IN MEMORY OF KAI AND MIKE WOLFE
You don’t own it. None of us do. It exists with or without us and our participation. Others have stepped on boards before us and others will after us. Let’s strip our attitudes of thinking we run some shit that we don’t. We are all merely small shareholders in a larger company of riders. We should work on our collective attitudes and lift up those we admire and work to stop tearing down ones we don’t. Praise is a hard thing in our culture; it requires propping another higher than yourself. I’ve noticed riders aren’t really fond of that in today’s culture. We have to hold ourselves to some high self-regard to cover our insecurities. It seems unfortunate that we’re in a culture that grew from just being excited to see others participating to judging others for their participation. This may not change, and I know that, but I thought I’d share this point of view that someone shared with me. It makes all the sense in the world. YOU DON’T OWN IT.
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PROSPECT OLLIE PAST DALE REHBERG PRESENT CHAD OTTERSTROM FUTURE DANIMALS FAMILY HOLIDAY
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THE ANTICIPATION OF WHAT’S TO COME.
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THE START OF EVERYTHING.
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DALE REHBERG 50 In an era of change in the approach of riding, there were some that invoked a faster pace. With a crew of friends and not a lot of means, Dale Rehberg pushed to the mountains from the Midwest. It was a chase that led to endless memories and a place as a leader in the growing “new school� movement. Less of a coattail rider and more of a shaper of culture, Dale was a true changer of the game. To this day he continues to pursue and embrace the change.
PETER: So let’s start this with where and when did you find snowboarding? DALE: I first saw a snowboard on a video playing in the Rice Lake (WI) mall! I was
walking through the mall and they had this vid playing out in the center of the mall and it had Tom Sims ripping around. I was hooked at that very moment! I had to have a snowboard. I started snowboarding in 1987–1988. I grew up in Chetek WI, so the first place I ever rode a board was Christie Mt. in Bruce WI.
P: How did you get that first board? D: I got my first board from my cousin, Steven Pratt. He owned a shop in Neenah WI and got me the board. It was the first edition Sims Switchblade!! I was SOO hyped.
P: Damn, that’s a killer first stick. Who were you riding with when you started? D: In the very beginning, it was Roan, Lance, and me. Once we started to go
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to the hill to ride, we started to build this connection with anyone else who snowboarded. The first year, we were riding with Steve Wickner, Fred Yoder, Brent Porter, Joe Dubs (W.), Chad Schnacky. We met Nate Cole, Joe and Jeff Curtes, Jake Blattner, Dave Hubatch and the whole Madison crew that winter as well, but we only rode with them during contests, which was almost every weekend. So many great people from back then who are still rockin it! I remember Jason Bump, Ron Buretta, Pete from Unity Snowboards, Randy Kellaher, Jon Baugh, Tom Myerhof and the crew from Duluth MN. So many rad people at that time all meeting up to snowboard!
P: So Christie was your OG spot. Where else were you ripping? D: The real loc spot was Hardscrabble. Hardscrabble was in Rice Lake so it was
really close and super fun. They hated us the first 2 winters, but then they started to be a bit more understanding. We did a lot of dumb shit though that I would probably get pissed about today if someone did to my mountain, but we were young and on fire! Then I started to go to Wild Mountain and Trollhaugen after school and Roan and I would ride until they closed around 10 pm. We did that almost every night in the winter.
P: When did you end up meeting all the other riders you mentioned? D: I ended up meeting all the people listed that first year riding. The Alt board
shop in MN (Jay Erickson) put on the Upper Midwest Snowboard series then. Jon Baugh and Bruce Ericson were also part of the events. So, I pretty much met most if not all the people that first winter riding.
P: So you heard about the comps and just rolled? Did that affect your
progression? Or better yet, did that affect your riding? D: Well, I found out about what was going on through The Alt. This was the shop that I would frequent and they had a newsletter too–that’s how I found out about the events. Riding in those contests was so much fun! It was a group of the coolest people doing the coolest things. The contest part didn’t affect my CORDUROY LIFESTYLES
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53 progression, but the environment certainly did. Meeting new people and seeing stuff for the first time...it’s called youth, and it was fun as hell! At that same time, TWS and ISM were being delivered to my door, snowboarding movies were coming out…all this stuff was happening. All this stuff all at once was what progressed my riding and want to ride. All I wanted to do was snowboard. That was it! Ask my Mom...I did not care about anything else.
P: The tricks felt similar to launch ramps. When did you think “get some help on
the product side”? How did that come about? D: Launch ramps!! Exactly! The whole sponsorship thing was something I really wanted to have. The mags were influential as well with this (obviously) but I would see the mags and see the people in them doing tricks and shit, and I really thought to myself that I could do that and I was doing that, but how was anyone ever going to know that I could do this shit when I lived in rural Wisconsin? I actually made a snowboarding resume after the first winter. I had won most of the contests that winter. I went to Blackcomb for camp that summer. I had my shit together (with the utmost support from my parents) and went out and got sponsored. Burton was my first real sponsor. CORDUROY LIFESTYLES
54 P: What was it you think Burton saw in you to hook you up at that time; I mean
you had only one season riding? D: I think Burton saw that I had won almost all the Midwest events and that this would be a good move for them to help promote Burton in that area. And it didn’t cost them shit either! ha ha.
P: So was it a regional rider deal or on a national level? What did that afford you? D: It was a regional rider deal. I got a set amount of product for the year and a winning incentive. Burton set up my deal a bit differently and the Midwest rep at that time, Clark Gundlach, was not my real contact, it was John Yusko, who was the Rockies Burton rep. John took care of me pretty well considering I was a Midwest kid!
P: Huh, that sounds crazy. Did that fuel the move to CO? D: Having John as my regional contact with Burton did not fuel the move to
Breck. It was the fact that all the mags had so much coverage of The Worlds at Breckenridge. That was what inspired me to go there.
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P: So it was the imagery coming at you that inspired the move. Must have felt like a lot was happening. When did you make the move and who was in the van? D: What helped my decision to move to Breck was seeing a huge long halfpipe and sun. That was frozen into my head and it looked insane. When I got there, I don’t think Breck even had a pipe then–ha ha! It was great though. I graduated from high school in ‘91 and spent 3 months up at Mt. Hood with Roan Rogers and Tom Meyerhof riding the public pipe and being a menace to the town. After summer was over, I headed back to Wisco and I had plans to move to Breck. I hung out in Chetek for a couple weeks then I was out. I met up with Kris Swierz and his brother in Breck and we got an apartment. Roan came out a month later as well as Nate and Jake and a bunch of others. It was on!
P: Damn. That’s a posse. Breck must have been super bummed. Tell me about
living in a resort town for the first time. D: Living in a resort town for the first time was like letting the lions out of the cage at a meat market. It was so fun. Way too many stories to drop here; maybe someday I’ll write a book and have everyone contribute. The Breck crew in 91–92 was so great! Kinda like a frat town without the school part. I can say that I still am in touch with 90% of all the people I interacted with then. Trevar Cushing (Powder and Rails) is working on a VICE–Powder and Rails segment now about Breck and the whole thing back then. It’s gonna be SICK!
P: That’s going to be eye opening I’m sure. So everyone is in Breck and it sounds
like the scene is charging. That energy must have been pushing the whole game; what was happening? D: It was an interesting time for sure and I think that us Midwest boys looked at this mountain in such a different way than anyone else, and we were doing things our own way–pushing the direction of snowboarding in such a different way. Jibbing was not a word yet, handrails had been done in a few vids, but not urban rails, banks and all that stuff. It was fun. We would ride the mountain all day, then go out and ride rails and jibs all night...over and over and over! None of us had any money and no one cared; it was so simple and pure. Scamming was huge! Ha ha.
P: So clippin tickets by day and building drop ins by night...just doing it. What
made you want to hit rails in the street? D: No clipped tickets–we actually had season passes! But I did steal food from the grocery store, knew when every happy hour was at every bar with free food, fake ID, gas and run...all that was normal daily stuff.
P: Did the riding in the streets feel natural after a day on a mountain? D: I guess so...riding in general was natural. I remember Roan didn’t take his boots off till 3 am!
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P: That apartment
must have had a unique odor. One of the first movies I owned was Upping the Ante–that was Mack Dawg’s third movie? You guys had raw riding in there that really set the tone for me. How did that come about? D: I think it was the fourth snowboarding movie (New Kids on the Twock, Pocahontas, Hard Hungry and the Homeless, Upping The Ante)–he made a bunch of skate flicks before. It all came about by doing what we liked to do. Now we can look back at it all and see fragments of how snowboarding has came to be what it is today.
P: Doing what you were doing got you noticed by an up and coming “legendary
film maker” in our culture. When you started to film, did things change for you? D: Things were constantly changing and at a very fast rate, but once HHH came out, it was for real. Seventh Year and Flying Circus came out around the same time as well and they were really fun low budget movies, but looking back at CORDUROY LIFESTYLES
them now, they had a lot of progression happening. The change that happened was sponsors started to pay, I got to travel around the States and Europe, and I had the freedom to do more of what I wanted to do.
P: When did you change sponsors? D: I dropped Burton to help start Joyride in the fall of ‘91. I rode for Joyride for a year and then Ride Snowboards started and it was truly on from that point forward. The real deal.
P: So you helped start Joyride? Who was that with and why did you bail? D: I was part of Joyride from the start. I met a few of the people starting it
up while I was up at Hood in the summer of ‘91. Tom Nordwall was the main influence then. I was introduced to a guy in Breck, Andy Shots, who was one of the main guys making it happen and the main company was in Laguna Beach. The main issue with Joyride was the fact that me, Roan, Nate, Jake, Matt Donahue, Matt Smith, Jon Biochi and a bunch of others put that brand on the map by filming with Dawger, and HHH was full of Joyride shits, and none of us were getting shit–no pay, or very little, and we traveled in a truck with a small budget and it felt ghetto to me. When Ride approached me and they had money backers and a plan, I was all about it. Plus, as were Jake, Jason Ford, Russell Winfield, Roan and me–it was legit and real.
P: Yeah, that team was strong–pro models, raw, energy. What kind of shredding
did that lead to? D: We did this crazy ass trip. It’s hard to remember exactly, but I think we started in Breck, headed to So Cal, then up to Nor Cal, then who knows where…it was like the twilight zone!! So much crazy stuff went on then–like a lifetime of weird shit. I think I ended up in Portland for a month or something, skating around Burnside forever–super odd trip. I think that was the starting of the end with Joyride.
P: Where did riding for Ride lead you over time? D: Getting on the Ride team was the best move I ever made. It opened everything to me. Ride was my family. Everyone who worked there was cool, we were all friends, we partied together, we grew together and we ultimately failed together...and it was the best ride of my life! I owe a lot to those people for believing in me and what I wanted to do and how I saw things. Words can’t describe that family at that time.
P: Nice. I feel like that’s the path of many great forward endeavors. What
happened as far as the fail that you mention? D: Ride got big and went public and once that happened sales had to grow and they were, but at one point the company was not growing as fast as it was saying it had been. Maybe you can say it was greed, but Ride died. It went away. People started getting let go, new higher ups were coming in, the writing was on PAST: DALE REHBERG
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the wall, and at one point, it was over. Ride was purchased by K2 and at that time most of us moved on. I can say that Ride has done very well since then and I’m glad to see that.
P: At that moment how did you feel? D: I was bummed, but at the same time I had run my course. I was 28, and I was
ready to move on and figure out what was next. It was a pretty easy transition for me.
P: That’s a pretty mature response to a situation out of your hands. What came
next? D: I started working for a company called A-Sport. They owned Silence and Avalanche Snowboards at the time. I worked my way from warehouse up to marketing–learned a lot. That eventually brought me back down to So Cal and I have been here since then. That was in 2000. I helped start up Allyance clothing and worked there for awhile, and now I am at Flow Sports running NXTZ, which is a killer accessories/wearables brand. In regard to your comment about a mature response, it is the only response I had, and I made the best out of it. I did not want to go around looking for sponsors; I was over it. Snowboarding was in a weird place then as well, and I did not want to deal with it from a rider’s point of view. I wanted to figure out what was next.
P: I can understand that–went in and started paying dues again at a different
level and are now a brand manager. I really can respect that whole thought process. What’s on the horizon? D: I have a family now–my wife Maureen is god-send and my 2 kids, Wesley (5) and Fenna (3), are what makes my world revolve. I love my work–it reminds me a lot of the early days at Ride, and I am all in with NXTZ. I will build this brand into something special, soon. But for me, my day to day is all about my kids and giving them the best experience I can. I want them to know that the world is out there for them to take, and I think I am doing a good job so far!
P: You want to do a shout or thank you? D: Sure…My Mom for all the years of support. To all my friends over the
years. Burton Snowboards for getting me started out on the right foot. Joyride Snowboards for aiding in a great movement and backing new ideas. The OG Ride Snowboards crew, you know who you are. To the magazines, TWS, Snowboarder and Blunt for running years of good snowboarding images and stories and helping the sport thrive. To Mack Dawg, Whitey, the Hatchetts, Jon Boyer, Steve Blakley and all the other film crews who built this sport into what it is today! To Flow Snowboards for letting me run with an idea and building on NXTZ! And most of all to my wife and family for putting up with my shit. I thank you all.
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CHAD OTTERSTROM
Otterpop may be a nickname but it’s also a description of one unique style–the snap of a tail learned on the streets while skateboarding and brought to the slopes. I often found myself watching when Chad dropped in to hit Trollhaugan’s jumps; some of the first backflip late ones witnessed were pulled by Chad out of the end of the halfpipe. He was on a constant evolution of skills that lent itself well to contest wins. Digging at Hood summers opened doors wide open to the film and travel world. Chad seized those opportunities, and as challenges presented themselves, he always stood looking them in the face, allowing snowboarding to matter the most. A true Pro.
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PETER: What year did you discover snowboarding? CHAD: My brother built a snowboard out of plywood when he was in ninth grade, so that was probably the first snowboard I rode. We all skied growing up and saw a few snowboarders around, maybe one a year. Once the resorts opened their doors to snowboarding, I got a real one…in 1985 or so.
P: Sounds like your family members were all avid winter enthusiasts; snow was an attraction–were you already skateboarding then or did the winter board precede the summer one? C: My brother skated before snowboarding. One of his bros down the road had a vert ramp in…Tony Hawk days. I was pretty young; I could barely ollie. I didn’t really start skating every day till 9th grade. My brother kinda stopped snowboarding and skating when he got older and I never quit.
P: Nice. So he inspired the spark and you just fired it up. Did you two ride resorts
together or did he never make it that far? C: He brought me out a couple times, but once I got my license I got my own group of snowboard friends. We still snowboard together once in awhile. If he hadn’t snowboarded or skateboarded, I don’t know if I would be doing what I am now. I actually still ride with my high school snowboard friends all the time too.
P: Which resort were you getting out to most of the time? Were the high school
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C: In tenth grade, I rode a lot at Afton. Then in 11th grade, I got a season pass at
Trollhaugen and rode there every day I could after school. I lived in Shoreview, so it was either battle city traffic after school to Hyland or Buck or drive to Troll. My friend Glenn had a car so we would drive there every day. That’s where I met all my good snowboard friends. They were all from around there. Then in 12th grade, we all got passes at Wild because all my friends got kicked out of Troll. Wild turned out to be awesome; there was a pretty big jump going into the halfpipe, so every day was a good time. We would ride till 4 in the morning every Friday night. I liked it up there better than the city hills. It was kinda more of a redneck style of snowboarding.
P: So the big jump into the pipe wasn’t Troll? I remember that one. C: Yeah there was an ok one going into the pipe at Troll too. The pipe never went
to vert so we would just jump the deck back and forth on the way down. Troll was all about the fence ollies when I rode there. But Wild had the big jump for sure–it was like a 35 foot true table where you had to bomb the whole hill. At the top of Southern or Northern route–I don’t remember which one–there was a super big hip too. We were doing 10 foot airs; they seemed huge then. Now they excavated the run and put a tow rope in, so it looks totally different.
P: Why did everyone get kicked out of Troll? C: They were always causing fights. Nothing too serious, just 11th grade fighting. CORDUROY LIFESTYLES
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My friend Marty was only like 13 and some older kid was picking on him. Marty broke the kid’s nose and ended up hiding out in the woods on the hill while management was on a 4 wheeler looking for him. After that incident, they didn’t want anyone back. Kinda sucked because he didn’t even start it. It seemed like things like that would go down once a week there. I was kinda the good kid; I’d always be avoiding the trouble to snowboard.
P: So everyone dipped to Wild. You guys had a tight crew back then, and like
you mention, you’re still riding with them. How did that crew push or drive your riding? C: Yeah, we had an awesome crew. It was the early jib days of snowboarding, buttering and ollies were cool then. So it was like a skate park on the hill. A lot of my friends then were really good skaters, so they brought good style to the hill. Marty and I were the only ones who did contests; everyone else just shredded every day. It was a cool scene, I learned to not take snowboarding seriously and just have a good time. Not that I ever took it seriously, but now-a-days you see kids training and trying the be the next best acrobat and they never really find out what snowboarding is. My friends were all good at jibbing, so I would just bite all their moves. We would go out and find the highest fence ollies or picnic tables. I remember learning real halfcabs onto picnic tables and stuff like that. It was pretty much the best time ever.
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P: So while you’re halfcabbing onto picnic tables and olliing high fences, having
the time of your teenage life, what led you and Marty to compete? C: It was just something to do on weekends. There were a few good snowboarders from Hyland and Buck; we would go and hang with them, Jason Landry and a couple other dudes. We would do good so it was motivating to go to the contest. I’m pretty sure the good snowboarders don’t do USASA contests anymore, but that’s all we had then. I never really liked doing them, but I made friends there so it was cool.
P: As I recall you did fairly well in them–kinda helped make a local name for
yourself, eventually getting you some support? C: Yeah Marty and I would win pretty much every one of them. John Cao and a couple other kids were our competition. They would win every once in awhile. We ended up getting hooked up by Kingpin Snowboards. It was a company out of Two Harbors, MN. I ended up working there building snowboards the summer before I moved out to Colorado. They went under the first year I lived out here, but they were awesome. I still have a couple of the snowboards.
P: So they were the first people to start hookin’ it up. What was happening in Two Harbors that there was a brand up there? What was it like to press boards? C: There were three dudes up there that ran it–Doran, Roger and Arden. They grew up there, moved to Tahoe after high school, and then moved back to build boards. They were pretty good. They lived with Dave Seone in Tahoe and would always show me pics of some of the stuff they built there. It was pretty inspiring. As far as pressing boards, I was the wood core guy. I just made the wood cores. All their equipment to build the boards was rigged together. I remember there were skate wheels on the presses for levers, things like that. It was cool to learn the process of building boards by hand. Shit was crazy there though; I remember some dude’s finger nails and teeth turned green from the glue in the press. It would have been cool if they would have stayed in business–I would definitely be riding a Kingpin still.
P: It’s crazy to think that boards were being built by tons of snowboard homies
then. Rad that you’re still loyal to that years later. So after the summer you moved to CO; what drew you to that zone? C: I had always come out to Colorado growing up with my family on vacations. My parents had friends in Denver. My friend Matt, who I moved out here with, also had a brother who lived in Summit County. It was also the closest mountains you could get to from Minnesota. I originally wanted to go to Salt Lake, but we ended up not doing it because we didn’t know anyone there. I also grew up on the early Mack Dawg videos which had a lot of Summit County in them. So I figured we couldn’t go wrong moving here. It’s still awesome here. Living here for so long I know exactly where it’s good when it snows. PRESENT: CHAD OTTERSTROM
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P: I think that’s key in that zone, based on my small amount of
time spent there. Once you moved out with the support of friends around and your board sponsor shook, what transpired in the first few seasons? C: The first winter was crazy; it snowed almost every day. I had never really ridden that much pow. We would go over to Vail all the time and hit cliffs. The park was also just starting to get good in Breck so we would ride that a lot too. It was kind of a dream year. If there wasn’t pow, then we would ride the park. I got a job at Hood as a digger that next summer and worked there for a few summers after that too. It took me at least 3 years to get things going as far as snowboard support goes. I knew Blaise Rosenthal and Peter Line from going to Hood as a camper in high school. Once I met up with them again at Hood while I was digging, they hooked me up with Foursquare and M3. After that I was kinda on full–time snowboarding. No more selling hotdogs at the gas station.
P: Stoked! It must have been kinda crazy to have doods that
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were the guys helping you out. M3 was ahead of its time and Foursquare outerwear then was clean and proper. Was this happening prior to the AOD crew videos or at the same time? C: This was before. It was definitely crazy getting hooked up by those guys. It was like going straight to pro basketball out of high school. I was kind of on my own as far as the Minnesota bros went. They all had moved away or were into other things. AOD actually started at Hood; it was our digger crew. We just kept it going when we got back to Breckenridge. That’s why dudes like Scotty Wittlake and Sean Tedore had parts in the vids.
P: Those videos were always a great find in the MN scene. I think I have 3 still. Did that help lead you to Mack Dawg and later into Whitey’s movies? C: I actually was in Mack Dawg and Whitey videos before we made them. Dawger hooked me up with what to get to make the vids. It was sort of a side project; kinda like the wildcats in Breckenridge style movies. I started filming with Dawger at Hood. I met Kurt Heine who was a filmer for him and it went from there. Then Whitey came back into the video scene with the Revival. M3 sponsored it so that’s how that went. My friend Kurt Rein made bro videos when I first moved out here–Ceranrap and the Last Harrah. Those were the videos that helped me get into filming for sure. We would go to Vail and Loveland Pass a bunch and film each other. CORDUROY LIFESTYLES
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P: Did you enjoy that more than trying to get the shot for the larger productions? C: Yeah, for sure. There was less pressure filming with your friends. I would still
ride the same either way though; I loved going for it. It was way more rewarding getting a shot for a Mack Dawg movie though. After watching snowboard movies so much growing up, it was pretty awesome getting shots in one. It was like hard work paying off.
P: But was it hard work or did it seem to fall into place? Like your part in the Active video ONE–that’s a fall into place ripping part! C: Yeah exactly, everything was falling into place. I wouldn’t really call snowboarding every day hard work. I actually hate it when I hear kids talk about how hard it is to get a video part. There’s a lot harder work than snowboarding, that’s for sure.
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P: Right. Things were happening for you–when M3 went out, how did that affect
you? Did things start to change? C: Yeah, it kinda sucked when M3 went under. We were riding the gravy train; it was unreal. I was also coming off a bad year–I had sprained my ankle pretty bad that year too. I had already ridden for Foursquare so they hooked me up on Forum. But it was hard because Thirtytwo boots didn’t like Forum at the time, so they cut me. Then Forum started having problems within a year of me riding for them. It’s a never-ending story still, but it’s been an awesome ride. I went on a world tour for the Video Gang’s movie. That was really fun–that pretty much made it all worth it. That’s also when I started realizing how shady people can be in the snowboard industry. I ended up quitting Forum to ride for Academy.
P: Interesting. You took the long way around due to the fact you wanted to stay
close to your core values–or am I overstating that? Seems like a mature move for a young man/snowboard pro. C: Yeah, for sure. I started out riding for Kingpin which was pretty local. Matty P lived with me and got me on Academy. It was cool; I was able to do whatever CORDUROY LIFESTYLES
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I wanted. It’s hard when you ride for a lot of big companies–you feel like you never snowboard because you’re always getting flown around for photo shoots in So Cal; you have a lot more BS to deal with. You do get paid a lot more, but it’s easy to lose direction. Once Academy came along, it was like I was riding at Trollhaugen again, but I had the world at my fingertips. I knew how to get things done and I was able to do it in my own way.
P: Those years must have yielded some great times, but again it seems something
changed. Why did you make another move? C: Academy had a bad run of boards one year and they weren’t able to pay. I had to go and look for other offers. Rossignol was interested. I was 31 years old and had a 3 year deal on the table, so I took it. I had always thought Rossi was lame, but their boards were actually good. I got to ride with Jeremy Jones, not the real one, for a week. It was awesome; that guy is so good at shredding. That deal fell through in 2 years when the company that owned them sold. I milked that deal though; it was sweet. I got to snowboard in India, Norway, Germany, everywhere. Then I started to ride for Solid snowboards, an old snowboard company out of Colorado. PRESENT: CHAD OTTERSTROM
P: So being able to travel the world with your snowboard is a great deal. How has that influenced your perspective, on snow and off? C: Being able to see the world through snowboarding has been the best part of it all. I’ve been able to pretty much go everywhere you can snowboard in the world. It’s given me a good perspective of where I want to be. Colorado is definitely still my favorite place to be. I’d love to move to Europe somewhere to snowboard, but it’s pretty spendy over there. Or Canada, but they hate letting us across the border. Seeing the world has also given me perspective of how good we have it. I’ve been to some pretty far away places to snowboard like India and Kyrgyzstan. Both places seem like pretty 3rd world countries where life is pretty easily lost. It makes you appreciate what you have.
P: Having traveled, ridden 26 seasons, shared, lost, you find yourself on a brand
that back in the 90’s you were riding or at least a bunch of your crew was riding. How did that come about? C: Solid came back onto the scene a few years ago. They actually wanted me to ride for them right before I did the Rossi deal. It’s Kurt Wastell and Ron Buretta running the show kinda. Once the Rossi deal went south, I jumped on board. Micah and Jake Weber used to ride Solid boards back at Trollhaugen and a bunch of my friends built boards for Solid when I moved out here. So it was kinda like the Kingpin thing–I was always down with Solid.
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P: Most recently the Solid crew has made a move in a new direction. What
changed and how did that come about? C: Well I’m not really sure were Solid is gonna go now, but Kurt and I have both gone to Bluebird snowboards. Willie McMillon and Kevin Jones started Bluebird snowboards this year. Anyway, Kurt made the move over to Bluebird and Willie said there was room for me too. Kurt Wastell and Solid are like Peter Line and Forum to me. If Kurt wasn’t on it didn’t make sense to me. So I jumped ship, riding for Solid was cool, I was able to do a graphic that I have wanted my whole life and it was a brand I’ve always been into so it was all worth it, but things change I guess. Bluebird boards are gonna be a good deal, the boards are good. Everyone on the team is over 35 at the moment, I don’t know if that’s a good thing, but we all still ride as hard as any young kid out there. It’s cool because we all have been through the ringer with the snowboard industry so there’s no bullshit, no one can fuck with us.
P: Now you’re in a spot where dues have been paid and your riding has
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influenced many for years, what’s the next step for you? C: I’m just kind of a hippie shredder now. I actually snowboarded more this year than I ever have. I plan on trying to ride as much soft snow as I can; landings feel better. I just opened a women’s clothing boutique in Breckenridge with my girlfriend last year. It’s been doing good. I figured women like to shop, so we can’t go wrong. As long as that stays afloat, my plan for now is to take things slow and just ride for the next couple of years. We have an AWD Astro van that we converted into a mini RV, so I’m just gonna hit the road with that this winter and go where the snow is good. I’ve also gotten into a couple other things–I’m a judge at the X-Games so maybe I’ll try to judge a couple other contests. It’s pretty fun–free food and you get sled laps on the pipe all day. I also have been taking snowboard photos as a hobby for the last few years. I might try to do something with that. But in the end, I’m still clueless. I just wanna be able to snowboard every day. My girlfriend likes snowboarding almost more than me, so it all works out.
P: Wow sounds like you have a ton of things happening on many levels, all
contributing to a common goal of sliding snow as much as possible. Dreams continue to dream. Thank you for the time and sharing. Anything else you’d like to share or thank you’s? C: Midwest represent...that’s about it. Thanks for doing this too.
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DANIMALS Many an icy February evening you can find Dan linking lines of originality as others pack their cars to go home. With a healthy outlook and smooth demeanor, he seems to be casually strolling into all our collective snowboarding psyche. Without intention, Dan is becoming the snowboarder’s snowboarder. Unique in style and approach, his presence is obviously needed in today’s sideways snow slippin culture. Next time we run into him on the streets or slopes we could all be wise to offer up a hearty handshake of appreciation.
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PETER: When did you first start sliding snow sideways? DANIMALS: Well, it all started when I was in my sledding days. One day, I started
trying to ride my sled standing up, so I guess that would be my first snowboard– that was when I was probably about 6 or 7
P: Awesome–just sledding. How did that transform into a snowboard under your
feet? D: I’m pretty sure it was just me and my dad sledding one day in our yard, and I thought it would be fun to ride my sled standing up and try to get to the bottom, and then that’s all I did all day. At the end of the day my dad said something like, “If you’re gonna keep doing that we’re gonna have to get you a snowboard,” and that’s all I wanted after that.
P: That’s a rad Dad. So what did you guys go out and get? D: My first board was one of those super flimsy Target boards that’s all tie die
colored and had the rubber straps for your feet to go in, so it kinda sucked, but I thought it was the best thing ever. I didn’t care; I was super addicted to it. When I was able to start turning a little on that, I got my first real board out of this ad in the newspaper. It was a Rossingnol 137 and it had the coolest tin man graphics.
P: What year was that? D: I think I was probably 10…2001.
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P: Were you going out in the backyard with homies or kicking it solo? D: Oh man–I had a whole crew of friends I used to go out with every day. There
were 4 of us all together as our main crew, but every once in awhile we would ride with these 3 other kids too. It was so fun; we used make these sweet luge runs with a bunch of rollers in them and big banked turns and just try to ride it all day. I did a lot of riding in my yard by myself too.
P: What came next, going to Hyland? D: Yep, I’m true to Hyland since Day 1, but that first day was scary–probably the
scariest day of my life. I was so little then, and it was just me and my neighbor in what felt like a world filled with the meanest group of kids out there. They were all older than us by a lot so I tried not to get in the way or anything, but no matter what they would still yell at us for something. I didn’t care though, it was way too much fun.
P: So they were making you earn respect? Did you make any new friends in the
early Hyland days? D: At first it was just me and my neighbor and one of his friends that I didn’t know at the time, but we quickly became good friends. That was it for awhile. Later, I started riding with more kids from my school so that made it super fun because it started to be like 6 of us and we always rode together. CORDUROY LIFESTYLES
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P: How much did this new crew push your riding or passion for riding? D: The new posse was cool; we definitely all pushed each other’s riding and
hitting jumps, and our passion for it got bigger and bigger each day. It was sweet–we used to just joke and mess around all day. I remember when all we wanted to do was hit the super kicker, but we were all so afraid so what we did instead was we would hit super fast but not fast enough to clear it so all we would be doing is casing it so hard even though if we would just go a little bit faster to make it another 4 or 5 feet we would make it no problem. But it didn’t matter, because it was the coolest feeling just being the air for that long. CORDUROY LIFESTYLES
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P: That must have been awesome to just push it with the homies–no pressures,
but to go further and not case. Who started pointing the camera? Did that just happen cause someone had one or was a conscious decision? D: Yeah, it was super cool back then because all of us were at the same level so no one cared whether you did this or that; it more like if one of our friends did this we all did that because it was so fricking sweet even though no one was trying to make you do anything. As far as filming each other, no one really did that. We probably even had cameras, but none of our friends had seen a snowboard video or even knew they existed, so none of us even thought about it. It wasn’t until a couple years later when I met my friend Jake that I really noticed anyone filming. FUTURE: DANIMALS
P: So in the fish bowl of Hyland you were just shredding with the homies for a
bunch of years. What were some of the first movies to influence your riding? When Jake came into the picture, how did it affect your perspective? D: The first movie I ever bought was Afterlame and that changed a lot for me– watching David Benedek and Louie Fountain and everyone else–just seeing the grabs they did and way they were riding made me want ride even more. I used to watch that movie every night after we were done riding. There were other videos too, like Burning Bridges; I would watch Ricky Tucker’s part over and over. Local videos too like The Kaw and Tackle Box I thought were the coolest because I used to see those kids in those videos at Hyland, and that was the coolest thing-to see them riding in person. I think that’s when Jake was filming–we were thinking that if they could do it, we could make our own little films too.
P: So being inspired by the local video fired you guys up to do your own thing.
What was the first project? D: Watching local videos was the best cause we could relate to them. Our first real project was called Stuck In The Suburbs.
P: What was the reaction to that and from whom? D: It was awesome. It was super fun while we were doing it because all we did
pretty much was mess around while doing it, and I think people liked that. I don’t think hardly anyone saw it or knows of it, but between our friends we thought it was sick.
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P: When did others outside the posse start to notice, or when
did you notice them noticing? D: Well by this time, we had a pretty big crew of friends that would all ride together at Hyland, and I feel like kids really noticed that. So when we would go out and do stuff–it’s kinda weird to say this–but I feel like kids really paid attention to that. I guess it was the day I heard some kid yelling out one of our friend’s names that it really hit that other kids knew who we were.
P: Weird huh, but it’s a small world at Hyland. Did that make
you feel uncomfortable? D: It’s definitely small, but nah it didn’t weird me out. I probably forgot about it while we were cruising.
P: So who started calling you Danimals? D: I’m pretty sure my friend Nick said it once, and it stuck. P: So far it’s become your snowboard name–it seems to be sticking. How do feel about that? D: Haha–I like it.
P: What’s happening right now for you with parts droppin?
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D: Yeah, it’s so cool this year; I share a part with a good friend
of mine in the VG video Shoot the Moon and there’s also Bald Eagle and Make Productions.
P: Tons of stuff happening. It sounds like VG must have felt
crazy. Did you know you were in there? D: No, not at all. It’s super crazy during the winter; there was a little bit of talk that I might be able to have a couple of shots in there or something with Jonas, but I had know idea it was be this much or that it would even be with someone else.
P: When did you find out? D: I found out on the night of the premiere when we were
watching it in the theater. It was the best way I could have found out–a complete surprise.
P: I love surprises. Congratulations, that’s a large step. What
happens now and for this coming year? D: As for now, we just enjoy summer and for the winter I don’t feel like too much will really change–it’s still gonna be the same ride with friends and go on little trips with them and film and hang out, but the footage will go to VG now. CORDUROY LIFESTYLES
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P: Nice, well thank you for the time today. Any shout outs or peace outs? D: Nah......psyche. What’s up MAKE, Matt, Jake, Jack, Chad, Stephen, Travis,
Justin, Brandon, Cody, Yo 1817 you know who you are, Mike and Lance, basswassup.blogspot.com, Pete for doing this and everything else, nuclear medication–nuke med for short, Scott at Cal, JB and Dummer at Academy for helping me, and Dave and Mark and Joey it was sweet skating with you Dave we gotta do it again soon, my family and all the rest of my good friends I didn’t forget you I just am too lazy to keep typing and I have to go to work now–actually 10 minutes ago. See ya. CORDUROY LIFESTYLES
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THE FOUNDATION OF IT ALL.
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SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED A GETAWAY.
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The joys and the sorrows in life present themselves and depart everyday. So many fond memories can be achieved by surrounding yourself with family, no matter their relation to you. Whether it be embarking on a winter getaway trip with a gang of friends, or going to the local hill with your brother, good times are sure to follow. Looking forward to each coming moment will always keep you in high spirits and being aware of the important foundations life brings will keep you grounded. Live, stay active, and always tweak your methods.
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Cover: Inside Cover: Contents:
PROSPECT
p08: p9–10: p11: p12: p13–14: p15: p16: p17–18: p19–20: p21–22: p23: p24: p25: p26:
OLLIE
p27–28: p29–30: p31–32: p33: p34: p35–36: p37–38: p39–40: p41: p42: p43–44: p45: p46: p47–48:
Cameron Strand Cameron Strand Cameron Strand
PAST Jake Durham DJ Ward Brandon Lepasti DJ Ward Nate Harrington Nate Harrington Brandon Lepasti Brandon Lepasti DJ Ward Ryan Taylor DJ Ward Brent Spurr Nate Harrington Brandon Lepasti
Cameron Strand DJ Ward Cameron Strand DJ Ward Cameron Strand Sophie Windh Cameron Strand Cameron Strand DJ Ward Dylan Riffer Cameron Strand Top: DJ Ward Bottom: Cameron Strand DJ Ward DJ Ward
All photos submitted by Dale Rehberg
PRESENT
p63: p66: p67: p69–70: p71–72: p73: p74: p75–76: p78:
FUTURE
p79–80: p82: p83–84: p85–86: p88: p89–90: p91–92:
Matt Peterson Ricky Melnick Upper left: Matt Peterson Right: Matt Swanson Lower left: Jon Otterstrom Chad Otterstrom Jeff Meyer Chris Grenier Jeremy Jones Jeff Meyer Top: Jeff Meyer Bottom: Brent Meyer
Ryan Taylor Nate Harrington Brandon Lepasti Ryan Taylor Top: Jake Durham Bottom: Nate Harrington Nate Harrington Nate Harrington
FAMILY
p93–94: p95–96: p97–98: p99: p100–102: p103–104: p105–106: p107: p108: p109–110: p111: p112: p113: p115:
HOLIDAY
Ricky Tucker Ryan Taylor DJ Ward Brent Spurr Brandon Lepasti Jake Durham Ricky Tucker Jake Durham DJ Ward DJ Ward Brandon Lepasti Jake Durham Ricky Tucker Brandon Lepasti
p117–118: p119–120: p121–122: p123–124: p125–126: p127–128: p129–130: p131–132: p133–134: p135–136: p137–138: p139–140:
Cameron Strand Sophie Windh Brian Wolfe Cameron Strand Cameron Strand Cameron Strand Peter Harvieux Peter Harvieux Peter Harvieux Sophie Windh Brian Wolfe Sophie Windh Cameron Strand Sophie Windh
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Juri Loginov
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Peter Harvieux
EDITOR
Carrie Harvieux
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Joe Mertes
We would like to thank all our contributors for bringing Corduroy to life.