New Tanner Hall Interview

From Freeze Jan 2003

You've been the man the last two years in competition. Where do you find the ideas to come up with and learn these new tricks?
Basically, I'm taking all my good style and new tricks from a snowboarding simplicity form. Not that I want to emulate snowboarding, because skiing and snowboarding are way too different, but I think it's important having a smooth style. That's what helps me get creative. It's not just learning the trick and being able to do the trick, it's being able to do the trick that makes people see it and say, "that looks good."

You say you don't want to copy snowboarding, but you've been working on your monkey steez. What's that all about?
Mark-Frank Montoya gave me the idea about this. Nobody can ride better than him, and I think he has the best style of anyone out there. Plus, he's ghettoed-out to the max, and that's why he's my boy.

There are a couple of the other top pros out there that seem to be emulating you with this new style. then there is a larger handful of them that aren't into it. Do you care what your peer think about your skiing?
I don't really care, because when it comes down to it, skiing is an expression---you have to create it from within. I really don't care who likes the way I ski. I like it, and that's all I care about. If people don't like what I've created. F--k ' em, cause someone else does. If they don't have respect for my skiing, it's not my problem. I'm not gonna hate like that. I'm just doin' what I love.

So what's next for you? Where do find the motivation to innovate?
Well, this year it's coming from a few things, but mostly my new ski sponsor, Armada. It's a whole new deal we've got going. The team is so sick and the skis are going to be sick. I can't wait to go and make these new skis huge and show the world what we're all about. Skiing's my life, and if I have a chance to change skiing and its history, you're damn right that I'm going to take the chance on something that I believe in. The best part about this company is that the team behind it, not some ignorant 50-year-old asshole that doesn't know what's going on.

What's up with your hip-hop image? Does music influence you?
That's probably the biggest influence. It's like 75 percent behind what I like to do, and how I do it. I'm getting part of my style from people in hip-hop---trying to be as smooth as the beats and rhymes that I listen to.

Do you ever worry that snowboarders might think that you're trying to copy them, even though you're drawing most of what you do from the music you listen to?
Not at all. Snowboarders that I hang out with have noting but respect for what I'm doing. They realize what we're doing these days and know that it's off the hook. They know that whether you have two edges or four edges that we're all in it for the same reason, and that's to have fun. i don't think it;s going to be much longer before there are great movies out their showing off the talents of both worlds.