Hump Day Goes to Lungie Land with Deadlung

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After filming two standout parts – opener in State of Mind, closer in Cold World – Deadlung found himself facing sponsor pressure to deliver even more. Unwilling to push himself beyond what he felt humanly possible, he took a step back, and soon found himself without a board sponsor. While he never stopped riding, it seemed the professional snowboard dream may be over for Lung as he neared the dreaded age of 30. However, armed with an iPod nano and a deep passion for sliding on snow, Deadlung kept riding and putting out content, and his career has soldiered on. He joined forces D-Day snowboards and started Tite belts, and is well on his way to achieving his ultimate goal of continuing to snowboard, forever.

Brooke: My first really important question for you is, does D Day pay you in weed?

Deadlung: (laughs) No.

Brooke: Do you wish they did though?

Deadlung: Mmm, no.

Brooke: I actually heard you had to quit smoking weed, after your injury, is that true?

Deadlung:  Well I had to quit smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol…

Brooke: How was that?

Deadlung: It was… well, on top of getting hurt it wasn’t that tight at all… I went like a month without drinking and I went a couple months doing really well with nicotine, well not nicotine, I was chewing nicorette like crazy, but on tobacco I was good. But yeah, it’s a fucking struggle. No cigarettes sucked. That’s one thing to never ever start doing is smoking cigarettes, because it’s the best thing ever, and the worst at the same time. Quitting is so gnarly, you get all dizzy and fatigued and shit and start coughing, I was losing my voice and shit. Appetite goes through the roof though.

 

Once we hit the tree I was like, ‘we’re dead.’ I wasn’t dead

Brooke: When and how did you get hurt?

Deadlung:  I was just like cruising down the cat track on busy ass Martin Luther King holiday weekend, and I was stuck behind this family, so I decided I would just scrub all my speed and cruise down the run off the side of the cat track, instead of continuing down it, cause I wasn’t going to pass them. It was a sketchy zone, so I scrubbed on the right side on my toes and turned to fakie to go across the cat on my toes, facing up the cattrack. I didn’t think anyone was behind me and if there was they were going slow too cause it was a congested area on a sketchy part of the cat track – in a “slow zone,” right before a blind corner… This guy was way behind me for like a quarter mile down the cat track, but I had no idea cause he was that far back. But he was going so fast that he caught up to me super quick. When I went to cruise off the side, he came out of nowhere. I was like going walking speed across the cat track, I wouldn’t have been able to even catch any air off the side, and I didn’t see him. I think if I did and I wasn’t going so slow I could have dodged him. He was going like 35-40 mph probably, cause when he slammed into me it was so fucking loud it made my ears ring. I took him to my chest we flew like 15 feet into a tree. I hit that on my back just right of my spine, and we just exploded. He went down the hill and I guess I bounced back up toward the cat. I ended up hanging off the edge of cat track like 15 feet down from the tree we hit. I couldn’t breathe for like ten fuckin’ minutes and he was screaming like he was dying. I think he thought he broke his femur or something. When he hit me it was so loud and it went all slow motion, washing machine style. I remember thinking it was so bad before we hit the trees and once we hit the tree I was like, ‘we’re dead.’ I wasn’t dead, so I thought he might be dying or paralyzed or something. I just thought this person must be your average beater and isn’t as tough as I am, so I thought he was totally fucked. I’m 6’2” but I only weigh like 162 pounds or some shit, but this guy was like 6’1 and 230 pounds or something. Not fat, but like a big, top heavy,  jock, meathead dude. He just completely fuckin’ destroyed me into a tree. We traveled like 30 feet from impact to where we ended up. Ski patrol showed up with the toboggans and they had some oxygen for me. I think I was able to unstrap and climb back up on the cat like 15 minutes later and the fact that I very painfully stood myself up made me feel tough as fuck. Like, ‘what, nothing can stop me!’ Haha. I had to take the toboggan down to the bottom to the clinic.

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The Deadlung D-Day graphic by Dave Doman

Brooke: Crazy. so what happened to you?

Deadlung: I collapsed my lung. It also got bruised and lacerated. I lacerated my liver, and kidney, bruised a bunch of my ribs on the front and the back, bruised my sternum pretty bad, and fucked up my rotator cuff pretty bad. My neck and my back weren’t stoked either. When I went to physical therapy the dude had to pop my pelvis back into place. He said I was in the same condition as someone that got in a super-bad car accident. On my follow up at the hospital they said I lost about an eighth of my kidney, which I think gave me high blood pressure. I guess that’s fairly common from bad kidney trauma. I usually check it when I go to the grocery store. It’s pre-hypertension but I gotta make sure it doesn’t go higher or I’ll need to take meds, I guess. I also had a hard time sleeping and staying asleep. I thought about that impact noise a lot, and replayed the scene over and over in my head. I was super scared driving on the freeway and riding down the hill. My shadow would scare me all the time when I was shredding. Definitely a good amount of mental trauma to go with the physical, and I’m still working through it all so I can be all good this winter, trying to stay on my exercises and shit.

Brooke: It was at Snowbird?

Deadlung: Yeah. When I was in the clinic there they were like, ‘where does it hurt?’ I said ‘everywhere on my right side.’ Front or back?’ Everywhere, front, inside, back, all the way through me.’ They did some X-rays and nothing was broken, but then I started coughing up blood and they were like ‘Ok, you’re taking an ambulance down the canyon.’ I guess that explained the hurting everywhere part. I guess the other guy walked out of the clinic before I was done and I left in ambulance. When I got to the hospital I found out my injury list after a CAT scan and all that shit. I had to spend the night there to be monitored. I was tripping. My lady went and got me movies to watch, and food and stuff, but they wouldn’t let me eat anyways. I tried to sleep a bit. They hooked me up with some pain relief and a nicotine patch in there. It helped.

Brooke: What’s Snowbird like? You definitely don’t hear as much about it as some of the other resorts in Utah like Park City or Brighton. 

Deadlung: Yeah, they just don’t really cater to snowboarders much at all. They don’t really need to, it’s like a ski and summer resort, you know? There’s lots of lodging there and shit like that, they are mainly just going for families to get up there on vacation, more-so than hooking snowboarders up. It’s always been a little more expensive than the other resorts, I think cause of the tram and the amenities and all that. There’s also not really a scene there… there is, but it’s not like an industry-style “scene” where everyone looks like their favorite pro. I can go up there and nobody knows who I am really, and you don’t get looked up from head to toe, checkin’ out your new shit or whatever. It’s almost like there’s no snowboard scene there, it’s just a bunch of locs drinking beer on the plaza being super stoked on nature and shit. Haha. Hella cool people though. Lots of bird lifers.

Brooke: Yeah, that sounds kind of nice. I’ve been to snowbird a couple times with my family and it’s sick.

Deadlung: Yeah it’s so fun…natural skatepark the whole way down Chips run, non-stop wall hits, cat tracks and rollers.

Brooke: So let’s talk about Tite. Did you start it because you were sick of looking at shoelace-belt man thongs?

Deadlung: I got this DC belt, like, six years ago from Bitner cause he rode for DC, and a couple homies worked for them. So there were these stretchy belts floating around and we all wore them. Then he got a box of these shoelace belts from Haldor’s company and I was like ‘What? There is a belt company?  I wanna start a stretchy belt company!’ We were all amped on the stretchy belts. I was fucking around with name and thought  ‘Tite.’ I thought Tite Belts would be funny cause your belt has to be tight, and all that. Is your belt Tite? My belt is hella Tite! It was just this joke for like five years that would get mentioned. Then somebody was like ‘remember that idea? It might be a good time to do that right now, as far the industry, accessories are sweet.’ So, it just kinda became a reality and I just started drawing. Fucking with a logo. I was writing it over and over for like two weeks, trying to figure out the best way to write it. I have all these old sketches. I kept a stack of paper. I used chisel tip king size sharpie. I finally wrote one I liked and then put it on the computer and my friend Dave Doman helped me perfect it. He’s good on the computer so I gave him part of the company. He’s a sick artist and designer, and we have worked on shit together for over 10 years. We are a good team. We started the SFK! thing together, it stands for Stupid Fuckin Kids!  I came up with the name. It was for this video we made… a super-sick funny homie skate and snowboard video with boobs, filmed off of the screen of nudie films in-between shots. Mad homies and the crew…  kinda just grew and everyone around us were claiming SFK. That was our crew. It got heavy. We made three videos people may never see!

Brooke: Sick.

Deadlung:  The one thing about Tite is I want it to work out to still be in snowboarding, and snowboard, and have it make sense for me to be snowboarding. If I shred a bunch, that’s one more reason to support the brand. If you know the behind the scenes of it you know what’s up. At the Agenda Trade Show in New York people were stoked on it, but I didn’t have to tell them that I have this crazy snowboard team, and they don’t have to know that I’m a pro snowboarder or care what I look like snowboarding. They were just down with the logo and the brand. Snowboarding didn’t have to sell it. But then in the inside world, in the snowboard industry, I feel like people are more likely to want to represent or support your brand if it’s going back into you actually snowboarding, not partying. Like [they’ll support it] if it’s gonna allow me to keep snowboarding. Before, I did have this party image where if I had started a brand back then, people would have been like ‘oh yeah, let’s fucking support that brand so Deadlung can just party his life away.’  It’s like, no, that’s not what it’s going towards now. Tite isn’t going towards drugs and bar tabs and shit, it’s gonna go towards me going snowboarding cause thats all I really care about. Like supporting Tite is promoting a healthy lifestyle for me, and will bring hella nollies in the future.

Brooke: And do you have a pretty Tite team too, right?

Deadlung:  The team is the best team ever. My whole team I assembled with text messages – Like ‘Yo I’m gonna start this brand, do you wanna ride for it?’ I think that was before I even had the logo. Then I started showing homies the logo or whatever and yeah, fucking Bradshaw’s down, Leblanc’s down, this guy is down. I’d ask, ‘Do you wanna ride for my new belt company Tite?’ And people were like, ‘Duh, is that even a fucking question?’ So I’m like, ‘Who else? Who else?’ Shit, the list is getting big. How many people? 22? Alright, there are all my favorite snowboarders right there, supporting my brand. I was super stoked to get all that support from the homies and have it be so easy to build the illest team in the history of snowboarding.

Brooke: What happened between you and Technine? How did your relationship end?

Deadlung: Um, I mean, I don’t really know the full story except that they got new investors. They joined with a couple different brands. There was meetings had. I filmed half a part that year and they thought I just wasn’t into it anymore. But the year before I had last part, and the year before that I had first part, so I was like ‘Fuck, I need to chill for a second.’ You know, learn some new tricks instead of just scaring myself. I wanted to progress trick wise, but its hard on the filming level. I was riding every single day still, but it snowed so much that year I was just riding powder at Snowbird all year. I still filmed some stuff I was proud of though.

And then, I don’t know. Yeah, I got fully fired from Tech Nine. I didn’t think it was gonna happen after all the work I put in for them in previous years. people still affiliate me with Tech Nine. Last year at Hot Dawgz and Handrails I went to fuck with Bradshaw at the Tech Nine booth and get his autograph. I ended up signing shit for kids there saying shit about my parts in the Tech Nine videos.

Brooke: Aww.

Deadlung: I was like, well, ‘hey I’ll take a pay cut for not producing as much this last year,’ but they were like ‘we can’t even do that.’ Internally they didn’t have a choice really. I think that the T9 dudes involved were fighting for me, but in these meetings with people from the other brands, the investors picked up saying shit about mini-shred, this and that. I think one of my least favorite snowboarders of all time was in that meeting not rooting for me. I’m glad he wasn’t stoked on me, but like I said, I don’t really know.

Brooke: Right.

Deadlung: And, a fucking new video guy that came in… he tried to turn it into this fucking movie. Like it’s a video man, it’s not a movie. You wanna make a movie, go make a fucking movie, you know? It’s a snowboarding video. It doesn’t have a plot. I didn’t like filming with him so I wasn’t filming that much. I didn’t think I had to film that much every single year, you know? I figured content lasts a long time. Not in snowboarding I guess… but I don’t know. I was owed a bunch of money and shit when I got fired.  So I mean, that’s what it is to be a pro snowboarder. To be owed money, basically.

A fucking new video guy that came in… he tried to turn it into this fucking movie. Like it’s a video man, it’s not a movie. You wanna make a movie, go make a fucking movie, you know? It’s a snowboarding video. It doesn’t have a plot.

Brooke: Did it make you want to quit snowboarding?

Deadlung: No, that will never happen. I was just like, ‘Well, this isn’t really working.’ I got on this other company for a fraction of the little amount that I was getting before. I mean, I tried, but I didn’t really have any confidence anymore. I just didn’t really think people wanted to see me snowboard much, so I was just like ‘fuck, whatever.’ But then as the years went on, I was like ‘okay, there was more of a demand to see me snowboard once I didn’t give them too much content.’ I thought I was kind of a novelty with my different-style tricks. But then later realized people genuinely wanted to watch me do tricks, and it wasn’t just a mean joke. Haha. J2 told me actually, he said, ‘don’t work too hard, you might get fired.’ He maxed out his photo incentive, which was like $10,000 or something ridiculous, two years in a row, and then got fired. Like, he obviously did what they wanted him to do, so… That’s basically what happened to me. I gave them too much and they expected that fucking every year. I’m not that type of person. I did some things I was very proud of and everything beyond. I didn’t want to just one-down myself just to get shots. Like, why would I board slide that kinked rail? I already boardslid something twice as big and gnarly the year before. Why would I jump off that? I already ollied a few things way bigger. I just wanted to do new shit. And if anything, filming was almost holding back my progression, as far as becoming a better snowboarder and learning new shit. You know? Trying to learn new tricks on scales like that is hard.

Brooke: It seems like with that side of snowboarding, staying alive is what it’s turned into and if that’s what you want to do, do it. But it’s hard to maintain that and continue to progress your career.

Deadlung: Yeah. I feel like I’m better at snowboarding now than I’ve ever been. It feels better, to me it looks better than my older shit. Looking back on old parts there was stuff  I did back then where I like the way it looked, but then there was also stuff where it’s like ‘shit, if I did that now it would look twice as good.’  I didn’t want to stop snowboarding, that’s for sure, because I didn’t really start snowboarding professionally ’til I was like 21.  I was getting older and had to get a job and shit. How am I gonna work if I wanna snowboard every single day of my life, you know? So it was just basically by any means necessary. All I wanted to do is snowboard. When the funds stopped coming in I moved back in with my parents because I don’t give a fuck about anything except being able to snowboard. Yeah, I could work a job, pay my friend rent at his house, snowboard three or four days a week, but fuck that, that’s not enough for me. I have to live close to the mountains and be able to go shred every day I want. Because like I said, I don’t really give a fuck about anything besides snowboarding.

Brooke: How’s living with your parents?  Are mom and dad lung cool?

Deadlung: Dad lung, yes he’s very cool. Mamma lung, she’s very cool as well. She’s worked at Snowbird for 25+ years… Something like that, so I basically just grew up there. I’d go up to work with her at like 7:30 in the morning, shred all day and get quarters to go play in the arcade after snowboarding and wait for her till 4 or 5. There were actually a couple snowboard shops up there that played snowboard videos and I’d hang out at them. The homies in the shop were super cool to me and shit and would take care of me. My parents were the type of people who took me out of school when it snowed, which back in the day was a lot. Even in elementary school, it was like, ‘oh it snowed, my dad is taking me to Snowbird.’ I would go ski pow instead of going to school.

Brooke: Yeah that’s awesome, my parents are the same way. Ski bums!

Deadlung: I didn’t have to go to school if it snowed a lot, and then in high school I just lined up my last class of the day, cause I think we had four classes and lunch or something. So I made sure I had last lunch, then my last class was something I could make up with a packet or summer school, and I just wouldn’t go to that class for the entire trimester. I was like, English? I’m gonna do that on my own. I’m going shredding at 12:30. Fuck going to school all day, that’s a waste of a day. So even in high school I did it in a smart way where I made sure my last class was something I could make up super easy so I could just shred.

Brooke: Did you graduate?

Deadlung: Yeah. For sure. But I didn’t walk with my class, cause I didn’t wanna walk. I left this one packet lingering till like the day after everyone walked and then I was like here you go, I’m done. It just seemed like such a waste of a day to walk.

Brooke: Absolutely. Do you ever regret not going to college and taking a more traditional path?

Deadlung: Not really. I got a life scholarship through being a pro snowboarder. You get all these years to learn shit that you’re into, you know? I’ve learned a lot in the last like 12 or however fucking many years it’s been. The last job I had before I started making money shredding I just left mid- shift and didn’t say shit… I’ve had a couple random jobs here and there since. I’ve been working at a golf course now to play free golf and have a little extra spending money. I did take two classes at community college, but I didn’t even check to see if I passed those classes.

Brooke: So, are you able to make money through snowboarding still?

Deadlung: Yeah, I get some money from D-Day

Brooke: Cool. What’s it like working with Mike Ranquet and Chris Roach? They seem like they must be a trip.

Deadlung: Aw dude, it’s so sick. I remember when I walked into a homey’s house, Roach was in town, and I went over to meet him. He was just like fucking so NorCal. He doesn’t have long bleached hair, but the whole time I was talking to him I could just picture this bleached long hair on him. And sunglasses. Then we rode Snowbird for like two weeks. It snowed like every other day, so I just shredded with Roach. And then Ranquet became involved this last summer. I’d met him a couple times. He worked for Electric. When we reunited, we were instant homies. When he was in town this past year, me and him snowboarded 26 days in a row at Snowbird. No days off.  He counted them and I was like really? I haven’t taken a break in that long?  I snowboard a lot. I did way too soon after my injury. It hurt my insides so bad but I dealt with it cause I wanted to make turns. Everything I did, I’d get this stomach ache though. It was gnarly. Then two months after the injury I got another check up and the doctor was just like, ‘you are already snowboarding?’ I was like ‘Yeah, for a couple weeks now, painfully. Is that bad?’ He said, ‘well it doesn’t really slow down the healing, but your organs are bouncing around in this little thin sack.’ I guess it wasn’t good. I guess your organs have just like this tiny thin bag around ’em so when I was going down the hill it was just painful… my kidney got smashed from getting hit, but it still re-grew to its normal shape, an eighth of it died though.

Brooke: Oh no, should we call you dead kidney?

Deadlung: People say shit like you only need one kidney, of course, but kidney trauma can give you high blood pressure and shit. I don’t think I’ve ever had high blood pressure and I kind of do now.

Brooke: God, that’s gnarly. Are you better now? Did the doctors clear you to snowboard?

Deadlung: Um, yeah, I mean, I took like a month and a half off, and I rode for like three months maybe. The first month of that was like super mellow, painful riding. But I never ended up getting the confidence back in my body. Landing really hard or jumping to flat just seemed like my insides would explode. Even though it might have just been mental, my body really wasn’t ready. So this summer I’ve basically been trying to get my mind ready so I can mentally do harder stuff. Hood was fun, and I did some tricks up there, and I felt really good on my feet, but with an I-don’t-want-to-fall type of mentality still. The thing is, even when I’m trying hard or riding a little gnarlier, I don’t really fall that much anyways. I do here or there, but I have good days without falling ever. It’s something that I actually think about now though, like, ‘fuck I don’t wanna fall or fall like this because my shoulder is still jacked and my core is still weak.’ I mean, yeah. I guess they never had to clear me to snowboard, but…

Brooke: I always really liked Lungie Land. You were kinda one of the pioneers of the web series it seems like. Do you have plans to keep that going?

Deadlung: Yeah, I didn’t even really think about it for about a year after making like 39 of them. Then in the summer I made Volume 40 finally and people were hyped I brought it back.  Snowboarder Mag asked me to make them, cause I hadn’t made one in like a year, then made Episode 40. It was just like stuff that I found on my phone from that year. They were like, ‘what can we do to bring it back, like what do you need?’ I was like ‘what can you do? Are you talking about money? For Lungie Land?’  And they were like, ‘yeah,’ and I’m like, ‘Well shit, I could probably make a few then!’

Brooke: It’s amazing what money accomplishes.

Deadlung: So I did a series exclusively with them, like eight episodes. I called it Chapter Two. So Chapter Two, Volume Eight was the 48th episode, and then last year I just did one long one called Lungie Land, The Mixtape, so then that was episode 49. Then I just did volume 50 and 51 for this last year, and they hooked me up for those too. I made 52 just recently from our Mount Hood trip. I just finished that, and that is going on their site in the next month or so, whenever they have a pocket. I sprung it on them out of the blue so they are finding a slot for it and gonna hook me up again. I made the last three edits on my phone.. The first 30 or however many, maybe 26, I’m not too sure, were all filmed on an iPod. This one right here, I got it in the sound dock.

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The original iPod: Lungie land, good herbs, SFK, passion everyday, Bozwreck.

Brooke: Awesome, classic.

Deadlung: It says, Lungie Land… passion every day. And yup, just filmed with this little guy. That’s where I started. I saw on the Apple site that they had a camera built into the next iPod Nano and I was like “Holy shit a camera I can fit in my pocket” and it was only like $150 or something! ‘Sick, I’m just gonna start filming everything in that thermal shit.’ It was fun. I was making like one a week for a while.

Brooke: Phone cameras are amazing. It’s crazy how far technology has come.

Deadlung: I finally stepped it up to using a GoPro at the end of this last year. Ranquet gave me one of his that he said was from GoPro for me. I didn’t get it till I was in Japan, so I started messing around with it and the footy goes straight to your phone. I can film it with the GoPro, put it on my phone, and edit it on my phone with iMovie. So I can do it whenever I feel like it without it touching the computer until I have to upload it to Vimeo. I gotta get that 6 Plus though. I’m on my phone so much.

Brooke: Oh the big one? You could just get a tablet, iPhone mega.

Deadlung: They’re not too big, I put my friend’s in my pocket for like 20 minutes, walked around and it’s fine. But I can snowboard with so much shit in my pants pockets so it’s all good. Some people can’t even put a dollar bill in their pocket and ride.

Brooke: Have you considered going straight to Instagram? Screw the worldwide web all together?

Deadlung: Well, I put a lot of stuff on Instagram. Most of the tricks are on there. I don’t know if it’s too much, if I should save stuff, but I was talking to Scott Stevens about it. The shots that I’m real stoked on that are really good tricks, like should I be saving this for a Lungie Land? But Instagram is easy, you get little pieces. It’s kind of like a teaser the whole way along, and then you can turn it into a full edit with its own feel.

Brooke: I don’t think saving stuff makes sense anymore, personally.

Deadlung: All of the best shit gets posted anyways, and the teasers show most of the best anyway. So then you go watch it and it’s like well there’s those like five really good shots that were already on Instagram and the rest is like the stuff that’s not quite as good. So you see the best shit first anyways. The little insta edits, you only have 15 seconds, you can’t fit everything from that day in there.

Brooke: Yeah it’s hard to tell a story on Instagram.

Deadlung: Yeah. I think it’s cool though. I don’t see why not, it’s almost like constant coverage, especially if you snowboard every day. It’s not that hard just to get like one clip –  like,  ‘oh hey you should film this real quick!’

Brooke: Do you think filming snowboarding makes snowboarding more fun for you?

Deadlung: Not always. I kinda do it on hard, shitty days really. Like days that people will be like ‘Okay yeah, I’ll film that. I don’t want to hit this crusty shit.’ Then I don’t feel bad for having a homie film. I like to film people too. It seems like the best days are when shit doesn’t get filmed, because everybody just shreds and hits all the jumps instead of filming each other.

Brooke: You’re already having too much fun to pull out the camera.

Deadlung: Yeah. But it can make it more fun for sure. It’s like instant gratification, looking at something. Also, I think it helps figure out the way you like to do tricks, like the way it feels, but then you have to look at the way it looks too. I think it helps sometimes.  Like, ‘shit we gotta get this,’ or ‘let me film you doing this, do a slash or whatever.’ That shit’s cool. But I try to make them good too. Not, ‘look I went snowboarding’ but ‘look I went snowboarding and I did something I’m stoked on.’ It’s kinda like not what you do, it’s how you do it. And golf is like it’s the opposite, it’s not how, it’s how many.

Brooke: Explain.

Deadlung: Well in golf, it’s how many strokes. It doesn’t matter how you got it into the hole, you know if you hit 3 ugly shots and make your putt, cool. But then if some guys hits some amazing fucking shot and 3 putts, it’s the same thing on the scorecard. It’s not how, it’s how many… In snowboarding it’s like it’s not what, it’s how.  So I try to make it quality, where I approve instead of just putting out tons of bullshit. I’m not gonna make an edit of me like carving down a groom trail or something. I want it to be a good trick.

Brooke: Are you saying that filming carving isn’t legit?

Deadlung: I’m not saying that, I’m just saying your not gonna see me do that all the time. My first couple years riding were all about making sweet carves and riding down black diamonds. So it’s not really new. I feel kinda dorky trying to style a sick carve out. Haha. I’ve know how to do that forever.

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Brooke: How do you feel about the #weedistite movement?

Deadlung: What’s that?

Brooke:  It’s a hash tag. Someone is probably trying to sell T-shirts, too.

Deadlung: Yeah my friend Bryce, he’s from Laguna, lives in Colorado, he said something like, “hey you know that quote from that movie?’ It’s from that movie The End, and Jonah Hill is like ‘Oh yeah, weed is tight, weed it tight.’ It’s just like one quote from a movie… he may even be the one that had the first hash tag.

Brooke: Do you think Utah will ever legalize it?

Deadlung: I don’t know. I used to think it would be the last state that ever would, but we’re like pretty much surrounded. Every state around us is getting pretty close, you know. They do the synthetic form for like people with cancer here, its called marinol, it’s a little round green pill. They’ve been talking about it and it seems more likely now then it did before, like even last year. I was thinking it would be the last of the 50, even those Southern states, probably. But we will hopefully before the close minded South.

Brooke: Yeah they’re gonna take a while. They’re still fighting against gay people and abortion down there.

Deadlung: I was just gonna say, full on bigot country.

Brooke: There’s still dry counties in Alabama where you’re not allowed to drink. Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, I mean the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennessee is in a dry county, so they make whiskey but you can’t buy it there.

Deadlung: Damn.

Brooke: The South is crazy. It’s like they’re still fighting the civil war. I think Utah’s got the Mormon population that affects a lot of the politics.

Deadlung: Yeah, I mean I don’t really care about that shit, it’s like it’s always been illegal. I don’t think even if it was legal I would like to go get it at the store. I don’t think I would because it would be way more expensive than free.

Brooke: Well free is free, but being able to go to the store and buy weed is the best thing ever. Because it’s not like you just get whatever they have. It’s like here’s our menu, here’s like 60 different kinds of weed and it tells you the THC and CBD levels, and then you can get candy, you can get cookies – I got these weed e-cigs called juju joints, preloaded and they’re so easy. But I actually voted against it in Oregon the first time around, cause I was like fuck that get the government out of my weed!

Deadlung:  It’s bad for the growers, some of them.  I went to a store in Colorado and you didn’t have to have the medical card, like you can just walk in with your ID and grab some shit, but there’s like a separate shelf of higher grade you had to have the card for. If I’m going into a store to get it I’m getting the best shit. I don’t smoke garbage. I’d almost rather not smoke. Like I’ll taste it, someone will pass me something and I’ll be like ‘Uhhh here you go, I don’t really want anymore of that.’ Full on snob.

Brooke: That’s true. It’s crazy how different it is. It seems like there’s sort of a conflict in snowboarding right now  – like the whole Burton thing  – where people are like mad about these people doing coke and their putting weed on their Instagram, but  snowboarding has always been a party culture, right?

Deadlung: Yeah, that’s snowboarding. I mean especially once you start like learning about the industry. One of the things you learn about is tons of people fucking do coke. But that was a long time ago and I don’t know how it is these days because I’m not really like in any sort of party scene or shit like, that you know? I’m not 25 anymore.

Brooke: Totally, and a lot of people aren’t 25 anymore. Now we’re starting to see the next generation come up with people’s kids and it’s like these people who grew up partying and doing blow and being bad are now like ‘oh, my kids don’t need to see that!’ It’s a tough one.

Deadlung:  People just shouldn’t be able to pinpoint you as that, you know? Like you shouldn’t know that about a person unless you really know them.

Brooke: Are you cool with kids knowing you smoke weed?

Deadlung:  I mean it’s just a given, I don’t like promote it as much anymore. It just got old to me, it’s like it’s obvious. There’s plenty of people who just post photos of their dab rigs and shit, like that’s cool. I kinda did it for a while because I thought it was funny, but it just wasn’t as funny to me anymore. I don’t need to glamorize it. I think maybe I wasn’t drinking as much anymore, so I wasn’t like ‘ah yeah check me out! I drink beer and I smoke weed bro, like check me out!’ One of the last Lungie Lands, in the intro, I’m like chugging this giant Pellegrino. I put it up in the camera like I’m like flossin’ a beer or something, but it’s just Pellegrino. So as far as promoting that, I mean, I definitely have my opinions about partying too much and that kind of shit. Definitely have fun, I still have fun, but I don’t think it’s something that kids need to think is the coolest thing ever because it can really fuck you up. It can really slow you down. You keep doing that all the time, and all of the sudden you’re 30 and you’re like ‘fuck, it’s just too much to handle.’ It’ll make you go crazy if you let it.

Brooke: Absolutely. There’s a reason they say drugs are bad.

Deadlung:  Yeah, people seem so happy partying but they’re actually miserable at the same time, so I don’t know. If it doesn’t completely fuck your life up –  if you can use it to your advantage and use it for creativity or innovating things or ideas you know – then that’s cool. There’s people that are grateful alcoholics and they do this or that better with some drinks, but as far as partying all the fucking time, that’s not gonna help you. It’s not gonna help you get ahead in life if you fucking drink way too much and party too much and do too many drugs. Some people can do it, but I don’t think they’ll do anything to the full potential that they could do it. It makes life harder, basically. It’s like if you want your life to be even harder then it already is, then become an alcoholic.

Brooke: Yeah it’s when you start using alcohol to make bad things better you get into trouble – you can’t fix things with alcohol. You can make good things better with drugs or alcohol, but if you have problems, drugs and alcohol are definitely not the solution. At least that’s my take on it.

Deadlung:  I’m talking to the kids here. Kids, have fun when you’re young, but you gotta like fuckin’ reel it in as you get a little older, you know. There’s this thing, this RZA quote, it says something like, ‘the drunken Buddha, you can drink yourself into enlightenment, but the side effect of whatever your doing is gonna determine how long you enjoy your enlightenment.’  If you overuse it, then you’re not gonna be enlightened anymore you’re just gonna get beyond that point and not even be able to fuckin’ get happy, you know?

Brooke: Yep. So, how old are you?

Deadlung:  32.

Brooke: I like being in my 30s. I think it’s great – you got your shit figured out more and you’re still young, you’ve still got your health and your body’s good.

Deadlung:  Yeah, sure. When I turned 30, that night I was just like screaming at people at the bar and friends like ‘I’m fucking 30 bitch! I made it! I’m fucking 30! Hell yeah! I can act smarter than everybody now!’ Like, I’ve been around so long dude, I know what’s up. Haha

Brooke: And what happens when you’re 40?

Deadlung:  I don’t know. Keep shredding. That’s what I’ve always thought about too, is body preservation. Like, I could completely destroy myself, and it’s fun, but I also wanna be able to snowboard when I’m 50, and 60, and like even older you know. There’s guys that are 75, 80 on the hill fucking skiing down. I wanna be that dude, shredding when I’m 80. I don’t wanna fucking not be able to snowboard, so I’m trying to preserve my body for as long as I can so I can be able to shred forever.

Brooke: Definitely. Got some shout outs and thanks for me?

Deadlung:  Shout-out and thanks to my girlfriend for dealing with all my shit, Ranquet, Roach and Nico at D-Day for continuing to support me doing what I love most. Everyone involved in Tite with me, the whole Tite team for having my back to help me get this thing started, especially Bennee, Bitner, Bradshaw, Doman, Casey, and Lucas Magoon, for being good friends over the many years, and the mutual respect we have and inspiration. Thanks to anyone that’s ever filmed me or taken a photo of me. Thanks to dad lung and momma lung for supporting my life and being super cool. Thanks to everyone that likes to watch me snowboard still.

 

  1. What the fuck

    Yo Deadlung, that may be some DL shit about the bird but there is a scene. Lots of great riders maybe you’re just not aware of them. Big mountain team pumps out some young guns, local kids turn the cirque into a play ground. Connect to some people out of your riding circle you might meet some cool cats.

  2. basshole

    i think he acknowledged that there are people who rip there and are bird lifers, he just meant there’s not people who are concerned with clothing trends and who’s cool and what tricks are wack. he never said that there weren’t great riders there. like, at snowbird if it’s a pow day, everyone’s fuckin riding pow. unlike at brighton, where you see kids in coaches jackets and no eyewear hitting rails when there’s a foot of fresh. i love brighton as much as lung loves the bird, but i have to admit that the snowboard scene there often induces a lot of eye rolling and head shaking.

  3. What the fuck. You're right

    I see what you’re saying. Still the Bird has a lot of really sick riders that are just really down low about it.

  4. pluthdawg420

    who fucking cares?

  5. pluthdawg420

    that ruled by the way. Deadlung, you are a legend!! Very inspirational. Shred forever!!

  6. Poop

    Lemme guess, his “least favorite snowboarder of all time” is MFM?

  7. tite breh

    Tarquin Robin’s stylin ass motha f**cka! Lung showin ya’ll young guns how to keep snowboarding core with the skate style. Stop watching edits all day and you’ll find your own unique style. #soulboardersnshit

  8. Big Baby Jesus

    First person I thought was MFM as well. I’m sure he’s probably a little two faced and out for himself. I’m pretty sure a few years ago his site was offering a MLM scheme for people to get in on. It’s probably doing as well as The Block did.

  9. charles.

    MFM is the man. he said “people from other brands”… what were the other brands? nomis??…!! i could see it being simon. nomis spelled backwards haha

  10. TROOF

    THAT NOLLIE METHOD TO REWIND 270 IS TITE.

  11. chet

    I 100% agree with him on what he said about giving your money to brands owned by people with shitty images/reputations, Exactly why I didnt buy a Bozwreck board. Lung gets it

  12. Hmmm

    Nice work yobeat. I respect deadlung a lot now. Have to check out his web series.

  13. dove

    skiers, man.

  14. Birdrider

    How do you claim to have a crew that rides the Bird and have never crossed paths with Deadlung and Crew. There’s small niche of people that ride the bird and they usually send it so hard it’s not even comparable with normal shit. I mean Bitner, BJ and Eric Leines, Beanne and others will just roll through and just throw down. There’s always that type of stuff going on at the bird but no one promotes it. No one is claiming it. It’s just there and when you see it you get hooked and become a lifer. Side hits and cat tracks for life.

  15. Come on seriously

    This is even worse than the Ron and Dangy thing… Everything Deadlung says is like “Oh smoking is so cool and weed is the best thing ever”….

  16. Come on seriously

    Just lost all my respect towards him (as if I ever had some)

  17. Yo

    I ride at the bird as much as I can and I agree with you, except your first part of your comment. Everyone sees Deadlung up there they just don’t wanna be that “annoying fan” bugging him while he’s waiting in the tram line….duh

  18. Yo

    @come on seriously

    You obviously instantly are hating and didn’t read the interview…

  19. Deadlung

    Holler at me if you see me at the bird. I like it.

  20. Prepared you anus

    I’m going to holler at you like you’ve never been hollered at before. Every fucking tram line. Get ready.

  21. jjjames

    Uh, ok then, homo.

  22. First of all. Who in their right mind would read this whole thing? Fuck that. Second, fuck everything about this. Go fucking snowboarding, don’t get caught up in anyone else’s shit but yours. Idiots.

  23. There’s like 20 mins of reading. All that had to be said was. Some asshole hit me. I got fucked up. Now I try and say I’m core yet I’m making money on tons of people selling “snowboarding” belts. Is this real?

  24. poop

    ok MFM…

  25. People like you are the worst thing in snowboarding

    Who in their right mind? Well, if you can conclude that’s all he said then you must you must have read it all yourself. Maybe if you spent less time talking about snowboarding and more time not being fucking ignorant you’d put that together and be able to read beyond a first grade pace.

  26. Leave a Reply

    Pretty sure most people with at least half a brain read that in 10 minutes. What exactly is not core about a snowboarder starting a snowboard based brand? Did you happen to see the illustrious roster of riders down with Tite?

    Oh, and don’t tell people to ‘just go fucking snowboard’ when it’s September, you fucking moron 😀

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