Interview by Jeff Schmuck

Hey Sammy. How you been?

I've been good. Really good. This has been my best season yet, so I'm really pumped on that. It's the first time that I've kicked back at my house at the end of the winter and felt super accomplished and satisfied and not really wishing I'd done more. I felt super motivated all season and kept a good energy level all year, and as a result I got what I wanted for my film parts and had a really good competition season. But most importantly, I had a lot of fun.

photo: Jeff Schmuck

What have you been up to here at the end of the season? Because you mentioned to me a few days ago that you're done skiing for the season now right?

Pretty much yeah. I might do one more project, but we'll see if that happens or not. I've finished up filming for my segments with both Poor Boyz and TGR, and I'm thinking I'll have two of my best parts ever in their films. In the last month I went down to Mammoth for Jib Academy Finals and got to ride Snowboard Superpark while I was there, which was super cool. It was a great honor for me to be the only skier able to ride there, and I got some mentions in some snowboard magazines which was really cool for me. Then after that I went up to Stevens Pass to film with TGR, and we shot a whole park segment in 3D, so I'm pretty excited to see how that turns out.

Mammoth. photo: Jeff Schmuck

I heard you stomped a switch double misty 12 while you were there, and have been thinking of trying a triple flatspin?

Yeah Symms called me out big time on that (laughs), but I'm definitely thinking about it. That's the last thing I'm going to do this season if I do anything else. I'm going to go build a jump up on Mount Hood with some of my boys, and me and Tommy Ellingson want to try triples. We've been talking about it for a while, and we'd really like to give it a shot together, but more for ourselves than anything, because I think it'd be really cool to just see what that triple rotation feels like. And if it does goes down, hopefully you'll see it in Poor Boyz' new movie Revolver. And I did stomp the switch double misty, which was a great feeling, because it gave me a whole new energy and helped me feel like my air awareness is better than ever right now. I don't have any background in gymnastics or anything like that, so when I go out and try new tricks like that it's always just on snow and comes straight from skiing. And I feel like that allows me to be more comfortable and helps me focus on the style aspect much more, because I feel like a lot of the double flips I see some of the guys doing now a days are kind of snappy, and I like my style to be as smooth as possible. So needles to say, I'm stoked for X Games next season, because that's always at the back of my mind.

X Games. photo: Dan Brown

Do you have a biggest highlight or favorite moment from this season? Or are there a lot of them? Because you were a pretty damn busy guy this year.

(laughs) Yeah dude, and because of that there were a lot. I had a lot of really good moments this year, not just with skiing, but in my life in general. But in terms of skiing, I think the best one was probably at Snowboard Superpark when I stomped my first ever switch 1440 and regular 1440 in honor of CR, because I was thinking about him a lot that day, and all year. I was sessioning with some of the best snowboarders in the world and there was no negative vibes towards skiing or me being there. I really don't accept it when snowboarders show a bad attitude towards skiing, because I respect what they do so much and it was awesome to see that all the best snowboarders in the world who were there felt the exact same way, and were really into my tricks and style and were giving me props while we were sessioning together.

Dew Tour. photo: Matt Stauble

I know you've got a big announcement to make about something you're up to this summer. Tell us about it.

Sure do! I'm hosting a big air contest up at Mount Hood on July 1st called The Sammy C Invitational, and it's going to be awesome. It's going to be an invitational event, but there will be some open spots for ams to get in, and my goal is to have the biggest jump ever built at Mount Hood for it. It'll be a huge stepover and I want it to feel like a really cool session with no pressure more than anything. I'm not sure if we're going to do a three-run format or maybe an hour long jam, but my goal is for everyone to have a great time, and hopefully see some triple corks and new tricks go down that have never been done before. There's $15,000 in prize money, and Nike 6.0, Salomon, Oakley and Windells are all on board, and then afterwards we're going to have a big party in Hood River that Rockstar is sponsoring. So it's going to be a super cool big summertime fun contest, which hasn't happened in a while, and I hope that everyone who's in the area or skiing up at Hood will come over and check out the session, because it's going to be a great day. And we've also partnered with you and Doug at NS to make a cool mini-site about the event, which I'm really stoked about, and that has all of the info on the event along with some updates we'll be adding to it as we get closer to the big day. So I want everyone to go check that out at sammyc.newschoolers.com.

Who are you expecting to compete?

A lot of the top guys are going to be there. Wallisch will be there for sure, along with other heavy hitters like TJ Schiller, Jossi Wells, Elias Ambuhl, plus hopefully a bunch of guys who you don't see competing as much, like Liam Downey, John Spriggs, Dylan Hood and Eric Pollard. Make sure you stay tuned to sammyc.newschoolers.com for more info on who will be there, because we'll be updating the list.

Japan. photo: Jeff Schmuck

And then what are you plans for the rest of the summer and leading into next year?

This summer I'm planning on skiing a ton at Windells, which I'm excited about because this is the healthiest I've ever felt at the end of the season as opposed to feeling tired and beat up. I've been eating really good and have kept up a really good training program throughout the winter, so I feel really strong, and I'm going to keep it up by doing a charity bike ride after my contest in July. Me and a couple of friends are riding our bikes to Utah to raise money for autism. Our goal is to raise enough money to start up a branch out here in Oregon for a company called TACA (Talk About Curing Autism), and we just launched a blog with all the info on what we're doing at http://www.tacah2o.com. I really want to do my part to help out kids who have to deal with autism, and it'll help me stay active throughout the summer so my legs don't get tired.

Freestyle.ch. photo: Oliver Maccabez

That's awesome. Are you going to head down to New Zealand and do the pre-season stadium big airs afterwards as well?

Nope. I'm not going to do New Zealand and probably won't do the big airs, because after Windells is done I'm planning on taking a big break from skiing to keep my mind fresh and my body rested so I can go into next year super strong.

Camp of Champions. photo: Jeff Schmuck

And what would you like to say to all the kids out there?

If you're going to be skiing up at Hood this summer, be sure to come check out my contest, and please say what's up to me, and let's trade some good vibes and do some skiing together. Last summer I was super busy trying to balance finishing filming for Can't Stop and helping edit it, which was a lot of work, so this summer will be a lot less busy for me and I'll be a lot more relaxed, so I'm stoked I'll have more time to hang out with all you kids and shred with you. And stay tuned for my video parts, because I'm super excited about them. I spent a lot of time skiing powder after the contest season was done, and then spent a lot of the last month or so shredding park, and it's been my strongest riding yet, so I think you'll be stoked on what you see.

For more information on the Sammy C Invitational, check out sammyc.newschoolers.com