A storm day booter, and a backside rodeo with a bit of Canadian bacon outside of Truckee, CA. Hans is always down to put up a jump and add his own flair, even on a storm day. Photo: Sean Kerrick Sullivan HANS AND NILS were 7 and 5 years old when their parents moved them and their younger sister, Wynter, from Red Bank, NJ to Stowe, VT. In contrast to what one might assume about a family living close to Stowe Mountain Resort, the Mindnichs were not wealthy. Their dad, Carl, had been running a successful fiberglass company in New Jersey, but revamping it in Vermont didn’t take. Carl worked various jobs while their mom, Alison, took a retail position in the gift shop at the resort, which earned the boys their tickets to ride. “The lift tickets provided a daycare of sorts,” Nils says. “Hans and I would go into work with her on the weekends and just ride all day.” Around that time Burton was developing a new line of children’s boards, and renowned designer John “JG” Gerndt, who happened to be Carl’s roommate in college, gave boards to the brothers. Within a few seasons they were competing regularly in regional and USASA events, and by elementary school they’d become standouts in junior events on the East Coast. “Racing, slopestyle, halfpipe and rail jams,” Hans says. “From a very young age I was competing a lot.” By the time they were 10 and 12 years old, they were contracted rid-ers for Burton, and joined the Red Bull team soon after. “We always loved riding and being together, but we didn’t want to be perceived as a package,” Hans says. “We wanted to be seen as two different people, and two different snowboarders. One time we were at a Burton Junior Jam and our friends asked someone on the lift who they thought was going to win. The kid said, ‘I think Hansnils is going to win’—he actually thought we were one person. That speaks a lot to how we were being presented.” The endorsements created an interesting dynamic at home. “At 12 years old, I remember having snowboard money go toward paying a phone bill, and other things like that,” Nils says. “When I was 14, I started making more money than my parents did. They always did their best to never have us stress about those things, but looking back on it, I feel like we were living in this house of cards that could collapse at any moment.” Hans believes their frugal upbringing instilled a strong work ethic in the siblings. “I know my mom is still in debt and a lot of that came from taking us to competitions every weekend,” he says. “So trying to help out with all that is the least we can do. I think that’s part of the reason why both of us were nose-to-the-grindstone from a pretty early age—like, all right snowboarding is pretty good, but we also knew it wasn’t the most stable ground that we were on.” By their early teens the brothers transitioned from USASA to Grand Prix events and the US Open, even traveling across the Atlan-tic. “The first time we went to the European Open, I had to lie on Nils’ behalf,” Hans says. “He was 13 or 14 and technically should’ve had a chaperone, and I wasn’t old enough to be eligible. But we went anyway and had to work out this bus schedule, and Nils was a key player in figuring that out. Our mom tried breaking it all down for us before we went, but looking back it was actually pretty heavy for full-fledged under-agers.” In 2009, Hans and Nils moved to Utah to attend the Park City Snowboard Academy and further their riding careers. Neither enjoyed the academy, prompting Hans to return to Vermont and Nils to enroll at a different school in Park City. To make matters worse, in 2012 Bur-ton and Red Bull terminated their contracts. Upon his return to Vermont, Hans got his high school diploma and took an entry-level position picking up shingles with Dolan Builders. He quickly rose through the ranks. “I worked with Dolan Builders seasonally for six years,” Hans says. “I liked that it was fast-paced and I learned a lot really quickly. After a few years I was an 18 year old telling 45 year olds what to do on the ground. It was a lot of weight on my shoulders, but that pressure started to sit with me in a nice way. I would go out west during the winter to snowboard and around May I’d drive back to Vermont, work till late October, then gear up and go back out west.” True to form, Hans made the most of those winters. Soon after be-ing let go by his sponsors, he showed up to Snowboarder Magazine’s The Launch at Bear Mountain, CA and landed his first cover shot, followed by another from Superpark. He was picked up by Salomon in 2013 and began filming for the Snowboarder movies, winning the magazine’s Rookie of the Year award in 2015 after his part in SFD . He followed it with a stellar performance in the highly acclaimed Reckless Abandon in 2016. Riding alongside Bode Merrill and other top-level pros, Hans demonstrated tremendous skill in the streets and backcountry, which earned him an invite to film with Absinthe where he’s held his own for the past three seasons. In addition, during the 2019 season Hans won the switch race at the 33rd annual Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom (LBS). Despite the list of accolades, outside of snowboarding Hans is a humble, laid-back dude. He’s quick to roll a spliff and slow to answer his phone, but he’s astute and hard-working when necessary. Hans is an undercover deep-thinker, clever in conversation, decent at math and knows more about carpentry, framing and roofing than many. At just 26 years old, he’s at the top of his snowboard game while concurrently building a successful construction career. 040 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal frequency 17.4: Page 42
