​Stoke the Fire Athlete Edits: Dane Tudor

Big mountain master Dane Tudor is bound to teach us a thing or two about how to slither through pillows and bottomless pow. Tudor was born in Sydney, Australia and split time between Palmer, AK and Rossland, BC as a kid, so he's spent his fair share of time getting comfortable in rowdy terrain. These days, he's still pushing it with a signature style of combining freestyle elements with powder skiing deep in the backcountry. This winter, with borders closed and travel canceled, Tudor teamed up with his buddies Nick McNutt and Sammy Carlson to explore the mountains of his backyard outside Rossland, following the theme of discovering new stashes just a short distance from home. Firing up the sleds and slapping on a pair of skins got them to the goods during a plentiful BC winter, and we caught up with the Scott athlete to hear more about the season. Stoke the Fire tickets are on sale now, find a tour stop near you!

When did you decide you wanted to ski for the rest of your life?

For the rest of my life? Damn. Well I think I've always anticipated skiing for the rest of my life. Ever since I was a kid, I started skiing when I was three years old and I'm 31 now and I'm definitely going to be skiing for the rest of my life. It's such an awesome thing to do. I love shredding the powder out there. Deep days out there with friends, best time of your life.

Teamwork makes the dream work. | Bruno Long photo.

How did you come to the decision to commit to this lifestyle?

Well, since I've been skiing since I was three years old, it's been a pretty easy way to commit to the lifestyle. Grew up riding at Red Mountain and wanted to be a professional skier ever since I saw ski movies when I was growing up way back when, and it's been a dream since day one.

Was it hard to make that decision or did it just feel natural?

It was supernatural to want to be a skier ever since I was a kid. And I'm still living the dream.

Seeing fresh flakes falling from the sky never gets old for Dane Tudor. | TGR photo.

Did you have any resistance from family and friends?

No. My mum got me on skis when I was three years old and she was super supportive of me being a skier. Used to take me to all the big mountain contests, had me in ski racing ever since I was young and just really helped me pursue the dream.

What would you have done if you hadn't pursued this path?

Well, I did want to be a pro motocross racer and I actually took some time off back in the day from skiing to race dirt bikes. And I did that for a year in California and I just decided skiing seemed to be the path, I had sponsors already and had been winning a lot of contests so, dove right back in and haven't looked back.

Hard not to have high stoke when the skiing is this good! | TGR photo.

Describe a ski bum for us. What characteristics does a ski bum have?

Well, there's a lot of different styles of ski bums, for sure. My uncle being one of them. He moved to Rossland, where I grew up, a long time ago, along with my mom back in the day. The house he lives in...it's called The Shack. It’s a super old house, real small. It's easy to spot. It's got holes in the floor, it’s held up by bricks, all that stuff. So, you've got your classic ski bum. They'll just stay with buddies, or do whatever they need to do to ski. Then there are all different types of ski bums, I think. I consider myself a professional ski bum in a way, I get paid to ski and live the dream out there, ski powder every day. And wouldn't have it any other way.

Growing up, what did you do to ensure that you got to ski as much as possible?

Well, growing up I was homeschooled, so I got to ski pretty much every day. And a lot of the kids growing up, they liked to party and stuff like that. And I was kind of a goody two-shoes back then. I just wanted to go to bed early so I can get up every day and go skiing. And I was always watching the ski movies. I just wanted to get out there and throw back flips like Seth Morrison and learn some tricks like Sammy Carlson. It was what it was all about for me.

Were there others in your community who are living your lifestyle?

Yeah, growing up, there were some older guys and I really looked up to them. They were a local film crew at the time and they'd put out a movie called Instability and it was super inspiring to me. I think it may have been the first ski movie that I saw at the time. And so I used to chase them around the mountain and they never wanted to ski with me. I was just like this little young kid that just wanted to go skiing with them. And they were always beating up on me and I just chased them around the mountain and learned how to ski as fast as I could because they weren't going to wait for me.

Chasing a career as a pro has given Dane many avenues to explore different kinds of skiing. | TGR photo.

Did you have a ski mentor growing up?

I think I had a lot of different mentors growing up. I was coached by the Red Mountain Race Team and also just anybody that I skied with at the hill being a young kid homeschooling, there weren't a lot of younger kids to ride with, so I got to ride with a lot of the older guys, just chasing them around the mountain. And I feel like I was mentored by a lot of people. And I think I was also mentored by the mountain itself and it just felt like a second home for me.

How important are ski partners?

Yeah. It's fun getting out with your friends, riding out in the mountains. It's super sick when you get into the session mode and you got your buddy throwing down something and just gets me stoked to throw something sick and stomp it, get that vibe going.

What was different this year shooting close to home and what was that like?

Well, I've been a film skier now for like 14 years, I think. And I've filmed out at Whistler and out at Revelstoke and filmed all over the world. And this year I got the chance to film out of my backyard in the Kootenays and it's been really cool, getting a chance to explore the local zones. I didn't even know that we had such amazing terrain, right out the back door, at least not as close as it turned out to be. I knew there was terrain, but we really got into the goods and I'm stoked to find such sick terrain.

Dane might be about high energy freestyle powder skiing, but sometimes soul turns are to be had too. | Bruno Long photo.

What was it like skiing with Nick McNutt?

Well, Nick and I have skied together before quite a few times over the years and it was fun getting out there together, shredding pow. He's got a killer work ethic. He's just like always trying to ride and film until dark every day and just super cool to be out there with him. And it's interesting, I thought that we were similar skiers, we can ski powder, pillows, do tricks, ski big mountain, all that kind of stuff. And yet I realized that we still look at terrain so differently, so it's pretty cool to be out there together and riding and getting after it.

Tell us about some of the days you guys had together.

Well you never really know what you're going to get out there. You think, maybe it's just going to be 30 centis or maybe it's going to be two feet. You know, you get those expectations where you think it's just going to be so deep and it turns out not to be. And other days you have no expectations and it turns out to be insanely deep and blower. And that's pretty much what it was like out there this year. It was crazy because one of the deepest days I think I've ever had, it was like up to our chest and just crazy. I had to straight line and just try to catch some air and just dive into the snow and get a few quick turns. It was pretty sick. A day to remember.

Was there any specific line or day that stood out to you that you’ll remember?

Well, we were out ski touring in one day, checking out another section of the ridge line that we'd been skiing for quite a few days and you never really know what to expect. You're just walking up the ridge, looking at this boulder field on Google Maps or on Google Earth and just trying to figure out the zone. And we ended up on the top of the ridge line and it was a nice sunny day, probably one of the only sunny days we had during that period. And there was this spine wall, like a little fluted section. There were maybe two benches to it. So it was steep up top and flat in the middle with this little fluted section, I was just looking at it thinking, you either slash on the flutes or I can just jump right over it. You don't get an opportunity that often to throw a big natty trick and this one was looking pretty perfect. So I got up top and I was thinking about it and decided to throw a big seven off of it. And I was pretty stoked to bring it around to my feet. And it's just one of those things that you only get one opportunity to throw that trick during the year, at least off a natural feature.

Check out more big hits and style from Dane in Stoke the Fire. | Bruno Long photo.

The way that I find zones these days is just looking on Google Earth and scoping out areas. And I do some GPS tracking when we're out there. So I get an idea of the exact location that we're skiing. And then I look around that spot and see if I can find some like little nookie boulder fields or anything like that. And then we just go out there the next day and we ski tour out to that spot and see what we find. And usually there's some pretty sweet nugs out there. Well, once I'd scoped out this little spot and I was thinking, “maybe I could just punt it off this thing.” And I was up there and it's like, you know, it's kind of like a 50/50 chance, no matter what, when you're filming' a shot, you could botch it or you could get something sick. So he might as well just send her and go for it. And that's what I did.

What did that feel like?

Yeah, I was definitely feeling a little nervous up there, but I've been doing this for so long now that it's fairly easy to just calm down and you know, it's just going to be a few seconds. So you just drop in and throw the trick and stomp it. It's all there is to it.

I was feeling pretty stoked afterwards. It always feels good. You know, like some days we're out there and you're just doing one turn after one turn and it gets kind of repetitive. So on a day when I stomp something sick, especially first hit, first tee of the day, I'm feeling pretty good. And I really don't feel like I need to do anything else for that day. I'm feeling pretty, pretty grateful.

In the end, what does stoke mean to you?

What is stoke to me? Stoke is stoke on a powder day. You know, feeling good. Everyone's vibing up. Just blasting pillows, slashing, having a good time out there, being stoked. I don't know if you can actually create stoke. It's just a feeling that you get when the conditions align and you're having a blast out in the mountains. You know, there's so many different days in the season and what stokes my fire is just super deep blower powder. It only comes a couple times a year and that's what really gets me fired up.