poplar, We've gone 1:22:16.720 --> 1:22:17.120 oh wait. 1:22:16.960 --> 1:22:19.160 Wait wait wait wait wait wait, let's forget that, because 1:22:19.240 --> 1:22:22.559 let's just the president. You have the one twenty. How 1:22:22.600 --> 1:22:29.080 do you decide to expand the brand narrower? Uh? 1:22:29.360 --> 1:22:32.000 Sorry to ask that question again. How do I decide 1:22:32.040 --> 1:22:34.320 to expand the brand narrower? Mean? 1:22:34.520 --> 1:22:36.240 I mean you start with the one twenty. How do 1:22:36.280 --> 1:22:37.439 you decide to have small. 1:22:37.240 --> 1:22:41.320 To get more skis? Oh? Okay, that I mean simple. 1:22:41.600 --> 1:22:45.240 It's because you said it on this call. You need 1:22:45.280 --> 1:22:47.479 a quiver of skis. I don't ski a one twenty 1:22:47.520 --> 1:22:49.719 all the time. Nobody in their right mind with Skia 1:22:49.760 --> 1:22:53.479 one twenty all the time. You it's just like surfing, 1:22:53.640 --> 1:22:57.960 or just like anything. There's skis designed for a type 1:22:57.960 --> 1:23:02.880 of skiing, and you've go out in the rain, rain, sleet, 1:23:02.960 --> 1:23:05.720 or snow, you know, and that is going to be 1:23:07.080 --> 1:23:10.680 what ski you decide. So in the park I like 1:23:10.720 --> 1:23:14.559 a narrower ski in coolar season where I'm skiing these 1:23:14.600 --> 1:23:18.400 long sierra coolars, I like around a one hundred waist 1:23:18.479 --> 1:23:24.200 ski and every day soft snow crud skiing, I really 1:23:24.240 --> 1:23:26.360 like skiing a one ten. I find it has a 1:23:26.720 --> 1:23:29.639 perfect balance for me to be able to jump off 1:23:29.680 --> 1:23:33.840 cliffs and do the things and still ride through very 1:23:33.880 --> 1:23:36.439 cut up, chopped, skied out powder. And then a one 1:23:36.400 --> 1:23:42.360 to twenty is fantastic for untouched virgin powder. 1:23:42.600 --> 1:23:42.840 You know. 1:23:43.000 --> 1:23:44.920 So it's uh, it just gives you the. 1:23:45.040 --> 1:23:48.439 Okay, I looked online what you just redid the narrower 1:23:48.560 --> 1:23:54.280 ones last year? Okay? Yeah, So other than waste with 1:23:54.800 --> 1:23:57.600 what is the difference in these skis. 1:23:58.240 --> 1:24:01.120 That you're also testing me because we're two years ahead, 1:24:01.400 --> 1:24:04.439 So I'm always trying to remember really we're yeah, we're 1:24:04.560 --> 1:24:08.479 years ahead of like where we land for commercial skis. 1:24:08.880 --> 1:24:14.880 But it's mold shapes, its wood blends, its materials. There 1:24:14.960 --> 1:24:20.320 is a big initiative to have more environmentally conscious materials. 1:24:20.400 --> 1:24:26.760 There's we're always trying different resins, different like there's poplar 1:24:27.240 --> 1:24:30.880 and there was Karuba wood for a while, which was 1:24:30.920 --> 1:24:34.519 a blend. And there's there's been so many things that 1:24:34.960 --> 1:24:37.559 I get lost. Like I told you, I know the 1:24:37.640 --> 1:24:38.680 feeling and like. 1:24:39.120 --> 1:24:42.120 Yeah, okay, I mean that's a couple of things. The 1:24:42.200 --> 1:24:45.080 big breakthrough in the fifties and sixties was the metal 1:24:45.160 --> 1:24:49.240 ski that it was the fiberglass ski. Yeah. Then in 1:24:49.280 --> 1:24:53.200 the late seventies there was the Rosie rock, which brought 1:24:53.240 --> 1:24:58.120 back a metal ski. Okay, forget the foam cor era. Okay. Yeah, 1:24:58.160 --> 1:25:02.120 So now you have people say, I mean the bizards 1:25:02.680 --> 1:25:07.800 they're made with two layers of titanol. Okay, So do 1:25:07.840 --> 1:25:11.320 you feel that just whatever the right pick of wood 1:25:11.439 --> 1:25:16.080 is and some glass resin is enough. You had carbon 1:25:16.120 --> 1:25:18.160 in one ski, you took it out. 1:25:18.400 --> 1:25:21.919 We have carbon. We've put aluminum inserts for the binding 1:25:22.000 --> 1:25:25.000 so it doesn't rip out. We have certain things and 1:25:25.040 --> 1:25:27.680 then the horizon tech is a tech insert so that 1:25:28.800 --> 1:25:32.160 breaks up the wood. But long story short, yes, I 1:25:32.200 --> 1:25:36.400 think everything that you see in skis that moves away 1:25:36.560 --> 1:25:41.400 from wood is a marketing effort to try and make 1:25:41.479 --> 1:25:44.639 the next thing. But we all go back to wood. 1:25:45.080 --> 1:25:48.800 It performs the best. And if you're creating a world 1:25:48.800 --> 1:25:51.120 Cup downhill ski. Yes, you're gonna have a ton of 1:25:51.160 --> 1:25:53.840 metal in there, but for the everyday skier, you do 1:25:53.960 --> 1:25:58.200 not need metal skis. There's no reason to have that 1:25:58.520 --> 1:26:02.559 stiff of a ski opinion. Skiing should be fun and 1:26:02.640 --> 1:26:08.280 not hard work. Like you're trying to do so many 1:26:08.439 --> 1:26:11.639 things with our companies are trying to do so many 1:26:11.720 --> 1:26:14.840 things to make themselves stand out or be different. But 1:26:14.960 --> 1:26:18.800 I think I mean, Atomics turns seventy years old this year. 1:26:18.840 --> 1:26:21.799 They've tried a lot of things, and there's a reason 1:26:21.960 --> 1:26:26.760 where landing back at wood would molds. 1:26:33.080 --> 1:26:36.240 Okay, if you have a non metal ski, what do 1:26:36.280 --> 1:26:39.960 you do about torsion control and holding on hard snow. 1:26:40.960 --> 1:26:45.200 That goes into the layers the fiberglass layers and how 1:26:45.439 --> 1:26:48.000 many they put in because there is more than just 1:26:48.080 --> 1:26:51.800 wood in the ski, but the edge, what the edge 1:26:51.920 --> 1:26:55.160 is made of. There's the sidewalls make a huge different. 1:26:55.280 --> 1:27:00.599 The cap sidewall versus a multi dimensional sidewall that breaks down. 1:27:00.680 --> 1:27:05.519 That is a massive on the torsional side. I mean 1:27:05.600 --> 1:27:08.880 even the horizon tech affects it torsionally. Everything that you 1:27:09.040 --> 1:27:12.519 build into it is going to affect it torsionally. So 1:27:13.040 --> 1:27:17.519 you add layers or remove layers according and the metal, 1:27:17.680 --> 1:27:25.120 in my opinion, is just too aggressive for your everyday skier. 1:27:25.800 --> 1:27:29.840 I mean, you have Darren Ralves still and there's I 1:27:29.880 --> 1:27:32.320 guess I could take that back. It depends if you're 1:27:32.439 --> 1:27:38.000 really railing rumors and trying to pretend you're ski racing. 1:27:38.200 --> 1:27:41.680 It's fun, like there is time and a place for that, 1:27:42.040 --> 1:27:44.920 and so I do. I do take back what I said. 1:27:45.040 --> 1:27:48.840 But generally speaking, if you're ski in the mountain after 1:27:48.920 --> 1:27:51.479 some fresh snow and it's chopped up and you're just 1:27:51.840 --> 1:27:53.680 having a trying to have a good time on a 1:27:53.680 --> 1:27:57.559 pair of skis, You're going to be happiest with a 1:27:57.560 --> 1:27:58.400 woodcrese ski. 1:28:00.000 --> 1:28:04.759 Okay, Generally speaking, your skis are a cycle of two years, 1:28:04.760 --> 1:28:06.559 three years, or just when you come up with a 1:28:06.600 --> 1:28:07.080 new thing. 1:28:07.880 --> 1:28:10.160 I try to keep it to when we come up 1:28:10.200 --> 1:28:13.919 with a new thing. I've I certainly we're not exempt 1:28:14.000 --> 1:28:17.960 of marketing efforts by any stretch of the imagination. But 1:28:18.600 --> 1:28:22.280 luckily for me, because I'm an artist and because there's 1:28:22.320 --> 1:28:27.920 such an authentic tie to what we're creating, there is 1:28:28.000 --> 1:28:32.639 a marketing story always present. Because I'm expressing myself both 1:28:32.760 --> 1:28:35.439 artistically and in the shape of the ski. So we 1:28:35.560 --> 1:28:38.760 try really hard. We constantly we want to progress, and 1:28:38.800 --> 1:28:42.519 we want to so sustainability is a huge way to progress. 1:28:42.640 --> 1:28:47.880 There's so many new materials. There's flax instead of fiberglass. 1:28:47.640 --> 1:28:51.479 There's all these different things that are being tested and tried, 1:28:51.560 --> 1:28:56.960 but and tell they're guaranteed to be at the performance 1:28:57.040 --> 1:28:59.800 that atomic is known for. They're not willing to take 1:28:59.840 --> 1:29:02.160 a you see it happen with I think K two 1:29:02.200 --> 1:29:04.320 had to recall a ton of skis. They went with 1:29:04.360 --> 1:29:08.679 some eco friendly resin or something else, and that every 1:29:08.720 --> 1:29:12.200 ski was just splitting and blowing apart. So it needs 1:29:12.240 --> 1:29:16.639 to be deeply tested. And that's why we're two three 1:29:16.720 --> 1:29:19.559 years out on skis and why I don't know what 1:29:19.640 --> 1:29:23.400 I'm skiing half the time because we're like constantly the 1:29:23.479 --> 1:29:27.320 factory is trying to push the boundaries of ski technology 1:29:27.360 --> 1:29:31.120 and think of what is new, and explore materials and 1:29:31.120 --> 1:29:34.559 do all of those things, but ultimately they won't put 1:29:34.560 --> 1:29:38.360 it out to the world until it's tried and tested. 1:29:38.680 --> 1:29:42.400 As a practical matter, how much are you testing skis? 1:29:45.320 --> 1:29:51.160 That's a good question. I don't have Like a for example, 1:29:51.680 --> 1:29:54.639 talking to Rob, I had this crazy idea to put 1:29:54.760 --> 1:29:58.519 channels in the bottoms of my skis to talking about 1:29:58.560 --> 1:30:01.439 gliding on the surface for a our specific ski and 1:30:01.560 --> 1:30:05.759 having the edges almost wrap. And we tried this concept. 1:30:05.800 --> 1:30:08.559 I had the factory build me something and it almost 1:30:08.640 --> 1:30:11.719 killed me. It was like racetracks, just like staying straight 1:30:11.800 --> 1:30:14.160 in the snow, and they wouldn't turn at all, and 1:30:14.320 --> 1:30:17.479 by like concept totally failed. So if I come up 1:30:17.520 --> 1:30:20.559 with an idea like thinking outside the box, which I 1:30:20.600 --> 1:30:24.320 do quite often, they'll I'll test it if they if 1:30:24.320 --> 1:30:26.800 they have the time, which they generally make the time 1:30:26.840 --> 1:30:29.599 for me because they want to progress. So we'll test 1:30:29.720 --> 1:30:32.679 something and see if it makes a difference, and then 1:30:33.120 --> 1:30:35.800 if we're onto something, then the rest of the team 1:30:35.840 --> 1:30:38.600 starts testing it. Like Darren rahlves is one of the 1:30:38.640 --> 1:30:43.400 best ski testers, and he was a World Cup Downhill 1:30:43.760 --> 1:30:48.680 GS superdude skier that now skis Big Mountain primarily and 1:30:48.720 --> 1:30:54.280 his understanding of skis it's deep too. So it's all 1:30:54.320 --> 1:30:58.200 the atomic team, from the free skiers to the racers. Well, 1:30:58.479 --> 1:31:01.720 I mean, Mikayla's stay in on what she knows and 1:31:01.800 --> 1:31:04.160 she's just winning in racing and doing her thing. But 1:31:04.600 --> 1:31:09.320 the skier, the racers that are not on the hunt 1:31:09.400 --> 1:31:14.519 for the globe, if you will, are testing new skis 1:31:14.560 --> 1:31:14.920 a lot. 1:31:15.080 --> 1:31:18.640 So okay, so you have your skis, You're happy with 1:31:18.680 --> 1:31:22.280 your skis. Does the change come from the fact we're saying, hey, 1:31:22.320 --> 1:31:23.640 we have a new material. 1:31:24.840 --> 1:31:28.840 Yeah, that stems it a lot. They have something for 1:31:28.880 --> 1:31:33.519 me to try. They have something that they've been working 1:31:33.560 --> 1:31:38.479 on or think it will make a big enough impact 1:31:38.560 --> 1:31:41.599 environmentally to try it. So yeah, it does stem from 1:31:41.600 --> 1:31:44.920 that a lot. And then shape and weird ideas come 1:31:44.960 --> 1:31:46.479 from me generally speaking. 1:31:46.880 --> 1:31:51.960 Okay, Atomic has your line which has expanded into all 1:31:52.040 --> 1:31:55.400 those widths, but it also has the Mavericks. I mean, 1:31:55.400 --> 1:31:58.559 what's up with that? That is. 1:32:01.080 --> 1:32:03.719 I going back to what we I mean, they are different. 1:32:03.840 --> 1:32:09.080 There's stiffer, there's they're a bit more chargey than my ski. 1:32:09.200 --> 1:32:14.240 But it's it's there's no getting around it. It's marketing 1:32:14.280 --> 1:32:17.200 as well. It's like, we have something that's working extremely 1:32:17.240 --> 1:32:19.840 well with my ski, but my ski is not made 1:32:19.880 --> 1:32:23.400 for everyone. So streamline it a little bit, make it 1:32:23.520 --> 1:32:27.160 a bit stiffer, make it less tail rocker, take the 1:32:27.200 --> 1:32:29.639 twin tip out of it. Do all of these things 1:32:30.360 --> 1:32:34.920 and use the same construction and the waste widths and 1:32:35.040 --> 1:32:38.280 the tip withs and the side walls and all of that, 1:32:38.479 --> 1:32:40.880 because we know that performs well on my ski, and 1:32:40.920 --> 1:32:43.040 now let's try that in a different mold, in a 1:32:43.040 --> 1:32:47.240 different shape. And so the Maverick and the Backland and 1:32:47.439 --> 1:32:50.800 my ski all have similarities for sure, but they are 1:32:51.080 --> 1:32:54.639 different enough. That goes back to what you're saying of 1:32:54.800 --> 1:32:59.880 that quiver, because you personally might not I mean, I 1:33:00.000 --> 1:33:01.640 would love for you to try my skis because I 1:33:01.640 --> 1:33:04.680 think you would be pleasantly surprised, But you personally might 1:33:04.720 --> 1:33:09.160 not need tail rocker, or you might not care for 1:33:09.200 --> 1:33:11.240 the same swing weight that I care for, which is 1:33:11.280 --> 1:33:15.040 totally fine. I ski differently than you ski, and that's 1:33:15.640 --> 1:33:18.559 why there should be a wide array of skis is 1:33:18.600 --> 1:33:21.799 because people do ski differently. We're all at different levels, 1:33:21.840 --> 1:33:25.240 we're all at different abilities and all that kind of stuff. 1:33:25.280 --> 1:33:28.080 So I do think there's kind of a ski atomic 1:33:28.160 --> 1:33:31.120 wants to make a ski for everyone essentially. 1:33:31.280 --> 1:33:34.479 Okay, but we could say, generally speaking, you like a 1:33:34.520 --> 1:33:35.360 softer ski. 1:33:36.120 --> 1:33:40.679 That's that's a loose term, yes, And no, I don't 1:33:40.840 --> 1:33:45.519 like too soft of a ski. And and but I mean, 1:33:45.560 --> 1:33:47.479 if you are so, let me take it back. If 1:33:47.520 --> 1:33:49.640 you're comparing me to other ski brands. Yes, I like 1:33:49.640 --> 1:33:50.360 a softer ski. 1:33:50.479 --> 1:33:53.000 I mean, you know, the original DTA Star Pro rock 1:33:53.320 --> 1:33:56.280 Yeah Provider was just, you know, really stiff. 1:33:56.280 --> 1:33:58.640 Stiff and straight. And when I came to Atomic, the 1:33:58.680 --> 1:34:01.800 turn radius was forty this it was so it was 1:34:01.840 --> 1:34:05.120 like writing a piece of just like dense board, and 1:34:05.800 --> 1:34:08.840 my turn radius is nineteen meter now it has rocker 1:34:08.920 --> 1:34:12.400 and all these things. So yes, I if you're comparing 1:34:12.439 --> 1:34:18.000 me within within some like line skis, there's some that 1:34:18.040 --> 1:34:20.559 are extremely soft that are too soft for me. But 1:34:21.520 --> 1:34:23.240 in the grand scheme of things, I do like a 1:34:23.280 --> 1:34:23.880 softer ski. 1:34:24.400 --> 1:34:26.360 How many pairs of these skis do you sell? 1:34:28.720 --> 1:34:32.599 I'm not really supposed to know those numbers, but what 1:34:32.640 --> 1:34:36.320 I do know is that it's the number the bent 1:34:36.800 --> 1:34:43.519 line and is the number one ski sold globally. My 1:34:43.640 --> 1:34:48.720 skis and particularly I think the hundred waste width, so 1:34:48.880 --> 1:34:51.000 I think I'm allowed to say that. But it does, 1:34:51.080 --> 1:34:51.840 it does very well. 1:34:52.000 --> 1:34:57.880 Okay, people know to what degree are you marketing the 1:34:57.920 --> 1:35:02.360 ski to both reach new markets and reach people that 1:35:02.479 --> 1:35:03.760 might be skiing on something. 1:35:03.520 --> 1:35:09.320 Different that falls a lot on Atomic And they would 1:35:09.400 --> 1:35:13.479 have those answers much better than me. I'm my job 1:35:13.600 --> 1:35:19.040 is tasked with. They give me a creative director role, 1:35:19.080 --> 1:35:22.160 but there very much is a creative director at Atomic 1:35:22.240 --> 1:35:24.840 that sits in an office and deals with all the 1:35:24.920 --> 1:35:27.519 video creative in the photos. And I don't have to 1:35:28.240 --> 1:35:30.240 sit in an office or be in a meeting weekly. 1:35:30.360 --> 1:35:34.240 But my art direction of where I take my skis 1:35:34.479 --> 1:35:38.680 influences the creative for the brand because the skis are successful. 1:35:38.800 --> 1:35:41.120 So the art that I put on my skis is 1:35:41.160 --> 1:35:44.640 then going to translate to T shirts and hats and 1:35:44.680 --> 1:35:47.360 ski poles and bindings and all of these different things 1:35:47.400 --> 1:35:51.080 and colors will then tie back to my skis, and 1:35:51.120 --> 1:35:54.600 then they'll build their creative direction for the Mavericks and 1:35:54.680 --> 1:35:59.559 the Backlands and the race skis, and everything will start 1:35:59.560 --> 1:36:03.520 to stem off of some of those ideas that I'm presenting. 1:36:04.760 --> 1:36:06.600 And then of course they have their own ideas and 1:36:06.640 --> 1:36:10.800 their own concepts and things and race too, But it 1:36:10.880 --> 1:36:16.000 starts with that. And then I am pretty detached from 1:36:16.040 --> 1:36:19.400 the daily marketing efforts. That's like the ad buys and 1:36:19.479 --> 1:36:24.640 the social and the website. All of that I have 1:36:24.720 --> 1:36:27.200 no idea. I just I create. 1:36:27.640 --> 1:36:30.960 Okay, let's say you broke all your relationships with all 1:36:31.000 --> 1:36:34.800 your sponsors on Atomic. Can you live on the money 1:36:34.800 --> 1:36:40.840 you make from Atomic? I could yes, Okay, yeah, switch 1:36:40.880 --> 1:36:43.280 gears completely. What about avalanches? 1:36:44.600 --> 1:36:49.280 Oh boy, they're very real and they're very scary and 1:36:49.360 --> 1:36:53.559 it's important to respect them as much as you can. 1:36:53.800 --> 1:36:59.880 And Arctics makes one of the best avalanche airbags in 1:37:00.720 --> 1:37:03.679 the industry at the world, I guess you could say, 1:37:04.840 --> 1:37:09.320 And that is hugely beneficial in something new in the 1:37:09.400 --> 1:37:14.320 recent years of technology. They've designed an extremely lightweight, battery 1:37:14.360 --> 1:37:16.839 powered air bag, so if you get in an avalanche, 1:37:16.880 --> 1:37:20.479 you can pull it. And it's the Brazilian nut theory. 1:37:20.800 --> 1:37:23.559 Anything bigger is going to shake, shake to the surface, 1:37:23.640 --> 1:37:27.679 so it's just making your mass much bigger. And so 1:37:28.080 --> 1:37:32.040 that saved a lot of lives. Avalanche beacons save a 1:37:32.040 --> 1:37:33.600 lot of lives. But you need to know how to 1:37:33.720 --> 1:37:37.479 use them and practice and take avalanche courses and learn 1:37:37.520 --> 1:37:39.800 how to use your probe and learn how to dig 1:37:39.840 --> 1:37:43.400 someone out because when it shit hits the fan, you 1:37:44.040 --> 1:37:46.639 need to stay calm. You need to check everyone's beacon. 1:37:46.760 --> 1:37:49.360 There's protocol that you really need to follow. So if 1:37:49.439 --> 1:37:52.840 you just buy a beacon and the avvy stuff and 1:37:52.880 --> 1:37:55.400 never practice with it and don't know how to use it. 1:37:55.400 --> 1:37:59.880 It's not necessarily going to save your life. So that's uh, 1:38:00.200 --> 1:38:03.400 that's the first step. And then reading avalanche terrain is 1:38:03.439 --> 1:38:07.120 an art in itself, and you learn that in AVIY courses. 1:38:07.160 --> 1:38:09.120 You learn that from being in the mountains. You learn 1:38:09.160 --> 1:38:13.240 that from watching whind loading off the peaks and snow 1:38:13.320 --> 1:38:18.840 falling and just understanding layers and depths and snow packs. 1:38:18.880 --> 1:38:22.200 There's a maritime snowpack, which is more moisture in a 1:38:22.240 --> 1:38:24.599 coastal snowpack, which is what we have in Mammoth because 1:38:24.600 --> 1:38:27.160 we're the first big mountain range off the coast. And 1:38:27.240 --> 1:38:31.240 then there's inner Mountain which is more like the Utah snowpack, 1:38:31.320 --> 1:38:34.160 which tends to avalanche a bit more but have a 1:38:34.200 --> 1:38:36.880 little more moisture. Then there's the Colorado which is a 1:38:36.880 --> 1:38:40.040 continental snowpack, which is the beautiful ice crystals that you 1:38:40.080 --> 1:38:44.559 see when you walk outside and it hasn't snowed for weeks, 1:38:44.600 --> 1:38:47.320 but it still looks all crystally. And then when snow 1:38:47.400 --> 1:38:50.680 falls on those crystals, it never gets warm enough or 1:38:50.720 --> 1:38:53.000 heated by the sun, and there's not enough moisture in 1:38:53.040 --> 1:38:56.400 the snow to crush those crystals. So crystals on crystals 1:38:56.479 --> 1:39:01.240 is a very unstable slope, whereas when in California in 1:39:01.280 --> 1:39:04.000 the sun and coastal snow packs, it snows so much 1:39:04.160 --> 1:39:07.280 feed upon feet it crushes those bad layers and can 1:39:08.000 --> 1:39:13.200 strengthen it over time. Essentially, so the deeper, the deeper 1:39:13.600 --> 1:39:17.479 east you go, than the more dangerous it gets. 1:39:17.520 --> 1:39:19.920 Basically, though, have you had close calls? 1:39:21.120 --> 1:39:27.920 I yes, I have. I've triggered quite a few. I've 1:39:28.680 --> 1:39:33.320 not necessarily been buried. Was I skid a pillow line, 1:39:33.360 --> 1:39:36.920 which is pillows of snow stacked on top of each other, 1:39:37.320 --> 1:39:39.559 and it was late in March, so it was heating up. 1:39:40.400 --> 1:39:42.760 I was in Canada, and it collapsed. The whole thing 1:39:42.840 --> 1:39:45.280 collapsed and kind of steam rolled me and trapped me 1:39:45.400 --> 1:39:48.559 under the snow quickly, and my friend got to me, 1:39:48.720 --> 1:39:52.439 but I wasn't like I could still breathe, and I 1:39:52.880 --> 1:39:56.320 was on the surface. And so that that is the 1:39:56.360 --> 1:39:59.880 closest I've been to being stuck in the snow. But then, yes, 1:40:00.240 --> 1:40:04.280 I've I've had I've had friends get buried, I've had 1:40:04.680 --> 1:40:08.040 friends die, I've had lots of I've been around a 1:40:08.040 --> 1:40:11.519 lot of avalanches. And my wife, my wife is a 1:40:11.520 --> 1:40:14.759 personal border She's triggered some too, and all the things. 1:40:14.800 --> 1:40:18.360 So to what degree does pure pressure involve in the 1:40:18.400 --> 1:40:19.720 decision to go or not go? 1:40:23.080 --> 1:40:29.120 Peer pressure not so much. It's it's ego, I would say, 1:40:29.320 --> 1:40:33.960 of like thinking that you know you could, you're safe 1:40:34.040 --> 1:40:34.880 because of X. 1:40:35.000 --> 1:40:35.280 Y and Z. 1:40:35.439 --> 1:40:38.759 You talk yourself into stupid decisions and I am guilty 1:40:38.840 --> 1:40:43.080 of it too, So peer pressure no. But it's beautiful. 1:40:43.160 --> 1:40:46.280 It just snowed. There's two feet of snow. Oh, we'll 1:40:46.280 --> 1:40:49.040 go over here in the trees because trees are anchors 1:40:49.080 --> 1:40:51.720 and this will do this, and you just you talk 1:40:51.800 --> 1:40:55.720 yourself into situations that you probably shouldn't at times. But 1:40:55.880 --> 1:40:59.280 I try really hard to remove the ego when I can. 1:40:59.720 --> 1:41:02.559 What a greedy consider herself a good reader of the snow. 1:41:06.320 --> 1:41:09.280 Same as the research. I think I could take more 1:41:09.320 --> 1:41:12.599 ABVY courses. There's AVI two's, there's AV threes to understand 1:41:12.600 --> 1:41:16.320 the science of the snow and everything on a granular level, 1:41:16.360 --> 1:41:19.240 but I do. I do not go that deep. I 1:41:19.360 --> 1:41:26.040 understand intuition and reading the mountains and convex rolls and 1:41:26.120 --> 1:41:30.880 windloading and snowpack and that like the true markers of 1:41:30.920 --> 1:41:34.600 what's going to trigger and then understanding every little like 1:41:34.680 --> 1:41:38.040 putting snow under a microscope. I've I've not gone that far, 1:41:38.120 --> 1:41:39.200 but people certainly do. 1:41:47.160 --> 1:41:50.040 So tell me about the film you made with your wife. 1:41:50.280 --> 1:41:58.280 Oh boy, well, we okay, this is gonna be a 1:41:58.280 --> 1:42:05.360 long story. She is pro snowboarder. She is an only child. 1:42:05.600 --> 1:42:08.719 Her father passed away when she was fourteen from cancer, 1:42:08.800 --> 1:42:11.800 which was our bond very early on. Was raised by 1:42:11.800 --> 1:42:15.000 a single mother. Her mother then got cancer right at 1:42:15.000 --> 1:42:20.600 the height of her career, and that was in twenty sixteen. 1:42:20.760 --> 1:42:22.479 I want to say, I was in the middle of 1:42:22.520 --> 1:42:28.799 making a pretty large project and went through the journey 1:42:28.840 --> 1:42:35.280 of losing her mother, and then she we had the 1:42:35.360 --> 1:42:38.679 very real conversation the only grandparent left was my mother, 1:42:38.800 --> 1:42:42.599 and so we started trying to have children. Four months later, 1:42:42.680 --> 1:42:45.679 after her mom passed, we got pregnant with our first child. 1:42:46.640 --> 1:42:50.160 She was approaching forty. I mean, she just turned forty, 1:42:50.160 --> 1:42:52.959 so at that point in time, what was it. Anyways, 1:42:53.040 --> 1:42:57.680 she was mid thirties and she wanted to stay a 1:42:57.680 --> 1:43:01.519 pro snowboarder. Most women at that age, once they become pregnant, 1:43:01.600 --> 1:43:06.439 walked away from snowboarding. There wasn't really maternity clauses and 1:43:06.479 --> 1:43:09.599 contracts and all of those things, so she approached Donna 1:43:09.640 --> 1:43:17.160 Carpenter at Burton and basically proposed supporting her as a 1:43:17.160 --> 1:43:21.479 as a mother, and so they they chartered New Territory 1:43:21.520 --> 1:43:25.200 together added verbage in her contract that was widely used 1:43:26.439 --> 1:43:29.400 at that time. Nike had come out with a campaign 1:43:29.479 --> 1:43:33.639 to Dream Big, and a couple of their runners, Alicia Montano, 1:43:33.720 --> 1:43:38.719 went against Nike with a dream Maternity campaign because Nike 1:43:38.920 --> 1:43:40.960 was cutting their runners when they would get pregnant and 1:43:41.000 --> 1:43:45.280 treating it like an injury clause. And so Donna men 1:43:45.360 --> 1:43:49.000 Burton went against Nike. They got Kimmy, my wife, Kimmy 1:43:49.080 --> 1:43:52.519 and Donna got an article and I think New York 1:43:52.560 --> 1:43:57.400 Times are in some other media making her verbiage in 1:43:57.520 --> 1:44:02.640 her contract available for any female athlete which supported through maternity. 1:44:02.680 --> 1:44:05.160 So that was a big deal. It was awesome. We 1:44:05.240 --> 1:44:08.960 had our child. Once we had our child, we were 1:44:09.479 --> 1:44:12.120 and so talking this. We were going to document this 1:44:12.240 --> 1:44:14.920 year of being pregnant and then having the baby and 1:44:14.960 --> 1:44:18.360 make a little pretty surface level film. And so my 1:44:19.439 --> 1:44:23.240 good friend Tyler Hamlet, who's made my dead films to 1:44:23.400 --> 1:44:25.559 him and I have worked together for twenty years, and 1:44:25.920 --> 1:44:37.040 he and I started just filming together and we got pregnant, 1:44:37.120 --> 1:44:41.680 had had CoA, our firstborn, and then she didn't know 1:44:41.720 --> 1:44:45.360 it at the time, but it triggered some past trauma, 1:44:45.800 --> 1:44:49.200 kind of had I guess postpartum depression a bit. And 1:44:49.240 --> 1:44:52.599 all of this was being unveiled on camera. And then 1:44:52.840 --> 1:44:55.640 fast forward, I make the movie with the Dead. We 1:44:55.720 --> 1:44:58.800 talked about fire on the Mountain. I'm very busy as 1:44:58.840 --> 1:45:02.439 a husband and a father and we're just navigating having 1:45:02.560 --> 1:45:05.200 a lot of conflict at times. All of this is 1:45:05.200 --> 1:45:09.280 being captured on film, and then our son gets deathly ill. 1:45:09.439 --> 1:45:12.040 His kidneys fail. He had to be life lighted put 1:45:12.120 --> 1:45:17.320 in a hospital. And that was right before COVID. That 1:45:17.520 --> 1:45:21.400 was its own journey brought us back together. And during COVID, 1:45:21.760 --> 1:45:26.479 we yeah, like everyone just spent a lot of time together. 1:45:26.520 --> 1:45:29.080 It was amazing. We rekindled with her and I have 1:45:29.160 --> 1:45:31.760 been together since we were children. We've been together since 1:45:32.000 --> 1:45:34.640 I met her when I was sixteen turning seventeen, so 1:45:35.160 --> 1:45:39.519 a long time. And we had our second child. Then 1:45:39.640 --> 1:45:43.559 as she's breastfeeding our second child, she finds a lump 1:45:43.760 --> 1:45:47.920 and has a very severe stage three breast cancer. And 1:45:47.960 --> 1:45:50.360 so we go on the whole cancer journey and she's 1:45:50.400 --> 1:45:56.040 fighting for her life and we just keep documenting this 1:45:56.120 --> 1:46:01.040 whole thing, and so long story long, it's a very exposing, raw, 1:46:01.200 --> 1:46:04.479 beautiful film of her life story, and it has a 1:46:04.479 --> 1:46:07.519 ton of depth and layers, and it's not something we 1:46:07.600 --> 1:46:10.600 ever intended set out to make. It's very strange that 1:46:10.680 --> 1:46:14.080 we have as much documented as we do. But because 1:46:14.120 --> 1:46:17.960 of the circumstances of her mom and then pregnancy and 1:46:18.000 --> 1:46:20.080 what we were aiming for at the beginning, we just 1:46:20.880 --> 1:46:25.120 saw the saw the reason to keep filming because these 1:46:25.160 --> 1:46:28.439 things just kept happening and coming up. And so it's 1:46:28.479 --> 1:46:32.080 called Butterfly and a Blizzard. It's the world premiere will 1:46:32.120 --> 1:46:36.200 be at the Big Sky Film Festival in February, and 1:46:36.240 --> 1:46:39.559 then it'll be on streaming platforms early March, I believe. 1:46:39.840 --> 1:46:45.000 And yeah, it's just it's it's it's sit on the 1:46:45.000 --> 1:46:48.760 couch and watch. It's like a It's a very emotional 1:46:48.920 --> 1:46:54.040 and and exposing, raw documentary of seven years or even 1:46:54.080 --> 1:46:58.240 more of our relationship in life. So it's pretty it's 1:46:58.280 --> 1:47:00.640 pretty wild. Did you did you end up watching the 1:47:00.680 --> 1:47:01.680 cut that I sent you. 1:47:02.120 --> 1:47:04.200 I'll be honest, I've been crazy. I haven't watched the 1:47:04.240 --> 1:47:04.880 complete cut. 1:47:05.560 --> 1:47:09.200 Okay, well, it's a. It's a heavy one, but I 1:47:09.280 --> 1:47:10.960 know there's a lot. There's a lot to it. 1:47:11.000 --> 1:47:16.280 Personally, I prefer heavy. I like the real issues. Let 1:47:16.320 --> 1:47:19.280 me ask, Yeah, So, what were all the projects you're 1:47:19.280 --> 1:47:20.280 working on presently? 1:47:21.200 --> 1:47:25.400 So I which just came out today, Actually The Dead 1:47:26.040 --> 1:47:31.000 the Dead just announced their sixtieth anniversary logo. I was 1:47:31.160 --> 1:47:35.639 tasked with creating the sixtieth logo, which was a complete 1:47:35.640 --> 1:47:38.879 honor and very humbling and so on. All the licensed 1:47:38.880 --> 1:47:42.880 products will be the art that I came up with 1:47:42.920 --> 1:47:46.680 for that, so that's amazing. And then in conjunction with that, 1:47:47.360 --> 1:47:50.080 I mentioned the sphere with Mickey, but we were working 1:47:50.120 --> 1:47:54.120 on another film which is this big abstract art piece. 1:47:54.280 --> 1:47:59.040 And the film itself will come out in September of 1:47:59.080 --> 1:48:02.800 twenty twenty five, so we're halfway through a little more 1:48:02.840 --> 1:48:04.800 than halfway through of filming. And it's going to have 1:48:05.360 --> 1:48:10.040 skiing and snowboarding, a surfing and mountain biking, rock climbing, 1:48:10.520 --> 1:48:14.960 free diving like ocean free diving. It'll have plant life, mycology, 1:48:15.800 --> 1:48:21.960 it will have animal life, it will be very inspired 1:48:22.040 --> 1:48:26.920 by the natural world and dive deep into red light. 1:48:27.000 --> 1:48:29.840 It'll dive deep into my cilium. It'll dive deep into 1:48:29.920 --> 1:48:34.720 all of these things visually and conceptually, less beating you 1:48:34.800 --> 1:48:38.040 over the head with like a storyline per se, and 1:48:38.080 --> 1:48:40.400 the film is the centerpiece. And then off of that 1:48:40.720 --> 1:48:45.200 film has Tentacles upon Tentacles. On February fourth, we'll be 1:48:45.280 --> 1:48:48.559 releasing I'm starting a YouTube channel, which is hilarious that 1:48:48.640 --> 1:48:51.200 it's taken me this long to start one, but with 1:48:51.240 --> 1:48:55.280 all the videos I've done for twenty years. But I'm 1:48:55.320 --> 1:48:58.920 going to put a YouTube channel and release weekly episodes 1:48:58.960 --> 1:49:03.080 starting February fourth that are a bit of a behind 1:49:03.080 --> 1:49:05.760 the scenes look at the a creation of this whole 1:49:05.880 --> 1:49:10.960 art project and introducing certain characters and people like Jay 1:49:11.000 --> 1:49:14.519 Blakesburg came on one of the photoshoots. Mickey will be 1:49:14.560 --> 1:49:16.040 a part of it. There will be all of these 1:49:16.080 --> 1:49:19.759 different moments in time that have been very fun to capture, 1:49:20.680 --> 1:49:24.320 and then we'll release the film in September. Then there 1:49:24.320 --> 1:49:27.000 will be during that time, there will be an experiential 1:49:27.880 --> 1:49:32.320 art exhibit that I'm hoping to accomplish, and that will 1:49:32.479 --> 1:49:36.640 be in Los Angeles, and I'm looking at big, you know, 1:49:36.760 --> 1:49:40.720 ten thousand square foot warehouse type buildings to build out 1:49:40.760 --> 1:49:46.000 a full art exhibition. Essentially, the first room will have 1:49:46.280 --> 1:49:49.720 a very museum behind the scenes feel of things we've invented, 1:49:49.800 --> 1:49:52.840 like the lighting suits with arctics and the skis. I 1:49:53.000 --> 1:49:57.000 tried some UV reactive powder and surfboards. We did LEDs 1:49:57.040 --> 1:49:59.880 and so that'll give you a feel. Second room will 1:50:00.560 --> 1:50:02.680 have more art and then it'll just dive deeper and 1:50:02.720 --> 1:50:07.439 deeper and be a bit more immersive, and that will 1:50:08.439 --> 1:50:11.800 that will hopefully come to fruition end of September, and 1:50:11.840 --> 1:50:16.080 then following that will do a bigger doc series, or 1:50:16.120 --> 1:50:18.360 at least that's our plan as of now, is kind 1:50:18.360 --> 1:50:21.400 of a four to six part dock series that dives 1:50:21.400 --> 1:50:23.559 deeper into some of the stories we're telling because we 1:50:23.600 --> 1:50:27.800 have a I'm producing directing it, but I have a 1:50:28.680 --> 1:50:32.160 DP on the on the art vision side, and then 1:50:32.200 --> 1:50:35.479 I have a DP on a a DP and a 1:50:35.560 --> 1:50:37.679 co director on the main movie side, and a DP 1:50:37.800 --> 1:50:40.439 and a co director on the documentary side, so we 1:50:40.520 --> 1:50:43.960 can capture as much as possible. Because that was one 1:50:44.000 --> 1:50:46.439 thing I mentioned. We went back to Bill Walton to 1:50:46.600 --> 1:50:49.160 film some of the making of We weren't doing it 1:50:49.240 --> 1:50:51.280 in real time because I didn't know at that point 1:50:51.320 --> 1:50:55.400 in twenty nineteen what I was creating, whereas now I 1:50:55.439 --> 1:50:57.880 have a bit more of a roadmap of how I 1:50:57.920 --> 1:51:00.760 want to see this all come together. And then if 1:51:00.760 --> 1:51:05.400 that exhibition works, I would like to see it go global. 1:51:05.800 --> 1:51:10.120 I maybe because Atomic and Atomic and Arctics have such 1:51:10.120 --> 1:51:13.280 a big presence globally, I have some ideas with them, 1:51:13.640 --> 1:51:18.519 particularly Arctics. There's really cool opportunities. They have so many 1:51:18.600 --> 1:51:21.640 retail spaces in some of these big buildings on a 1:51:21.680 --> 1:51:24.880 global scale. So I want to do some art installations 1:51:24.880 --> 1:51:28.880 and build outs and experiential stuff. And then my two 1:51:29.080 --> 1:51:31.840 true dream, which maybe this where we'll ski together, is 1:51:31.880 --> 1:51:35.920 to collaborate with Altara and Mammoth and bring my lighting 1:51:35.960 --> 1:51:39.240 team in because this whole film is based at night, 1:51:40.000 --> 1:51:45.320 and bring my lighting team in, build a very large 1:51:45.360 --> 1:51:47.640 movie set if you will, off the lighting on the 1:51:47.680 --> 1:51:51.200 mountain and have everyday consumers be able to come and 1:51:51.240 --> 1:51:55.320 ski under the lights. And then have a band play, 1:51:55.600 --> 1:51:58.559 ideally a Dead cover band or most ideally if Bernie's 1:51:58.560 --> 1:52:00.640 listening to this, I'll come to him to try and 1:52:00.680 --> 1:52:03.559 hire Dead and Code to come play. It would be 1:52:04.160 --> 1:52:11.479 It would be the ultimate dream, obviously. And then I yeah, 1:52:11.560 --> 1:52:13.759 I would like to have live music, have the film 1:52:13.800 --> 1:52:18.400 play have have people skiing under the lights and and 1:52:18.400 --> 1:52:22.200 create this Dead on the Mountain concept that I'm going 1:52:22.240 --> 1:52:25.920 to be running running by our old pal Bernie and 1:52:25.960 --> 1:52:29.120 marking them to see if they're into it. But there's 1:52:29.240 --> 1:52:31.679 there's layers upon layers. I guess that's what I'm trying 1:52:31.720 --> 1:52:32.040 to say. 1:52:32.200 --> 1:52:35.080 Ok Okay, you know there's so many live shows that 1:52:35.120 --> 1:52:38.240 have been released. But in terms of the commercial albums, 1:52:38.479 --> 1:52:42.760 what are your two favorite Dead albums albums? 1:52:42.880 --> 1:52:50.320 That's a I am. I can't say I have a favorite. 1:52:50.360 --> 1:52:53.439 I don't even have a favorite song. I'm like, I 1:52:53.479 --> 1:52:56.200 think that's the beautiful thing about the Dead. I'm discovering 1:52:56.240 --> 1:53:00.479 a new version all the time of some live song 1:53:00.680 --> 1:53:06.559 from here, but yeah, I mean Cornell's and I can't. Okay, 1:53:06.760 --> 1:53:11.240 there's there's some incredible ones. But luckily David Lemieux is 1:53:11.240 --> 1:53:13.639 helping me pick the music for these things, so he's 1:53:13.680 --> 1:53:16.040 sending me tracks that I've never even heard where I'm like, 1:53:16.080 --> 1:53:19.160 oh my gosh, this is incredible. So it's it's an 1:53:19.360 --> 1:53:20.639 endless vault, if you. 1:53:20.600 --> 1:53:24.040 Will, Okay, tell me about your involvement with the Eagles 1:53:24.040 --> 1:53:24.639 in the sphere. 1:53:25.720 --> 1:53:30.040 Okay, Well, I hope there's involvement and maybe we could 1:53:30.080 --> 1:53:32.719 do this off the record until we know for sure, 1:53:32.800 --> 1:53:36.040 but it came my way. We're still working it out. 1:53:36.200 --> 1:53:38.679 I very well might have. I had some texts before 1:53:38.720 --> 1:53:41.800 our before our call, and I'll have some after. But 1:53:42.600 --> 1:53:50.440 there's there's hope for them to update their their current residency, 1:53:50.840 --> 1:53:54.760 and particularly I've been tapped on the shoulder to help 1:53:54.800 --> 1:53:59.439 with Rocky Mountain Way and potentially some creative ideas that 1:53:59.560 --> 1:54:04.120 I sent them for decks to review, and from my understanding, 1:54:04.160 --> 1:54:09.320 Irving and Joe and Don like them. So if all 1:54:09.479 --> 1:54:12.280 goes well, it's going to happen. But at this point 1:54:12.360 --> 1:54:17.040 nothing is official, so I'm staying hopeful. But it is 1:54:17.120 --> 1:54:20.639 like very much happening in real time as we speak. 1:54:20.760 --> 1:54:25.760 So, Okay, it's a very interesting time in skiing. You know, 1:54:25.840 --> 1:54:28.960 skiing is a mature sport. It's not like they're building 1:54:29.040 --> 1:54:31.720 new ski areas in America, et cetera, et cetera. There's 1:54:31.760 --> 1:54:36.120 been consolidation and manufacturers. I grew up during the ski boom. 1:54:36.600 --> 1:54:40.040 Everybody talked about skiing, people went seeing. Skiing has never 1:54:40.120 --> 1:54:43.520 been inexpensive, but it was not seen as an upper 1:54:43.560 --> 1:54:49.200 class sport. Okay, well, this is like ticket fees. People 1:54:49.200 --> 1:54:52.960 are bitching about the price of skiing. Yes, the walk 1:54:53.040 --> 1:54:56.640 up price at a Veil Resource Mega Play is going 1:54:56.720 --> 1:54:59.720 to be two hundred and ninety seven dollars at Christmas. Yeah, 1:54:59.720 --> 1:55:02.280 you can and advertise that all day long. But for 1:55:02.400 --> 1:55:06.160 someone who's a dedicated skier, skiing has never been cheaper 1:55:06.600 --> 1:55:11.320 because of the Icon Pass and the Epic Pass. How 1:55:11.360 --> 1:55:13.640 can we grow the number of skiers? 1:55:15.880 --> 1:55:19.560 That's a great question. I agree with you. There's there's 1:55:20.160 --> 1:55:25.080 a devil in the details, if you will, or there's 1:55:25.120 --> 1:55:28.400 there's evil, but there's also beauty in it all. Tara 1:55:28.600 --> 1:55:33.160 and Icon specifically is a lot of the leadership at 1:55:33.200 --> 1:55:37.320 all Tara has come from Mammoth and they are care 1:55:37.640 --> 1:55:40.320 they care about the community, they care about skiing, and 1:55:40.360 --> 1:55:44.120 they want to introduce skiers. And so from a if 1:55:44.160 --> 1:55:47.200 I put my business hat on, the Icon Pass makes 1:55:47.240 --> 1:55:49.920 so much sense because you're getting your capital up front 1:55:49.960 --> 1:55:54.280 and you're guaranteeing that you can update your chairlifts and 1:55:54.320 --> 1:55:56.920 build new lodges and do all of the amenities and 1:55:56.960 --> 1:55:58.960 all the things that they need to do to keep 1:55:59.000 --> 1:56:02.960 these things operation. Whereas if you rely on ticket sales 1:56:03.440 --> 1:56:05.560 and it's a bad season, or it's a this, or 1:56:05.560 --> 1:56:08.240 it's a that. Like I completely understand it, and it's 1:56:08.440 --> 1:56:14.720 just a matter of more skiers is fantastic and what 1:56:15.520 --> 1:56:19.120 we want to share, you and me being extremely passionate skiers. 1:56:19.160 --> 1:56:21.920 That's the whole reason I've built my life around around 1:56:21.960 --> 1:56:26.520 the mountains. It's just it's really hard to know, like 1:56:26.720 --> 1:56:32.000 once the lift lines get so long, how how many 1:56:32.000 --> 1:56:35.360 more skiers do we really want out there? But I 1:56:35.400 --> 1:56:38.760 think there's technology that exists, like Mammoth, for instance, replace 1:56:38.840 --> 1:56:42.120 their two main lifts with six seaters that are faster 1:56:42.280 --> 1:56:44.680 than the old four quads, So it's going to get 1:56:44.680 --> 1:56:48.200 people up and dispersed much quicker, which is fantastic. And 1:56:48.240 --> 1:56:53.880 then also everything we're doing and at arctics and atomics 1:56:53.880 --> 1:56:57.680 in the back country like the Eastern Sierra is endless. 1:56:57.960 --> 1:57:00.400 You could ski a new mountain. I could ski a 1:57:00.400 --> 1:57:02.640 new mountain every day for the rest of my life, 1:57:02.840 --> 1:57:05.160 or a new run on a new mountain if I'm 1:57:05.360 --> 1:57:07.320 if you're willing to put in the time and the effort. 1:57:07.520 --> 1:57:12.880 So backcountry skiing is how I personally. If people go 1:57:12.960 --> 1:57:15.880 to the resort to get their runs in and be 1:57:16.160 --> 1:57:19.760 less frantic of the powder and take your avalanche courses 1:57:19.800 --> 1:57:22.680 and learn how to use your avy gear and go 1:57:22.760 --> 1:57:25.920 for a walk in the mountains and see how beautiful 1:57:26.000 --> 1:57:28.720 nature is. Because like, that's all we really want to 1:57:28.760 --> 1:57:32.160 do is get people outside. I would way rather have 1:57:32.440 --> 1:57:36.080 more passes sold and more skiers than more video games 1:57:36.080 --> 1:57:41.440 and more people sitting inside on a computer doing who 1:57:41.480 --> 1:57:47.080 knows what it's like. Get yourself outside and embrace this 1:57:47.640 --> 1:57:49.160 beautiful world that we live in. 1:57:51.560 --> 1:57:54.360 How into skiing are you at this point? 1:57:55.640 --> 1:58:01.720 I'm extremely into it. It's just it looks differently for 1:58:01.800 --> 1:58:05.480 the reasons I shared. I'm more busy than I've ever 1:58:05.520 --> 1:58:08.040 been in my life, and these opportunities that are coming 1:58:08.080 --> 1:58:12.000 my way, whether it's this stuff with the dead or 1:58:12.640 --> 1:58:19.040 the creation of the artwork, is super inspiring to me. 1:58:19.320 --> 1:58:23.440 So I'm willing to put skiing aside because I've skied 1:58:24.280 --> 1:58:27.960 my entire life. I haven't created movies and created art 1:58:28.040 --> 1:58:32.840 my entire life, per se. So it's kind of just 1:58:33.040 --> 1:58:36.240 trying to find balance where I'm never going. I'm never 1:58:36.280 --> 1:58:38.839 going to find balance between my family and my kids 1:58:38.880 --> 1:58:42.720 and everything I explained about my wife and all the 1:58:42.760 --> 1:58:47.920 trials and tribulations we go through, plus my busy ambitions 1:58:47.920 --> 1:58:51.080 as an artist and I'm filmmaker, plus my skiing, plus 1:58:51.120 --> 1:58:53.760 my rock climbing, Like, there just is not enough time 1:58:53.800 --> 1:58:57.360 in the day. So I'm into it. I just don't 1:58:57.400 --> 1:58:58.880 ski enough, I know. 1:58:59.240 --> 1:59:00.760 Let me put it this. If I tell you for 1:59:00.800 --> 1:59:04.000 the next six years you can only ski ten times 1:59:04.000 --> 1:59:06.920 a year, how upset would you be about that? 1:59:07.280 --> 1:59:10.400 Extremely? I ski wave more than ten times a year, 1:59:10.440 --> 1:59:13.560 and I need to go tour and walk in the mountains. 1:59:13.600 --> 1:59:16.360 If you told me I could only ski a resort 1:59:16.520 --> 1:59:19.560 ten times, but I had as much access as I 1:59:19.600 --> 1:59:22.440 want to walking in the mountains, I would be more 1:59:22.520 --> 1:59:25.800 okay with it. I still love resort skiing, but I 1:59:26.080 --> 1:59:29.680 really enjoy walking being in the back country. It's my 1:59:29.760 --> 1:59:30.440 happy place. 1:59:33.160 --> 1:59:35.360 Well, we've covered a lot of ground. I could talk 1:59:35.440 --> 1:59:38.680 about this. I'm really into it. You know. The problem is, 1:59:38.720 --> 1:59:41.600 you know, there are very few people you're talking about 1:59:41.640 --> 1:59:45.720 swing weight. It's like, you know, Soloman's came out like 1:59:45.840 --> 1:59:48.120 a pair of these solomon you know, the one thirties. 1:59:48.560 --> 1:59:51.000 They were too light, couldn't get forward. You know, there's 1:59:51.040 --> 1:59:54.440 the light, there's the heavy boot. You know, there's swingweight. 1:59:54.800 --> 1:59:57.680 Never mind mounting it all. The problem is not to 1:59:57.720 --> 2:00:00.640 get too quezy that I've gotten crazy, were the point 2:00:00.640 --> 2:00:05.760 where it interferes with your raw enjoyment. But when it's wrong, 2:00:06.040 --> 2:00:08.640 it's so wrong. When you're out on a pair of 2:00:08.680 --> 2:00:13.040 skis and it's not working, it's like it's possible. 2:00:13.240 --> 2:00:15.840 Oh yeah, yeah, if you get if you get your 2:00:15.880 --> 2:00:18.520 hands or if you want hands on a pair of 2:00:18.520 --> 2:00:20.600 one hundreds, you just let me know. I feel like 2:00:20.680 --> 2:00:23.320 that would be a great, great starting place for you, 2:00:23.440 --> 2:00:26.040 and I would love to see you. I wish we 2:00:26.080 --> 2:00:28.400 need to go skiing with Bernie too. He's on my leg. 2:00:28.520 --> 2:00:32.120 Absolutely. Wait wait, wait, let me make it very clear. 2:00:32.720 --> 2:00:34.880 Definitely want the pair of one hundreds. 2:00:35.080 --> 2:00:38.520 Okay, Okay, well, maybe why don't I take that back? 2:00:38.600 --> 2:00:42.640 How about we do the Grateful Dead skis you asked 2:00:42.640 --> 2:00:45.360 about that'll be coming out, will be a limited release. 2:00:45.440 --> 2:00:50.360 They're beautiful, they'll be celebrating the sixtieth in this project 2:00:50.400 --> 2:00:52.280 and they'll be on the one ten. So why don't 2:00:52.280 --> 2:00:54.520 we try to get you a pair of something extra special. 2:00:56.040 --> 2:01:01.760 It all sounds good. There we go. It all sounds good, good, Chris, Okay, 2:01:02.640 --> 2:01:04.720 I think we've come to the end of the feeling 2:01:04.760 --> 2:01:07.000 we've known. You've got to wait to hear from Irving 2:01:07.040 --> 2:01:09.720 and all those people. I'll let you text up a 2:01:09.760 --> 2:01:12.920 storm in any event. Thanks for taking the time to 2:01:12.960 --> 2:01:14.000 speak to my audience. 2:01:14.360 --> 2:01:17.160 Absolutely, I really appreciate you. Thanks for having me. 2:01:17.120 --> 2:01:21.320 Out, you bet. Until next time, This is Bob Leftsticks