Sema
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has pushed himself to be his own personal best,
regardless of how old he was. He keeps getting
older, but he still acts like a kid.
What was the first resort to let you board?
Boreal was actually the first place to let us go,
and that was during that '81-82 winter, which
worked out great, because we had powder almost
everyday and all we rode was powder boards. If it
was firm out at all, we couldn't traverse against the
terrain and you just had to follow your board down
the hill. I remember a lot of days like that where
you had to just follow the fall line. Then a couple of
years later, snowboard manufacturers started mak-
ing boards with metal edges, and the reason they
did it was because there were lots of ski areas
interested in the sport and they wanted the board-
ers to be able to stop. I think snowboard designers
at first were surfers who liked the carving feeling.
and then there were skaters that had other ideas
of what they wanted, and it pushed the manufac-
turers into redesigning the boards.
When was the first snowboard halfpipe comp?
I believe it was 1983, and it was the only contest
of the whole year anywhere, and it was put on by
Tom Sims. It was at Soda Springs and I got sixth
place and a Barfoot rider named Eddie took first. It
was around that time when I phoned Tom Sims
and he sold me a board at like a pro rate, half cost.
$120 or something, and from there I won the next
halfpipe contest in 1984 at the World Champion-
ships. Tom told me if I won the contest again next
year he'd give me a pro model. Then I took the
World Championships the year after, and from
there is when everything started happening. I
mean, I can't say enough about Sims for getting
me started and giving the money so I could travel.
What was it like dealing with Tom Sims?
Tom and I got along really well. He gave the
team a lot of incentive to ride as much as we could
to be all-around better snowboarders.
Weren't you the first rider to get a pro model?
Yeah, in '85 I was the first rider to design my
own board with the help of Tom Sims. It was the
first board to have kicktail. I think the demand from
skaters to ride fakie was only obvious, thus the
need for kicktail. I think the only reason I won in
'85 at the World's was no one else could ride fakie.
Have you always been a competitive person?
Well, I guess I was a really competitive kid with
baseball and pool hustling, and it just went right in
with boarding. Back then, there was only myself,
Craig Kelly and Shaun Palmer that would pretty
much win during the '86-90 period. There were a
lot of stylish riders that didn't really compete. Mike
Ranquet was a rad young kid, and now he's turned
into one of the best riders in the world.
Who do you like to watch ride today?
Jamie Lynn does rad technical stuff and sticks
everything I like Noah Salasnek's style, he was and
still is real innovative. He pushed the sport in a
totally new direction. Noah came out busting
tons of new tricks in contests, and the judges.
couldn't even tell what he's doing. Palmer's always
been super solid and he goes big and doesn't
fall. And Jim Rippey is one of the new guys who
lead the industry in sticking big technical stuff.
What are you doing right now?
I'm the team manager for Haz-mat. I'm stoked
to get to work with the new kids. We let them go
on road trips and film and get a name for them-
selves. On the other side of that, I'm still going to
ride just as hard as ever.
Comin' alive in '85, Kidwell (above) rushes the gates. Flippin' at the Sims Camp (below) with a move that can
only be called the crippler. Opposite, clockwise from top: Straight-legged above Windell's Park. A speeding bullet
off a ledge at Donner in the winter of '84. Kidwell, Klein and Sims-the triple threat at Mount Baker in '85.
A rocket air back in the day at Donner halfpipe. Backside ollie out of the Soda Springs halfpipe from March '85.
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