“During this sunset shoot at Boreal, CA, Irie and I marveled at this cool rainbow that was being reflected in the clouds. As he was trying handplants, I lined him up with the rainbow. He was excited that I got it in there.” Photo: Mike Yoshida Irie’s video clips became standouts, sponsorships rolled in, and his presence at events grew. In 2022 Irie was kicking it with filmer Luis Medearis who informed Irie about The North Face’s Athlete Development Program. The program offers athletes a two-year contract for the funding, gear and mentorship they require to re-alize their potential. Despite Lu seeing the fit, initially Irie had a hard time viewing himself as a good candidate for the program. “We all have our own mental battles with feeling confident in our own shoes,” he says. Nevertheless, Lu pushed for him to apply. “So, I did,” Irie says. “Then a few months go by, and I get an email say-ing I was one of the finalists. I was like, ‘Whoa, what the heck?’ Next thing you know, I was at Mt. Hood [OR] hiding from the wind behind some rocks on the phone with Erik Leon and the rest of the headquarters at The North Face. It was a perfect moment.” Soon after joining The North Face’s Athlete Development Pro-gram, Irie received an invitation to Low Maintenance, an event hosted by Estelle Pensiero at Baldface Lodge, BC. The premise of the event was to have 12 established pros each invite an amateur of their choosing and create a space for them to pass on knowl-edge on riding the backcountry as well as how to navigate life as a professional snowboarder. The gathering gave Irie the chance to ride Baldface’s iconic tenure alongside other up-and-coming tal-ent including Estelle, Cannon Cummins and Brayden Charette, and veteran mentors like Jamie Lynn, Curtis Ciszek and Austin Smith. Austin was the pro who invited Irie to Low Maintenance, and he was impressed by his protégé’s adaptability in powder. “He’s like an onion,” Austin says. “The more layers you pull back, the more interesting he gets. His snowboarding is like an onion, too. I thought he was more of a rail kid and would be a little out of his element at Baldface, but he excelled. Everything he wanted to ride and the tricks he wanted to do were not the obvious ones, which is really refreshing. He’s got his own juice coming out of his brain. He’s going to contribute a new approach to snowboard-ing in the streets and backcountry. Big mountain Irie is going to be a force to be reckoned with.” Indeed, Irie is continually progressing, expanding his network, his knowledge, and more. He’s also received support for his upcom-ing video project, Interspace . Exhibiting a cool, humble head, Irie is staying realistic about his current trajectory, but nevertheless striv-ing to make the absolute most of his already impactful presence. “I’m not going to the X Games to throw down with Sparky [Mark McMorris], that would be outrageous,” Irie says with a laugh. “I’m learning how to cultivate things for the culture and the community that I’m in, and how to give back. A major key to the [Athlete Development] program is about doing stuff that’s bigger than yourself. I’m trying to figure out how to reduce the barrier to entry for snowboarding, because to be honest I’ve had very random and ‘right place, right time’ circumstances with snowboarding that’s allowed me to do it, especially at the level I’m doing it now. It’s generally a hard sport to get into if you don’t have a well-off family to support you. I want to be able to cater experiences for people in lower income brackets, because most of society can’t partake, or don’t find these opportunities in their life. I couldn’t imagine what my life would be without skateboarding or snowboarding. And, so, I want to help people find it. I want everybody to tap into their deepest, truest forms of themselves and chase their wildest dreams, because you never know what could happen.” Austin may have put it best when he wrote in an Instagram post that Irie “might be the most interesting man in snowboarding.” At 25 he’s already lived in several contrasting countries, speaks multiple languages, and continually adapts to new environments as smoothly as he transitions diverse terrain in the mountains. His story continues to unfold in ways that affirm the feeling he’s found his home with the snowboarding community. Recently, it led him to meeting Ahmon Stamps, a retired Northwest shredder who used to roll with Salomon and Grenade Gloves. It turns out that Ahmon is his Irie’s second uncle removed. More serendipi-tous proof that Irie’s family was here all along, simply waiting for him to show up. “It’s wild,” Irie says. “The universe is wild… It’s been so per-fectly strange.” 042 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 21.3: Page 42
