“Cab 540 on one of the few pow days we had at Arlberg, Austria, this past season.” Photo: Sani Alibabic Speaking of people helping you, Clemens has been by your side for a very long time. Tell me about your relationship with him and how big of a role he plays for you—not just in your snowboarding, but in your personal life as well. I’ve known him since I started snowboarding—at first as really good friends that pushed each other and supported each other and later on a personal level with starting to date him. We’ve been through a lot together, through my entire career. It’s always him filming it—put the sound up on my triple, there’s someone screaming in the background, that’s Clemens doing so from his heart, so excited and proud of me. That video is pretty much our relationship. We care and support each other as much as we can. A lot of my success comes with him because I probably wouldn’t have had all these accomplishments in contests or new tricks if I didn’t have people behind me that I trust and that I love. You guys recently had the world premiere for Schnitzel Time: An Austrian Dream , which Clemens directed, filmed, edited and rode in. How was it filming for that project? It was very fun. We had this weird idea that we have a lot of good snowboarders in Austria, so why wouldn’t we do a movie together? It was Werni Stock, Gigi Ruf, Sani Alibabic—who I work with closely—Clemens, Adi [Adrian Krainer] and Tom [Tramnitz]. It was an honor to film with them. I was nervous. I didn’t plan on filming a street part—I don’t know how that happened. The Aus-trian winter was tough. I wanted to film powder, but we didn’t get a lot of snow. Clemens was the mastermind behind the movie and put so much work and love into it, so really was a project from his heart. We didn’t have sponsors in the beginning, so we just wanted to try and see what happens. I’m pretty happy with the outcome. I think the biggest thing with the movie is that other people get excited for snowboarding, and I hope we reached that. I really enjoyed it. Remember when I said we all love the Isenseven movies? There’re no more movies like that anymore with funny intros, so we wanted to bring that back. It’s kind of a throwback. Beyond Medals does that too, and I appreciate the new age projects that pay homage to what was once so big in snowboarding. With filming you don’t get the same instant gratification that you do with contest riding and the big rush of winning and standing on the podium. Do you feel the same level of motivation or is it differ-ent than how you approach contest riding? That’s a hard question because I would need to have a full season of just filming. Now I’m very rushed when I film. I have these two, three-week windows in between comps where I go filming instead of taking a break or training. It’s so hard nowadays with the sched-ule and how high the level of contests is. To take one winter to not compete and just film is still on my list. I think I would enjoy the filming part more because I wouldn’t feel so rushed. The only thing that I don’t enjoy, and it’s not just walking, Spencer, it’s not just hiking and working and building. It’s that I don’t snowboard as much. I love snowboarding so much and I’m so impatient. I can’t even wait for a cameraman to turn on his camera sometimes because I just want to ride, ride, ride, ride, ride. If you know me, you know I’m obsessed. With filming it’s crazy to me how little you get to ride. If you build a backcoun-try jump, you build it for one day and then you have five tries. When I have a park day, I hit the jump like 30 times in one day. When you compare 60 jumps in the park to 5 jumps in the backcountry where I probably fall four of the five times realisti-cally [laughs]…. So filming is very hard but I’m so happy I tried it. I’m excited for the challenge too. I don’t know about my street career continuing, but we’ll see, never say never. I’m more excited to get more experience in the backcountry. Is that what you think you’ll want to do when you’re done competing? I think so. With my progression in the park, I’m getting older, and the tricks are getting crazier, but in the backcountry, I feel like there’s so much to learn and explore and do. It is a very humbling experience to be in the backcountry. If you could go back in time, is there anything you would do differently? I would take better care of my body. I got away with it, but I was lucky; there were moments that could have ruined my career. I really didn’t care at all. I rode through so many injuries. When we give people titles like “most progressive,” “first ever” or “best of the world,” I wonder how these people define themselves. When you look back on your career years from now, how do you hope to be remembered? I don’t think it’s much about what I won. It’s more about being an inspiration and opening the path for the next generation. I hope to be remembered in that way, as someone who could inspire a lot of young girls. Titles are just titles. 080 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 21.4: Page 80
