Interview by Jeff Schmuck

Photos by Ross Downard

How's it going gentlemen?

Dylan Natale: Very well, just enjoying a late stretch of warm weather and getting ready for the snow to fly.

Where are you guys at right now, and what have you been up to this fall?

Kyler Cooley: Right now we are both in Salt Lake City. We just got back from Mexico on an adventure to try and learn to surf but basically we’ve just doing summer work trying to save up cash so we can blow it all on fun stuff this winter.

And how were you summers? 

Dylan Natale: Summer was a good time as always. Once you get use to the heat in Utah the summers are amazing; plenty of time to recreate, barbeque, chill with friends, and I even made it back up to Whistler for the first time in six years thanks to Newschoolers and Atomic, along with taking a couple of trips to Mexico. So yeah, all in all, a good ol' time.

Kyler Cooley: Yeah summer was good, I did a little bit of traveling, a little bit of working, and I actually got to ski in South America for the first time, which was pretty cool.

Dylan. Photo: Dan Brown

Kyler. Photo: Tom Winter

Give us some highlights from last season.

Dylan Natale: Last season was interesting to say the least. With Rage bailing from the ski movie scene it took a little while to get adjusted, especially with the lack of snow in the area. Kyler and I both ended up working with 4bi9 and had some fun filming with them. We managed to build a really fun, poppy jump up in Logan, Utah and got lucky with an early May blizzard that gave us some of the best snow of the season. I also spent a few nights in a Yurt in the Uinta Mountains with a big crew of friends. The snow wasn't the best but we did manage to start a gasoline infused pile of wood with a firecracker!

Dylan

You guys are firing up a new videoblog project this winter called The BC Boys which just launched on NSTV. Tell us about it. 

Dylan Natale: Well last winter wasn't as busy as usual for both of us and for much of the winter we were both just super anxious to get things done. We brainstormed a bit last year and figured this would be a great time to try our luck by kind of doing our own project. I still plan on shooting with AJ but also want to put a lot of focus on this videoblog and show an audience just how much fun the backcountry is. 

Kyler Cooley: We’re basically doing it because it’s a good excuse for us to be in the backcountry every day. That's what we love to do and since Rage fell through we've just been convincing friends to join us and have kind of been the veterans out there. We find ourselves teaching them little tricks that we didn't really even know we were doing while trying to import our love of the backcountry onto our buddies. So we figured if we started this blog it could teach some other kids who are interested in doing more backcountry stuff a few things, and it also will keep us busy and feeling like we are doing something to benefit the ski scene.

Kyler

There's so many videoblogs out there right now, all of which are enjoyable but some of which seem similar to others. Are you planning on doing anything different in yours to separate it from the rest of the field?

Dylan Natale: Ours will be one of the few that focuses almost exclusively around backcountry skiing. We've both spent a lot of time back there romping around and want to sort of bridge a gap by showing our audience what it takes to not only get shots but also what it takes to be safe and the decisions that are involved. It's a great way to keep us motivated and hopefully a great way for other skiers to get a taste of what the backcountry is all about. Since this is probably our biggest focus it will ensure we produce smooth shots, clean editing, and quality skiing.

Kyler Cooley: And we hope that the backcountry niche will keep us interesting. It seems as though a lot of others are just based around the park scene, which we both enjoy, but it just seems like it may be oversaturated this year. Hopefully we will keep it pretty high quality as far as editing and shooting goes but who knows about that because it is our first time doing it so we are definitely rookies in that field. We want it to be informative, but mostly just entertaining so skiers will want to check out the backcountry scene a bit more.

Dylan

Kyler

What are you aiming to achieve with this project?

Dylan Natale: Well like Kyler said obviously we hope our viewers are entertained by our webisodes and watch them to the end, but ultimately it’s about more than that. Hopefully we can get a bunch of people psyched to get the proper gear and then venture out of bounds a little bit more. It's a completely different experience being in the middle of nowhere with a handful of friends just lapping fresh snow all day or hitting a jump into bottomless powder. Those who have done it know exactly what I'm talking about. So I guess the aim is to get more people interested in a different facet of skiing. 

Kyler

How many episodes are you planning on dropping, and where can everyone check them out? 

Kyler Cooley: We're new to this thing so we will have to figure some things out as we go, but we want to expose this to as many people as possible so we will try a lot of different outlets. We plan on doing at least three or four episodes, but it could end up being more if we come up with some fun content.  

Dylan Natale: Yeah the exact number is a bit up in the air, but like Kyler said you can probably expect at least three to five more throughout the year. And you guys have been kind enough to host our project by hooking up an NSTV channel.

Dylan

Videoblog aside, what other plans do you have in the works for the upcoming season?

Dylan Natale: Nothing is really set in stone. We’ll probably just follow the snow and go from there. Shoot some photos and film and learn how to edit a little more proficiently so Kyler doesn't kill me.

Kyler Cooley: And the main goal of all this for us is to ski. We plan on doing plenty of that for sure but we'd like to do some traveling to more remote locations if possible. From there we'll just fly by the seat of our pants, kind of like we've always done. Making secure plans has never been a strong suit for us.

Kyler

Any shout-outs and thanks you'd like to toss out there?

Dylan Natale: Well I’d like to thank you for this interview and for hosting the project on NSTV. Also to all of my sponsors who hook it up, Atomic, POC, Saga, Dakine, and Essi Eyewear, along with Hennie for teaching Kyler how to edit, Kyler for doing most of the editing, and MC for taking care of my cat when I'm out of town.

Kyler Cooley: Definitely want to shout out all my sponsors: Electric, Under Armour, Liberty, Dakine as well as the guys at Rage that really introduced us to the backcountry, Dan Norkunas and Pete Alport, along with Hennie VJ for teaching me a bit about the whole editing and filming process.

 

Check out the first episode of The BC Boys and be sure to stay tuned to the The BC Boys channel on NSTV for more.