So Jim, what were your early influences?
Well, basically it was just watching movies
and seeing what everyone was doing. The origi-
nal Fall Line films of Damian and Graham doing
flips and big cliffs and going for it was rad. Back
then, the only people I rode with were my
friends. I had no really big influences as far as
style or anything. I liked the guys who were on
top, but I was never really around them that
much. When I'm in Tahoe, I ride with Jason
Cockrum, Josh Vert and some locals up there.
What about travelling?
I really haven't been on that many epic road
trips. But this year I went to Whistler, and the
day we got there, it had snowed a foot and a
half. We went up the chair lift in the morning
and it was sunny, and we were the first to go up
the peak chair. It was rad just doing turns and
bombing off stuff. That was super fun. The
whole rest of the week it was overcast and
rainy, it sucked.
That's one thing I don't like about travelling.
you're relying on the weather and it can be
great or it can also suck. That's what I actually
like about staying at home, if the weather
sucks, it's no big deal, there are plenty of other
things to do, and then I can go ride at night.
What's the biggest air you've ever gotten?
That Cab in Coming Down the Mountain at
Donner Summit. That was scary because of the
wind that comes up the cliff there. It's crazy. It
tries to grab your board and throw you over the
nose. When I was approaching that jump, I
couldn't see the landing. For about the first five
feet of the take-off, I didn't know what was
going to happen, then it opened up beneath
me, and I was like forty-five feat in the air, just
trying to keep my heart from stopping. That's
probably the raddest stoke that I've ever got-
ten in snowboarding.
What else stokes you on snowboarding?
Just getting the bare necessities, getting
back to the thing that we all started boarding
for, just freeriding on a sunny day with your
friends. I guess it's just being on the mountain
and being able to go as big as you want to go. I
really like finding rad natural wind lips that you
can go big and not worry.
Do you like natural more than man-made?
I like to ride parks. I think they're good to
practice on, and it makes you a better snow-
boarder. It helps you get your tricks dialed, and
you can spin over big stuff, but at the same
time, you have to be careful. If you're going to
go big at a park, it's usually over a big gap, and
if you don't make the gap, or you go past it,
you're going to fall hard, and it's like risking
your knees. Whereas with a cliff, as long as the
run-out is steep and the snow is soft, you can
jump off a thirty-foot cliff and land it solid and
look back and go, "Fuck that was rad."
What's in the future of snowboarding?
Basically, more and more progression. You
can see it in the movies every year, but there's
so much room for snowboarding to still grow
I also think that snowboarders are going to
have different styles and advance on that par-
ticular style. It's just people expressing the
spart in their own way.
How do you feel about the industry?
I think having all these new companies that
are trying to make it is healthy for the sport just
because there's more people into it. I think a lot
of them will make it, but a lot of them will fail. I
mean, I see a lot of people trying to make a
quick buck, and they don't really know the
sport, and that sucks.
What about the image of snowboarding?
I think that snowboarders have kind of dug
their own grave by trying to look so different. I
mean, I'm not saying to wear a neon jacket or
anything, but I see guys with pants so big you
could stick both legs in one side. That's dumb. I
guess it all comes down to function. I used to
wear a chain wallet until my friend, Jason, came
home with a huge bruise on his back from
where he had fallen on the chain in the pipe.
He was out for a couple weeks for that one. I
also see a lot of people putting out videos now
with snowboarding in it. It's like they take some
surfing and skating or whatever, and then add
some snowboarding that's not even up to par. it
makes snowboarding look lame. As far as fads
go, people are always going to follow some
sort of trend, I just want to see snowboarding
represented with the credit it deserves.
Fat frontside tailgrab (opposite) out of the world
renown halfpipe at Stratton, VT. Air Jim (above)
proves himself deserving of his namesake at Stratton.
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