{"id":5973,"date":"2009-07-22T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2009-07-22T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yobeat.com\/?p=5973"},"modified":"2020-11-19T15:51:40","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T20:51:40","slug":"hump-day-goes-jersey-with-shayne-posposil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brookegeery.com\/?p=5973","title":{"rendered":"Hump Day Goes Jersey with Shayne Pospisil"},"content":{"rendered":"\t

Archives<\/h1>\t\t

\"shaneposposil1-web1\"<\/p>\n

Just hanging out in his snowboard pants and flip flops. Obviously. Photo: Souney<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

As far as most snowboarders today are concerned, snowboarding has no past. And it doesn\u2019t need to. Right now, riding with your friends and doing your thing is the best snowboarding has ever been. Ever. But allow me to dwell on the past for a minute, because it is when I first came across Shayne Pospisil. It was the late 90s and Okemo, VT was the place to be. With one of the best pipes and parks in Vermont, it was home to tons of riders who were all sure to be big the next big thing, including some Jersey imports such as Shayne. Of course, a few years later, most of the riders who we all thought were going to change the world had faded away. But Shayne got out when the getting was good, moved to Mammoth, and now turns up from time to time to win big money purses, hit enormous jumps, and of course, aw the ladies with his \u201cpretty Jersey face.\u201d<\/p>\n

YoBeat: How is your summer going?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Summer\u2019s been great. I went home to New Jersey. Drove across country with my girlfriend, and that went pretty good. It wasn\u2019t as bad as I thought it would be. I\u2019ve just been hanging out there for the past month pretty much. My buddy Nate Farell got married so I went to his bachelor party down in Jersey and went up to Vermont for the wedding. Pretty much just been kicking it there, skating and surfing and just hanging out pretty much. Icame out to Whistler last week, was there for a little bit over a week, just did a Send It With Session. That just ended and then we drove down from Whistler to Mt. Hood with Scotty \u201cthe Body\u201d from Dakine and Johnnie Paxson<\/a>. Now I am staying at Scotty\u2019s house for the next week or two.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: What\u2019s the weirdest thing at The Body\u2019s house?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne:<\/strong> The Bonfire ad with him in it on the wall is pretty funny. I think he is jumping into a pool or something with all his gear on. Josh Sherman is in the ad, it\u2019s all framed. That\u2019s probably the funniest thing I\u2019ve seen so far.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: Nate Farrell\u2019s bachelor party, any highlights?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Hmm, I don\u2019t know if I can talk about it. They came to Jersey and on Tuesday nights they have this thing, Beat the Clock. It\u2019s 25-cent beers starting at 7 and it goes up a quarter every hour. I brought him and all his friends to that and they had a great time. There are a million girls there and ten different tiki bars outside and those guys got black out drunk. Then we went to Atlantic City the next day, but can\u2019t really talk about that too much\u2026<\/p>\n

YoBeat: Right, what happens in Atlantic City\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne:<\/strong> Stays there!<\/p>\n

\"20090713_shayne_whistler-3-21\"<\/p>\n

Summertime slasher. Photo Mike Yoshida<\/em><\/p>\n

YoBeat: What was it like growing up in Jersey?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Growing up in Jersey is awesome. I was just telling my friend today that if I didn\u2019t grow up there, I\u2019d love to just stay out west all summer and drive up to Mt. Hood and drive up to Whistler and stuff. But it\u2019s just too good there in the summer. I live 5 minutes from the beach; I can ride my bike to every one of my friend\u2019s houses, my girlfriend\u2019s house, and the bar. Everything\u2019s so close, the towns are super little and it\u2019s good time. You get good waves in the winter, pretty decent waves in the summer. Tons of people on the beach. Golf. Party.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: How does one really get serious about snowboarding growing up in New Jersey?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne:<\/strong> It\u2019s not easy, that\u2019s for sure. I started getting serious because my parents always went to Vermont when we were younger. I skied and I eventually started snowboarding. We basically just went up to Vermont every weekend from when I was ten to 16, and then in high school I heard about Okemo Mountain School and I started going there Sophomore, Junior, Senior year. I went to OMS and pretty much just fell in love with snowboarding and wanted to do it forever. That\u2019s when I met like Kevin Pearce, this kid Alex Soroken and a bunch of people I got to ride with all the time. I got to start competing and learn from there.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: Were you there when Danny Kass got kicked out of OMS?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>No, a year later. Lane and Danny all got kicked out and then me and Kevin came to school. I remember looking at the OMS pamphlet and seeing a picture of Lane Knaack in there with goggles on and he had a huge nugget of chronic right in his goggles. It was right in the catalog. Every time I looked at it I would just crack up, like they don\u2019t even know.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: Did you do anything bad while you were in school?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Nah, I was pretty mellow. I didn\u2019t even really go to school when I was there. I would snowboard until like 3 o\u2019clock and then go to school for like an hour every day. It was a pretty mellow program there. It worked out, I am probably not as smart as I should be, but I can snowboard good.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: What\u2019s you\u2019re favorite Bruce Springsteen song?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Favorite Bruce song? I like Born to Run. Instant classic.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: Have you ever seen him in concert?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Yep! Last summer I went with my mom and dad and my dad\u2019s friend, it was awesome.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: Do you feel like a better New Jerseyite now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Yeah, my dad was happy. He and my mom were yelling at me that I\u2019d never been to a Bruce concert. Like, \u201cit\u2019s the best thing ever! You have to come!\u201d I eventually went with them, it was a good time.<\/p>\n

\"shaneposposil35yobeat\"<\/p>\n

Another day in the sun. Photo: Souney<\/em><\/p>\n

YoBeat: As someone from New Jersey, what\u2019s the one characteristic that is a must have for someone from Jersey?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne:<\/strong> Not being afraid to say what\u2019s on your mind. It seems like everyone from Jersey is kind of like that. I grew up riding with Danny Kass and he got me on Gnu when I was little. I just traveled with him all the time with Gnu and it\u2019s pretty funny being able to do that. He was kind of like an older brother, beating on me the whole time. Throwing me in the shower and turning it on with all my clothes on.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: Have you seen his show on Fuel? What do you think?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>It just seems like they spit beer on everyone\u2019s faces the whole time. Besides that it\u2019s all right. They came to Jersey actually last summer. Danny wasn\u2019t there but Dingo and Sketchy and all those guys were in the RV. They came down to my house, hung out, went to the boardwalk. I tried to bring them surfing and they all almost drowned. Lucas Magoon almost got sucked out into the ocean and we almost had to save him. They could do some work on that show, that\u2019s for sure. But I\u2019ve seen worse.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: What do you think about what has become of Grenade<\/a>? You\u2019ve been there since the early days..<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>The good old days in Mammoth when you\u2019d walk across the street and get as much product as you wanted. Now it\u2019s like, I had to stop riding for them just because I couldn\u2019t get product so I ride for Dakine now. I don\u2019t even know. I\u2019ve heard a lot of questions about Grenade, what\u2019s going on. I know Lane Knaack and (Kyle) Clancy are all not too stoked on Grenade at all. I know Danny is doing good, but I don\u2019t know about Grenade.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: Any thoughts on their foray into Moto and MMA?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne:<\/strong> That\u2019s what happens when you sell out to someone else, I guess.<\/p>\n

\"20070413_sprkprk_pospisil_1\"<\/p>\n

Slam Dunk. Photo: Zimmerman<\/a><\/p>\n

YoBeat: While we are on other sports, how long have you been surfing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Longer than I\u2019ve been snowboarding. Probably since I was like 10. That\u2019s probably why I have such a good competitive edge because I grew up surfing and competing. I started snowboarding, doing both surfing and snowboarding contests and eventually just kinda realized I wanted to snowboard instead. I definitely love surfing, but snowboarding is my first true love.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: What\u2019s the difference between surf and snowboard contests?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne:<\/strong> In surfing the waves are just never there. It\u2019s hard to get good waves, especially coming from New Jersey. The waves are just shitty and it\u2019s not the fun stuff. I always did good at a lot of the contests, and they have a lot of contest at my home break in Manasquan. I won pretty much every contest they had there for like 6 years in a row. Then I lost and I quit.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: So you\u2019re a sore loser.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>I was in surfing back then, for sure! But I love it and I still surf every day now. I was surfing a bunch when I was home and I actually talked to Curtis Cezik and I think we\u2019re gonna go out to the coast in Oregon and go surf too.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: It\u2019s cold.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne:<\/strong> I\u2019m used to it. I surf in December in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\"20090205_nyc_rbss_pospisil_00031\"<\/p>\n

Winning is awesome. Photo: Zimmerman<\/a><\/p>\n

YoBeat: Well since we\u2019ve established you are a sore loser, it\u2019s good you win sometimes, like that Red Bull contest<\/a> in New York. How much did you win for that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne:<\/strong> $50,000 right now. It\u2019s in my Shane Posposil Corporation. We\u2019ll see how much I get taxed at the end of the year. Hopefully they don\u2019t get me too bad.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: I heard rumor that everyone wanted to split the money for that contest, but then obviously you didn\u2019t when you won. Any truth?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>I started that before the comp even started. At practice everyone was like, this sucks and I was like, dude lets just all split the money and have an awesome time in New York while we\u2019re here. Jenner, from Red Bull and the rest of the guys running the contest just didn\u2019t want to hear it. I mentioned it to a bunch of the riders, we all talked about it, but it never got brought up when the main guys running the contest came to talk about it. It worked out for me though.<\/p>\n

\"20090205_nyc_rbss_lago-pospisil-horgmo_0002\"<\/p>\n

In the money! Photo: Zimmerman<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

YoBeat: Have you been filming at all, or do you just mainly compete?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne:<\/strong> I\u2019ve been competing mainly. I\u2019m trying to film. I filmed a little bit with the Mammoth movie<\/a> last year, with Greg Weaver as the filmer and he had a pretty good crew there. It\u2019s just hard to be in Mammoth for more than a few days in the middle of the winter. Next year with the Olympics and all that going on, I\u2019m probably just going to focus on a few big contests and hopefully film. I\u2019m trying to film with this kid Johnnie Paxson<\/a> from Oregon and hopefully we can film with a bunch of kids to film with and a good movie company. Right now it\u2019s up in the air.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: No goal to go to the Olympics?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne:<\/strong> I wish, but I was at the halfpipe for like an hour today and saw Louie Vito<\/a> doing like double flips. Actually I saw three kids doing double flips right off the bat. I was like, oh man, good thing I\u2019m not going for the Olympics. I\u2019d be killing myself right now. I love halfpipe still, it\u2019s one of my favorite things to do, it\u2019s just the progression is so intense. If I had grown up focusing on halfpipe a little more I think I\u2019d be into it. But I never joined the US team and never wanted to be that guy who\u2019s just a halfpipe guy. Training, hiking the halfpipe all day and not being able to go hit a rail or hit some jumps.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: What\u2019s your personal favorite thing to ride?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Powder days in Mammoth. No hiking, take the lift, traverse over and get freshies and ride with your friends. Definitely my favorite.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: Is it embarrassing riding for a company called Head?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Um, yep. A little bit. It\u2019s funny cause Scotty is all, if I became Team Manager, the first thing I would do is change the name! But it\u2019s a European company, Germany-based. I\u2019m pretty much the only pro rider from the US, so I don\u2019t mind it. They\u2019re all good people over there.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: I\u2019m sure Head means something different in German.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Yeah, I\u2019m sure it does. They used to have the \u201cI love Head\u201d boards and I tried to push for that again. They probably sold a shitload of boards back then because they were funny. But they\u2019re not into it anymore.<\/p>\n

\"20080506_mmth_sprprk_pospisl_0002\"<\/p>\n

Big jumps. No, super jumps. Photo: Zimmerman<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

YoBeat: What do you think snowboarding needs right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>With the Olympics, it will blow up the whole snowboarding thing again this year. But the economy just sucks right now. No one wants to change anything right now because they have no money to do it. But it would be nice if they brought back some of the big events again. The big air contests and stuff. I know Billabong canceled its quarterpipe contest but is doing a big air contest again, which is pretty cool. It would be cool if they did, like the X Games, how they do the mega ramp with the big jump and the quarterpipe, more events like that. Maybe some more stuff in the US. In New York that was cool. They had a contest there and people were blown away and that was like the crappiest jump ever.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: Who do you ride with usually?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Greg Bokencamp, Nate Farrell, Cody Rosenthal, Peter Benchetler. I used to ride with Blauvelt<\/a> a bunch, Lago, Mason, all those Frends kids. Jack Mitrani, I love riding with Lago and Jack, we had a couple trips last year that were really funny.<\/p>\n

YoBeat: But you\u2019re not an official member of the Frends crew?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>I think I\u2019m like a secondary member maybe. Those guys have their tight little group and they are always together. They all ride for Burton, they want Lago to ride for Burton. But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n

\"20090713_shayne_whistler\"<\/p>\n

Send it! Photo: Yoshida<\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

YoBeat: Requisite sponsor plug? Anyone you\u2019d like to thank?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shayne: <\/strong>Head Snowboards. Billabong, Andrew Marriner and everyone over there. Smith, Corey Smith working for smith still, he\u2019s the man. Dakine, Scotty\u2019s been doing a good job. I ride for this little candle and incense company over in Jersey, Ted Shreds. Pretty cool guys, they make coconut scented wax and candles. They help me sleep at night and not smell in the car. Also Val Surf, surf shop down in LA. Brandon is the owner\/team manager guy down there, so thanks to him too.<\/p>\n

(Click to enlarge images)<\/p>\n\n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t