Grilled: The influence of Jeremy Jones
Jeremy Jones has moved big mountain riding and exploration to levels beyond any other snowboarder, blah, blah… he’s a living legend, blah, blah… you don’t need a tutor to bring you up to speed on this concept. However, the process of taking his missions Deeper, then Further and now, Higher, must reach a zenith, right? Well that’s what they said about freestyle and now look at it, we can’t even give those new tricks cool names anymore, they’re just based on math. In the freeriding arena it is no different and as long as Dr. Jones is at the helm, it’s safe to say he’ll be getting after some terrain that was never designed for human consumption. Though a turn will still be a turn by any other name and if he gets even more gnarly or goes super fast we will simply add an “er” to the end of the word to describe his feats. With the beginning of his new project about to fire, I caught up with the man and Grilled him with a few simple questions I was curious about.
What has impressed you recently?
This year I have been riding with two younger kids, Frank Knaab and Jimmy Goodman, both 21, out of Mammoth. Their diversity as top tier freestylers, and jibbers to charging lines and becoming really proficient backcountry riders is some of the most diversity I have seen in a really long time. And I’m not just talking about riding down either, but their whole approach, attitude and all. They are not afraid of long, big treks into the mountains to get the goods.
What does snowboarding need more of?
More rider owned companies.
Less of?
Mega-corpo companies.
What do you think about the Olympics?
I think they are really fun to watch on TV! I think they have changed competitive snowboarding pretty drastically. One cool thing though is the offset of the über Olympian deal with these incredible soul comps like the Dirksen Derby. Snowboarding has naturally kicked itself in that direction as a result I think.
Photos: Jeff Curley
Do you have an agent?
Negative.
What is your best pow day so far this year?
The last one! I think there’s a level of days that hit that top tier and it’s almost disrespectful to the others to claim, “Toady was the day!”
If it’s like the “day of days”, meaning it’s two feet of really good powder and stable, that day I’m naturally on such a high because they don’t come around all that often. I know already that I’m going to send it those days, so I’m listening to some real mellow stuff just to calm myself down internally. And then on those hardpack resort days it’s more of a heavy metal vibe when I need to get amped up to charge some groomers.
What is something you never leave home without?
Ideally my boots… but unfortunately I have left those behind a couple times.
What is the business plan over at Jones Snowboards?
I started Jones snowboards because I wasn’t getting the product that I wanted. I didn’t go out and have any roundtable meetings with shop guys or reps and ask them what would sell. No, my boards come directly from me and what I want to ride. All of the shapes are extensions of me saying, “I want to ride this kind of board.” Hopefully other people like them too, but it’s really starts with myself. So it’s a selfish business plan I suppose.
Deeper, Further, Higher… what more realistically will you do with this next movie?
As with my entire life in snowboarding it’s just a continued evolution, both mentally and physically. Climbing that internal ladder, hitting more dream lines and coming home safe.
