Age: 34 | Vitals: 5’7”, 155 lbs. | Years riding: 10 | Current Residence: Salt Lake City, Utah
Background
It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, and that is exactly how I came upon snowboarding.
Having grown up on a farm in Eastern South Dakota, there isn’t anything technically considered a mountain closer than six hours from where I was born and raised. The local ski hill was only an hour away, but at 188 vertical feet, it never really provided an attraction.
It was a move from Chicago, Illinois, to Boise, Idaho, brought on by my career in the early 2000s that changed my life. From a cultural standpoint, I felt like there wasn’t much to do. So I went outside, and I stayed there.
Learning how to snowboard as a young adult was incredibly painful, but I was obsessed. I spent my nights under the lights at Bogus Basin, often alone, quickly learning how to carve, then how to jump, getting progressively better over the course of a season. The next year, I began seeing my travel schedule for work as an opportunity to explore riding all over Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, places that I now recognize as some of the best ski terrain in North America.
When the opportunity to move to Salt Lake presented itself in 2006, the promise of amazing terrain and even better snow was too much to resist, and it’s here where I’ve had the chance to chase some of the best skiers and riders in the country. Riding Snowbird, while initially humbling, has been an incredible experience, and has shaped my riding more than anything else. The connections I’ve made here have also lead to snowboard trips in Las Leñas, Argentina, and Japan over the last several years, and those trips will not be the last of their kind.
While I count Snowbird as home, I try to spend a few days a year at the other Cottonwood Canyon resorts and can be found periodically roaming around the backcountry on my splitboard. When I want to make things really interesting, I’ll strap on some skis and meet up with friends at Alta.
When the ground is not covered in snow (and sometimes even when it is) I spend a lot of time running the endless miles of trails around Salt Lake City, and likewise with my mountain bike.
Some Boards I like:
Jones Flagship; Capita Indoor Survival; Capita Photo Fetish
Boards I dislike:
Lib Tech Skate Banana.