JEREMY JONES : The Interview

Jeremy Jones has been up at High Cascade Snowboard camp this past week guest coaching at his signature session. It was here where I was able to sit down and have a conversation about the past season, the season that is vastly approaching us, and the future of snowboarding.

Hondo - The movie you filmed for, Picture This, is quite different then any other snowboard movie ever made. How was filming for it different then in past years?
Jeremy- This past year the main difference was the lack of snow and the weather never being in our favor. It was more working with the filmers trying to get cool shots on their part, rather then riding perfect pow.

So what was the most challenging part of filming this winter?
The hardest part about this winter was timing trips right. It was hard because I was never home. I would go on a trip, and then come home for a day and then pack up the next day for another trip.

Well if that was the hardest part of the winter, what in your opinion was the most rewarding part of the winter?
The most rewarding part of my winter happened just last week when I saw the final edit of the movie. It was really rewarding to see such an insane product out of such a horrible winter.

Who did you mostly ride with this winter?
I rode with Seth Huot, Darrell Mathes, and Biittner whenever he was around. It was a small but extremely productive crew.

Who do you think killed the hardest this season?
Seth

Did you encounter any injuries while filming this winter?
Nothing major really happened to me. I tweaked my back/hip a little—that set me back about three weeks. The only injuries I really got were mental injuries.

Ha Ha I hear that. It must be extremely hard to stay motivated year after year. Are there any up and coming film crews that get you stoked and motivate you to push it that much harder?
Out of the new film crews the one that I have to say has the best package deal is Think Thank. I think that Jesse Burtner puts a lot of thought behind his videos, and it shows. I respect that. I also like the People crew, but I feel like they are established, and not up and comers.

Ok, now for the question that everyone is dieing to know, do you really feel that Terje is overrated?
That was a bit taken out of context. If I had voted, Terje would have been up in my top five as well. I only have good things to say about Terje. Terje is a platform. JP is a legend. They are both comparable. And Terje is not going to be pissed that I would say that. He would be the least pissed. I have nothing bad to say about Terje. Terje is a legend, and JP is a legend. They are both legends.

So many kids want to become pro snowboarders, let alone legends. Why do you think that so many young kids fade out of the limelight so quickly? It seems like there really haven’t been too many kids with staying power over the last couple of years.
I don’t think that kids adopt a strong enough work ethic. All they want to do is snowboard for a living, but then they get the sponsor obligations and that seems to take some of the fun out of it. A lot of kids never grasp the concept that this is a job, you have to work. You have to have things that the kids remember you by. To truly make it you have to have company support, a strong work ethic, and have a face, as stupid as that seems.

Does the stress of putting out strong video parts ever get to you?
Not really, the thing that stresses me out the most is not having a good part. If my part is not as good as it should have been. The beginning of the season is always the most stressful part. Trying to get a solid base of shots, just in case an injury takes place. Also tricks can stress me out. But I love it. I may stress, but its stress that I put on myself. If I put out a part that I feel is worse than the year before I get bummed.

Kids these days seem to put a lot of stress on how they look; rather then how they actually snowboard. How do you feel about that?
Kids just want to fit in. Either they are comfortable just snowboarding and having fun, or they want to run with the in crowd kids. Kids will just be kids. I like to see kids snowboard and learn though. We have taken kids in the film crew who could kill it on a rail, but when we brought them into the backcountry they couldn’t really cut it, and that was sad.

Yeah that does suck. What is snowboarding if you can’t enjoy an awesome pow turn. If you had the power to take one thing out the snowboard industry, what would that thing be?
The thing that I would want to see leave would be the ski companies, Mountain Dew, and Playstation, corporate sponsors. I would like to see it brought back to being raw, like how it used to be. I would like to see agents leave. I would like to see snowboarding run by snowboarders.