Hump Day Gets in Jesse Paul’s Pants


It’s not just the pants the ladies love! Photo: Eric Hoffman

They say the clothes make the man, and in Jesse Paul’s case, a bold choice in snowboard pants has certainly made him a household name (among web video viewers.) Little do most people know, Jesse has been holding it down for years back in Minnesota — winning rail jams, stacking tricks with You Know My Function and The Rental shop, and otherwise doing some seriously fucked up snowboard maneuvers. So while the pants may have become a running joke, Jesse Paul is certainly to be taken seriously.

What’s up with those pants?

Well I just kinda felt like being crazy this year with my pants. I never really had crazy pants like that before, so I just kinda figured I’d do it. That’s pretty much it.

That’s boring. What kind of pants are they, so people can go out and buy them, since all the kids are obviously gonna want to be as cool as you?

They are Analog Thievery Pants for 2013. I was flipping through the catalog, just kinda bored of the same old black pants that everybody wears. So I just got em. I had to.


See, he has other pants! Photo: Jared Levine

Are you related to Ryan Paul?

No.

How are you not related? You’re from Minnesota, your last name’s Paul, you both do fucked up tricks…

It’s totally weird that we’re not related. Everyone just assumes that we are brothers, I actually get it all the time. People even come up to me all, “saw your brother last week,” and I’m like, “no ya didn’t.” My brother’s two years younger than me and has never snowboarded in his life. Anyways, people say we do some of the same tricks and we actually both ride for the same board shop in Minnesota. He’s like two years older than me. I mean, we’re homies but we’re not related at all. We even have checked our ancestry. It’s weird.

How did you get into snowboarding?

I used to snowskate and one of my friends snowboarded. His name was Tyler Crandall and he was just like snowskating is lame, you should try snowboarding. And I always thought snowboarding was lame. I had skated a lot before that, I’ve been skating a lot longer than snowboarding. Basically he just told me to try it out, and I did in his backyard. He had like a little jump and I was just doing some methods and pretty much fell in love with it right there. I got a 128 Lamar snowboard as my first board. Rode that for a whole season. One of my other friends convinced me to get a seasons pass at this little mountain called Elm Creek, which doesn’t have any lifts, doesn’t have any big hills at all. There’s no mountains in Minnesota. It’s just two high speed ropes with like 30 rails and that’s why I pretty much only do rails. I went every single day after school and just have gotten a season pass ever since. When I started I didn’t think of it as something I would do as a motive for my life. Most of my life revolves around snowboarding now, but before I just kinda did it, and it slowly just took over my life. I just fell in love with it.

If snowboarding is your life, why not move away from Minnesota?

Because I love everything about riding in Minnesota. The tow ropes, how close every hill is, the street spots, the fact that I can go to any hill in Minnesota on any day and run into a bunch of friends. Everybody is friends with everybody in the Minnesota snowboard scene, it’s awesome. There is nothing I would rather do than lap a rope with a bunch of friends all day.


Try and concentrate on the press, ok? Photo: Erik Hoffman

You had a part in You Know My Function, so can we expect a part in Working for the City 2, if it ever comes out?

I had a small half part in You Know My Function and I actually didn’t meet Jon Stark until last summer, but yes. Working for the City 2 I’m really hyped about because I filmed the best stuff I’ve ever filmed in my life. Really stoked for it to come out. It was such a good crew, great times. Even though it was a bad snow year we made it happen. As for a teaser, I don’t think there’s going to be one, I don’t know why, they have some weird thing about not building hype because they want the video to kind of speak for itself, which is pretty cool, I guess. I wish there was a teaser because I feel like there’s so many people that don’t know about it or what to expect. But it’ll for sure come out and I think it’ll be all online eventually, but not at first. We’ll see I guess.

Who would win in a fight, Jon Stark or Brett Spurr?

Brett Spurr. Just cause he’s bigger.

Jon Stark or Marc Frank Montoya?

Probably MFM. I don’t know if Stark would be very good in a fight, to be honest.

Ok, one more, Jon Stark or Nick Lipton?

I don’t really know him.

He’s scrappy, like Jon.

Alright, I’ll give that one to Jon Stark, gotta give him some credit.


At least he’s easy to identify in pictures. Photo: Erik Hoffman

Minnesota obviously breeds snowboarders. Who do you think is the best snowboarder to come from there, of all time? No pressure.

Oh man that is a hard one. There’s just so many awesome riders. the thing about Minnesota is that everyone has a different set of tricks, different style. My favorite always changes. I guess I’d say Zac Marben or Fronius, maybe. But I’m really influenced by every rider in Minnesota.

What’s the best resort in Minnesota?

Top 3, Mont du Lac, Elm Creek and Trollhaugen.

Isn’t Trollhaugen in Wisconsin?

Yeah, Trollhaugen is technically Wisconsin, Mont du Lac I think is in Wisconsin also. So Elm Creek, my favorite place in MN. It’s where I grew up. It’s where all my homies grew up. Had some of the best times of my life in High School there. I’d always sit in class thinking about when I could get out and snowboard. I’d just think about all day and what tricks I wanted to try. I just couldn’t wait, it’s such a blast. One of the reasons that Elm is so great is just not that many people know about it yet. It’s definitely getting more popular but it’s not as blown out as Hyland is. I like Hyland a lot, don’t get me wrong, but you have to go at certain times. A lot of times it gets super rutted out. It’s always super fun, but you gotta pretty much work your way around the rails and find different ways to hit stuff. Elm Creek is never really too busy. I actually worked Park crew last year and designed a couple new rails there that I was really hyped on. We got this new elbow rail and a down flat. This next year we’re gonna have some type of double side feature thing. I’m gonna keep helping them out and that’s another reason, I kinda work for them and I have for the past four years. I was an instructor, I worked at the rental shop and now I’m on the park crew, which is definitely my favorite job I’ve had there. Elm is just like home, so that’s probably why it’s my favorite. No jumps, which kinda sscks cause I’m starting to like jumps a little bit better, but the rails, so good.

Speaking of the Rental Shop, that’s your crew, right?

Therentalshop.blogspot.com. That started actually because of Make Friends. Me and my friends at Elm Creek always looked up to those guys a lot and they made a blog and we would always check it everyday and we were like, we should make our own blog. So we did that and it’s pretty much the whole time that it’s been going it almost just a way to keep in touch between us friends. We all kinda split to different parts of the country and we all just post stuff from where we are. I feel like people don’t even really look at it, but that doesn’t bother me at all because it’s a good way to keep up with all the stuff that my friends are doing. I know there’s a little bit of a following with kids at Elm Creek but besides that it’s a good way to keep updated. I actually have a tattoo on my foot that’s TRS that I did myself one night with tattoo ink and a safety pin. It hurt really, bad but I’m still down for it.


Another quick reminder the pants are removable. Photo: Jared Levine

Who’s the most badass crew in Minnesota?

House of 1817. They’re the rawest of crews.

I saw on the internet that you won the analog unlikely features contest. What did you design?

Yeah, two years ago. It’s that feature that actually is in a lot of Sunday in the Park episodes, which I’ve been really stoked on. It’s almost like four boxes on top of each other, it’s like stairs on the sides and the back of a rail, so it’s like a rail but you can also slide the boxes on the side or jump up and down and stuff. I guess that’s the best I can explain it. Actually my original design was a little different, it had a pole jam in front of it and they put the pole jam in there for the contest when they flew me out, but they took it out for the regular park set up because they figured it was a little too dangerous. It’s a pretty sketchy feature because the corners of it are razor sharp. One kid got wrecked at the contest the first day they opened it and I actually fucked up my board on it, but it’s a super fun feature. I wish we could do something like that at Elm Creek but can’t really afford that type of thing.

What’s the craziest trick you’ve ever done?

Probably the front board front flip (in the Windells Session 6 edit). I didn’t even know if it was possible, I just kinda sent it. Fell on my head a couple times. That’s probably the craziest thing I’ve ever done just because I wasn’t even sure if it was gonna be possible to do.

Are you afraid of anything? Does snowboarding scare you at all?

It definitely scares me sometimes. Like filming in the streets. Half the spots I went to this year I was terrified, but I’m trying to put together a good part so I just kinda sucked it up. I got broke off a few times but not too bad at all, I was thankful for that. Stark and Brett brought me to some gnarly spots this year that I was definitely really scared of, but I’m actually happy they did cause now it makes all the rails seem not as scary.


Did anyone ever consider he just wanted to match the rails at Windells? Photo: Eric Hoffman

Someone on Yobeat called you a homosexual, I think. How does that make you feel?

Well, Yobeat comments don’t really phase me anymore. There’s so much hate and ridiculous reasoning that I just kinda laugh at everything.

So seriously, what’s up with the pants? Are you gonna keep wearing them?

I was thinking about retiring them after the summer, but I don’t know. I kinda like em. I just wish they were a little bit baggier. They’re a little skinny for me. I’ll probably wear em for a little but longer.

Sponsors, thanks?

Salomon, Analog, Common Apparel, which is actually me and a buddy’s clothing company. Working for the City 2, thanks to Jon and Brett for helping me have an awesome season. Chris Duncan and Sam Duncan too. They were really motivated, our whole crew was. I’m thankful for all my friends who snowboard with me and support me, my family, Summit Boardshop in Minnesota and also Pinewskis boardshop in Minnesota. I’m homies with all the dudes there and they’ve been helping me out a little bit.

  1. nathan

    I am so pumped for WFTC 2. him and colin wilson’s parts are gonna be sick

  2. Max Tokunaga

    yeah jesse!

  3. charlesfarley

    jedi paul sucks farts

  4. Brick

    I love pants

  5. dread anderson

    i want my pants back dammit

  6. the real brooke geery

    jesse paul did some sexual favors for me to do this interview….i still think hes gay though

  7. CornWolf

    zeached that last hardway pretty hard

  8. Dan Spooner

    Mont Du Lac is the truth!!!!

    fuck i can’t wait to ride there this season

  9. TRSMFK

    WHERE THE HELL IS LICK THE CATS HUMP DAY

  10. what about your crazy mom? No thanks to her huh?

  11. LOBSTER TBT

    Minnesota is the shit. two enders were bangers for sure.

  12. jois

    Every caption being about pants was too much.

  13. bitch daddy

    Jake durham hump day

  14. This is gay

    No one cares about your pants… Eat shit.

  15. Super Hater

    I saw him at hood this summer and honestly he came off as a major ass wipe

  16. boardjumpz on some heavy sack. betty rides pants arent even cool on chicks

  17. fux up widdat??? we fitna git dat hump day bitches. tell brook we down 2 lik her kat n e day yo!!!

  18. tristan

    yea Jesse!!

  19. wait

    i thought zac marben was a masshole

  20. this is a good hump day. ” Yobeat comments don’t really phase me anymore.” good to know some people get it.

  21. Minnesotanice

    if you have seen him ride in person, you know how sick he is.

  22. jerm. your still a loser

  23. ble

    im sorry, but im really sick of all this mn skatepark-snowboarding, get your chops there and go ride real muntains…

  24. Bate Nard

    Hell yeah, that fire-cracker rail he designed is so fucking fun. Right arm jesse

  25. TRS TILL I DIE MO FUCKA

  26. Sick Jesse! always a pleasure to shoot n ride with ya!

    Sorry bout the watermarked photo : blowin’ it.

  27. Real MN

    Too bad Minnesota’s scene is actually super cliquey. Snake or be snaked is bred in to every kid riding a tow rope. Not to mention if you normally ride Welch, Afton, or one of the other parks that doesn’t have a rope when you decide to go to one of the other hills it’s like trying to go surfing at a “locals only” beach, you better be on point or you’re the target of enough hate to make you think twice before going back. Minnesota nice doesn’t exist on snow.

  28. haahhahahaahahha

    @Real MN
    That’s not even a little bit true. You just suck.

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