The Snowboarder's Journal - The Snowboarder's Journal 21.3
A PERFECT BLEND: Extra Medium
Words: Ben Shanks Kindlon 2023-12-06 13:00:44
Adrian Rasmussen is a regular in the park at The Summit at Snoqualmie, WA. Photo: Joshua Poehlein
The first time I met Adrian Rasmussen he was wearing a pair of skate shoes atop Chair 5 on opening day 2015 at Mt. Baker Ski Area, WA. Next to his sneakered feet was a short board with rubber grip and traction spikes on the top and a short ski on the bottom, a bideck snowskate. We ripped the cat track together and I was blown away by seeing Adrian riding ungroomed terrain and side hits as we made our way down the mountain. I saw him again that spring at Whistler-Blackcomb, BC, where he was with a crew of snowskaters. Adrian was attempting to wallie off a boulder near the terrain park. On one attempt he fell forward and the leash connecting him to his snowskate caught tension, propelling his board directly toward his head. The ski on the bottom ricocheted off the back of his helmet. He was shaken but laughed off the slam, clearly grateful for his quick reflexes and good fortune.
Adrian has only gotten better in time, made evident in his passion project, Extra Medium. The video is comprised of a core contingent of snowskaters who slide snow as often as many devoted snowboarders, yet often go entire winters without ever strapping in. Adrian explains that within this bindingless niche are interconnected subcultures. “There are a lot of dudes going really hard in the streets on the single-deck side of snowskating, and there are a bunch of other dudes who are really pushing powsurfing,” he says. “Both are doing a really good job at filming those things, but there aren’t as many people doing that with bidecking. So the main motivation for Extra Medium was to shoot a street and backcountry video that was primarily bidecking, but we included all types of bindingless riding.”
Filmed mostly in Washington state and different parts of the Midwest over the course of three winters, Extra Medium exhibits the versatility of snowskates by bringing its viewers from powdery locales to urban areas, ski areas, Brain Bowl Sessions and springtime jumps in the backcountry. What makes Extra Medium stand out from other snowskate videos is the clear influence of snowboarding and transition skateboarding, as opposed to other popular snowskate videos that feel more like watching street skateboarding. That isn’t to say one format is better than the other—it’s worth pointing out that snowskaters like those featured in Ambition Snowskates’ team videos often incorporate more technical flip tricks into their snowskating than what you’ll find in Extra Medium. The Ambition riders, most of whom solely use single-deck snowskates, have notably stepped to heavy spots including double-set handrails and even Quebec City’s infamous Red (now gray) Ledge. You’re not going to see big-spin flips over benches in Extra Medium, but on the flipside, you’re also not going to find any backcountry step-ups in Ambition’s videos. In its neatly packaged four-minute format, Extra Medium offers an onslaught of tweaked grabs, one-footers and lines, in addition to some street clips. The contrast and overlap between the different crews’ approaches are fitting given their respective geographical locations. Adrian says most single-deck enthusiasts are “skateboarders who live in cold areas” like Quebec, the Midwest and the East Coast, while bideckers are most often found on the West Coast—where powder riding and transition skateboarding is more prevalent—and in mountain towns alongside snowboarders.
Despite variations in equipment, in the grand scheme of snowsports, the snowskating scene is still relatively limited. But what they lack in numbers, they make up for in camaraderie. “The community is small, but it’s very connected,” Adrian says. “I continue to be blown away when I’ve traveled for snowskating, whether it’s to Japan or different parts of Canada, out east—there’s something about the snowskate I’ve noticed attracts the same type of person. There’s so much instant commonality.”
Adrian doesn’t expect participation to rise drastically anytime soon, but that won’t stop him from pushing snowskating’s progression in any terrain in which he finds himself. “Snowskating sort of lives at the intersection of every board sport,” he says. “We ride snow, we do skate tricks and the turns are surfy. It’s a perfect blend. But I don’t see anyone ever really getting rich off it. You’ve got to be willing to be at the mountain in skate shoes all day, so it’s never going to be for everyone, and that’s OK. It doesn’t have to be.”
See Extra Medium playing on the Freshies section of www.thesnowboardersjournal.com.
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