Seth Hill Joins the Hump Day Family

sethhill

When Mt. Hood Meadows hosted Superpark, there was one jump that was especially absurd. It was probably 40 feet tall, 60 feet long and about 10 feet wide. Basically, you would have to point it to clear it, and hope you didn’t drift at all before you made it to the landing, or you would likely crumple into a pile of broken bones in the flat. Most of the riders in attendance spent the week carving out the side of the jump into a wave, but Seth Hill was one of the few who just sent it – spinning like a dreidel, at that. That’s the kind of guy Seth is. He might not be the “coolest” snowboarder, but he isn’t afraid to bust his ass to make it happen, and send it when it counts. Considering he’s spent the last five years traveling the world, snowboarding and getting paid for it, we’d say he’s a success. He also happens to be one of the nicest humans you will ever encounter.

Tell me about breaking your back last summer. What were you thinking when you decided to air over the entire hip and the trail below at High Cascade?

I’m not one of the coolest of our snowboard pro guys, so if you want to get shots in the recap, you kinda have to do something different or unique. I could session the big jump all day any maybe get a clip, or if you do something unique people are like, ok, that was sick, I gotta make sure I film that. I had maxed out the hip, going as big as I could, and I was like, I bet I can clear the hip and then ollie the cat track. That’ll work. I started to build a lip one day, but got busy coaching so I didn’t do it. The last day on hill I was like, I got this. This will be fine. I made a little flat pad on the landing and did it literally 5 times, landed where I wanted to, but kept getting scared and falling to the flat. But I was like, Mia (Lambson), if you get the camera out, I totally got this. She got the camera out, I got a little bit of extra camera boost, and just popped too much. You weigh risks when you’re snowboarding and I never even  saw that as a possibility.

What was recovery like?

Insane, I got mega lucky. I went into surgery the following morning at 6 am, and 24 hours after surgery I was walking up stairs and climbing stuff. I fully claim it as kind of the best case scenario for what happened. If I had broken a leg or done something to my knee, it would be six months in a knee brace or cast, but because I got metal in my back, a week and a half later I was riding my stationary bike every day for like an hour and a half. I couldn’t do anything with impact for three months – so no snowboarding or skateboarding – but I could still like walk and do anything else. I got in good shape, spent a lot of time with my family. It really kinda worked out, I hadn’t had a three month break from snowboarding ever. It was something I think maybe I needed.

Has it changed your approach to hitting jumps at all?

I wish. It’s crazy. Something about snowboarding and how much I’ve done it – day one I was hitting jumps. I still wanna hit jumps, I still wanna spin. Unless somebody brings it up or I do something funky, I never think about it.

You said you’re not one of the cool kids – what do you mean by that? Do you have to be in a certain crew to get shots in the session edits?

Everything has its cliques, ya know. So many of our filmers and riders are East Coast and they work together and ride together in the winter, and the filmers have watched their videos. Me being a contest kid, I’m in a different world. They know I’m a good rider, but they don’t know that I can produce something like that necessarily.

It’s definitely a team effort to get shots. There’s a lot of cohesiveness that goes into making it happen.

It really has been hard over the years with coaches trying to get shots. You have all the diggers and the counselors who, when they’re on the hill, they’re only riding. So not only have they warmed up all morning, but they’ve been hanging out with filmers, not campers and they can kinda shoot the shit. But for us, all morning I’m coaching kids and fully busy. Then after lunch I wanna get some clips they’re already over it or in their zone. We’ve had meetings about it – all the coaches are like, we never get any shots. That’s one of the reasons we’re here to is to help continue our career over the summer. We’re stoked to coach, but that’s another part of snowboarding, getting content and producing.

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Maybe Seth can get into the X Games for Sky surfing! Photo: Chad Otterstrom

You have to do it all now. Those video kids are going to have to start doing contests if they want careers!

I know! It’s so many clips, which is the reason why I made my own movie last year. I was like, ok, I’m not going to the Olympics, I’m kinda too old to try to learn the new crazy corks and all this stuff. How can I stay in this industry and have something to produce for? It was already December and it was too late to even get into a movie project. I didn’t have a budget and none of my sponsors were willing to drop ten grand to put me in a real movie. And I have a secret fear of doing the season edit drop online, because you work your ass off for that and then it’s like cool for a week and then there’s the next video. It’s like damn, that didn’t really carry over as much energy, effort and money that I put into this. So I was like, what can create more of an impact? I’ll make a movie. That’ll be easy.

Was it easy?

(laughs) No. It was so much effort, so much time, and that’s another blessing in disguise with my injury. I spent so much time working on that movie because of my back. If not I would have been at camp all summer and I definitely wouldn’t have had the time to make it what it was. It was pretty cool. I say I put myself through film school. It was about five grand out of my own pocket but I figured in order to get that much love in the video world, spending five grand towards equipment and travel was worth it.

Were you happy with how the movie came out?

Yeah, it was hard because I had to stop myself from riding sometimes and think about what would be more beneficial for the movie. There was that whole section with Gigi and Manuel at Stevens Pass, and those are homies and I would have had a really fun day riding with them and maybe get some photos, but I was like, you know what. Having them as a features in the movie will give my movie that much more credibility. I stayed with Bode and got to hit jumps with him. We’re homies, but I don’t know, if I hadn’t had the movie if I would have really been invited to take part in those.

The whole DIY approach is pretty hot in snowboarding – you kinda beat the trend!

I don’t know if I would go that far. I was sitting with Pat A at Copper Mountain, just shooting the shit over a beer after I fell in a Grand Prix qualifier, and I was like, what the hell am I gonna do? And he was like, just film yourself all winter. Your story is rad, you travel, you’re friends with all these different people and I was like, yeah, I could do that. Then I broke my scapula in early January and had two or three weeks off not snowboarding, so I put together a business plan. Like, let’s just see if this could even work. I have a business degree so I figured I’d see if I could put something together. I pitched it and Red Bull was like, yeah, we’re down, sounds like a cool project.

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One of the times Seth wasn’t spinning a million miles an hour. Photo: Chad Otterstrom

They helped you promote too, right? One of the things I’m noticing in snowboarding right now is that energy drinks can get huge numbers, and it feels good to get big numbers! But do you think that it’s the right audience?

Well, what I made that movie for was not the snowboard industry. I have elements with Bode and Scotty and big names in there that attract the snowboard world, but it’s really a story that all of us snowboarders know. But it was mega eye opening for my mom. When she saw it she was like, wow, it really is a drug! It was much more catered towards that audience and the TV mainstream world, more than just snowboarder world. I think the energy drink put it into that. Red Bull took such a crazy chance with me, so I have to utmost respect for them.

Red Bull does cool shit. You can be mad at energy drinks, but if it’s frivolous and awesome, Red Bull is the only one paying for it, it seems.

Exactly. It is that necessary evil. They have that money that the snowboard industry doesn’t have to help push it. I don’t know if you can really hate on em that much.

I don’t like energy drinks, but at the same time, Red Bull is a marketing agency that happens to fund itself by energy drinks, where as every other marketing agency is just trying to make money from the brands. It’s just a smarter business model.

The energy drink puts anything on a different level. For instance I’m coaching Chris Corning a little bit and he’s kinda stuck in the weird slump that I was. Good at riding, but doesn’t have the outlet to be a face of it or really be in it. He’s just kind of his own solo shredder doing his thing, and I helped get him on Monster. For me, that’s the bump that makes him a premium rider. Once you have that energy drink sponsor people kind of look at you differently. It’s such a weird game because it’s not a good thing. I would rather him not ride for Monster for sure, but if Monster will help, why not?

Having an energy drink sponsor says, “Hey, I can afford to go on a trip.” You have all these snowboard brands that can’t afford to send their riders on trips, or pay photo incentives, so they just go with it. But, if we don’t want to the industry to be funded by sugar water, what’s the answer? It’s almost like there’s a lack of creativity that just says, fuck it, we’ll have the energy drinks pay for. It’s hard.

That is true. It’s kind of the easy answer. At the end of the day, we do what we love, but if we can make some money doing it, why not?

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Not the brightest spot in the sky, but close. Photo: Chad Otterstom

And it’s expensive. How do you pay for your snowboard career if you’re not born with a silver spoon in your mouth or having the sponsors to pay for it? As things are evolving right now we’re in this dip that no snowboard brand is supporting that stuff.

It’s hard to even get paid by your own company now. Unless you have a salary, which you have to be at a certain level, everyone tries to do these incentive contracts and it’s like, how hard is it to see a logo in a backcountry photo? Maybe if it’s a fisheye street rail you can pull it off.

So you have to have logos showing to get your incentive check?

100 percent. My entire Smith contract is based around incentives. Unless I am on the podium at a contest, or I have photos published that you can see my stickers on my board. And it’s not just me standing there with my board, that won’t get published.

Do you get web incentives?

They’re starting to realize the worth in that, it’s something I’ve had to negotiate for sure, because it does more than a photo in a mag, at the end of the day.

Get the full movie on iTunes

A lot of people have a second job. Are you able to snowboard without another job?

I have been! This summer it’s changing. But thanks to Sims, basically, I have been. As soon as I was out of college they put me on a salary and I’ve been there since. I put a lot of respect to them for taking me in. Things are sort of changing now, but I think it’ll change for the better.

Change is inevitable. You can be mad about it or embrace it and make it work for you.

I’m not quite ready to get a job. I’ve lived this life for five years now, so I’m scared that once I take that other job, whether it be bartending or whatever, that I’m going to lose where I sit in the industry, which isn’t even really anywhere. But I’m scared that once I get a job that I won’t be able to do what I do now. You can’t just drop of the dime do whatever, go wherever. I totally take it for granted.

You are a coach at High Cascade, that’s kind of a job.

Yeah, this year I coached one session. I’ve kind transitioned into coaching adult campers, which is 100% different than kids camp. You’re kinda hanging out with your friends, but trying to tell them what to do. It’s like a bunch of kids that are my exact age snowboarding together. Basically all your friends that got 9 to 5 jobs and ride on the weekends just come ride for a whole week together. At kids camp I feel like I make a totally different impact on them. I get to build their fundamentals and how they’re learning, but adults are already set in their ways. So you’re not fixing it – you’re going to ride on your backfoot every time so what else can we do to make your snowboarding better? Kids are more adaptable. They haven’t learned or gained those bad habits yet. At the end of the day, you end up reaching both of them in a different way. I get emails from adult campers who are like, you made my whole year with that one week. Or they learned a backflip that they never would have tried if they hadn’t come to camp, so that part is really cool.

How have you seen the coaching experience change over the years?

Back when I was a camper, pretty much every person on hill, and it was a smaller industry, was a pro or in the industry or worked for this company, or was starting Airblaster. That was happening when you were at Hood. Something cool was happening. Now it just feels like camp’s gotten way bigger, there’s tons of industry and so many people that want to be up here now. Parents want to see what certifications the coaches have, and what level they coach at, and do they coach all winter? It doesn’t necessarily connect the same. Like you’re a really good coach and that’s good for teaching snowboarding, but I think it goes a lot further when you’re learning it from someone who has a place in the industry and then you can follow. It connects differently when you have a pro rider as your coach. Which is what it used to be.

Gabe Taylor was my coach when I was 16. I didn’t really know of him because I was only paying attention to contest stuff. But he was my coach and forever now, he’s been embedded in my mind. I watched him backside 180 over a big jump and from then on I was like, Gabe Taylor, pro snowboarder, done. I’m watching everything the guy does and I’m stoked on it. It’s kinda lost at Hood because there’s so many people now and you’re like, woah, that was cool, that was cool, that was cool and I don’t even know who any of those people are! Now even campers can hang too.

The whole pro snowboarder model has changed a lot. It used to be if you were pro you got a check, a travel budget, incentives, you got to be in the movies. But there were a lot less people. Now it’s democratized a lot, but what’s happened is everyone has to work at lot harder. And unless you’re Travis Rice or Shaun White, you’re working class. Not to say that it’s not still a dream life.

Yeah it’s still snowboarding! But that’s true. There were like 100 pro snowboarders in the whole world and you knew all of them because your only outlet was magazines and videos. In the fall you watched all the movies with all these Hood shots and you only had these many people to watch. Now there’s like 300 pro snowboarders in contests and 300 filming and you can’t even keep em all straight so you just find a few that you’re stoked on and that’s all that you watch. The team stuff is cool though. Something I’ve always been envious in snowboarding is like the Salomon team or the 32 team and these team videos. It’s a cool family. When I learned, snowboarding was this big family of people, and it’s gotten so spread out now that unless you’re part of one of those teams it’s really hard, you gotta stay on the hustle.

It seems like the animosity between the Mt. Hood camps has kinda subsided this summer. After spending a session up there, do you think it’s better or worse?

It’s awesome now. A – It’s awesome for High Cascade because now we get to skate Windells, and that place is insane. But I remember having kid campers three years ago, and a skier would get in their way and they would yell at em. I don’t know if it’s the industry as a whole, but I think camp helps as well. Now you’re just gonna be hanging out with skiers. Yeah, they ride differently than you, but you’re still on the snow and hitting the same exact features. With lap park we’re sharing the same facilities and everyone is just intermingling so I think if you were trying to be opposed to the skiing you don’t even have a place to do it now. It’s just made the whole vibe better. You used to be on the look out to see if Windells guys were coming to poach High Cascade and now I don’t even know, it could totally be someone from Windells and it doesn’t matter. It’s just like a big family now and that’s rad, because in general snowboarding is a big family.

What’s does the future hold for Seth Hill? You’re going to Woodward East to coach dry slope?

Yeah, that was a great opportunity. At this point it’s pretty clear that I’m just trying to hustle and get by and do as many cool things as I can. I was on a chairlift with Benji Farrow in Winter Park and he was like what are you doing this summer? I was like, I can’t do the coaching thing again for a full summer cause it takes your whole summer and I love it, but to write an email after riding with campers all day, or get focused on something, is impossible. So I was planning on just floating around. And he was like you should check out Woodward East. At first I was like, it’s a skate camp, but he told me they have a snowboard dry slope – here’s the guys contact and they always have guests. So I hit him up and they invited me. They have dry slope and some jelly boarding thing. So I am headed there tonight.

Well cool, sounds fun. Wanna end this with some props for your sponsors?

Sims is the only one really paying my bills, but Smith, and I just started working with Adidas and I’m pretty excited about that. Also, Love distribution which is based in Austria and I’m their first US guy, and Phunkshun Face Masks from Colorado.

  1. HHendrix

    yay seth, i think you’re cool. Rad write-up!

  2. Candle

    Seth = real = cool

  3. Seems like a really rad guy. Snowboarding has a long history of keeping certain people on the edge of the cool circle and most of those guys on the edge are the raddest people.

  4. Hondo

    Seth hill is chill. But Enzo who writes for yobeat sometimes is a bitch

  5. baba booey

    you write something ya bitch

  6. Hondo

    Uh I have?

  7. Adam Q

    I had the pleasure of working with Seth at one of his premiers. Def one of the realest, coolest cats in the industry. Stoked to see this write-up!

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