Jason Levinthal (LINE) Interview

From: Mike Duggan [mailto:sivermike@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2004 6:56 PM
To: jasonl@lineskis.com
Subject: A few questions for you...


Heyy...my name is Mike Duggan and I have a couple questions for you..kind of
like a mini interview that a couple people want on newschoolers.com. It
would be great if you could just take a minute and write me back...first off
1. how did you get into the ski buisness, leading a company and all?
I loved skiing more than anything but felt like it had more potential since at the time (1995) all skis were long skinny, pointy and people only did daffys and spread eagles. I also snowboarded and always thought it was bullshit that skis weren't twin tip and skiers weren't allowed in the terrain parks and all of the magazines focused on carving and racing. So I decided that I wanted a pair of twin tip skis so I could push the sport in a better direction and do all of the same types of tricks and riding styles as I did on my snowboard, bmx bike, wakeboard, aggressive skates, etc. So I started making shorter, wider, twin tip skis in my parents garage in Albany NY when I was 22, in 1995. Me and my friends all started riding them and I started selling them to friends and people at the hill. We would always poach runs in the park and snowboarders would yell at us to get out, ski patrol would try to pull our tickets but I knew it was just a matter of time before skiing would end up where it is today as long as we remained true to our vision and continued to build product and ride the way we thought the direction of the sport should go. The next year I went to a trade show and got an order from a Japanese distributor for 1,000 pair. (No one in the US paid attention to us, they only cared about carving skis). So I moved out of the garage and rented a larger garage and hired my friends and family and spent all summer building the Japanese order. Eventually other larger companies started following our lead which helped get more people into this direction of the sport and if you fast forward 8 years, here we are. For the full length version of the story you should check out the Line story on our PROPAGANDA page of our website under COMMUNICATE. www.lineskis.com/communicate/propaganda.php

2.Give a short history of the Line ski company
See above answer

3.being in the east, what are your thoughts on the ASC if you have any.
I don't have any real opinionated thoughts on ASC actually. I don't see them any differently than any other mountains in the east. I'd say that Mount Snow definitely has one of the better parks in the east.

Thanks for the support,
J

It would be greatley appreciated to me and everyone at newschoolers.com if
you would write back..
Thank you,
Mike Duggan EC pride

a safety conscious drug user...isnt that an oxy-moron?-SUpilot