Page 112 October 2007
Year 04 Issue 01
The Lost Art JJ Thomas
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Written by Stan Evans
Portrait by Stan Evans
Photo Quotes by JJ Thomas
Long before the days of matching plaid outfits, ESPN instant replays and big-money contests, snowboarding was inspirational—a hyper-evolved adaptation of how riders interpret the mountain and express their style through the terrain. Nowadays, with 22-foot pipe dragons, perfectly manicured park jumps and all-inclusive backcountry lodges it seems some riders have lost sight of this ideal. Almost forgotten are the early days of the Standard Films’ TB series. Those riders engraved their presence on snowboarding not by image, but in the way they attacked the whole mountain. The first time I saw Johan Olofsson’s part in TB5 I was blown away. He was charging, laying waste to everything in sight. That’s when it all clicked for me— these were the type of riders truly reinventing our sport and they should be credited for progressing snowboarding to new levels. Whether it was steep chutes, backcountry kickers, halfpipes, jibs or powder turns, they rode it all. People such as Craig Kelly, Terje and Noah Salasnek laid the foundation, and stars of today like JJ Thomas, Bjorn Leines, Travis Rice and Nicolas Müller continue to carry the torch. Being a well-rounded rider is almost a lost art in 2007 but there are a few riders who still know what it’s all about. “The Lost Art” will pay respect to these riders, with the hope that their riding style will guide future generations and prevent the proverbial torch from falling into darkness.
Snowboard Magazine Products, Places & Personalities
Page 113 October Issue
Page 114 October 2007
The Lost Art JJ Thomas
Year 04 Issue 01
Get involved: snowboard-mag.com
Snowboard Magazine Products, Places & Personalities
Snowboard Magazine Products, Places & Personalities
Page 115 October Issue
The Pillow Line
The Pipe
I love this feature. This was one of the funnest things I’ve ever ridden. We were all on a trip to Japan, and to be honest the trip was kinda rough. The snow wasn’t cooperating with us and everyone was getting hurt. This was the last day of riding and we were driving back from the resort when we spotted this huge dam that had a perfect shuttle run to the top. At first I was real skeptical on the situation. I mean, I didn’t really know how the Japanese police would respond to some American kid snowboarding down this huge power plant dam, but after a little coaxing from Matt Sickles and John Cavan, I decided to step to it and see what I could make happen. The fun thing about this stuff is that it’s pretty similar to riding a mountain in the sense that you have so many options of how to ride down this damn dam. I think I probably ended up taking 10 runs on it from every which way, picking out different lines every time and man, am I glad I did because it pretty much made the trip for me. Now I can’t wait to get back to it, because I have some new ideas for the next time we meet.
I love spring-time pipe sessions, and that’s exactly where this photo came from. We were hoping it was going to keep snowing but instead Utah turned into a blistering hot melt-off, so naturally the first thing to do was find the closest pipe. After a quick call to Jim Mangan from Park City, Zach Leach and I were on our way up to shred the pipe. This day turned out to be a blast…the group of people riding the pipe that day was amazing in itself. All the Burton kids were there getting ready for the U.S. Open, and as you can imagine, nasty moves were getting broken off every time someone dropped. In the chaos of all the 1080 and 1260 attempts I decided I wanted to blast some good ol’ fashioned air to fakies for the boys stuck in traffic back in the 92024... the catch was, I had this idea to grab seatbelt (front hand on your tail). At first I was thinking, “Okay, this should be easy.” HAHA…wrong bud! It took me about 10 times just for my fingers to find the board, and luckily Stan was there to capture the moment of my twisted torso and satisfied fingers. Thanks to Jim Mangan and lil’ Shaun White for letting us poach their private shoot, and to BDP (a.k.a. the Godfather) who grabs more tail in a week then I do all year!! Halla!!
Photograph by Matt Sickles
Photograph by Stan Evans
Page 116 October 2007
The Lost Art JJ Thomas
Year 04 Issue 01
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Snowboard Magazine Products, Places & Personalities
Page 117 October Issue
The Backcountry Jump Okay so the day before we hit this jump were all chillin’ at the house trying to get some rest, thinking it was going to be a storm day. Then we hear a knock at the door. Lo and behold it’s Stan Evans, basically snapping on us for not being ready and set to build the jump. He said it was going to be clear out after 11:00 a.m. His idea was to go build a jump so we could hit it in the sunset light. Keep in mind, at this point it’s a blizzard at the house and we’re thinking, “Yeah right, it’s not going to clear up.” Well, he was right. At around noon it broke blue, so we all rallied as fast as we could to get there and at least build a jump so it would be ready for the next morning. I’d say all-in-all we pretty much saved an almost broken situation. I mean, I know we didn’t get the sunset light that Stan would have preferred, but hey, it worked out in the end. Check this shot in The Constant Struggle which is the new movie from Mongo. Photograph by Stan Evans
Page 118 October 2007
Year 04 Issue 01
The Cliff While we’re still on our subject of firsts, I’m quite sure this was my first real pow day of the year. The snow on this day at Brighton was probably the deepest, most bottomless snow I’ve ever ridden. No joke!!! So Stan walks us off into the woods to show us this cliff. Now here’s where it gets funny. If you look up at the tippy-top of the cliff, that’s where he wanted me to jump from. When I told him I was just going to hit on the side and launch out to this landing. Stan was like, “That’s fine but Barrett Christy launched this thing in, like, ‘97 and stomped it.” So I said, “Well that’s cool but I’m just going to go from Photograph by Stan Evans
here and pop a frontside 180 down past where that stick is in the landing (bottom left part of photo with the bare branch sticking up). So I did and instead of clearing it I pretty much landed on it and somehow came out without getting impaled. It was hectic to say the least, but the photo and the footage still came out good, so in the end it all worked out. Oh yeah. To top it off, somehow along the way, our boy Phil D (Damianakes) got fired up on some hessian music, walked up there and sent it from the top. Thanks Phil, that was large and fun to watch.
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Page 119 October Issue
The Lost Art JJ Thomas
Page 120 October 2007
The Lost Art JJ Thomas
Year 04 Issue 01
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The Ledge Let me just start off by saying this ledge is ill. “Why?” you might ask. Well, because it’s only 10 minutes away from my house. Now that’s what I’m talking about. These days, the lengths we go to get a good jib shot can be excruciating. So when we come across a nice feature so close to the crib, you know I’m feeling it. Not to mention this was one of the only days I got to shoot with my long time Colorado comrade, Jeff Potto. Thanks Jeff for driving down. I told you it’d be worth it! Photograph by Jeff Potto