The Snowboarder's Journal - The Snowboarder's Journal 22.1
UNUSUAL VIZZNESS: All Eyes on Austin Visintainer
Words Kevin Nolan 2024-10-01 09:33:23
On the weekend before hosting a CAPiTA x Union video shoot at Mission Ridge, WA, Austin spent his birthday weekend riding the rope tow to make sure the setup was dialed. Photo: Jaymie Belknap
Snowboarding is full of clichés. But if there was ever a snowboarder who embodies the saying “they let their riding speak for itself,” it’s Austin Visintainer. Austin, aka Vizz, isn’t a big talker. But over the last few years, Vizz has slowly been coming out of his shell. His newfound confidence compliments his rising notoriety. At 28 years old, Vizz has been a well-known figure in the Pacific Northwest snowboard scene for at least a decade. More recently, thanks to a steady stream of notable video parts, he’s also emerged as a force to be reckoned with the world over.
Vizz is far from the first pro snowboarder to come out of Washington state. Multiple generations have cut their teeth in the powdery meccas of the Cascade Mountains and gone on to become stars. The western part of the state is known for its big, beautiful terrain and some of the deepest powder on the planet. But Vizz grew up in Spokane, which is 200 miles east of the Cascades. It’s drier over there and more famous for the Gonzaga University basketball team than any nearby snowboarding. Rope tows and small, family-run ski areas are the norm there. But Vizz didn’t need to grow up in a mountain town or attend an elite private academy. In a snowboarding sense, he’s a self-made man. From modest beginnings, he’s carved out a place for himself amongst some of the biggest names in the industry. It’s the culmination of his raw talent and, more importantly, consistent effort.
Through filming snowboarding for the past five years, I’ve spent quality time with dozens, if not hundreds, of snowboarders. Vizz operates on a level I’ve rarely seen. His work ethic is unparalleled. When we set up spots, he’s consistently shoveling the hardest. When it’s time to ride, he’s getting more hits on a feature than anyone. Despite his tenacity, he holds himself with humility. It keeps him cool, level-headed and continually striving to progress. And the results, well, they speak for themselves.
The Snowboarder’s Journal: We just boarded for a week at Mt. Baker, WA, for the Brain Bowl and Sesh Up event. How was that?
Austin Visintainer: Brain Bowl was all-time. I was feeling, I don’t want to say burnt-out before then, but ready to be on the summer-chill wave. Then we went up to Brain Bowl and it relit the fire to keep going. It was so fun hanging out with everybody.
A week in the Baker parking lot will do that to you.
Last year I blew my radiator out at the top of the mountain. I wasn’t planning on camping but ended up having to camp for six days. So, this year I was more dialed for sure.
Tell me about where you grew up. What was your life like as a kid?
I was born in Astoria, OR, and shortly moved to Spokane, WA, where I grew up. I’ve pretty much been on the board my whole life. Skateboarding came first. The neighbors had a mini ramp in their backyard and were also always skating in the driveway. I was super interested in what they were doing. My dad got me a skateboard when I was five. Then I started snowboarding, because obviously in the Pacific Northwest you can’t skateboard in the winter. We started snowboarding, and I just fell in love.
What was Spokane like as a snowboarder? It’s more known
for team sports.
Spokane’s not really known for snowboarding or skateboarding. I had five really close friends, and we would all snowboard and skateboard together. There were times that I got picked on in school, I wasn’t a popular kid—football was big in school, and soccer and basketball. I was so in love with snowboarding and skateboarding that I didn’t really care what other people thought. If they want to make fun of me, whatever. It almost gave me motivation to be like, “I can do this.”
I always had this dream of becoming a pro snowboarder. And I had so many people telling me that I wouldn’t be able to do it, definitely not out of Spokane. Hearing all that all the time gave me so much motivation to prove all these people wrong.
Can you tell me about your parents? Did they ski or snowboard?
Both of my parents skied. Not a whole lot, but when I became interested in going to the mountain, they always took me up on weekends. My dad [Mark] was a golf pro and then he got into sales work, so he had a lot of free time and drove me around a lot. My mom [Laura] was a nurse assistant when I was growing up. My parents got divorced when I was five, but they had a healthy relationship about me. I would take turns hanging out with my dad and my mom and whoever I was with for the weekend would take me to the mountain, to the events, to the skate park in the summer. They were both super supportive.
Were you riding at Mount Spokane at the beginning?
Yeah, I spent most of my time at Mount Spokane. There’s another mountain north of town called 49 Degrees North. That’s where I first went snowboarding. Then I’d go to Schweitzer, ID, when I got a little older. Growing up doing USASA, I was doing rail jams and boardercross, giant slalom—if I was on a snowboard, whether ripping turns or jumping and hitting rails, I was into it. There was a whole group of kids who would get together every couple weeks for those USASA events and we had friendly rivalries. There were these two brothers, and the older brother, Dash [Kamp], was really doing it. He was a few years older than me. That’s what inspired his younger brother, Kix, and I to really get into it. There are a couple other dudes—Jaeger [Bailey] is from 49 Degrees North, so I always really looked up to him. Rest in peace, he was a huge inspiration as well.
After leaving Spokane, where did you go?
I moved across the state to Stevens Pass when I was 20. That was my first time being out on my own and just snowboarding and working every single day. I started working as an instructor because the park crew was full. I did that for a month then got on park crew. I was learning how to build stuff and starting to meet the locals up there. Like Matt Wainhouse, a Stevens Pass local legend, sickest dude. And that whole squad: Travis Claughton, Kevin Hansen, Ian Keay, Mikey Kehoe. It wasn’t just about riding the park but riding the whole mountain. That was a huge eye-opener to what you could really do with snowboarding.
After Stevens Pass you went to live in Wenatchee, WA, and ride Mission Ridge. What prompted the move?
At the end of my second year at Stevens, I met Jake [Aaronson] riding in the park. He put me on to Mission Ridge and said I should go check it out. I went to Mission Ridge for the first time that spring and was instantly obsessed with the place. I got there about 10 a.m. and rode until they stopped the rope at 4.
Maybe a lot of people can relate to this, but sometimes you go to a place and you feel like you’re at home—that’s how I felt when I went to the Ridge for the first time. Everybody that worked there was super nice and just stoked, all the rails slid perfectly, it was the busiest day of the year and it was still quiet. I decided I was going to move to Wenatchee the next winter and work park crew there. It wasn’t really until the next season that I realized how low-key it was. You basically have a private park with you and your homies. Jake and I linked up and we started filming that year [2018].
Was that the first time that you really started trying to film with a goal of having a full part?
For sure. I always dreamed of filming a full video part growing up watching all the Mack Dawg and Videograss movies. But I was never quite around the right people that were available to go out and snowboard and have cameras. When I met Jake, we really clicked and started filming whenever we could.
You two put out a lot of footage. What were your videos called?
East Bumfucc Shithole, I think was the first one. Insane title.
The short videos and raw clips from the park that you and Jake were putting out on Instagram were as influential to your success as the full-length videos with footage from the streets. You guys created a little bit of a cult following.
Some would say that. We still get a lot of comments that we need to come together and film a video again. It might all work out one day.
At some point during all this you got on CAPiTA and Union and got involved with C3. How did that come about?
Through Scott “Sweaty” Downing, legend of a sales rep, in 2018. I met Sweaty working at a local skate shop in Spokane. Years later, when he saw me riding Stevens Pass, he asked if I would be down to ride for CAPiTA and Union. I was so stoked, because I didn’t have a sponsor.
That was a big year for you. A little later, in 2020, you got the chance to film for CAPiTA and Union’s project, Paper Tiger. Who did you work on that with?
Mike Rav[elson], Johnny O’Connor and [filmer] Skylar “Larz” Brent—absolute genius. Rav and Brandon Cocard came to Mission Ridge filming for FutureMystic (2019), and I ended up filming a few clips for that video that I was super hyped on. That’s when I met [CAPiTA Team Manager] Mark Dangler. The next year was when we filmed Paper Tiger.
That was a make-or-break year. I worked all summer for this event rental company, setting up ginormous tents for events and weddings, 10-hour days, five days a week, in 95-, 100-degree weather, picking up heavy stuff. I’m not a big dude, and I was getting my ass kicked every day. But I saved enough money to snowboard all winter—I wanted to do whatever it took to make it happen with snowboarding.
I went down to Salt Lake [City] at the beginning of the season to link up with [CAPiTA Social Media Manager] Brandon Rego and film some stuff for Instagram. At the beginning of January, Dangler asked if he could FaceTime me. Mark had never done that before. He calls and asks if I can go to Iowa the next day. It was like, “If you’re down, you gotta go tomorrow.” I got on the plane, and I linked up with Rav, Johnny and Skylar in Iowa. They picked me up from the airport and I was so nervous since it was the first big trip I’d ever been on. It was crazy, I never thought I’d be going to Iowa to snowboard.
How did that first trip go? It’s a big step to go from riding a resort with your homies to filming a video part in the streets or the backcountry.
It went well. I was super nervous the first week riding with Rav and Johnny, these two pros that I’ve looked up to forever. I was shoveling as hard as I can, literally just jumping on any spot to get a clip. It was a crazy couple of weeks. I think about those couple weeks a lot. I wasn’t sure if that was going to be the only trip I would get to go on. But after we got back, Rav told Dangler that they needed me with them for the rest of the year.
Fast forward to the next fall when that video came out. You were surprised with having earned yourself the opening segment of Paper Tiger. How did it feel being at the premiere and seeing your name come up on the screen?
It was pretty surreal. It’s kind of nerve-wracking for me in these situations, like being in front of a bunch of people. I’m pretty shy. So, seeing my name on the big screen and having all these people be at the premiere is pretty crazy, but it’s also the sickest at the same time.
You’re not known for your big, outgoing personality. But when you’re strapped into your snowboard, your style is loud. Do you think that snowboarding has played a part in being able to break out of your shell personality-wise?
I think so. When I’m around a lot of people, even snowboarding is a little tough sometimes. It’s easy to get nervous in situations when all the eyes are on you. It used to be that snowboarding in front of people made me nervous, because I always felt like everyone was just watching me. But then I realized that, realistically, most people probably aren’t paying attention to me, they’re just doing their own thing the same as me. Once I realized that, it really helped me to break out of my shell and start to not take things so seriously and just have fun. At the end of the day, we’re all just out here to snowboard with our homies. It’s still a little tough for me to go out of my way to introduce myself. I’ve definitely had to work through that a little bit. But snowboarding has helped me open up as a person, for sure.
People who are trying to make a career out of snowboarding tend to move to places that are snowboarding hotbeds. What keeps you in Spokane?
It’s been a good home base to travel to all these different places. I feel like I can get everywhere easily. And I felt like nobody has ever really done it out of Eastern Washington and stayed there. I want to show kids that you can make it out of here and provide some inspiration that way. What’s really important is inspiring the younger generation.
You’re an active part of your community. You put on a rail jam at Mount Spokane?
The park manager at Mount Spokane hit me up and asked if I would want to do an event up there. I was super into the idea. I hit up my sponsors to see if they would support it and they were down. We hosted a rail jam at Mount Spokane and basically made it a trick list on this down-bar. You had to do every single trick and whoever did it first won. It hadn’t snowed all season, then on the day of the event it snowed a foot—classic rail jam situation.
If you want a big snowstorm, plan an event.
It was really cool to see so many people, even in the midst of this snowstorm, show up and hike this down-bar. It felt full circle in a sense, growing up as a kid going to contests or seeing people that you look up to paving the way and now, it does feel really cool to inspire people and try and be that guy that people look up to in that area.
You’re also skating there in the summer, with a pro model [on Spokane brand The Space Program], and I heard you’re sort of a problem on the golf course?
I’ve been really into golf the last few years. I’ve always golfed because of my dad and when I hurt my knee a few years ago and couldn’t skate at all I got super into it. When I’m home, I’m just trying to golf most of the time. I got a job at a golf course this summer, washing carts, doing whatever, so I can play for free. Golf is a lot like skateboarding, except it doesn’t wreck your body. It’s the same mindset—it’s super technical and you try something over and over, and when it finally clicks, it’s like you just got your clip.
Do you have aspirations to enter some amateur golf competitions?
I’ve definitely thought about it. Not right now, but if I could get really good, I think it would be pretty sick to do that. Maybe when snowboarding is wrapped up. It’ll always be there. I’ll probably be a good golfer when I’m 50.
Has going pro as a snowboarder felt like validation for all the work you’ve put into it?
It’s a pretty crazy feeling. It shows that all the work that I’ve put in over the years really has paid off, but at the same time, it feels like nothing’s really changed either. Growing up you think there’s gonna be this moment, but at the end of the day, it’s just a label. I’m lucky to be where I’m at right now.
We’re still out here chasing the dragon.
My level of motivation is still the same. I just love snowboarding, and I love all the people and places we get to travel to. And I want to keep doing that, for the love of it. It’s surreal, the life we get to experience.
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