Original Interview done by YoBeat.com.

Boring question number one: when did you start snowboarding?

I started snowboarding with my pal Emmet Klocker around 1988 when we were 12. We needed something to do in the winter when we couldn’t skate his mini ramp.

Severe alcoholics often speak of a moment of clarity when they become conscious of the fact they are worthless shitbags – did you experience a similar moment when you realized that you probably weren’t going to be a professional snowboarder?

Yeah, in 1996 when I met you, Ben and a bottle of whiskey at Nationals in Telluride Colorado. Right then and there I realized that I’d rather travel, film and party with my bros than be a stunt man.

It seems that being a film producer has the potential to woo just as many if not more women than a pro shred. A professional’s skill will digress with age, whereas a filmmaker’s progresses with maturity – like Martin Scorsese.

I don’t think I scored too many scurvies because I make movies. Midwest chicks don’t really care. As far as progressing with maturity, I have a girl now, so the future of wooing woman is not too bright.

Ten years of Poaching

What number video does Poachers X make for you?

This will be our 10th production & our 7th distributed project.

Your films are a bit more polished than most crew flicks – what’s advice do you have for someone just starting out?

Make each edit better than the last – have it in your mind before you film it. Keep it interesting, try different angles, work with the riders and have fun. Our editor Brian Dow makes TV shows and really knows his shit. I would advise editors to work with people better than them and just learn from the process. Any editor, filmer or rider that thinks their shit doesn’t stink will never get any better.

Obviously, there’s other people behind the scenes at Bald E-Gal Productions because there’s no way you could pull it off yourself – explain your job. What would you say you do there?

For sure, there are many involved. I enjoy working with people -filmers, artists and riders that are better than me. I try to put a group of riders that rip from cool local shops, coordinate filmers that want to make videography their career, and graphic artists that create visual beauty. Like this year I worked with Sam Fenton & Sam Larson on the filming end, Rhea & Dawn on the graphics, and Dow & Turk on the postproduction. Those guys kill it! Every year is a little bit different… Anthony Cappetta was a big part of our early releases and a bunch of homies have contributed over the years. I would say that I try to help people that are talented succeed.

Minnesotans as well as other small-resort types have been breaking through into the mainstream media over the past few years – why do you think that is?

Places like the Midwest, East Coast and Finland have small hills, cold temps, and tow ropes. If you get good here, then get the opportunity to travel you rip apart the whole mountain. Way more people live in places with crappy snow than epic mountains. Kids can relate to their riding and personality more than say a big mountain rider that rips shit in most places where your average kid will never get to go. Also having videographers like Justin Turkowski, Anthony Cappetta and Riley Erickson filming over the years has helped set the bar pretty high.

Mike and Mr. Zac Marben

What are the three gnarliest things you’ve ever seen go down while filming one of your guys?

Each year I see something really gnarly, but then it gets out done the following season. That’s just progression I guess. Guys that have really impressed me over the years would be Joe Sexton, Dan Brisse, Jake Olson-Elm, Dirt Ez, Jonas Michilot, Cody Beiersdorf and Ryan Paul. Brisse does gnarly shit every year, every time out though. That dude is a robot.

What are your thoughts on seeing things change from VHS to DVD and then on to video networks like YouTube and Vimeo?

VHS to DVD was dope. We could add bonus chapters – no more be “kind & rewind”. Video networks like Youtube and Vimeo are cool too in that it allows them to reach people that wouldn’t normally reach. Like I said I’m not trying to make a living off this, just trying to get the riders footage out there. Personally, I like having the actual DVD to watch at home and being able to geek out on the cool artwork [of the case].

When the DVD is dead will you quit producing or continue wasting time and money making films?

I love wasting time. We never got paid for the Smorgasbord & Trees Please titles. We made and distributed 40,000 copies of Tiller – that went out with a Japan mag called SNOWstyle in exchange for a free ad. I have never made a cent off this and never really intended to. All the sponsorship dollars and proceeds go to the filmer’s budget. Justin Turkowski, Brian Dow and myself just do this for fun.

What keeps you motivated to still make films in a time when a person’s footage is gutted, chopped and strung around online?

I am stoked on helping my friends out and working with creative people. I think viewership is the most important, no matter how it is viewed. For the riders and their sponsors, viewership and exposure is everything.

Snow bunnies!

What other filmmakers do you look up to?

I really like movies from Pierre’s Minhondo (People & Neoproto), Justin Hostynek (Absinthe films) Pirate Movie Productions and Justin Meyers (Videograss). In the Midwest the Porter brothers and Riley Erickson do the coolest shit. When I was a kid, I could not get enough of Whitey McConnaghy’s videos & the Robot Food videos were rad. A video call “Flying Circus” is were it all started for me loving snowboarding videos.

Best video to come out last year? What are you most looking forward to seeing this year?

Holy shit, I work at a shop and we geek out daily. Last year, I thought the People video was the best flick, but there were a lot of good ones. I’m looking forward to Nowhere (Absinthe Films) In Color (Transworld) Videograss, & House of 1817. Our shop dudes Brisse and Olson-Elm are in the first two, so I’m the most hyped to see those flicks. Team videos kinda blow, but that’s just me.

If a man sends you multiple pictures of the fish he’s caught, you post multiple pictures of the fish he’s caught

I’m only giving you four thank yous here so who’s it going to be?

I would like to thank my family, friends, the shops, and everyone that has contributed – much love.

I’ll give you a bonus for grandma because I know you visit her stinky and hungover the morning following the first premiere. You got any good jokes?

Your mom is so UGLY, it looks like her face caught fire and your family put it out with a fork.

For more from Mike check out baldegal.com and be sure to stop by the Youth Shelter if you find yourself in Minnesota.

5 Gallons of Freedom-Twin Cities from Jason Berry on Vimeo.

The Minnesota Winners Video

The Series Final Competition

Familia, one of the best Twin Cities skateshops, was recently interviewed by Frank151.  They chose to interview Familia’s founder Tucker Gerrick. Some great questions were raised about where the business is going and how it was started.  Familia is always deeply involved in the Minnesota skate scene, so swing by their shop sometime and show them some support.  Click the link below to see the full interview or hop on over to Frank151 to read the original.

Original Interview by Frank151

Frank151: Tell us about the history of your store.
Familia: The few of us that came in the shop were kinda all related to various other Minneapolis/St Paul skateboarding something-or-others. Adam Bojee is a rep, Nesser is a pro. He used to ride for a shop called Fobia which was out here for 11 years and me, I used to run Fobia. Fobia had gone out of business so we’d sort of all been doing our own thing for a while, and it kinda felt like there was a need to do something else and bring something good/positive to the skate scene. ’Cause noone else had picked up the reins since Fobia had gone and they even had three locations. So I kinda just pitched the idea around for a while and frankly, tried to talk myself out of it. ’Cause you know skate shops don’t make money, most of the time, and they are a lot of work. It’s just a handful of dudes going grey before their years, working around the clock. So we said, “Hey, let’s go do this thing in St Paul,” ’cause there’s been shops in Minneapolis before and St Paul, is like, for those who don’t know, that’s the capital just across from Mississippi. So yeah we opened in March of ’06 in St Paul and, shit was good but we had to move a year ago. Just ’cause things changed, you know, the traffic flow changes, areas get older, less cool and whatever. So we moved up over to uptown Minneapolis which is just kinda like a retail zone and which has just been a lot, lot better. Full redesign of the store, kind of a little more aggressive branding, with our own product all over the place. Kinda a nice little fresh start after three years. It wasn’t easy or cheap, but it was definitely needed and, I think, well-received.

F151: Were there any other shops that inspired you?
F: Truthfully, I’ve tried to make the shop not be like a skateboard shop. Because, I mean skateboards kinda sell themselves, I mean there’s lots of color, graphics, shit that changes all the time so that kind of stuff sells itself and it’s pretty easy to know, “oh, these guys sell skateboards”, but that kinda atmosphere, those shops always made me nervous. You know, you walk in and you’re bombarded, there’s videos, there’s all this music, there’s posters and graphics and especially with how kids are going with like attention spans and stuff, it’s like, “How do you focus?” You know like I walk into a mall and I feel really anxious. So with Familia we were like, “Let’s tone it back, let’s just let the product speak for themselves and make it like really hands-on, let’s make things real self-service.” We took that even further with the new store, people walk in and they’re like, “This looks like a gallery!”, or, “This looks like it belongs in another city,” which I take as a compliment. I mean there’s a lot of people that don’t get it either, they’re like, “Well, you guys should have more stuff…”, even though that’s not the point. Here’s the stuff that we really back, hopefully you back it too, and hopefully the presentation is forthright enough for you to understand that.

F151: How would you describe the design of your store? What was the inspiration behind it and what type of environment are you trying to create?
F: We’ve created an environment where, when you’re in there, you’re calm, first and foremost and the products speak for themselves. They’re pushing themselves. If you’ve got a good layout, you don’t need salesmen trying to get you excited, like, “Hey check this out!” Hopefully if you lay things out in the appropriate order and fashion, they tell the story for you, they do the talking. So yeah, I mean, specifically too, looking at skateboarding in general, young folk come in all the time, but they’re not spending their money, they’re spending their parents’ money. So if a mom’s gonna come in, she’s gotta be like, “Ah, so nice to sit down here and…” Yeah I mean we might still be bumpin’ some GZA or something, but she’s not inundated with all this stimuli, ’cause parents usually come in with their kids after work, and they’re exhausted, and they’ve got to go home and let the dogs out and cook and whatever, do that whole routine, so, this is just a stop along their day. So, we’re trying to make it mellow. And still like interesting enough for kids so we’re not like the freegan shop listening to Morrissey or something. ‘Cause that happens too. That definitely happens.

F151: How did you decide on your location? How important has the location been?
F: It’s like 100/1 the people that walk in now. I mean, the rent’s way higher but I’m sure that’s going to pay out, long-term. Just seeing people, it’s 100/1. Ridiculous.

F151: What brands do you carry, and which are your top sellers?
F: In footwear, which is our number one category, we do Nike SB, Converse, Gravis For Skate, Vans, Ipath, DVS, Lakai. adidas. We’ll be doing HUF footwear when it launches. As far as apparel, we do HUF, The Quiet Life, Elwood, Maddox, Fourstar, Control. Of course Nike SB is really pushing into other apparel categories and it’s going to be like ten times bigger than what it was a year ago. And it’s doing really great pieces. We’re always on board for what they do. Of course we’re doing slowly more and more our own apparel, taking care of that. And it’s not on the books yet but I think we’re bringing in two new brands that people will recognise so… Hardgoods, we do, we kill it with anything deluxe, so Krook3d, Real, Anti Hero, aNYthing, Girl, Chocolate. And frankly, fighting for that number three spot is definitely Familia boards. We have a really great artist named Tom Bratrud, who everyone in the industry is familiar with, and he does all of our artwork: soft goods, hard goods, and we do some pretty kick-ass series every year. We sell the living shit out of that board.

F151: What brands or specific products are you excited about for Spring / Summer 2010?
F: Ah well you know we’re a Jansport dealer now, so I’m waiting for my first shipment of that. That’s kinda exciting to have an American heritage brand that’s not necessarily skateboarding. Every skate kid when they’re in their early teen years – if you’re like from my generation that was before skate backpacks – everyone had a Jansport backpack and they threw patches on it, so I’m super excited about doing Jansport. The HUF apparel by far is some of the best stuff out there and it’s got more integrity than some of the brands that have been around twice as long. The big surprise in footwear from at least the brands that we’re carrying already, is that Ipath finally moved their production to the Timberland factory as of late spring. Timberland bought them like three or four years ago and finally the production’s ended up in their factory so the stuff is like night-and-day better. Which makes it easier for us to back it harder. So from here on out it just gets way better. I mean that’s a brand that’s kinda like going up-and-down and up-and-down in interest but we always wanna try and have things for like different types of guys. It doesn’t have to be like, always the hype shoe you know, we wanna keep things diverse.

F151: Are there any trends in fashion that you’re excited about, both for Spring / Summer 2010 and beyond?
F: I’m excited that men get to look like men again. I shouldn’t say “get to”, ’cause there’s always been that choice, but like dudes are finally catching on like, “Hey, maybe I should look my age, or maybe my shit doesn’t have to be glowing…” It’s a good reaction to all the hype, all-over prints and all the crazy, “sneakers from the future” of ’03 to ’07, all that stuff had to get simpler again. I expected that with footwear but it took me a little bit by surprise that men’s fashion has gone back to the classic and utilitarian ways because that’s the way I’ve always dressed, to a degree. It’s easy for clueless men, to discern, and accept classic stuff like that. So I can tell a 17-year-old kid, “Yo man, you need this Oxford because when you’re 27, you’ll still have it.” They may not always understand the price point and that’s where salesmanship comes in, but we’re in a period of time where classic, men’s pieces are permeating skateboarding and other little outlets and it’s going to be easier to sell that category to all different kinds of people. So I’m pumped about that, I’m excited for it to go hopefully a little bit further. Not that we’re all going to be wearing J.Crew Ludlow suits but, having some buttons in the closet doesn’t hurt, you know.

F151: How has social networking (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) affected retail for your store and retail in general?
F: Ohmygod! Seriously I need .33 more of me simply for all that stuff. It has taken over so much more of my job. It’s just like, “Oh well, these new shoes came in,” and if we want to stay top-of-mind for the kids I need to like, shoot photos of it, edit it so it looks nice, then put it in some sort of format so I can email it to people, and of course we have Facebook, Twitter and a blog… I mean, I’ve made efforts in the past three months to sort of streamline that, because you know MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, blog, email blast, website, that’s six. So I took the blog and put it into the website so that’s two birds with one stone. Then I got this email-blast thing where I can include Facebook and Twitter as one thing, and I scrapped MySpace. So I took it from having six separate things to doing two for five. So that saves me a lot of time. But it’s absolutely, essential. It makes me sad, and on a personal level, it’s too much for me and I don’t follow shit like that. I’m kind of seeing there’s going to be a little bit of backlash. People are going to get too inundated with this sort of digital stimuli. I guess we sort of sense it coming but not anytime soon and not that it’s going to be like super aggressive but definitely people are going to be a little more tactful in what they send and how they send it and actually have relevant content. Everybody knows you don’t go to websites that don’t get updated, but a lot of people are just putting shit up to put shit up. I guess they figure ’cause everybody’s got RSS feed they’re going to be like, “Oh, new shit!” But I just feel like if everyone sat down for a second and talked about it and said maybe, “Hey, let’s just do the good shit.” I don’t know. I’m all over the place on that one. It’s good, it’s just time consuming. Just add 17 sighs in parentheses for me.

F151: What about ecommerce? What effect has online sales had on your store and on the broader retail industry?
F: It’s a burden for sure. Say if we had a far, far larger private collection. Or, if we were really suited space-wise and financially to be like… like when I ordered the Eric Koston deck instead of ordering one or two for the wall, I’m going to order 1 or 2 dozen. You really gotta be like structurally set up to make the web work, and where we’re at, and where I think other little shops are at, you’ve got to have dedicated staff, dedicated space. So we’re not really there yet, we’ve just been dabbling the last few years. We’ve got a real basic web store and I update it with just the stuff that I think is going to be relevant. That’s okay, and our previous incarnation of the webstore was super costly and never really paid for itself but that’s definitely something we want to do, but for us it’s the experience. It’s like, Juri and I, who are in the store day after day, we want to be the faces of the shop, we want Steve to be the face on a global scale or a national scale, and we really want that experience and that’s why we put so much work into the aesthetic. And the vibe. I mean, even the smell is like a brand new place. We want people to be in there because that’s like important to the Familia experience. So, web will never be where we go but it’ll definitely be something that we do.

As for the huge online retailers, their buying power is out of this world. And they’ve got some empty warehouse, and you know they pay somebody who’s really smart, really crafty to set up a website that hopefully integrates with some inventory management and then they’ve got just a handful of people to deal with calls or problems, they don’t have to have like hourly staff — even though half that stuff is automated — but you got to pay to play on that front and for us I guess that’s not really the focus.

F151: What future plans for your store do you have that you’d like to share?
F: First and foremost is to expand the private label stuff. ’Cause what we’re finding is that what we do locally, and what Steve does, even on his trips out of town, the image that we’ve created about all of us, our guys, this shop, that’s become a lot more relevant right now. For a lot of these teens – unless you’re Sean Malto, or Eric Koston or Dennis Busenitz – it’s just like there’s too much information, there’s too much media, they might read hype like you’ve never heard before on RVCA about some kid from who-knows-where, but in two weeks, nobody gives two shits, so that’s a by-product of how everything’s been sped up by media. So what we can create, on a local level, both in terms of what happens in the shop, the products that we put our names on, or the events that we put on in the local area and the partnerships that we create, that’s having a larger impact on sales, at least with hard goods. And in some cases with soft goods too. That stuff’s impacting kids more. I mean we have kids coming in like, “I want this new, fresh-ass, Familia tee, or Familia hoody.” Or they’re like, “When are you guys gonna do new hats or when’s your new season boards coming out,” besides those two distributions of our brand that I mentioned already, no one’s coming for like the P-Rod deck, or I don’t even know who else. No one’s coming in like, real specific like, “I need this board, or else I’m walking out the store.” But people are like, “WHEN is this new Familia pack coming out,” so, at least regionally, we’re more relevant than these national brands. So we’re not trying to change that but stay in tune with that, it’s obviously going to ebb and flow. But also, not only are the margins better, it’s something that’s tangible for the kids to see and believe in and to associate with, you know. If Steve Nesser and Rick Pratt are killing it, those two are still sponsored so they do have a national coverage, but these kids can be like, “Oh I saw them at Lake Owen, skate camp, I’m gonna come in and buy that dude’s board.” And I’m sure that happens everywhere, I’m just trying to figure out this whole national versus regional, like completely local product flow. So that’s the first thing, is to kind of get in on that stuff. I also would like to associate or partner with  – and I don’t just mean collabo – but just really do some like, big, fun projects with like brands and people and groups that we like, and we’ve kind of taken in what they do as inspiration for the band and the shop, and of course there’s always talk of store number 2 but I’d like to get store number one on autopilot first.

F151: What Scion promotional items have been the most popular with your staff and with customers?
F: The CDs, the mixes are the most well-received. I usually give them away at various events.

F151: Do you have a favorite Scion music compilation? Did any of the compilations make it into your store’s music rotation?
F: The one that stands out, I think you guys had a guy from Moon Goons, he’s a DJ, his name is Josh Clancy, he’s a local guy he did a design for us not too long ago. That guy’s ill for design work.

F151: Can you explain the cult following for Scion socks?
F: The socks were tight! A bunch of those ended up going home with me though, haha. Maybe the cult following would be huger if I didn’t take so many home.

That one day holiday for skateboarders is today if you didn’t already know. So get on the board and go celebrate Go Skateboard Day however you choose to. There are several shops and skateparks which will help you enjoy the holiday to it’s fullest. One of the best deals of the day is at 3rd Lair Skatepark in Golden Valley where they are offering free admission all day long. Also, if you are in Duluth, be sure to check out Damage Boardshop’s festivities which you can find more details about in our Events section. Have a great day skating!

Minnesota video production company Bald E-Gal Productions is currently on a summer time trip in Montana. They brought along a good crew of riders including Austin Young, Ryan Paul, Will Bateman, Cody Beiersdorf, and Jonas Michilot. In case you didn’t know, the place to go in Montana during the summertime is Beartooth Pass.  The area is open typically from late April until early July and features 2 high speed poma lifts.  I’m sure we will be seeing some good footage in the fall from the Bald E-Gal crew.  As we wait, you can check out the blog post that Snowboard-Mag wrote about the adventure by clicking the link below or checking it out on their site.

Full Story is From Snowboard-Mag.com

Words: Matty V.

Kids from Minnesota love Sailor Jerry’s, porn, and a bunch of other weird crap. They like buying knives, they smell like shit, and they have retarded amounts of energy. Whenever I tell someone that lives in the mountains that I’m from Minnesota they get all crusty and tell me about how superior they are because they grew up in the mountains and they ride the sickest powder lines ever, and that riding rails isn’t really snowboarding. Then I tell them that I would be happy to take them to the top of a triple kink and see how ill they really are, and remind them that Guch hit rails, this is when they usually sulk off into the distance.

R: Cody Beiersdorf / P: Ryan Paul

Regardless of what your stance is on what is and isn’t snowboarding, the bottom line is that Minnesota has produced some of the best snowboarders in the industry and one film production company has been behind the scenes helping young Mid West riders find their niche and take their talents to a worldwide level. Chad Otterstrom, Erik and Bjorn Leines, Dan Brisse, Zac Marben, Jonas and Jordan Michilot, Ricky Tucker, Joe Sexton, Jake Olson-Elm, Mike Casanova, John Makens, Ryan Paul and pretty much every other Minnesota rider you have ever heard of came up under their wing. Bald E Gal Productions has been sitting outside in the cold pointing their cameras at Mid West snowboarders for 10 years now.

R: Austin Young / P: Ryan Paul

Every summer since the inception of Bald E Gal the boys from the frozen tundra load up their vehicles and head deep into the Montana/Wyoming wilderness to Beartooth pass, aka Top of The World. While you sit around the pool and bronze like a Jersey Shore cast member, these dudes are getting raw at 10,000 feet where it’s still winter, and the threat of being raped by a bear is a constant danger. This year Bald E Gal’s mastermind Mike Thienes called me up and asked me to tag along, I accepted the invite and the madness began.

R: Will Bateman / P: Ryan Paul

First off Billings Montana looks like a bad episode of Cops, and you can bet that smoking Meth is a socially accepted past time in this town. As I sat at the airport waiting for my boys to pick me up I realized one thing, Montana is still the Wild West, at least compared to most over populated metropolitan areas. Airport security even let a guy bring a bullwhip on the plane home.

R: Cody Beiersdorf / P: Ryan Paul

Once scooped we began the journey to Cooke City, Montana, no cell service and nothing but gas station food and shredding for the next five days. The first day the pass was closed and we quickly realized we weren’t at summer camp, there was not going to be any riding in tank tops and fraternizing with attractive rich girls on this trip. We spent the majority of our first day hiking and setting up some potential spots while waiting for the rest of our crew to show up. We found some epic shit and the young bucks set up a jump to rock ride landing, let the sketchiness begin.

R: Jonas Michilot / P: Pete Harvieux

The rest of the crew showed up and instead of hiking up to where we had built some features they decided to sit around the car set up a weird pole jam type thing and start drinking. Most of these dudes have spent the whole winter breaking themselves off filming for their video parts, and the tone of the trip was quickly set, yes we were going to get some shots, but this trip is really about having a blast with your homies.

That’s the secret to the Minnesota snowboard scene, it’s a tight group of friends who would rather have fun being creative and laugh at each other than try to kill themselves a la Evil Knievel every time they strap in. Don’t get me wrong they step to gnarly shit all winter, but they also live by one simple rule; if you ain’t having fun then what’s the point?

R: Shane Ruprecht / P: Pete Harvieux

As I awoke on the second day I found a number of bodies passed out in the middle of our hotel hallway, amongst foul smelling boots, discarded beer cans, and rotting food. By the end of day two we would have one rider missing his front teeth, a botched medical procedure on a large head cyst, and enough memories to guarantee that I will be making the journey next year.

Minnesota legend Bjorn Leines was recently interviewed by Transworld. As always Bjorn had a few mentions of his Minnesota roots and also his plans with the Minnesota Jib Farm. You will definitely be seeing some shots of the Jib Farm in the upcoming Rome movie titled “The Shred Remains!” Look for the movie this fall, but for now check out the Bjorn interview by clicking the read more link below or check it out on Transworld’s Site.

Original Interview by Transworld Snowboarding.

Name: Bjorn Leines
Age: 33
Hometown: SLC, UT and Big Lake, MN
Home Mountain: Snowbird and Brighton
Currently Riding: Sleds
Sponsors: Rome SDS, Volcom, Celtek, Smith Optics, Power Balance, IPath

What up, Bjorn? How are you feeling?
Great. Just made a long journey from Utah to Minnesota to spend the summer

We’ve heard about your recent injury – the damage from hitting Pyramid Gap with Dan Brisse. What happened to you?
To keep it real simple – I went too slow! We had a fun session the day before, and decided to go back and get some more tricks the next day. It was pretty warm, so we were using salt to get the runway consistent. Dan went first and cleared it no problem. I think it was about 10 minutes before I was dropping in, and the snow was slightly sticky… Since I was going switch, I was also not going fast enough. At the lip, I thought everything was fine so I spun my trick. When I came around, I landed right at the top or peak of the landing, where it was flat. I tried to stomp it, but ended up getting my left arm sandwiched between my leg and chest, which led to a double compound fracture, a sprained ankle and two sprained knees. A few days later I had surgery, and now have two plates and a dozen screws in my elbow. Good times!

Pyramid Gap – can you describe the set-up? How did everything come about to hitting that monster with Brisse?
We wanted to get some good tricks; we needed a big jump! After a couple days of building, we were ready to send it. Dan is motivated; we both just wanted to get some good moves over the Gap.

What’s going through your head when you’re dropping at 50-some mph, looking at 100 feet of nothing below? How the hell do you send it switch??
Well… Usually what’s going through my head is visualizing the full trick before dropping. Once you’re on the runway, I just try to concentrate on being calm and smooth. It takes a lot of commitment and belief in yourself and your ability. As far as going switch, Dan and I both had the same trick in mind! I had to pick a different one-going switch wasn’t my first choice!

What went down at the session? Anything misty the people should know about?
Check out the new Absinthe film, “Nowhere” and see…! A backside 180 and a switch cork 720 went down… and…

Prior to getting hurt, how had your season been? Where’d you travel, who were your filming with this year, etc?
The season was going well. I had spent a lot of time at Brighton, UT, with the likes of Dan [Brisse], Cale Zima, Jules Raymond and JP Solberg. I also had a couple sweet trips to Canada with Lucas Debari and Jake Blauvelt.

How are you dealing with all the late-season snow, and not being able to get out there? How do you guys stay motivated when things get down for a bit?
It’s been tough! Dumping in Utah-STILL! So, that’s hard for me, but I’m just staying motivated through learning a few new things. I’ve been reading a book about Autogenics, for example. Basically, it’s all about training your mind so you can relax your body-it helps a lot for healing. The downtime has also allowed me to get more involved with Celtek, and I’ve been working hard with Rome on some new products.

Looking back a few years, do you ever reflect on being a member of the original Forum 8? A lot of people out there still see you guys as maybe the best snowboard team of all-time.
Sometimes I do think about it. That was a really unique era for snowboarding, and to be part of, for sure. The team was just really talented and always motivated to get gnarly. Shredding in the backcountry with guys like Devun [Walsh] and Duff [Chris Dufficy], and then riding the streets with JP [Walker] and Jeremy [Jones] helped elevate my riding, for sure-lots of fun memories.

How often do you stay in touch or ride with those guys?
I stay in touch with Devun probably the most, but don’t to get to ride with him since we’re all working on different projects. I see Peter [Line] around-Wille [Yli-Luoma], too-but [Joni] Malmi I probably see the least. Duff is the man-I wish I saw him around more often. JP and Jer live in SLC, but I don’t ever get to chill with ‘em.

We’ve seen a bunch of photos and vids from the Jib Farm. I was hoping you could explain a bit about what you have going on out there?
The Jib Farm is a shred spot here in Minnesota where we had to take things into our own hands. My Dad and Grandpa let us build it, using years of leftover pipeline construction materials. It’s kind of a way for me to get through the summer-building it and dreaming of the shred. This fall, we’re gonna get after some sessions with the Celtek and Rome teams.

I wanted to give you the chance to share a bit about Erik, yourself and Celtek- how it all began, where you are now, what it means to you today?
Celtek began from the desire to build a better snowboarding product; we wanted to bring our knowledge of gear to a higher level. It’s allowed us to create an umbrella-a way to provide for our friends and family. We both learned early in our careers that most snowboard companies don’t take care of their riders for long. Celtek is the expression of true passion and understanding of the shred, from people that love to ride boards-snow, skate or surf! Our goal is to create the best products in snowboarding and offer unique designs that express the lifestyle we all live as shredders!

Couple quick ones… Pay yourself photo incentives, etc from Celtek?
Ha Nope! No photo incentives-all for the passion.

Do you get a royalty check every time “Out Cold” plays on TV? Does Todd Richards?
Yeah, right! Never saw a dime from that… I’m not sure about TR, though…

Last thing. Summer’s here and you’re on the mend. What are your plans for the time off?
Get stronger, and then head down to Chile in August to ride with the Rome team. We’re starting a Rome film project called The Shred Remains! Otherwise, just ride my dirtbike, skate the mini, and hang with my family.

The guys over at SeekJoy Productions recently put out a teaser for their video “Rookie Status.”  By the look of the teaser, this will be a good video to check out in the fall.  The editing skills at SeekJoy just keep improving with each segment that we watch!  The video will feature many different Minnesota riders including Aaron Becker, Josh Tranby, Colton Maddy, Jordan Daniels, Alex Miller, Tony Young, Chaz Chaffee, Shane Hoschette, and Jesse Paul.  Check out the teaser for the video by clicking the “read more” link below or the image above.