“We were on a New York/Philadelphia skate trip with Space Program Board Co. Vizz back 5-0’d this spot at Pier 35 in lower Manhattan but wanted the backside tailslide. As we were making our way to this spot, he also feeble’d a 10-stair, first try, with security looking through the window.” Photo: Mike Miller 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 Dan-gler 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, realisti-cally, 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 snowboard-ing 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. 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 Mis-sion Ridge filming for FutureMystic (2019), and I ended up film-ing 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] Bran-don 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. AUSTIN VISINTAINER 081
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 22.1: Page 81
