Global Delbarton Traveler: Red Bull Producer Spike Smigelski ‘08

At Delbarton, he learned to juggle the demands of academics, sports, and extracurriculars, and when the new Fine Arts Center opened in 2006, the courses he took in its art studios were among his favorites. After a post-grad year at Avon Old Farms School, Smigelski was recruited by Colby College to play hockey and lacrosse, and he felt right at home on the woodsy Waterville, Maine campus where he was surrounded by creative adventure-seekers. While he majored in Government, it was a Colby photography elective that ultimately changed his life. Framing life through a camera lens was a revelation, and soon he was shooting and editing short videos on course assignments. He found he was very good at something he loved. After graduation, Smigelski decided to try filmmaking in Los Angeles. “I still remember when I told my dad I was going to move to LA with no job and try to make films,” he recalls. “He looked at me like I had two heads, basically a caring parent’s worst nightmare.”

In 2009, Smigelski was recruited to play hockey and lacrosse for Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Spike Smigelski ’08, on right, and his Green Wave Hockey teammate Charles Nerbak ’08 celebrate winning the 2008 NJSIAA Non-Public State Championship.

During the pandemic, he worked on A&E’s Live Rescue, a reality program profiling fire and rescue units around the country.

With no practical experience, finding a job wasn’t easy. The Sportsman Channel finally hired him for his athleticism – ideal for grueling 12-hour shoots – and he worked as a production assistant on a reality show featuring former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, “my film school”. Soon, Smigelski started producing video content for Sportsman and A&E network, and the Red Bull company hired him as a freelancer to shoot a film about Waves for Water, an NGO that was delivering clean water to a disaster zone in Liberia, Africa. Part of his job was helping run the program he was recording. Then Covid struck.

Travel ceased, film jobs disappeared, but as a qualified first responder he was able to find work field-producing on Live Rescue, an A&E reality program profiling fire and rescue units around the country. Ironically, he was assigned to Paterson, NJ, a city with one of the highest fire and crime rates in the country. Next, his friend Willis Brown pitched Smigelski on sailing with him along the Maine coast to document sustainable aquaculture practices. They boarded the Tamarijn, a 1976 Tartan 30 captained by Ben Hayden and, as the pandemic continued to spread around the world, the trio sailed 300 miles from York Island to Isle Au Haut, Maine filming Maine Sail, an atmospheric, naturally-lit documentary that was selected for the juried 2021 Montauk Film Festival. As Covid restrictions loosened and the employment market improved, Red Bull offered Smigelski something new: a fulltime producing job. He packed his

bags for a move to Salzburg, Austria to experience steady employment and an expat lifestyle with the Austrian Alps as his new playground. The best-selling energy drink in the world, Red Bull was founded in 1987 by Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian whose jet lag was cured drinking a concoction favored by Thai truck drivers. He launched Red Bull with its Thai inventor, the late Chaleo Yoovidhya, then took the rogue step of building brand awareness by sponsoring extreme sporting events. With offices around the world, Red Bull headquarters is still based in the stunning alpine city of Salzburg.

In 2021, Spike Smigelski accepted a producing job with Red Bull in the historic city of Salzburg, Austria. Three years ago, he broke his femur and nearly lost his leg to compartment syndrome from internal bleeding. Ironically, the multiple fractures were located directly under the Succisa Virescit tattoo inked on his thigh to commemorate the tragic death of a Colby friend. Three surgeries and a month of bedrest later, his recovery was another grow back experience. He’s now in the best shape of his life, and currently training for his first Ironman competition this summer. Like so many ambitious young people who attend good schools and play competitive sports, Smigelski found himself naturally gravitating towards a career in finance, a world his brother Alex has navigated successfully as a Vice President at J.P. Morgan. For Spike, a Colby photography course and a global pandemic changed everything. From Los Angeles and Maine, to Africa, Paterson, NJ and now Austria, Smigelski followed his creative instincts into a profession filled with challenges and adventures. Almost by accident, yet always with great focus and intention, he landed on his feet in a place he feels he belongs. The Delbarton motto Succisa Virescit continues to inspire him: “It’s given me hope and faith that there is always a silver lining. With reflection and an open mind, you adjust to become a better version of yourself.”