HUMP DAY HAS WORDS WITH SCOTT STEVENS

Edit: RJ Sweet

Scott Stevens rolled through Hood for the first session of summer at we got the chance to sit him down and ask him a bunch of questions he’s probably sick of answering. But never fear, we cut all that nonsense out and just included some of Scott’s deep thoughts on relevance, progression and all the other hot topics in Board World. If you hate reading, the video above should tide you over, but if you really want more, read on.

As a 30-year-old snowboarder, how have you seen snowboarding change in the past couple years and how are you coping with it?

I’ve just been accomplishing stuff I want to do, which is all based through putting it on film, for better or for worse, that’s what it comes down to. Trying to create the one part that feels like something you’re really proud of. And I have put out parts I’m proud of, but nothing that is exactly what I want. You’re just always fighting injuries and trying to stay current, or maybe not stay current, and make that perfect concoction for a part. That’s what I’m trying to do.

So nothing’s different?

Well, not filming with Think Thank is huge. It’s a bad thing because when I film with Think Thank my dynamics with Jesse and Beresford and Geno and all those guys, it was so easy to enjoy it. Now it’s more of a job, but at 30 years old I want it to be a job, too. It was really nice that when I filmed with Jesse I didn’t put pressure on myself like that.

Stevens and Burtner – power couple! Photo via Think Thank

Does the pressure ever get to be too much? 

When it’s time to pull the complete trigger to get out, I will be in the industry. I look around me and if I don’t want to learn anymore, that’s when I stop. But I still want to progress. I went up today, I haven’t snowboarded in like 2 months – which I know most kids out there are saying big whoop – but that’s a lot for me. But I had a blast. I’m scared too, because I think I’m gonna go up and have a bad day and be bummed, but I had an amazing day and didn’t do that much. I fell a lot. I was riding the snowfields up on Palmer and just fell carving and was like, that probably looked pretty dumb. But you just get up and laugh it off.

Does it seem like people come and go faster in snowboarding than they used to? Why do you think that is?

People have seen lot of snowboarding. They’ve seen it all. I’ve seen a lot of it too. It’ll find a way, but right now it’s just people having fun. The features are smaller. Riding a snowboard hasn’t changed. For me, the industry is just basically videos. The videos maybe aren’t as intriguing as they used be, but we also have videos coming though by the minute.

Do you think snowboarding needs to be saved?

(laughs) No. That doesn’t work. There’s sick dudes, and for numbers wise I’m sure it’s down, but it’s good. It’s gonna flip flop back eventually, but I’m not gonna start skiing or anything. What I’m gonna do is keep snowboarding. With snowboarding you have to put in a lot of effort to get tickets, to get to the hill. It’s not just like walking about and going to a free skatepark, so snowboarders have to be pretty smart in the sense you’re always trying to figure out how to do it instead of just going to do it. Snowboarders are really smart in that way.

I think that the fact it’s hard to snowboard is what makes it so awesome.

Yeah, and by hard, I’m not saying to do the tricks, that’s pretty easy, you just have to have energy. If you can feed around the people around you you can do tricks easily. But the act of getting out there, going to a glacier or whatever and actually getting to go snowboarding is hard. For most of the people that like to skateboard as well, it’s easier to just be the best skateboarder you can six months of the year, cause I don’t skate in the winter. That’s snowboarding for me. I think we don’t get enough credit for actually how hard it is and how much money it costs. Lift tickets, gear, gas, whatever.

Well, you’re getting paid now, but do you have a plan to pay for it in the future?

If you asked me that question 3 or 4 years ago, no, I hadn’t saved anything. But lately I have been. My sponsors, Thirtytwo and Capita are taking care of me, but I don’t expect to be paid like I am my whole life. In any type of job. You always get greedy and sometimes I wish I had an agent, but it’s been good. There’s a lot of people up here with nothing in their bank account, just scratching and I’ve been there. Now I’m here and I just have to keep adapting to whatever’s there. But when it is time, it’ll feel good to take off the pressure of having to be good at something. I just dread that I won’t find that video part yet. I just want to have that part that is a well rounded video part that I really respect from afar of myself.

You don’t feel like you’ve made a part you’re proud of?

I have, but I just want the one where I land some tricks that I couldn’t do again. Every year I have the little tricks and the next year I figure out how to tweak them better and look back like, that’s nothing. It’s just about the video part right now, and days like today when there’s no cameras and it’s just fun.

Do you ever just wanna say fuck it?

When I get out there and I have five bad grabs or just do something that I’ve done many times in a row I’m like goddamnit, you get paid to snowboard. Pull it together.

Who are you stoked on right now?

I can still watch stuff from my past and those guys will never not be the guys I’m stoked on. I started snowboarding in 1995, might be kinda old to some of the viewers out there, but there are guys that run companies that are like that’s nothing! But the forum 8 and Mack Dawg movies and Kingpin movies and the Standard movies and Absinthe movies really caught my eye. Transcendence and Vivid really grabbed me and those guys in those videos will always be the guys I’m stoked on. The new guys, some guys are creating and realizing, I really like Ben Ferguson. I love Rav, I just watch his edits and I understand where he’s coming from. Jesse Paul puts up stuff that’s incredible. Of course the Yawgoons, those guys are filming and making it interesting. It’s like they’re putting on a show with those edits. Jed, I love watching Jed and Kuzyuk and Danimals is one of my favorites right now. Burtner, anything Burtner does is amazing. Nicolas Muller, Gigi, and Haakon is still one of my favorites. Jamie Lynn still looks exactly like he did when he was killing it in the 90s. Jeremy Jones, I was skating with him recently and I was like, I can’t backtail a rail at a skatepark, but you can! That’s incredible. I’m sure Otterstrom is out there just shredding harder than I ever could. And my friends. Chris Grenier’s real snow part – I didn’t even know he could snowboard like that. Louif, any Deja Vu dude. Rendered Useless is probably gonna be one of my favorite movies. The Think Thank guys, Mitch Richmond. I could go on forever, I follow it pretty closely. This year I took a little break because I don’t think I was stoked on myself, but when you’re feeling great everything’s better. I think I’ll have a good part in the 32 video, at least, I tried.

Want more words with Scott? Check his recent Buoloco interview.

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