The Brandon Cocard Interview

I first met Brandon Cocard when he and I were both around 12 years old, both riding on the Alpine Meadows freestyle snowboard team in Tahoe. Back then, Alpine was off the map, but its endless ridgelines and solid terrain park proved to be the perfect incubator for future talent. Despite a full time USSA completion schedule, our coaches Jason and Kaveh took us in the backcountry, hiking steep lines, teaching us how to build jumps every day, and then had us hiking and sessioning the parks rails, jumps and pipe until we couldn’t walk. A decade later a huge chunk of that team was riding professionally: Johnny Brady, Ross Baker, Chris Galvin and Brandon Cocard were some of the standouts that made it to the top. Even back then I was toting a camera around, and now I shoot snowboarding full time. Flash forward... I hadn’t seen Cocard for almost ten years, and while on a photo shoot with Think Thank in Michigan we crossed paths with Bode Merrill and the Absinthe boys. And Cocard was right there in the mix, going shot for shot with one of the biggest players in the game. Since then, Cocard and I have stepped to Tahoe terrain we dreamed of as kids, travelled around Switzerland together and camped out at Superpark. It’s pretty rad to live the snowboard dream alongside childhood friends. Cocard’s perfect methods, back lips and backside rodeos haven’t changed over the past 20 years, only difference is back then he couldn’t grow a pirate beard and wasn’t a member of a band touring the globe.

Q: What was it like growing up in Tahoe and riding Alpine with our coaches?

A: I didn’t know how lucky I was at the time, but I realize it now. Any kid that grows up in Tahoe and loves the snow is a very lucky kid. Yea, plus we had coaches that showed us how to ride the mountain before the terrain park.

Q: You’ve done some coaching up at Mt Hood in the summer, right?

A; Our coaches in Tahoe were like gods to us, what’s it like riding with the next generation and having them look up to you? There’s a lot of new talent on the slopes these days, and if they have seen my video parts and draw inspiration from them, that’s really cool. And if not, that’s cool too.

Q: If you could give two pieces of advice to kids on the come-up, what would you tell them?

A: One, don’t worry about the money. And two, snowboard every day.

Q: After Alpine Meadows I lost track of you… and then our paths crossed, both of us doing what we had always wanted. What happened in between Alpine and Absinthe Films?

A: I started entering slopestyle contests and doing alright in them. I qualified for the Dew Tour and did that for a few years until double corks became a thing. I didn’t feel like learning how to flip twice on an icy park jump so I got out of that pretty quick and started focusing on filming video parts.

Q: When did you start riding for Capita? That team is stacked, who are your favorite dudes to ride with on that squad?

A: I started riding Capita boards in 2007 or 2008? And I turned pro for them in 2011 after I filmed my first legit video part for their movie, “Defenders of Awesome.” I have really good relationships with everybody on that team. I consider them all very good friends of mine.

Q: What is it like riding with Absinthe?

A: That’s the heaviest film crew in the game. It’s an honor to say the least. I grew up watching Gigi and Nico in those movies, and to get to film video parts with them is a dream come true. I still trip out on that.

Q: Where has snowboarding taken you?

A: Can you list the stamps in your passport that the snowboard facilitated? And where is your all-time favorite place to shred? Snowboarding has taken me to places that I never dreamed of going. That’s one of the best things about it: Seeing new places and meeting new people of different cultures has opened my mind and forced me to become more accepting of other people. When you travel you start to realize that your way of living is not the only way, and you become a better person because of it. My all time favorite place to snowboard is Switzerland. It has become my home away from home.

Q: I remember a competition at Diamond Peak where there was this hip jump in the park... everyone hit it as a hip, but in your run you blasted a method all the way over it. Everyone was tripping on how big it was, is the method your favorite trick?

A: Yes, for sure. Either the method or the backflip. When I was a kid my only wish was to be able to fly. And those tricks, for me, feel like the closest thing to flying.

Q: This winter you did a Method over Chad’s Gap in Utah. That might be the biggest method ever done in the backcountry and is the thing that legends are made of, what sparked that idea?

A; I wanted to fly! Chad’s gap is such a classic jump and it just called for a classic trick.

Q: You’re also a full-blown musician and your band Easy Giant has gone on a few tours in the US and in Europe, tell us about how the band formed and what it’s like touring with instruments instead of snowboards?

A: Playing music is my other passion in life alongside snowboarding. We formed Easy Giant about ten years ago and since my snowboarding career kinda took off I was able to combine the two by following the Absinthe Films premier tour. For the last few years Easy Giant has been coming on the tours with me and we play music after each screening. It’s kinda genius actually, because of the built-in crowd. If you are a new band it takes a long time to build a following and get people to come to your shows. Absinthe Films has a HUGE following so we’ve been playing to a few hundred people at each show. When we played last year in Zurich we did our set for just under a 1000 people. It was insane.

Q: What kind of plans and goals do you have for the upcoming winter?

A: Same as every year, snowboard as much as I can!

Q: Any shout-outs?

A: Shout-out to you Sean! You mentioned earlier in one of the questions that since the Alpine Meadows snowboard team we both went our separate ways and did the things we had to do to live out our dreams… And here we are today still doing what we love. Much respect!