Super Future: Q&A with Sean Pettit | Professional Skiers

Home | Q&A with Sean | Mike Douglas about Sean | Rory Bushfield about Sean | Bobby Brown

Q&A with Sean Pettit

FS: When you moved to Whistler at 7, did you join a race team? How did you learn to ski the way you do?
SP: We [Sean and brother Callum] just started to go do this race thing, but I was so not into it. I was not stoked whatsoever. I just ended up tagging along with the freestyle guys one day. I was so fired up on it. I was never part of their club, but I would just follow them around. Then after that, I just started following around a snowboard crew that was a bunch of our friends. We just made this big pack of our friends. We were never part of a club or a group or anything. We all sort of just progressed off each other.

Check out the entire photo gallery from the feature.

When did you start filming?

I was 11 when I started filming for [Tanner’s movie] WSKI106. It was wild. The thing is, when I was young, I didn’t follow the ski scene. I didn’t know pro skiers. I didn’t even know you could have that as a job. Skiing was just this thing we did on the weekends. Then all of the sudden, this guy’s like, “Iberg and Tanner want to fi lm with you and Callum this year.” I was like, okay, sweet. I didn’t even know who Tanner Hall was. Then I started meeting all these people because I was traveling that year. I got sponsored by Oakley and K2 and they sent me to all these places. Then that’s where everything started.

After that first year, did it click that that was what you wanted to do?
Definitely. I had no idea I was going to become a professional skier. I hadn’t a clue. And then as soon as that year passed by and that movie came out and all of the sudden I’m going to movie premieres down in the States and I’m traveling around when I’m 11 years old, I was like, “I’m definitely going to do this. This shit rules.” That was it.

You got second at Linecatcher last season, but you don’t really compete that much. Do you like competing?
Now I do. Now that there are these new contests that are not in the park, where there are a select few invited athletes and it’s what I’m used to doing. It pushes me to land this first try, ‘cause it’s a contest. I don’t want to compete all year, but to do Linecatcher and Cold Rush, two contests each year, that’s perfect for me.

You dropped into the pipe at WSI last season and busted out a huge 540 mute. Do you even ski pipe and park anymore?

No. I used to love skiing pipe, and park, too. I remember that I had been shredding around the mountain all day and I had my 179 Obsetheds on, the complete opposite to a pipe ski. I went down to watch because a bunch of my friends were competing. I was getting all stoked thinking, “I want to hit the pipe, it looks fun.” So I just went to the top and just dropped in. I hadn’t forgotten how to ski pipe. I just remembered how to do it. In the future maybe I’ll get back into pipe. Who knows? What do you do when you’re not skiing? I snowmobile, ride in helicopters and ride on chairlifts when I’m not skiing.

Do you get nervous before dropping into a big line?
I don’t really get nervous. I think that’s an issue, to get nervous. That’s a problem for people. When you get nervous, usually things go bad. I just get up there and think about it for a second, I look at the bottom, and go there. When I’m skiing down something, I feel like I can maneuver really quickly in a situation. Like going over a roll, right away you’re going to see it. Some people get freaked out by the whole roll thing, but if you just go, you know it’s there.

With pipe and park contests and skiers getting all the attention, do you feel it’s harder for big-mountain skiers like yourself to get the same attention?
Absolutely. It’s way harder. We’re not being broadcasted on television like X Games or Dew Tour. There’s all these competitions at these resorts that are just filled with people and tons of people see these guys ski park. We’re out in the middle of nowhere, no one is around, nobody sees us. I see nobody all season. I’m out in the backwoods all year and then all of the sudden, boom, this movie comes out in the fall. That’s the only time people see me, is in this movie. I want to try to do some web stuff, maybe even get a TV show going. Who knows?

Could you take Bobby Brown in a fight?
Although he is the G.I. Joe, All-American Hero, fuck yeah, I could kick his ass.

Check out the exclusive outtakes from Bobby and Sean’s studio shoot.

Home | Q&A with Sean | Mike Douglas about Sean | Rory Bushfield about Sean | Bobby Brown