Thank U Snowboarding

Its almost a lifetime ago that I last saw Jonny. We spent a few intense periods together whilst he was working for Airwalk and I was helping him out, normally in return for some beer vouchers and some kit. Jonny is a legend in the UK industry, he held things down at Burton for quite a while before running Airwalk, helping them devolop a product line which, for a while, was one of the strongest lin...

What a day! This day was one of the most fun days I've had on a snowboard, I didn't want it to stop. I'd not really chatted with Mr Steve before, I was always a little bewildered about who he was and why he was on the Spring Break trip, but the night before we recorded this, we had a right chat about all sorts of things, sometimes funny, sometimes serious, but really enjoyable. So I grabbed him fo...

This bonus episode is the epitome of what sitting on a chairlift with your friends is all about... Vicky and Nige are Mia's parents, and its always fun to catch up with them in Laax and go for a shred. I think sometimes they get caught up in the contest environment and forget to enjoy themselves. Well, thats where I step in! We went for a proper shred around Laax, joined as well by The Reason's fi...

Ian is one of the guys in snowboarding who has helped shape the UK scene, but who never craves the spotlight, indeed, he is unlikely to want his own full episode of the podcast, so it was a pleasure to get, at least, a little conversation on the P60 chairlift in Laax during the open. Ian was editor at Snowboard UK, then Document, and helms The Reason magazine, an annual behemoth of a publication,...

Dave is undoubtedly one of the GOAT's of snowboarding, and even more so because he really likes hanging out with the British scene! In fact, he will be one of the very few non UK born people to get an episode of Thank U Snowboarding (coming late in Season 3 or early Season 4) He is the owner of Signal Snowboards, as well as a bunch of other creative endeavours, turns up with an infectious energy a...

A random chat in a gondola (ok, not a chairlift) with friend of the podcast and Burton guru, Dan Crichton. I only got to know Dan at Spring Break last year and immediately knew we would become firm friends. He is such a positive, funny, insightful guy. I haven't got him on the main pod just yet, but had a fun few laps with him and some chat out in Austria (not to mention a glorious evening in Inns...

Not many people can legitimately claim the title GOAT, but Steve is on that short list, in fact he might BE the short list. The influence on UK snowboarding that Steve has had cannot be denied, whilst most people were trying 360's and 540's, Steve was blasting 7's and 9's way over their heads, on dryslope, which is fucking hardcore and not something that most people ever got to. Steve is a cat, I'...

In my humble opinion, its guys like Mike who made our culture of snowboarding. Sure, there were plenty of pro riders who shone bright, but, and I"ve said this before, its the guys like Mike, who love the sport with all their hearts and devote their lives to it, not in the pursuit of powder, but to getting people into it, understanding it, living and breathing it, which in turn has turned so many p...

Neave, as everyone calls him, hasn't changed much over the years. He still has that mischeivous sense of fun, that infectious laugh and approach to things quite unlike anyone else I've met. Not qualities I needed to find at 4am after a cab ride back to my folks house after a night out in London and that laugh not stopping and waking them up... Elliot shone bright in the UK scene for a while, heavi...

Ian has been snowboarding longer than most people on the planet. Not many people can lay claim to that, and the fact that he is from the UK, where no, or at least very little information was available, makes it even crazier. From taking a small picture from a Sims ad in a skateboard magazine, to building their own boards and bindings, to finding taxies to drop them at the top of hills in the Downs...

I had been aware of Snow Camp for a long time, one of the staff at our chalet had worked for them years ago, but they came more on my radar as they are based near to where I live in Hove. I had in the past wondered if introducing disadvantaged kids to the mountains was a good use of money, surely there are bigger problems to surmount, but as I"ve got to understand what they do, why they do it and...

I knew Phil was already on the scene when I first picked up Snowboard UK, but I didn't know he was around from the very, very early days, indeed his youthful good looks and approach to life don't indicate that he could have been around for that long, but Phil is a lifer, through and through and he uses his experiences in snowboarding to be a kind of 'go between' for brands that want some action sp...

Duncan Carr is and isn't your typical UK snowboarder. He has clocked more dryslope time than probably anyone except absolute lunatics, but kind of never went and did a season, which for a lot of UK riders is the goal. Dripping with style, he held his own in (and won) many competitions, but again, the drive wasn't competitve in itself. There was definitley progression, but not at the expense of sty...

There aren't too many riders who have lived the life like Jonny Barr. Still frothing for snow up in Aviemore where he now calls home, from the dryslope at Llandudno via Chamonix and some of the biggest mountains in the world, Jonny has seen the sun set on more days riding than most, and can still rip. He shares his love of the Scottish Highlands and splitboarding with his event 'The Upbattle' whic...

Scott is one of the most stylish heavy hitters this country has produced, from being taken up to the highlands every weekend from a young age, to Whistlers superpark and mixing it on Red Bull projects with Travis Rice, let alone hitting rails in Trafalgar Square in London. A deep bag of tricks and an innate abiluty to make them look effortless, it occured to me as he rode ast me at about 80kmh las...

Some might call Christian larger than life, but he isn't. He is as large as his life and his life is large! Starting filming snowboarding way back in the day, to producing one of the first European snowboarding movies (With a killer soundtrack) moving into presenting and winning BAFTA's, team manager for Vans to his current incarnation as DJ BBQ, Christian is a tour de force. Odd Man Out had a mas...

I normally start this section off with, you may not have heard of such and such, but not this time. I"m pretty certain you will have heard of Jenny Jones, and for good reason. Winning bronze at the Sochi Olympics is just part of her story, sadly, she wasn't the inspiration for the movie chalet girl and indeed, has never watched it, but she did start her career older than Mia Brookes is now, and we...

Its fair to say that Stu Brass has lived many lives in snowboarding, from grom riding with his brothers Si and Russ up at Rossendale, to working for the British Snowboarding Association, to running comps to organising events, most motably The Brits, the yearly get together for the UK snowboarding community. In my mind, Stu has always been fairly business like in his snowboarding, but I guess it ta...

Neil’s story is quite incredible and quite unlike anyone else I’ve interviewed and is completely inspirational. How small moments and kindness of strangers can turn your life into a completely new direction, both good and bad. Luckily for us, the bad came before the good and the good came in the shape of The XScape in Milton Keynes offered Neil a new life that wasn’t obvious at first, but slowly r...

You probably have heard of Johno Verity, as a pro rider he was all over the UK snowboard magazines and movies, particularly the Lockdown Projects movies he helped to make. He wasn't afraid to take the piss out of himself, using down time to write and film skits which added another dimension to his parts and that has seen him move into writing, directing and running his own film production company,...

You probably won't have heard of Maria, but I'm pretty certain you will have seen her work. Maria has been a stalwart of the Briish scene for years, from riding Hillingdon dryslope every weekend amongst what was a hardcore scene who took no prisoners, to competing, to showing up at the Brits. Maria wasn't in it for the competition, but for the community, not afraid to hurt herself, but when there...

Finally! I hear you all cry... Its a Chrismtas miracle! Yep, the long awaited, often asked for episode with the legend that is Simon Smith is here! Simons attitude and approach to snowboarding helped influence what British snowboarding has become, we all owe him a debt of gratitude, because without Simon and his peers, snowboarding could look like skiing, and we'd all be poorer for it. His nicknam...

Out of everyone I"ve had on so far, Johns journey is probably the closest to mine. As a way to go snowboarding, starting a business to share the experience of being in the mountains, with a comfy bed and some good food, surrounded by like minded people, its not an easy life to choose, and I know from experience that it isn't for everyone, but there is something incredible about these places that p...

Schoph has been in the trenches of snowboarding and art for a long time, staying true to both his passion for sliding around on mountains and tranferring the images inside his brain onto canvas, and that staying true is leading him down a very singular path. His work with Jamie Lynn is well documented and has resulted in the brand 1910, which is currently enjoying becoming the coolest brand in sno...

Will Has covered a lot of ground throughout his snowboarding career, both figuratively and physically. From his younger days as a pink haired, Hawian shirted, ID magazine appearing dryslope ruler, to seasoned seasonaire, Dragon Lodge running, splitboarding, touring lifer in search of the perfect turn, Will liveS his life in snowboarding. An amazing few days at the Dragon Lodge, riding, laughing an...