other guys this entire time, as Max believes in East German immersion coaching techniques. For me, I am not getting any younger and want to have the ability to re-teach my body and mind, perhaps even going as far as to try skate skiing, or maybe skiing with a female companion, although not at the same time unless we somehow each had our own skis.” “That’s not to say I won’t miss it. You hear the crowd at the start, the announcer, the commentary, but then it all gets quiet. And if it works out, six individuals ski as one. Poppa Bear hit it perfectly in that song.” Twenty five feet of timber Six men strong and limber There’s left and there’s right, boys There’s shushing to do… There’s left and there’s right, boys There’s shushing to do… -Ballad of Big Ski, Poppa Bear Norton
Other Nimrods offered their thoughts on the end of the Nimrod era of Giant Ski dominance.
NIMRODS: END OF AN ERA “Champions come and go, but one thing is a constant: the Nimrods.” -Ernie St. Germaine
And constant they were, as the Nimrods took home title after title, appearing in every Birkie Giant Ski Finals since 2014, and hoisting the winners’ cups all but twice in that span. Birkie Week 2024 will hit differently due to the surprise retirement of Rick Peters, the Nimrod Giant Ski team founder and captain, followed immediately by the announcement that the entire team will join him in retirement. The surprise development, as reported exclusively by the Northern Nerd, shocked the Giant Ski community and has thrown the Vegas Giant Ski betting lines into disarray. 30
BIRCH SCROLL
Paul Cigan felt that the time was right to further monetize the Nimrod brand. “I’m aware that this team has reached the peak of influence,” he said, “Following the release of the feature documentary (Giant Expectations) last year and the outpouring of public support for the Nimrods and Giant Ski in general, I think there is an opportunity for investment into ideas that bring us closer to the fan. The content I put out is designed for that: www.giantskifeet. com is a perfect example of a way to reach a targeted, but wildly passionate, audience. With our retirement, demand will skyrocket.” Aaron Koshatka was defiant. “When we fell during the 2022 finals, people wrote off the Nimrods. I heard it. The talk on the streets, the snide comments in the tiny ski shops, the looks from the squirrels. All the haters. But we shut them down, didn’t we? Damn right, we did. Classic mic drop. Boom. Thank you, next!” The newest member Dalton Mouritsen was reflective. “I moved from Minne-
Above: Nimrod founder and team captain, Rick Peters. Left: The Nimrods compete in the 2022 Birkie Giant Ski event.
sota last year after being selected first overall by the Nimrods in the 2022 Giant Ski draft. Now, I guess we are retiring. One year. It seems surreal. Was it something I said? I thought skiers liked Vikings.” Other Nimrod members were harder to reach, perhaps trying to process a life not skiing under the bright lights of downtown Hayward in a winner take all run for glory on Thursday evening of Birkie Week. Continued on pg. 42
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“When we called the press conference, we didn’t know what the reaction would be,” says Max Wolter, the team’s coach and publicist. “We know how much people have invested in the Nimrods, so we didn’t want to create a panic. Rick was insistent that the time was right, so we went ahead with it. We tried to break the news gently to avoid overloading people’s emotions. The last thing we wanted was to have Giant Ski groupies chaining themselves to the railing outside of Angler’s during the press event.”
the audience in other ways. “The Northern Nerd’s social media coverage of Giant Ski has been huge, with over four million views. We believe that in their own way, these viewers are processing the retirement news, and the fact that there will be new faces in the winner’s circle in 2024.”
Still, the retirement news spread like wildfire, with at least 34 views on the Nimrod Giant Ski YouTube channel (@ Nimrodski) alone. According to Wolter, the Nimrods know they are reaching
“I’ve been skiing on giant skis exclusively since 2014, which is what you need to do to build up the muscle memory needed for a championship run. I’ve only been skiing with five
But why now, at the height of their success and influence not only in Giant Ski but across the entire skiing community? Giant Ski legend Rick Peters has some answers:
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