20 PACES: JP Walker and Jeremy Jones Interview

Before JP Walker and Jeremy Jones, jibbing was dead. No one can deny that once that first Utah step was shoveled, boarders of the world no longer needed to rely on their local resorts to conjure up terrain that would help them mimic their skateboard daydreams. From Mitch Nelson’s Farmington funbox to the SLC Rail Garden to the Burlington High School staircases, for over a decade the steel and ’crete of the cold country has been routinely slaughtered by this duo. Yet JP and Jeremy’s influence doesn’t stop at the snowpack, as every aspect of our sport, from the equipment to the terminology to the media, has felt their influence firsthand. ’Do-rags, team videos, nose presses, double kinks…the list goes on and on. This month’s Twenty Paces exposes two of snowboarding’s most influential and controversial icons as they refocus their efforts from getting the last part to getting the last word.
– Pat Bridges

1. How do you feel about riders who are vocal about their political and religious views?

JP Walker: I’m not really shocked by anything when it comes to that stuff, so it doesn’t bother me. It takes a lot to express your feelings and views to the public, so if anything, you’ve got to give those people props.

Jeremy Jones: I’m stoked on anyone who says how they really feel about any issue. Why not answer, if you have an opinion? Most riders don’t just offer up info without some sort of provoking. Religion and politics are two of the most sensitive issues to people, so take the risk if you dare and if you’re provoked. If not, then hide in your bubble. It’s nice in there, I hear.

2. Who are the three best jibbers of all time?

JP: Jeremy Jones, Roan Rodgers, and Chad Schnacky.

JJ: JP Walker, Seth Huot, and Roan Rodgers...or Dale Rehberg; it’s a toss-up there.

3. What is unique about your board/boot/binding setup?

JP: The bindings I ride are full Frankenstein editions. They are made up four different types, with some parts that are over five years old.

JJ: I ride the EST binding and slot system on my deck, and a new sole on my boot that enhances that system. My whole hardgoods package is unique. Special stuff [includes] some canted pads in the new binding, straps that have personal touches…just little stuff. I try to ride exactly what I am selling; that’s important to me.

4. If you had to live in a different place than Salt Lake City in the winter, where would it be?

JP: Does North Salt Lake count? How about I say where I wouldn’t live: Colorado, Mammoth, and Idaho.

JJ: Minneapolis, Minnesota.

5. What was it like to be a part of the Forum 8?

JP: It was amazing. It was a great time in snowboarding and Forum was at the top. Everyone on the team [as well as] the management was stoked to progress snowboarding and make an impact on the industry.

JJ: A lot of landmarks happened in those years, and a lot of levels were set to live up to. It was the best group of kids in the world all with the same thing in mind: snowboarding, and making movies ofsnowboarding.

6. Why did you part ways with Forum?

JP: Since the beginning, Forum had been focused on team and progression. The team was the driving force, and their opinions mattered. Besides Peter Line and Joni Malmi, none of the original eight are there anymore. They had something great with the latest team video, but they have decided to move in a different direction since then.

JJ: Here is the short version: The company’s plan was different from mine. It was [like] pulling teeth on a good day to get my ideas heard, even for my own board! The company would not hold up to contractual or verbal obligations; it was run by dicey dudes. I saw that, and had to peace out. It was hard leaving a few dudes on that crew.

7. Is filming for a team movie different than for a normal video?

JP: What you are able to do with the footage and marketing is very different. You have the possibility to create a great image for the riders with a team video, [but] usually you have less riders, so it can be harder to get lots of legit footage.

JJ: The way movies are made now, everyone has to be down to help everyone, because snowboarding and filming are meeting in the middle. If you’re in it for your own part, you’re gonna be the hated dude on the crew. There are always one or two of them… And the lazy dudes—those guys are almost worse. Working together is how team videos are made, and that is the new way of production company videos.

8. Which video part are you most proud of?

JP: True Life.

JJ: Follow Me Around or For Right or Wrong. Both [are] my best work in totally different avenues of filmmaking, so it’s a toss up.

9. Favorite video part from another rider?

JP: Jeremy Jones in Shakedown and Peter Line in Stomping Grounds.

JJ: JP in Shakedown and a couple specific tricks in Chulksmack he did. I’m a fan, and he is the best there is!

10. What is your take on contests?

JP: Contests are a good place for kids to try to get their name out and get noticed. They also could help reach a broader audience of consumers. Personally, I don’t really get off on them—I’m all about progression, new tricks, and features. None of that really happens at a contest. Plus, the standards in rail contests are so low. Seventy-five percent of tricks you see from those contests would never make a real video, because they weren’t done properly. Either the press was tapped, the rider came off early, or the trick was just wack but the crowd reacted to it. It kind of ruins it for the people that are on the grind, out doing it in the city for real. Halfpipe contests are the only ones I could really back, as long as dudes aren’t getting good scores for squeezing out no-grab 1080s. They should lose points for that.

JJ: That is a different type of snowboarding. It’s circus-type, figure-skating snowboarding. You have a routine, your rotation count, your amplitude. For a sport that is so “free” and “individual,” in a contest you sure have a lot of requirements in that one-minute run. There are a couple riders that bridge the gap between snowboarding and contests pretty well: Danny Kass, Andreas Wiig, and Danny Davis could do both worlds.

11. Global warming: fact or fiction?

JP: Fact, but doesn’t that mean that the ice age is going to come back or something? Let’s get on with the warming so I can get some decent pow days in.

JJ: I don’t care! That’s a stupid issue; the world is in a climate change, it happens and it has happened, so I don’t waste my energy thinking about it.

12. Is it harder to make it in snowboarding now than it was a decade ago?

JP: No. It’s easier. You just have to be a young kid with mid-basic skills and anyone will give you a chance, because these companies are so desperado for the next dude. Before there used to be like fifteen top pros and a handful of companies. It’s so huge now; there are so many more opportunities to come up. Some might say that it was easier to get a video part back then, but there were so many unknowns. No one knew if it was possible to nosepress or backside lip down a twenty-stair rail. It takes a lot to be able to make those kinds of steps when you have nothing to go on.

JJ: No. The “next” kids have blown it for basically two rounds of the come-up cycle. A few have squeezed through and made it happen, but the door is so open and ready for kids that want to go for it and work hard. On top of that, contests are all over the place. You can go get noticed in those, easy! Just go for broke one day—that’s all it takes. Then you have at least three years locked.

13. In what ways have agents affected our sport?

JP: I think they have helped athletes get proper recognition and not get worked. Snowboarders are good at snowboarding, not negotiating business deals with corporations. Agents can help relieve some stress and let the riders do what they do best. On the other hand, they definitely jack the game up by having fools drinking energy drinks all over TV. Come on, dudes, that is seriously beat. Go ahead and rock the sticker, but don’t try and tell me you need to drink that ridiculous beverage during your post-run interview. I’m all about snowboarders getting money, but have some standards.

JJ: Agents have been good for some, I guess, and bad for some. It probably cuts pretty clean down the middle. My thoughts are that overall, they move the money to the wrong place too quick, [with] ams getting a lot of money when they should get none. They trick team managers into locking up the “next big kid” with cash [when] that kid has done nothing. And they’re always going after the major corporations for big cash, [saying,] “It’s better for the industry…” Yeah, nice one! It’s stupid, because agents often are from the snow industry and they should know better than to pollute the pureness of snowboarding and the youth of the industry like that; they’re pushers. Until they find their place and aren’t just scrambling for something to happen, just say no!

14. Are there any tricks you can’t figure out, no matter what?

JP: Yeah, I hate frontside lips. I can do them, but they are so scary and take so much determination. I’ve never gotten comfortable with them.

JJ: I really can’t figure out back lips the way I want (like JP’s).

15. Scariest moment while riding?

JP: Maybe the first time I was going to hit that huge gap up in Whistler that I had the switch 900 on last year. That was pretty scary for lots of reasons. The whole runway was in the side of one of the gnarliest avalanche areas and the temperature was rising quickly because it was spring; I kept thinking the whole mountain was going to slide at any minute. Or maybe when I did that backside 50-50 closeout through the doorway in the fence. That was pretty scary because it was so make-or-break. There have been tons more, but I try not to dwell on that stuff.

JJ: I can’t recall a single one moment, really. I have been very terrified and feel lucky to still be around. Sometimes those moments end up being the very best as well, so it blends and then I can’t really put my finger on the fear or the stoke.

16. Who or what is overrated in snowboarding?

JP: Contest results.

JJ: Overrated styles, tricks, and riders [that] come and go way too fast to even keep up with. Nothing trend-wise sticks in the snow industry for long; it’s the fastest-rotating industry I have ever seen or heard of. Thanks, Cali.

17. Is there a key to not getting burned out?

JP: I don’t know if there is a key, but you definitely need to step back for a bit every now and then to get pumped up. Surfing and skating seem to do it for me. New locations and getting creative with what you can ride your board on can help, too.

JJ: 1. Skateboarding 2. Loving the feeling of tricks and snowboarding 3. Pacing yourself. The brain needs to slow down, then speed up, then slow a bit again. If you’re constantly firing, you’ll burn for sure.

18. Have you ever shaved your armpits?

JP: Yes, and waxed them. It hurts. Stick to trimmers so it doesn’t look like you have a squirrel in a headlock.

JJ: No, but I have waxed them a few times as a grom. That freaking hurts, man! I still remember every time I did it, the house I was in, who was there…the memory of that pain is vivid.

19. How much longer will you stay in the game?

JP: Until I don’t have anything legit to offer.

JJ: Until I burn out and choose to leave. The mags and the media will try to push certain ideas and people in and out of the scene, but the strong survive and hang tough and don’t live in SoCal, so they have a grip on the real deal a bit more.

20. What question would you most like to ask your colleague?

JP: Why do they ask us stuff like how much longer are we going to stay in the game? Do we look like we are slippin’? Can’t they see that we love doing this?

JJ: JP, what is it like to have that physical and mental control to literally be the best dude that has been in the scene and on a shred?