The Powell Movement

Like a lot of kids in California, Taylor Knox wanted to be a pro surfer at an early age.  Unlike a lot of kids, Taylor had a back condition that would require 7 hours of surgery and 6 months in a full body cast...at age 15. While he lost time, he was still hell bent on becoming a pro surfer and his classmates thought he was crazy.  Fast forward to today, Taylor has had a legendary career that span...

Scot Chrisman grew up with the dream of a pro skier and it never happened.  He was close as a racer, then competed for a few years and nothing really materialized.  Along the way there was drugs, alcohol, legal issues but things worked themselves out and today, Scot is an aspiring entrepreneur with his hands in just about everything.  He's of interest to me for one reason in particular, he has a p...

Mike Wilson is an athlete with elite ability and you can say he "made it" in the world of action sports.  You can also say that Mike didn't achieve his full potential. Mike has always marched to the beat of his own drummer and while some athletes choose to  be team players, Mike was more of a lone wolf.  People thought he was a loose cannon and maybe he is. On the podcast Mike tells his story and...

Josh Brown's life has been an open book to the public from the time he moved to Foyil, OK (Pop 236) when he was a tween.  The publicity used to be a good thing that brought women, fortune and fame to a small-town kid who achieved a dream that alludes 99.5 percent of all kids, playing in an NFL Game.  Eventually, the publicity turned bad, domestic violence, divorce, and a virtual blackball by NFL t...

Matt Gerdes is not your typical adrenaline junkie.  This BASE Jumper founded Squirrel Wingsuits, an innovative and disruptive brand in the world of human flight and has jumped all over the world.  Like most professionals I speak with, Matt cut corners on his way to BASE Jumping and has not paid the price.  Hear the whole story on the podcast. Matt Gerdes Show Notes 2:00:  Living in France and Squi...

Matthias Giraud aka Super Frenchie, is one of those passionate people who has way too much energy.  He's also pro skier/BASE jumper  who travels the world creating insane videos for a living.  We talk getting into BASE jumping without proper experience, a lifetime of gnarly things, how his perspective on risk has changed over time and how he's still alive after hitting a cliff at 70 MPH.  Hear the...

Mikey LeBlanc is a legend in snowboarding .  He's known for teeth breaking ollies, high consequence rails and riding just about everything during his 25+ year snowboard career.  His story starts in Maine and takes him on a tour of mountain towns as he navigates his way through the snowboard industry coming to find himself at the helm of one of the most stylish outerwear brands in the game.  Mikey'...

Murray Wais was a punk rock kid who left Seattle for a community college that put him in the mountains.  He fell in love with that life, became an instructor and then graduated to studying journalism at the University of Oregon.  Fast forward to being laid off by Microsoft,  he decided to work for free and follow his ski bum dreams.  He ended captured gold with a lot of hard work, some amazing ski...

Olympic Judge Steele Spence has a storied history in the ski industry.  He was part of the second wave of new school skiers and one who had a knack for greasing the burliest of rails.  His urban game was top notch before most people knew that urban skiing was a thing.  When pro skiing wasn't an option anymore, Steele moved in-house and designed skis and products for 4FRNT.  The life of a desk jock...

Devin Logan is the youngest of 5 kids and was treated like a little brother by her two closest siblings, Sean and Chris.  Chasing her brothers around in between runs at contests and their general influence on her has given her the relaxed confidence that she uses to reach the podium at places like the Olympics….which she is about to do so tune in to watch Devin go for Gold in Slopestyle and Halfpi...

David Wise is the most decorated halfpipe skier of all-time.  Going into the Olympic Games, he is on fire and is everyone's favorite to win back to back gold medals.  He's a likable 27 year old going on 40.  He has a wife, 2 kids, and likes to spend a lot of time alone in the woods bowhunting.  In a world of rock stars, he's a man of faith with nothing to prove to anyone other than himself.  We ta...

Brita Sigourney has spent most of her ski career in two places:  Standing on the podium and laying in a hospital bed.  She's going into the Olympics with a clean bill of health and the some of the best results she's ever had as a professional skier.  On the podcast Brita and I talk about her whole life and focus on the multitude of injuries she has experienced over the past 8 years, coming back to...

Torin Yater-Wallace had to overcome more challenges than anyone I've talked to.  From growing up with a dad in prison, to moving countess times as a kid, to injuries, to a sickness that became so bad that he was medically paralyzed for 10 days.  Through all of this, Torin had skiing and all his dreams revolved around becoming a professional.  With all the cards stacked against him, Torin never qui...

Tim Pogue is a visionary in the world of action sports, specifically the world of snow.  When this 10 year non-alum of University of Minnesota, he also happened to be a sponsored windsurfer, moved west is his VW bus, the last place anyone would expect him to land was taking classes at Harvard or on Wall Street. Tim's life has been the one of dreams for the action sports marketer turned executive a...

There was a time when Axl Rose left his small town in Indiana as there was nothing left for him there.  To make it, he needed to move west where he would surround himself with other, likeminded people.  While Nick Goepper is no Axl Rose, his story is the same.  He started honing his craft in the Hoosier state, moved west to Windells Academy and found more success than he ever dreamed of.  Like Axl...

Alex Schlopy set a goal for himself going into the 2014 Olympic Games:  In his words it was "make the Olympics or I'd rather be dead."  Unfortunately, Alex missed making the US Olympic Team by the slimmest of margins and decided to seek out crack and heroin to dull his pain and follow through on the 'or I'd rather part'.  A few suicide attempts and an arrest later, Alex went to treatment and is cu...

Joss Christensen was on the bubble to make the US Olympic Team in 2014 when he lost his dad.  When he was selected to the US Team with the discretionary spot, skiers all over the internet were outraged and Joss was put down, harassed, bullied, and even asked to give up his Olympic spot for someone else.   While this hurt Joss's pride, it also gave him something to prove…And he did by becoming the...

Jeff Ament is known for being the bassist for Pearl Jam but his story goes much deeper than that.  He doesn't do many interviews, and none go this deep.  From working on a farm in small town Montana, to turning down football scholarships as an all-state quarterback, to music, to charity, the dude has done a lot in his life and he's remained as humble as they get.   Hear it all on the podcast.   Je...

Roy Tuscany was that cocky, aspiring pro skier that I'm sure everyone knew at one point.  He had his life together, graduated from college and moved out west to pursue his ski dreams.  When Roy overshot a jump and suffered a life altering injury, everything changed.  He realized that there was more to life than himself and that it was time to give others the support he received when he had his acc...

Spencer O'Brien is one of the top slopestyle competitors in the world, which is an amazing feat considering that she suffers from Rheumatoid Arthritis.  On the podcast, we talk about her decorated snowboarding career, what the Olympics mean to her and how she is still able to compete while suffering from a debilitating disease.  Don't' miss it! Spencer O'Brien Show Notes 1:15:  What is Spencer up...

Jaimeson Keegan's professional life has been one that every high school kid, who's not the best at what they do sports-wise, dreams of.  He went from college to the music industry in Seattle when it was on fire and left that world for a company, RedBull, that no-one had really heard of yet.  That career choice created countless opportunities, the latest of which is his decade old sports agency, Su...

Bobby Brown didn't start skiing until he was 11 years old and just 7 years later found himself standing on top of the X-Games podium, which he considers more important than the Olympics.  Bobby and I talk about coming up, his career, his final shot at Olympic Gold and everything in between. Bobby Brown Show Notes: 1:17:  What is Bobby up to now and what was his summer like 2:25:  Watching the Bron...

Kimmy  Fasani has never let the lows of life drag her down and she's been through some painful experiences on her way to and at the peak of her snowboarding career.   She also hasn't let the highs of being a top level professional snowboarder get to her head.   How long will that career last now that, coming of her best season ever on paper, Kimmy is pregnant with Chris Benchetler's baby and her c...

  Kris "Jaymo" Jamieson is one of the nicest and unintentionally cool people you will ever meet.  He doesn't try to be the man, he just is and his passion is contagious.  He's done everything you can do in action sports at the highest level, from being an athlete, media personality, desk jockey and now, to start up partner.  He's never done anything soley for money, it's always been about passion...

While Sage Cattabriga Alosa had set his goal on being a professional skier, his ski career was made in one shoot and he never looked back.   From racing in Wyoming to chasing the Collins Brothers around in Utah, Sage honed his craft and became one of the best skiers of his time.  His exploits are legendary, his movie segments many and his outlook on things is a little bit different and that's just...