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Brad Oates |
Salt Lake City, UT, United States |
winter |urban |tgr news |specialized |snowboarding |rails |nixon |nitro |mountain bike |jeremy jones tgr |jeremy jones |interview |electric
Jeremy Jones discusses his 2016 season, highlights of his career, future plans and what it’s like to be on snowboarding’s short list of 40+ year old athletes. Rick Starick photo.
Some things never change. This statement is often used in a negative context but in the rare case of Jeremy Jones, it’s a confirmation to the same heart and devotion he has today that he had the first day he strapped in. Not an easy task for someone that turned pro in the mid ‘90s. Generations of snowboarders have come and gone, but Jeremy continues to push himself beyond the limits to produce quality snowboard content year after year, every year.
Recent industry shakeups and sponsor changes would have seen most others stepping back and looking for another occupation. For Jeremy, it’s been one more obstacle he has navigated to once again solidify his place as an icon and someone that snowboarding as a whole cannot go without. – JP Walker
Brad Oates: How did the season go? How does this one stack up?
This season was a little slow. I got hurt twice. I tore some ligaments in my foot in December and got back on it after about six weeks. Then, after about three weeks of filming street, I fractured my hip. That took me out for another three weeks.
Then, I got back on it in Whistler and got about three weeks of snowboard filming in. It was a little slow, but I got about a month and a half of filming in. I had a handful of powder days. I got a Baldface trip in. Best thing ever! Brighton had a bunch of powder days, so my days of warming up were soft and epic.
Broken hip, ouch!
It was a minor fracture. I probably shouldn't have gotten back to snowboarding as quick as I did. I was trying to get a little base on footage. I am filming with Videograss now. It's a year and a half project, so I will be able to fill in the gaps at the beginning of next season. So, I am graced with that length [of a project], which is lucky for me.
How did you fracture your hip?
I was just hitting a street feature. This sort of wall jam out of the wall jam up and over this fence thing. I was sort of going to test it. I was hitting the wall and when I ollied out of it, I just got spit. Put my board vertical in the air and my body parallel with the ground, and then I went straight to the ground like that from about 18 feet up. I missed all the snow I put down by about 6 inches, so I just hit straight ground (laughing). My face actually hit the snow that I put down. The rest of my body missed it. I missed my airbag. It was an impact blow more or less. Just rattled me pretty good. Getting that hip to come back to life was a bit tricky, was slow and almost paralyzed, you know.
You’re 40 years old and still a professional snowboarder. Bryan Iguchi, Jeremy Jones, Terje Haakonsen, Jaime Lynn, Chris Roach, amongst a few others. You are on a short list of good company. Ageism is real. How do we change this?
Jeremy Jones continues to push the limits of snowboarding at the age of forty. JP Walker photo.
The only way to change it is to have the group of people that you mentioned fight for it, because if no one is fighting for it, no one is putting it out there that that it can change, that it’s something that should be supported. I don't think companies are going to take the risk. I think it's going to be on the rider side of things to force that movement. Right now we are running a pretty short list. We are seeing some support, which is rad.
You are seeing this sort of resurgence of those other guys. I use Iguchi is a good example, because he never stopped. He has stayed steady, and that's going to pay off for him. My take is I am just going to keep doing it. Just keep doing it. Hopefully, people keep supporting it and stay on board that way. It's in a transition phase and a pretty difficult one.
We're surviving and making it work because it's what we want to do. I do think there's room for it. When the industry swings in our favor, I think if the seeds are set then we will be on a good program and developing good programs for the older generations of snowboarders. And I only hope that people can run a snowboard career for twenty years, not just five or even ten. Ten years is a long career right now. Twenty is even longer (laughing).
I don't think companies are going to take the risk. I think it's going to be on the rider side of things to force that movement. Right now we are running a pretty short list. We are seeing some support, which is rad.
Crazy to think that there are two dudes in snowboarding both in their fourth decade of life, both legends and both share the same name, yet exist in such different realms of one sport.
Yeah, and I personally like it, you know, me and Jeremy have been on a real parallel career path. Same age, we both have roughly the same number of years under marriage, both have two kids, look similar on so many levels. From the mainstream perspective, a lot of people think we're the same person. We're obviously very different, but you know, his career has been flourishing in the last five years, and mine was flourishing in the whole street boom and the following decade. And to have us, like you said, both be on the old dude list, but still pushing our own agendas, our own passions and snowboarding, I think is pretty remarkable.
The Forum 8 did for urban rail riding in the early 2000’s what Terry Kidwell and the Tahoe halfpipe did for freestyle progression of the mid ‘80s. Do you look fondly back on that time and its impact on snowboarding as a whole? Did you feel like you were making such an impact at the time?
No, you know, I was thinking of this a lot recently. I was digging up some past info for some bio stuff. No, never did we think the impact would be what it was at the time. At the time, the decision was just “How do we make a video?” We were already under the Mack Dawg umbrella, most of us working in that film, but at the same time we wanted to redefine the filming a little bit.
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We kind of took the skate approach, which was “Why don't we do a team movie?” So, we took that approach, and the whole team went 100% into it as their focus and their movie. Everyone had a little bit more invested in it, I think. I think the end result was just a quality product and it sort of did what it did naturally just from a grassroots level and from a team full of passion.
That’s as well as Mack Dawg kind of letting the reigns go and giving that one to Sean Kearns. Sean Kearns at the time was very passionate and he had a vision of a movie that would change everything. He didn't know that, but he just wanted to do something great for snowboarding and we were gonna push the vision as far as we could, and that's all we really knew at the time.
Back then was is it weird shooting on 16 mm and not being able to check the footage for a few months?
Jeremy scopes out the endless terrain while filming in the backcountry. JP Walker photo.
Part of me wants it back, you know, because of the mystery – it was so cool. Torturing as it was, it was really cool. It would be more torturing now, because you know you could do it the other way. Then you didn't know. It was what it was. First beta tapes would usually come through at about New Year's. Hopefully you would be close to wrapping up street footage and then you're looking at your first raw transfer and just hoping your part’s there. It was a lot of stress. It was also pretty rad.
You joined the Electric team last year. Goggles are an obvious winter essential, but this seems like a bigger lifestyle match. Is that a fair assumption?
Yeah. They're kind of chasing this crossbreed athlete lifestyle I guess you would say, someone who can push a product year-round. They have a few different people selected in different territories, and it's a new movement, and it’s an exciting one to kind of find a cadence and it's nice to have something not shut off in the summer months.
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They almost want me more during the summer months, which is cool; it puts me on my bike a bit more, puts me on product more, it keeps me testing stuff all year, which is something that I really enjoy.
You worked closely with Electric to produce the Stackers that perform in all elements. Is Jeremy Jones the product developer someone we will see more of in the future?
I wouldn't mind it. I like it. I've always put a lot into that even when I was with Burton, and any brand I am on I put a lot into the product because it’s something that I enjoy. I don't think I could ever be that guy on the computer, but I'll be the guy trying to break it for sure.
You dropped a ferocious mountain bike edit. What spurred that?
Jeremy manages to consistently send it on and off snow, sending the monster road gap at Utah's Grafton Trail. Jake Hobbs photo.
Specialized kind of contacted me. My wife started riding, and I started riding – this will be our fifth season going into it. I just kind of picked it up to cruise with her. Then I got super excited about it. Got this contact at Specialized and he was down to sort of hook a deal on bikes, so in turn I said I would make a little edit. You know, I'd only been on the bike that season, so I was by no means anything. I was barely at an amateur level. I had camera equipment that I traded Seth Huot, so he did the edit for me, which I gave to Specialized. That's sort of what brought that on, trying to pay for the gift, basically, and then that just sort of spawned everything. Now I am just hooked on it.
You better tuck those collarbones away.
Yeah, I missed a bit of it last year because I broke my hand. I am kind of jonesing for the season to come and get a little bit more in.
There has been lots of talk of what snowboarding needs lately and it all seems to be from a vantage of looking in the rear view mirror. You’ve always been very outspoken. What’s your take?
I guess what it needs is… I've learned it's not really my space to say. To really be that outspoken about it, because it's so personal, there are so many genres of snowboarding now that it's not all in one place, so I don't even know what it needs. I know it just needs more than anything what it's getting – people that are passionate about it, people that are just going to keep putting into it, even when it's taking the head shots that it has. We need some good winters, honestly. We need a handful of good winters and we will be peaking again. I think that's all that it takes. We just need snow.
Looking back, thus far, what are you most proud of in your career?
Jeremy ripping around on a snowmobile at the top of Brandywine, Whistler. JP Walker photo.
That I'm still here. There are video parts that are my favorite, I've never been one for accolades really, so I don't know, so I don't really care about the little awards and things, or contests I have won. I love my video parts. I love what I have built up. I’m most proud of that personal collection that I built. And just the years I'm proud I made the choices I did whenever I did that they kept me going and passionate about it and bleeding it. And still bleeding it.
Stacking clips, running into dead heroin addicts on street – what’s the craziest thing you have run into trying to get footage for a film?
That was up in Ogden about seven years ago. Just seeing a dead guy was pretty crazy. That was like four in the morning after a session, so you were already pretty spun. Most recently, I was up in Squamish and had my hotel room key given out. The guy at the front desk gave it to some homeless drunk dude who stole my computer, my hard drive, and a list of other things. The year’s worth of footage on the hard drive was the biggest thing.
The short story is that I found the description of him and I found the dude posted up in front of the homeless shelter in Squamish the next morning. I found the guy and actually threw him in the back of the pickup and had him take me to my computer and my hard drive before it got sold off for drugs. That was pretty wild.
Did you have any back up while you did this?
I did. Justin Meyer from Videograss was my backup. He stayed off the hill on a sunny day in Whistler, which is hard to do.
What would you still like to accomplish in snowboarding?
Well, what I have to accomplish I'm not sure. There are a couple things I would like to accomplish. One of them is a video part. I want to have a video part dropping when I'm 40. Or, have filmed when I was 40. So, that would be this one, which is in process. Like a legit one, too. Obviously, I'm not the kid. Obviously, I'm not competing against the street kid. I’m not competing against the triple cork kid. I'm obviously doing my thing, so in my world it has to look good and fit in in terms of my catalogue. Then there's a project I'm working on with JP that’s still kind of in its seeding. I would really like that to happen.
I'm not competing against the street kid. I’m not competing against the triple cork kid. I'm obviously doing my thing, so in my world it has to look good and fit in in terms of my catalogue.
Words of wisdom?
Wisdom? Never considered myself much of a wise man. My wife was actually just preparing a speech the other day and the one thing I told her it was to, “Keep it simple.” And when you fall, you just get back up. I guess it's just as simple as that. Just stand back up and go at it again, right? It's only when you turn and walk away from it that it truly shuts down. It's just avoiding that moment when you literally truly want to give up on something. That's what shuts it off. That's how you survive life. You just turn it back on.