Have you seen any of the other entries?
Yeah, I watched a lot of them.
Were there any that stood out to you?
Noah’s and Colby Stevenson’s were unreal. One I really liked watching, he’s a good friend of mine, was Brent Whipple. He threw in all four way doubles, which is impressive. And it really illustrated another aspect of the contest that I like. Brent Whipple blew his knee last June and wasn’t even able to ski park very much all season long. To be able to incorporate your footage and put something together when you’re not able to do any skiing, that’s a unique opportunity in our sport where it’s so easy to get injured and kiss the whole season goodbye.
After perusing your social feeds, it looks like you got after it a bit in the backcountry this season. Is that something you’d like to focus on moving forward?
Yeah, I would love to do more backcountry and skiing for the camera. I grew up ski racing and I love competing but for me it’s the love of skiing that keeps me doing it. I never wanted to be a halfpipe specialist, I just love to ski.
I went to France and the SFR Tour contest was awesome, I skied well, but I was in the Alps, man. I was out there to ski and scare myself. The mountains there are just so much different, and that’s really what it’s about for me, the skiing. I would love to be able to transition to a more backcountry, content-production style of skiing in the future.
— Kyle Smaine (@kylesmaine) March 12, 2015
So, where to from here?
There’s not a lot left this season. I’m not going to go up to WSI in Whistler, just wasn’t in the budget for this year. I’m planning on going down to Mammoth, hopefully they’ll stay open for awhile, but it’s pretty scarce on snow. They have some events coming up, they’re rebuilding the halfpipe and park, then things are closing for camp and stuff. I really want to make it up to West Coast Session this year, it looks super fun and I’d love to be a part of that event. Then, I’ll enjoy a little summer time where I can take a break, decompress and ride my bike.
Nothing quite like a little R&R. Good luck out there, and congratulations again.
Thanks, man.
Related: Jet-lagged world traveler Noah Wallace recaps his recent TNF PPOS grand prize victory
