The Brothers Kirkland

AN INTERVIEW IN THE MAKING SINCE 2018

by Peter Harvieux

Growing up in the comforts of the suburbs with a sound family unit consisting of two highly supportive and available parents, the brothers Kirkland formed a unique relationship to snowboarding, one that may seem semi-normal in the Twin Cities, a place with 8 small resorts in an hour radius. Being 10 mins from one of the tow-rope meccas of our culture in Hyland Hills, these brothers had an indoctrination from an era of massive Midwest visibility. With two high-speed ropes, park features galore, am/pro riders highly visible, a decade of out of town film crew visits, and a region of city streets full of snow, it was a stew which brought to boil a pair of motivated street filming riders. Life hands us circumstances which we must navigate and these two who shared so much for so long have been tasked with changes that have led to different paths. I started this interview as Brandon had just been bumped up to the AM team for Rome SDS following a heavy ender part in “Onlookers”. Alex was still a sophomore in high school coming off his second year of filming as well. A few years of water under the bridge, we are reconnecting to sift through some of the sands of time to see what golden nuggets of life on and off boards these brothers have to share with us from their path.

When did you first encounter snowboarding?

My first encounter with snowboarding was when I was super young. I was probably six or seven and my dad was a snowboard instructor at the Spirit Mountain in Duluth at the time. Me and my brother had been begging him to take us with him for a while and over Christmas that year he finally thought we were old enough to give it a go. That first year we only went a few times but after a few years we started to get more into it, after about two years of being weekend warriors at Spirit we were introduced to Hyland and me and my brother Alex have been hooked ever since.

Spirit was family sessions and once you started going to Hyland did you guys immediately start meeting other kids or were you two on your own developing a shared excitement?

Spirit was a full family deal, my Mom had grown up skiing and when me and my brother were learning to board, she decided to jump in on it so that she wasn’t the only one not boarding. But once we started riding at Hyland it was just me and my brother. At first it was just me and him taking on this crazy new place and trying to learn how to ride the rope tow even though many of the older kids held the rope way above our heads, haha. But we started to make friends really fast as Hyland is such a tight group of people and snowboarding isn't as popular here in the twin cities as it is in a place like a mountain town. So those of us who did snowboard felt really connected and bonded super quickly.

Snowboarding wasn’t popular at Hyland? What era was this?

Haha, no just like snowboarding as an activity in the Twin Cities. Most of the kids at my school played hockey or just thought that snowboarding/skiing was more of an out west thing.

Who were the people you started bonding with on the fast ropes of Hyland?

Eli Lamm was one of the first older kids I remember showing us how to ride the rope. A lot of the kids I first started riding Hyland with don’t really snowboard too much anymore but to name a few of the first friends I started riding with would be Adam Tastad, Will Taylor, Nick Belbas and many others. But as we continued to ride there, we became friends with lots of the people I still snowboard with today like Billy Cotie, Nick Roerick, Chaney Gilmore, Collin Maynard, Dyland Cook and many more.

What was it about snowboarding that had you hold on to it as some of your earlier friends fell off or didn’t embrace it to the same extent?

I’m not 100% sure to be honest, ever since I started, I’ve always just had this extreme passion for riding sideways down a hill. I was always snowboarding with friends and that was one of my favorite parts about it. The only difference I can see is that I had my brother. We were always pushing each other and would have this brother rivalry to push each other into learning new stuff and we always had each other to ride with, so that was an added bonus as well.

Yea I think that’s a different drive than some others. How do you feel this relationship impacts your drive to ride more or progress? Is it different than with your friends and peers?

I think it can be a little different being brothers and all. It definitely helped both of us progress to an ability I don't think either of us would’ve without each other. But growing up riding with friends too, I also found that we also progressed off of just riding with each other. The only difference was that me and Alex were always riding together because we were both getting dropped of by our parents.

The parent drop off is the big connector… Bet they love the roundabout these days. What sparked you to leave the nest of Hyland and start to hit the streets?

Haha, yup that new roundabout is something else. Honestly what inspired me the most was just watching full length videos. One of the first DVD’s I got was cheers, and then I got super into all the Videograss movies. I became the biggest nerd about them and tried to figure out where all the spots were even before we started hitting any of them. Filming video parts just kind of came naturally after that because I wanted to go to all these spots and check them out. Eventually Eli and Billy took me out filming with them because I knew where a bunch of the spots they wanted to hit were at.

I like you’re going in on full length video, times have changed to the full part. Interesting that other riders were like you know where stuff is so you can come with. Did you start filming clips? What did that amount too?

I don’t know if that was the only reason, they let me start filming with them, but it definitely helped. The first year I filmed a part I was 14, so I didn't even have my license yet. Either Eli or Walker would pick me up and we would go from there. That year we filmed “The Feast” with Billy and it was just so cool to collectively film a video and watch what you and your friends did all winter turn into something. I’ve been hooked on that feeling ever since. Since then, I haven't gone a winter without filming in the streets with my friends just about every chance we get.

How did it advance from there, were you hyped on seeing that effort become a video. Where did that first taste lead you next?

Yeah, it was really cool to see all that effort become a video and a lot of it to me was just about being out snowboarding and hanging with friends and doing what we think is the coolest thing in the world. Each video has kind of just lead us to our next. Like every year I watch whatever we put together and it inspires me to go out and try and film an even heavier part than I did last year.

Billy moved on to school, how did you keep pushing trying to get stuff filmed and edited?

I’m not 100% sure, at that point Alex and I bought a camera and that's when our friends and I just started filming each other. It was just for fun and we’ve just been riding that wave ever sense.

Where did the wave take you too? Did you make a video?

That year we started filming with our buddies Eli, Casey and Walker and that year we made a homie video called Clockwork. The year after that we met our buddy Dan, we actually met him at the clockwork premiere at Cal Surf, anyways that was next and current wave that has led to our last two movies.

How did the vibes evolve with Dan starting to ride with the crew?

We became good friends with Dan and he quickly became our filmer, as he rarely butchered shots like we all did. He was definitely pretty artistic and we were all super down with his vision and what he wanted to do. The first year he boarded and filmed and had a heavy part as well as filmed most of the movie. This year he focused just on filming and editing the video and we were all really hyped on what he created.

Me too. Looks like you guys really focused and was a product of Dan’s role change or just a natural elevation of comfort in the streets after multiple projects?

Definitely a little of both, we all just really enjoy snowboarding and filming in the streets. We look at spots all the time living in Minneapolis. When it snows here it usually just happens.

How has Alex’s presence influenced your riding and filming parts?

Alex has always pushed me to be a better boarder and to film harder. Obviously, that dynamic has changed now as my health and brain health has become my main priority over filming a part. But when I was filming, having a younger brother definitely influenced my riding and filming. Even though it wasn't spoken, it felt like we were always competing for who had the most clips in a given year or who would do the heaviest tricks at spots. I think we both pushed each other riding and I know for sure Alex's presence as my little brother force me to be a better snowboarder.

What happened at Hood that changed it all?

Oof that’s a doozy. It is a really long story but basically over the years snowboarding I had lots of concussions much like most people involved in snowboarding and action sports. The first concussion I got was when I was like 11. I fell really hard, knocked myself out and definitely scared my parents. But at that age you don’t realize the severity of things or how injuries can have lasting effects later in life. I knew concussions were serious, but I never had symptoms last for more than a week or two before I was back to normal. All in all I probably had at least 10 concussions that I can remember, but again nothing that lasted for more than a week or two. That all changed when I got a concussion at Mt. Hood. It was my first summer working there and I was so excited, it had been my dream for so long. The summer was freaking awesome and probably some of the best times of life, but during my last week there I had an injury that changed everything. I fell snowboarding one day and felt dizzy and dazed and knew it was a concussion, but in all honesty it wasn’t really that bad, I would classify it as a mild concussion, even though that isn’t a real thing when it comes to brain injuries. The night after that concussion I had something happen with a camper where I had to stay up all night and I didn’t tell my supervisors about the concussion earlier that day because I knew they would have taken it more seriously and made me stop snowboarding for the rest of the summer. Looking back at it they were definitely right and I was just a naive 18 year old who was hyped to be working my dream job. I maybe got 30 minutes of sleep that night which is super bad post concussion because that initial sleep is extremely important. I woke up from what was essentially a nap, instead of a night of sleep, feeling sick, but I figured it was mostly just the lack of sleep and that it would go away after a night or two of good sleep, boy was I wrong. The next day was our weekend off and I really wanted to get all I could out of my last weekend off so I decided eh, I’ll just heal my head after the 2 days off. The next two days we camped on the beach, stayed up late both nights and decided to go surfing on our last day off. My head was starting to feel like I had a dagger stabbed into the back of my head, but I still figured it was just from the lack of sleep and being sleep deprived. I was iffy on whether I should go surfing at all because I felt so shitty, but I went anyway because I really just didn’t understand how serious brain injuries were. I went surfing that day extremely dizzy and like my second wave out I got smacked on the back of the head by the large surfboard with all the power off the wave. I got knocked out and honestly it probably could have been a lot worse. I was only out for a few seconds but when I came back to I was really confused and super scared. I paddled back to shore and found my friends but I was too out of it so I just said hi very weirdly and fell asleep on the beach for like 5 hours. When I woke up my head hurt so bad and I felt so sick and disoriented on our drive back. When we got back from our break I had to tell my supervisor, leaving out a few things of course. It’s fucked up, but I had migraines almost daily for over a year and I dealt with a lot of nausea, vertigo, fatigue and a bunch of other super shitty symptoms I hope no one ever has to experience. To this day I still have a lot of negative symptoms that trigger if I overstimulate my brain.

Whoa that’s super scary. What has the recovery looked like since then?

It’s been a really long journey that if I’m being 100% honest, I’m still on. There have been a lot of ups and downs, but I am currently at a place that I didn’t think I’d be at even a year and a half ago. For over a year after that I had a constant migraine that I could only describe as the feeling of feeling like someone was stabbing me with a knife in the back of the head or as if my brain was trying to leave my skull. I had vertigo whenever I would do too much and my vision was also all fucked up. It made it really hard to do too much and triggered really bad depression and anxiety. Whenever I would close my eyes to go to bed, I would replay that week of bad decisions over and over in my head blaming myself and thinking about how none of this would have been happening if I hadn’t been so dumb and naive. That on top of that nausea made it feel like I was on a boat swaying back and forth and the bed didn't feel stationary. The two of those things combined made it tough to sleep which I’m sure didn't help. It was hard because snowboarding had always been my escape when I was dealing with things. But I would try to go snowboarding very chill just to help with my anxiety, but it would make me feel really sick and make my head hurt more increasing my anxiety worse than if I just hadn’t gone. It was super hard having the thing that normally made me feel better make me feel worse. I was also dealing with the mental game of realizing that I probably would never get back to a place mentally to snowboard at the same level. Snowboarding had always been my identity and I really struggled with the fact that I was going to have to find other things that I enjoyed. Long story short it has been a really hard recovery and I have learned a lot about the brain, the impacts of brain injuries and how serious they really are. I’m probably at 80% of where I was before, but it continues to improve. At the end of the day, I have become a better person for it. It forced me to find things I enjoy outside of snowboarding, start focusing on school and I have a lot more empathy for people dealing with things, especially mental health. I wouldn’t say “everything happens for a reason” because I dislike that sentiment, but I will say I have found a way to make the most of the situation and become a better person because of it. Lastly, I just want to thank my friends and family for helping me through the recovery process, I really couldn’t have done it without them.

How long did it take for you to realize that this lifestyle was changing for you, additional Alex and the crew?

Probably about 6 months post injury. At that point the convo went from “You’ll be back filming in no time Brando” to “Filming is just something we do for fun”. It was about the 6 month point where I hadn't seen hardly any improvements that I started to realize I probably wouldn't be going back to filming. I was thinking that even if I could heal 100% and get back to normal, I knew that I never wanted to have to go through that process ever again.

Alex how did this major change impact you and influence your riding at the time?

It was a lot because when Brandon first got hurt, he was living at home. So, to see my older brother in pain everyday really took it out of me. It made everything feel very weird because I would feel bad leaving the house because I could tell that is all Brandon wanted to do. At first especially it seemed like he would just bounce back and it would go back to normal. I hoped every day that he would just one day wake up and feel fine. I had always figured that by the time winter rolled around he would be fine, and we would be boarding at Hyland again. But once it snowed and he was still dealing with symptoms it became clear that I would not be snowboarding with Brandon very much that winter. It was super weird at first and didn’t feel normal. Hyland felt empty because Brandon was the person I snowboarded with every day. Each time I went snowboarding I would feel bad because Brandon would be at home wishing he could go. Around that time, I started riding Hyland differently because I couldn’t recreate following Brandon through the park. So that is when I started to go really slow into things. That winter going snowboarding was super weird because my escape from whatever was going on didn’t feel like because what I wanted to escape from was the thought of my brother in pain, but snowboarding was the activity we always did together, so it felt very weird.

Not having the big brother there must have been different. How did you feel pushing forward?

It definitely did because Brandon and I had always talked about how cool it would be travelling the world together filming parts. But without Brandon there it felt weird to pursue that dream. In the sense of that was our dream together and so now the dream could only partly be true. Also, at spots Brandon had always been the guide for me on what was a good idea and what wasn’t. So, by Brandon not being at spots I was doing stuff that typically Brandon would have talked me out of so I wouldn’t get hurt.

Did the crew dynamic evolve?

The crew dynamic shifted a lot that year. Brandon was the biggest part of the crew I would say. He knew where every spot was and probably had a list of 100+ tricks he wanted to film. So, when Brandon was filming, we always had a plan where to go. After not having Brandon, Dan and I stepped up to make plans. That was the winter of Retrograde, so we really had to not only have stuff I wanted to film, but also spots for everyone else on the IPP team. It was definitely super weird; Dan and I still talk about how much we miss hitting stuff with Brandon.

It always seemed like Brandon was involved still, was that natural or something you were conscious of?

I think a little of both, Brandon definitely stayed a part of it because by the time he had gotten hurt we are good friends so he would continue to hang out at Evan’s house, but he just wasn’t going to spots. I also definitely wanted to keep Brandon a part of it, because Brandon and I met everyone in the crew at the same time. I also think for me snowboarding would not be the same if Brandon wasn’t involved so I really wanted him to be.

Filming 4 years of parts while in High School, was filming full street parts a big juggle with school and postsecondary as well?

In high school it wasn’t really a problem. My freshmen year Brandon had just gotten his license so he could drive me to all of the spots. Also, all of my classes in high school were pretty easy so I had plenty of free time to snowboard. The only thing was that I had classes Monday through Friday so I couldn’t really get out during the week. I did PSEO my senior year of high school, so I took all of my classes at a local community college. So that winter I had more free time to snowboard and film then when I was in high school.

Did you feel any part of stepping up for Brandon as he sorted through his injury and the fall out that seemed to happen over time?

I definitely did try to step up for Brandon in whatever way I could think of. Whether that was trying to help him get into new hobbies to take up his time or just hang out and do puzzles with him or whatever wouldn’t cause him to get a migraine. But I think for the most part Brandon’s injury was something he needed to work through himself.

Brandon, how did you feel about Alex’s growth and stacking of heavy clips?

I was super hyped for Alex, but that first year I will admit it was hard. I had always been so involved in the process and it was tough wanting to be out there doing that but knowing it was best to stay home and recover. It has gotten a lot easier since then and now I am just super hyped and proud to see Alex killing it. I also go out and help film when I’m not busy with school. Going out always helps because I get to be part of the crew again and hang with my friends, which is the part that I missed the most.

Brandon, what ways are you able to fill in the gaps that this has presented in your life?

I’ve always been really into fishing so I would say that I definitely got way more into that. I also had the opportunity to ride powder last year visiting a friend in Austria which was an awesome experience and a way more mellow version of boarding, I definitely want to do more of that in the future. Outside of past times I have become a better student and actually started going to the University of Minnesota. When I started at the U of M my migraines were really bad, but they have been improving which is something that I am extremely grateful for. Overall, it has been a really hard experience but one that has made me appreciate things more and have more empathy for people going through things, especially mental health and TBI.

Alex, what if anything has changed in Brandon and your brotherly relationship?

Brandon and I have always been really close, by Brandon getting injured I lost what we spent the majority of our time doing together. Luckily, Brandon was living at home when he was recovering so I was still able to spend a lot of time together. Brandon’s interests have changed a bit and he isn’t as focused on snowboarding anymore so that changed our relationship. Through Brandon’s injury he has gotten more into fishing which I have followed to remain close with him. Brandon and mine relationship has definitely shifted but we are still very close.

Being there for each other has held true to form, it's a relationship any of us would be lucky to have. Thanks for sharing this portion of your brotherly snowboard story. Any last words or shout outs?

Brandon: “100%, our relationship as brothers has definitely shaped the person I am and I am extremely grateful for it. A huge shout out to my Mom and Dad, the rest of my family, the Onlookers homies, and all my other friends that have been there for me. Also, thank you to Pete for setting up this interview and for everything he's done for me and Alex over the years.”

Alex: “Thank you Pete for making this interview happen and everything else. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for all of the support over the years. Thank you, Dan Pergrin, Trevor Slattery and anyone who has pointed a camera at me. Thank you, Evan Pierce, Peter Limberg and any else who has taken photos of me. Thank you, Emmet Klocker, for the support from Volcom and Capita. Thank you to anyone who has helped shovel at a spot. Finally thank you to all the homies that I’ve boarded with at Hyland over the years.”