AAAAAAWWWW SNAP... a friend of mine told me he spotted this link and i had no idea i was in so deep.
first off, to all of you who spread the love throughout this thread i cant tell you how stoked i am to hear these things. its an amazing feeling to have made an impact on a sport that continues to blow my mind season after season. to know that i had something to do with getting our sport to the level its at today is a humbling concept...
its been a while since ive thrown down the way i used to. as most of you know, (and wrote about in this thread) i havent been in a major comp since the first orage masters... that was the last major event i rode in and that was 7 years ago. i was watcing the x games this year and realized that i havent competed at x since 2002, its been a long time..
and since that time a lot's gone down, i stopped competing to focus on taking siver to the next level and to take my career within skiing in a different direction... which lead to j lev and myslef (j from line... who's been one of my best friends since i was 11 years old) to make the decision that i would ride line for life but once i stopped competing it would be best to let the pro models fade out. from there, siver grew after i joined forces with orage and the truth of the matter is that the two brands began to compete a bit too much after running side by side for a while. in the end, the decision was made to put siver on the back burner and blend a bit of the siver flavor into orage. so far so good.
despite the future of siver it only made sense that i stick with the orage program and i've been there ever since. that was about 4 years ago or so. on the personal side, my wife and i have had 2 boys over the past 4 1/2 years and lifes' gotten busy...
since then my skiing has gone to a different place... im all about shredding the entire hill... i'll lap the park for a few runs, hit a couple rails and then spend some time in the woods... for me its about freeriding and getting my two boys on the hill so we can ski as a family. i wont lie, i still wish i had the comfort level to shred park the way i used to but on the other hand its a rad feeling to get out there for no reason other than to have fun no matter where you are on the hill
i still get out on the hill every chance i get but its crazy how fast you get rusty if you're not shredding daily the way i used to. i bumped into a bunch of my old homies at the mt snow dew tour a few months ago... belanger, couson, woods, larose, mike laroche... we're all still out there but we're all doing things for the industry on different levels. skiing's not just about being able to do the most bad ass tricks anymore, its about getting out and shredding with your friends... it was cool to run in o those guys and hear everyone's side of the story and where there at.
which brings me to the meathead seggie... in vegas this year mike roggie from meat heads came up to me and said he wanted to work with me. it took me all of about two seconds to get stoked and then it took about 2 hours for the rumor mill to kick in... i had dudes like cedric, t hall, jonny d and some others asking me about a comeback segment. so the pressure was on.
but... like i said earlier, life's gotten busy. i told roggie that i'd be down to put some shots on film and more or less check in with people like you all who remember the old days to say whats up with a few shots in a true east coast film. it may take another season to get it done but the meatheads crew and i stay in touch. i have a few things id like to do with them but the reality with having a family, a full time job and a crazy travel schedule is that free time to film is limited.
so in the end, if i can put some shots together, im stoked. if not, its all good, we're all still out there making turns having fun and thats what its all about when you boil it down.
so to take this whole thing full circle... thanks for the props, i cant tell you how appreciated it is.
and now im out, im headed to the orage european open tomorrow. make sure to check it out ...and while im at it, i might as well throw in a shamless plug for the orage masters 6 going down on april 19 in whistler. see you there,
and i'll see you on the hill. take it easy.
