Words: Ben Shanks Kindlon 2021-01-25 18:00:36
“I call this mural in Portland [OR] ‘Big Fam.’ I made it in 2018. I hope that when you walk by it, it makes you smile and remember that we are all one big family.”—Forest Bailey Photo: Darrell Mathes Forest Bailey doesn’t need to be the loudest in the room to be heard. He’s approachable but direct, opinionated yet open. He’s accepting of new perspectives and experiences and likes to see both sides of any coin. And one thing’s for sure: Forest operates on his own terms. An accomplished artist with both board and brush, boldness emanates through Forest’s riding and painting. He describes these avenues of expression as extensions of himself, and the aesthetic of each is synonymous with its creator. These complimentary outlets have become increasingly intertwined over the course of the 29-year-old’s professional snowboarding career, which already spans well over a decade. His artistic and athletic work resonates deeply with the snowboard community, and there’s good reason for that. Of course, it’s only explainable to an extent. The rest is open to interpretation. Recently, Forest told us his story—one of rapid success coupled with patient exploration in public spheres and on personal levels. From his early days as a Vermont grom to becoming a globally renowned all-terrain aficionado, from days spent drawing rudimentary doodles to creating beloved board graphics, outerwear and more, Forest’s influence starts with well-balanced self-ownership. In similar fashion to his avenues of expression, Forest came through colorfully. The Snowboarder’s Journal: Let’s start from the top. Forest Bailey: I was born in a small house in Jamaica, VT. When I was a year old, my parents moved my family to this 12-acre property. The house on it was falling apart and the property was super-overgrown, but rent was only $500 a month. We had space to garden, make art and play. I had a mini-ramp in my backyard. It was an epic place to grow up. When I was 4 or 5 my parents were waiting tables at Stratton Mountain, that’s how I was able to get a pass. They tried to get me to ski first, but I knew I wanted to snowboard. I got into skateboarding around the same time. It was tunnel vision from there on out. What’s your family like? I have two older sisters [Chelsea and Autumn], they’re the best. One of them is two years older than me and in nursing school. The other is six years older than me, she’s an art consultant. My parents are definitely of a more natural background. When every other kid at school had plastic-wrapped everything at lunch, I was always the one with carrot sticks. My dad [Barry] was a full-on snowboard and skateboard dad. We would go to every contest we could around the East Coast. We’d sleep in the car in some parking lot, wake up, do the event and drive home. That was a lot of my childhood. My folks were on [Grateful] Dead tour for many years, so traveling like that felt normal to him. My family life was amazing at times, but a struggle at others. When I was a teenager my parents separated and eventually got divorced. My dad met his current partner in Tahoe [CA] and he’s been there for the past 12 years. My mom [Susan] lives in Massachusetts and just got married this summer. Obviously my parents’ relationship didn’t work out, but I’m truly blessed to have been created by them and raised in such a special setting. I love my family so much and wouldn’t want to change anything about my existence. It must’ve been rad living 15 minutes from the mountain. I saw snowboarding from such a cool perspective. When the US Open was happening at Stratton, it was like every pro from around the world coming to my backyard every spring. It sucks there aren’t many events that bring the mainstream of snowboarding to the East Coast anymore. There was such a cool scene back east when I was a kid. If I was born there five years ago rather than 29 years ago, I might not have had the same opportunities. I got sponsored by Stevie Hayes’ little company, Hayes Brothers Snowboards. The factory was only 10 minutes from where I grew up. I was with them for a few years and actually had a pro model when I was 12 or 13, right before the company went out of business. I’d always do super-well in contests and was basically making enough money to support myself since I was 15 years old. By that time, I was always on trips and missing so much school. Red Bull approached me when I was 16 and when I started getting paid from them, I thought maybe it’s time to put everything into snowboarding. I dropped out of school and moved to Lake Tahoe at 17. Zach Leach was the team manager of both Red Bull and Gnu, and that’s how I got on Gnu. I also got on 686 around that same time. How did things change when you moved out west? Moving to Tahoe took my snowboarding to the next level. I got onto Gnu and within a year had a pro model. I was riding good snow, meeting new people and starting to film more. That’s when I started to realize that I didn’t have to compete to be a pro snowboarder. So, I put my energy into filming instead. Some of my early filming was for Givin’s One and Too, which was a perfect introduction. We had a good crew of people that I really got along with. Then I had the opportunity to start filming for some bigger projects. It seemed like there was this trajectory in snowboarding where you do your independent videos and then if you have an opportunity to film for these mag movies, you take ’em. Jed Anderson had the ender in Get Real, and Keegan Valaika had the ender in the next TransWorld movie [In Color], so I felt like I needed to film my TransWorld part. But when you work on these projects and they’re not your brainchild, they don’t necessarily represent you as well as you want them to. As part of the Givin crew I was with all my friends, so it made sense. But being in videos with people I don’t really know doesn’t show my best self. Working on a handful of those projects that I didn’t have as much creative control on bummed me out. I wasn’t as hyped on the end product. That’s why you went back to making your own projects like the Frontside, Backside series and Quiet? Exactly. It’s the idea of going back to filming with your friends and making your own videos. That’s when I’ve felt the best about videos I’ve made, when it is truly just friends going out snowboarding and having fun. That’s when you’re going to get the best stuff, and that’s what I want to see. [Filming for FSBS] was one of the best years of my life, working on that project with Seamus [Foster], traveling the world and getting to be on our own program. One of the trips we did for that was one of the sickest trips of my life. I was new to making art in snowboarding and was invited to be in this snowboarder art show called “Human Nature.” It was with Jamie Lynn, Schoph [Schofield], Bryan Iguchi, me and some others. We did one in Jackson Hole [WY], and one in London. To be in an art show with my heroes, and to watch Jamie show up to London and post up in the corner of this shitty skatepark and make all of his work for the show that night, in person, was just like, “Damn.” It was so cool to see and be involved in. We spent a week in London hanging with that crew, had an incredible time, went skating and looked at art every day. Then we flew to Austria and spent two weeks there filming snowboarding, partying and meeting new friends. I’d always wanted to go to Barcelona, so we flew from Austria to Barcelona and spent the last week of that monthlong Euro trip in Spain checking out all these legendary skate spots, looking at art and eating good food. Those are the trips I want to go on in the future, something that’s not necessarily snowboard specific. To go on adventures with my friends and do the things we love—snowboard, skate, make art, music, experience new cultures—and then show them all working together is so cool. Where did your artistic inspiration come from? Both of my parents are highly creative and they’re friends with all types of weird, creative people, so I’ve been around artists all my life. My dad is a potter. He had a studio on our property and for a long time my mom would paint the pottery that he sold at farmers markets. My mom made everything she touched her art and always had huge flower and vegetable gardens. Both of them are still making art on the regular. Keegan Valaika is also one of my big creative inspirations. He would always think of cool creative projects and get all the people around him involved. We’d be doodling, and he saw something in my work that I didn’t. He used this drawing I made on a hat and T-shirt for Gnarly [Clothes]. I was seeing my friends and people I looked up to wearing this gear with something I designed on it and that got me really excited to create more. I was like, “Damn, if I actually put more time into this creativity, then I can make a painting that can go on my snowboard, and then I’m snowboarding on a painting that I made.” With 686, I could design the clothes in the way I want to wear them. Did you make the art for your first Gnu pro model? No, I didn’t feel like my work was good enough yet. I took it slow for the first few years, working with other artists until I felt confident enough to put my art on a snowboard. It forced me to develop a style that I felt represented me, and also felt attainable for me. I’m not a crazy oil painter painting some perfect landscape or portrait. My art is a little more simple and abstract. Whether it looks really good or not, I want it to be an extension of myself. I want people to see a painting or a snowboard I made and know it’s one of mine, like a little piece of my brain hanging on your wall or strapped to your feet. Are there parallels to draw between your snowboarding and art? There are a lot of connections between the two. I want my paintings to represent myself like I want my snowboarding to represent myself. It’s all about finding these ways to express myself because that’s what snowboarding and skating and fashion and art and all these outlets really are: self-expression. Being able to combine different avenues of creativity and make them all work together is the goal. I love to see what Mike Rav[elson] is doing, showing his snowboarding mixed with the music that he and his friends are making. And Jamie Lynn—making music, artwork, snowboarding, skating and being the misty Jamie Lynn. I’m inspired by people who can do it all. These people who are incredible athletes and take that athletic ability and turn it into this whole multidimensional reality of creativity. It doesn’t need to be anything too crazy. It comes from trying to look at things differently. It’s the same as going to a snowboard spot that’s been hit a million times and being like, “I’ve never seen anyone hit it this way,” and finding your own way to do something that everyone else overlooked. It’s changing your perspective on something in order to leave your mark on it. An attainable-yet-distinct approach. Exactly. In skating too. Pro skateboarders are incredible, but what I’m lacking in skill, I feel like I can make up for in creativity. I’m not going to be doing some huge rail or crazy tech switch flip-in-flip-out shit, but maybe I’ll find something to do that’s simple and a little bit different at a cool-looking spot and some people could resonate with that even more so. I think there’s something to be said for people who aren’t trying to be the best, but instead are just trying to be themselves and do it their own way. That’s when the best stuff happens. What do you aim to express in your art? A lot of the concepts are about equality, diversity and people being good to each other. True goodness. There’s a lot of negativity in our world and I want to focus on the positives. That’s where a lot of the bright colors come into play, and the boldness. I would hope that seeing a painting of mine would make someone feel happy. Having your hobby and your passion also be your career is funky. I try to think about it like my passion and hobby, because if I think about it like it’s my job, I’m not going to enjoy it as much. I don’t share a lot of the work that I make. I’m drawing and painting little stuff all the time. Sometimes the darkness—the not-as-positive stuff—does come out too. Painting is a mental battle. This year I made maybe 20 or 30 paintings, but my painting practice isn’t as consistent as I’d like it to be. Lately it’s so hard for me to find the energy to sit down and do it, especially with the state of the world. It’s been tough for me to create. But in a way it’s a privilege to be stressed about creating, or about the big picture. You’ve been stressing the big picture? I don’t know how you couldn’t be. I think the world that we live in needs a remodel. Our country is built for white people and it gives us the upper hand, especially white men. It can be hard to understand that, but once you do, it gives you a different perspective. It doesn’t mean that you’re destined for greatness just being white—all types of people have different struggles—it’s just that if you do have any little advantage, make the most out of it and give back when you can. There’s got to be a balance between enjoying your own life and giving back. If you’re able to enjoy your own life, then you’re able to help others. Have you always been so conscious of the world around you? Vermont is mostly a white liberal bubble and you don’t see a lot of diversity, but I think my parents taught me well and traveling helped open my eyes. Also, my ex-girlfriend went to school for social justice and human rights, so when I was 18 and we were dating she was learning all about white privilege. That definitely helped me a lot, starting to go through the process of learning and understanding some of that when I was younger. My older sister Autumn is gay and that’s something I’ve known about since she came out when she was 20 years old. I’m so proud of her. It’s always been so incredibly normal for me, so I’ve never thought of anyone who is different from myself as threatening. I want everyone to be accepting of each other. I honestly can’t believae how common and offensive so much of the slang was that we grew up with. It’s important to understand how the words you choose to use could affect someone around you. Everyone should have the right to be exactly who they are. Snowboarding and the world should be an accepting place to all, and I’m excited that there are a lot of positive changes happening. Even within all the negative, there’s so much positive to keep me excited and working toward progress. Obviously, nothing happens overnight, but the goal is to get on a better path than we’ve been on. You have a tendency of acknowledging the bad in various situations, but also highlighting the good. That’s an important part of life—finding the good. It’s pretty easy to see the bad and fall down that rabbit hole, but that’s not really going to help the world get better. You’ve got to be the change that you want to see, you know? Have hard conversations. Educate yourself, educate your friends, and let your friends educate you. The only perspective that you’re truly going to understand is your own, but any light shed into any other perspectives might really open your eyes to what others have experienced. Is that where the title of your new movie Quiet came from? That’s part of it. There’s something to be said for speaking less and listening more. The older I get, the more I realize that. You don’t always need to chime into every conversation—sometimes it’s better to be quiet and listen and get someone else’s perspective. Also, snowboarding is my quiet place. I can go escape into my own little world and just zone in. It’s like meditation. When did Quiet drop? Quiet came out in the middle of November. Instead of making a video that’s just one or the other, I wanted to blur the lines between street and backcountry snowboarding. I don’t want to be put in a box. I feel like it’s not as common anymore to see people doing both, but I always like to see the people who are able to make both look good; it’s something I really appreciate. I just love snowboarding and it really doesn’t matter to me if I’m riding in a city or on a mountain, I’m just as excited either way. Last winter got cut short, but I’m really proud of what [filmer Brendon] Hupp and I were able to make. You’re living in Portland these days? Still in Portland, I moved here eight years ago and never left. I have my house here, my girlfriend, Nadia, lives with me and I have a great community. It’s a good size city for me, not too big, and it’s close to the mountains and the ocean. It’s got all the things I need. I get to be kind of anonymous here in a way, which I like. A lot of my friends here don’t snowboard, and it’s nice to exist in a community outside of snowboarding as well. Why’s that? You don’t like the spotlight? It makes me so happy to see people enjoy my snowboarding and the things I create, but it also makes me pretty nervous. I’m pretty shy sometimes, so I try to avoid the spotlight. I feel like I’ve kept a little on the exterior of snowboarding in a way, but also always been in the mix. I’ve been where I want to be. Honestly though, I feel like I’m just as hungry to snowboard as I ever have been. Once you think that you’ve made it, you don’t hold yourself to as high expectations. I like to pretend that I’m still a young kid coming up, it makes me work harder. I’m pushing 30 but I feel like there’s still so much I want to accomplish on my snowboard. Now more than ever you see these older people in the industry who can still keep it going, which gives me inspiration. I just need to take care of my body and keep the hype alive. And I don’t think I’ll ever not be hyped to go snowboarding, so I’m going to keep doing the things I love until my body won’t let me. Then I want to put more into my creative work and live a simple existence.
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