Caught Up with Jeremy Jones: On His New Movie "Further" and the Growth of Jones Snowboards
Since we did an interview with Jeremy Jones in frequency TSJ #8.3, Jones has been a busy man, touring Deeper, launching the second year product line for Jones Snowboards, and beginning work on Further, the two-year film follow-up to Deeper, which will drop in the fall of 2012. We caught up with Jones yesterday at his home in Tahoe, fresh off a trip to Japan to kick off filming for Further to talk about the new movie and more.
CW: How have you been?
JJ: I’ve been well.
CW: Have you been in Tahoe most of the year?
JJ: I was here all winter, then on February 5th I went to Japan and I just got back from there, we were there three and a half weeks. We had great snow and got into some really cool terrain. It was a pretty bitchin’ trip, but always good to be home.
CW: I bet the family’s happy to have you home.
JJ: For sure.
CW: Can you tell me a bit about the new movie [Further]?
JJ: Further, for me… well Deeper was me going to places that I was really familiar with, then crossing this imaginary boundary into the unridden realm of these areas that have become almost my home ranges, places I’ve gone back to year after year for ten or fifteen years. So with Further the idea is to switch things up… what I learned with Deeper gave me confidence and fresh eyes. I look at the world’s mountains with a new perspective. I look at them and go, “There’s nothing that I consider too far for riding.” So Further is about getting to some exotic places that I’ve always wanted to ride and taking the show on the road; taking the knowledge I’ve learned in the snowpacks and ranges that I’m familiar with, and taking that to places where I’m somewhat starting from scratch.
CW: Would you consider Japan to be in that realm?
JJ: Yeah. I’ve wanted to get to Japan for a while, I’ve always ridden on the north island, but I wanted to get into the bigger mountains of Japan. It was really cool, it was humbling—we dealt with severe weather, some of the coldest camping and gnarliest winds I’ve dealt with anywhere. But in the end we rode some great stuff.
CW: What about the crew; are you rolling with the same people as Deeper?
JJ: Well we have some new guys for sure. The crew is evolving—I’m getting ready to go to the Arctic Circle in Norway at the end of April, to this small island, which is the closest major land mass to the Arctic Circle, and I’m going there with Terje [Haakonsen]. We’ll see how it all shakes up. Forrest [Shearer] and [Josh] Dirksen were on this Japan trip. There are a couple guys—like Terje for example—that I want to bring into the mix, people who I think would really enjoy the style of trips that I’m doing, but a lot of them are people who also have the biggest schedule and it’s hard to get them off their film grind.
CW: Are people coming to you after Deeper and getting stoked on the whole splitboarding and camping program?
JJ: Yeah, but it’s still… it’s funny, because there were a handful of guys I tried really hard to get on the Deeper trip—friends of mine—and I know if I got them on a trip they would really enjoy it and have a fresh perspective and experience that would affect their snowboarding. So when Deeper was done, a lot of those guys reached out and said they were in for this next one [Further]. But once we got into it and when trips get closer, guys start backing out and going back to their normal program—staying in their comfort zone. So we’ll see how that shakes out.
CW: Further will be a two year film as well?
JJ: Yeah, this is a two year project so we still have some time. Terje was one of the first guys to be totally committed to it, which is really exciting, and hopefully I can wrangle a couple of other guys that I really look up to as well.
CW: What other spots are on your hit list right now?
JJ: Well it’s an evolving deal. I’m researching probably five or six spots, and I’ll go into next year having narrowed it down to maybe four spots and then watch and see which ones are getting decent snow and have a good snowpack, then narrow that down to two spots. It’s hard to say—yet to be determined.
CW: Switching it up a bit—how has Deeper and all of this impacted Jones boards? You looked pretty busy at SIA [The Snowsports Industry of America trade show].
JJ: It’s kinda along the lines of Deeper—you know I started out to do this splitboard movie and thought I’d lose all my sponsors, and the snowboard industry would call me crazy, and I’d fall out of the limelight. But Deeper was received really well—and it’s the same kind of thing, starting a snowboard company targeted at more of an all-mountain freeride crowd, boards made for riding the whole mountain; I went in with very low expectations. But the response has far surpassed what I ever imagined. So that’s been really exciting.
CW: That’s good to hear.
JJ: Well there are all these shredders who are still really into riding, but who have kinda been off in their own world. It’s also the most passionate part of the sport, which is great to be in—you know, guys who are in it for life. Their response has been great, it’s been really cool to see some guys who have been riding for a long time get so excited to ride a new kind of board; to feel a new turn and have a new experience.
All the team riders and people riding the boards, the more time we get on them, the more we’re like, ‘Oh my god, I’ve never felt that on a snowboard.’ So that’s kind of the coolest thing. It’s a lot of why I started the company, because I knew there was more to be done with snowboard design—and it’s rad to be able to reap those rewards in the mountains.
CW: How have you been?
JJ: I’ve been well.
CW: Have you been in Tahoe most of the year?
JJ: I was here all winter, then on February 5th I went to Japan and I just got back from there, we were there three and a half weeks. We had great snow and got into some really cool terrain. It was a pretty bitchin’ trip, but always good to be home.
CW: I bet the family’s happy to have you home.
JJ: For sure.
CW: Can you tell me a bit about the new movie [Further]?
JJ: Further, for me… well Deeper was me going to places that I was really familiar with, then crossing this imaginary boundary into the unridden realm of these areas that have become almost my home ranges, places I’ve gone back to year after year for ten or fifteen years. So with Further the idea is to switch things up… what I learned with Deeper gave me confidence and fresh eyes. I look at the world’s mountains with a new perspective. I look at them and go, “There’s nothing that I consider too far for riding.” So Further is about getting to some exotic places that I’ve always wanted to ride and taking the show on the road; taking the knowledge I’ve learned in the snowpacks and ranges that I’m familiar with, and taking that to places where I’m somewhat starting from scratch.
CW: Would you consider Japan to be in that realm?
JJ: Yeah. I’ve wanted to get to Japan for a while, I’ve always ridden on the north island, but I wanted to get into the bigger mountains of Japan. It was really cool, it was humbling—we dealt with severe weather, some of the coldest camping and gnarliest winds I’ve dealt with anywhere. But in the end we rode some great stuff.
CW: What about the crew; are you rolling with the same people as Deeper?
JJ: Well we have some new guys for sure. The crew is evolving—I’m getting ready to go to the Arctic Circle in Norway at the end of April, to this small island, which is the closest major land mass to the Arctic Circle, and I’m going there with Terje [Haakonsen]. We’ll see how it all shakes up. Forrest [Shearer] and [Josh] Dirksen were on this Japan trip. There are a couple guys—like Terje for example—that I want to bring into the mix, people who I think would really enjoy the style of trips that I’m doing, but a lot of them are people who also have the biggest schedule and it’s hard to get them off their film grind.
CW: Are people coming to you after Deeper and getting stoked on the whole splitboarding and camping program?
JJ: Yeah, but it’s still… it’s funny, because there were a handful of guys I tried really hard to get on the Deeper trip—friends of mine—and I know if I got them on a trip they would really enjoy it and have a fresh perspective and experience that would affect their snowboarding. So when Deeper was done, a lot of those guys reached out and said they were in for this next one [Further]. But once we got into it and when trips get closer, guys start backing out and going back to their normal program—staying in their comfort zone. So we’ll see how that shakes out.
CW: Further will be a two year film as well?
JJ: Yeah, this is a two year project so we still have some time. Terje was one of the first guys to be totally committed to it, which is really exciting, and hopefully I can wrangle a couple of other guys that I really look up to as well.
CW: What other spots are on your hit list right now?
JJ: Well it’s an evolving deal. I’m researching probably five or six spots, and I’ll go into next year having narrowed it down to maybe four spots and then watch and see which ones are getting decent snow and have a good snowpack, then narrow that down to two spots. It’s hard to say—yet to be determined.
CW: Switching it up a bit—how has Deeper and all of this impacted Jones boards? You looked pretty busy at SIA [The Snowsports Industry of America trade show].
JJ: It’s kinda along the lines of Deeper—you know I started out to do this splitboard movie and thought I’d lose all my sponsors, and the snowboard industry would call me crazy, and I’d fall out of the limelight. But Deeper was received really well—and it’s the same kind of thing, starting a snowboard company targeted at more of an all-mountain freeride crowd, boards made for riding the whole mountain; I went in with very low expectations. But the response has far surpassed what I ever imagined. So that’s been really exciting.
CW: That’s good to hear.
JJ: Well there are all these shredders who are still really into riding, but who have kinda been off in their own world. It’s also the most passionate part of the sport, which is great to be in—you know, guys who are in it for life. Their response has been great, it’s been really cool to see some guys who have been riding for a long time get so excited to ride a new kind of board; to feel a new turn and have a new experience.
All the team riders and people riding the boards, the more time we get on them, the more we’re like, ‘Oh my god, I’ve never felt that on a snowboard.’ So that’s kind of the coolest thing. It’s a lot of why I started the company, because I knew there was more to be done with snowboard design—and it’s rad to be able to reap those rewards in the mountains.
