Not only has this 39 year old, down to earth pro-snowboarder been doing the craziest of lines all over the globe for the past 20 years, he also has a conscience. His name stands for Big Mountain Snowboarding and at the same time for POW – Protect Our Winters -, an initiative of the snowboarding and free ride community against the ongoing climate change. Snowboarder magazine has honoured Jeremy Jones with the title of “Big Mountain Rider of the Year” 10 times already. His countless film productions are almost impossible to put into words. In 2013, the snowboarder was given the name of “Adventurer of the Year 2013” by National Geographic and was presented personally by US President Obama for the prestigious “Champion Of Change” Award – for his fight against climate change. Corrine Terkelsen met up with the Master of snowboards and splitboards at ISPO 2014 and exchanged views with him on splitboards, POW and other stuff.
An interview with Jeremy Jones
Corrine Terkelsen: Hi Jeremy, great to be able to catch up with you. What makes Jones Snowboards unique and how deep were you involved in the development of next year’s boards?
Jeremy Jones: The development of the Jones splitboards is something that I’m really involved in. I consider myself one of the luckiest snowboarders in the world to have uninhibited design capabilities, meaning ..I don’t have to sell my designs to anyone. When it comes to what you see on the wall, I’ve been involved in all aspects of it – the shape, feel, what the materials are used and so forth. Theres a lot of teamwork involved in the process. For instance, I say I’d like to build a lighter splitboard and all of a sudden we’d have a bunch of engineers in the room.
Where do you see the splitboarding culture headed in the near future? Will splitboards remain a jewel for those who treasure solitude in the backcountry or do you see foot-powered snowboarding catching on with the masses?
Jeremy Jones: Well, generally I think the US is a couple of years ahead. The trailhead is definitely busier than it’s ever been, with more splitboarders and more backcountry skiers. Easy to reach frontcountry terrain is more crowded nowadays, but if you’re willing to walk further, it’s pretty much empty. I don’t see the masses getting to that second row back. Therefore, I think it’s still pretty damn easy to find solitude in the mountains and I think that will continue. If my goal is to get away from people, I can do that pretty damn easy.
“Humility is an awesome thing in the mountains”.
After the loss of several icons and pioneers of the sport, the big-mountain scene is coming off some tough years of late. Are there lessons learned and does it change the way you ride?
Jeremy Jones: Yes, losing friends in the mountains absolutely has an impact on me. Sure, there’s lessons to learn. It affects me in a sense that I’m always trying to get smarter. I look at these mentors of mine dying in the mountains and I ask myself what made them miss the signs that day? Heck, that could happen to me. I try to peel back the layers and find out what the social factors on that day were that could have affected their decision making in the mountains. In places like Chamonix, the culture is so extreme that the level of risk that your average Chamonix charger is acceptable in taking on a daily basis, is extremely high. I determined that I’m not into that a long time ago. They’re very desensitized because their tram takes you to one of the gnarliest places in the world.
What do you do to get your confidence back after tough falls or mental struggles in the backcountry?
Jeremy Jones: Well, humility is an awesome thing in the mountains. It’s the overconfidence that I’m worried about. If I go into the mountains after just losing somebody close to me, I know I’ll be making the right calls at that moment. I never have mental conversations telling myself that I’m not charging hard enough. I’m much more worried about saying “God, you haven’t turned around I a long time.” That’s when bad things start to happen.
You’ve snowboarded all over the globe. What was your most memorable cultural encounter?
Jeremy Jones: I think in general, the ability to go to some place, not speak the language, and have locals show you around and share their mountains and culture with you is incredible. How quick the bond of being in the mountains with somebody that you can’t even talk to is created is just amazing. If you share a powder turn with someone, you’re like friends for life. I learned a long time ago, when I travel to places I try to utilize locals as much as possible. In Europe I like going by myself and hooking up with locals rather than showing up with a bunch of friends. Keeping it as local as possible is important for me. Some years ago while in Turkey we heard about this old snowboard culture and we drove three hours into the mountains on this hairpin single lane mountain road to find a tiny village filled with pow. All of a sudden we meet a 72 year old snowboarder whose been riding for over 50 years, his board is over 50 years old and he’s teaching me how to do it. THAT is why you travel – to experience something that you never thought was out there. Actually, I’m just reliving that now. We both started out riding together and on our first run I fell off and the old guy kept on going with this total Hawaiian stance and just left me in the dust (Jeremy laughs).
Jeremy Jones’ initiative POW: “Politics has established itself as our ultimate goal”
Protect Our Winters (aka POW,started in 2007 to fight climate change) aims to reach out to a huge global rider community. What is the core message that snowboarders, skiers and mountain enthusiasts should take along each time they head into the mountains?
Jeremy Jones: There are so many different facets to climate change and environment and what you could do and they should all be embraced. However, the one thing we’ve learned over time is to really tackle climate change it needs to be done on the highest political level in the governments. That’s unfortunate, but without the governments standing up, the environmental friendly coffee cups aren’t doing anything. If we’re not engaged at that level, it’s a miss. We started Protect Our Winters in 2007 and came up with a mission statement to unite the winter sports community to fight climate change but what we didn’t realize back then was that we would be so involved politically as we are right now. Still, today our mission statement holds weight, since the only way we’ll have the audience in the White House is by uniting this huge winter sports community we have. It matters to so many people. So essentially, politics is unfortunately our number one goal right now.
The wintersports community annually spends endless amounts of money on lift expansions, new gear, heli-trips and travel plans. Doesn’t the Protect our Winters (POW) movement seem kind of paradox in this respect?
Jeremy Jones: Obviously there is a footprint involved in going to the mountains and using lifts. It’s a massive industry with lots of money and we’re on the front lines and see it on a daily basis. That’s exactly the reason why I believe we’re in a unique position to be an extremely powerful influence.
Since climate change is a global issue, are there plans for programs to enhance the voice and reach of Protect Our Winters (POW) in Europe and Asia?
Yes there are – for instance, we have a chapter in France Norway and Argentina. However, we’re just such a small group and we made a conscious effort to stick to 95% execution and 5% ideas – meaning that what we choose to do we make sure we can carry it out. From a staffing issue were able to be much more effective in the US. The US is this global mega country and if they lead the charge on this, it will benefit everyone. That’s why we’re not as active globally at the moment. Our memberships (companies) are quite global, and just over the border in Canada we’ll start doing some significant stuff in the near future and if done successfully it’ll benefit everybody globally.
“I believe that each generation must make its contribution”
Looking back since you founded POW, do you feel it’s been a success or do you often feel like you’re fighting against windmills?
Jeremy Jones: There are a lot of things I can look back on and say “that was a win” – like for instance our POW breakfast talk at the SIA (Snowsports Industries America Snow Show, similar to ISPO in Europe). Up to two years ago, the words “climate change” were not used by the SIA at all. Nobody was talking about it, no major resort, nobody! Since then, we’ve created climate curriculums for over 20.000 kids. That’s moved the needle. We also have an audience with the White House. Those are things that tell us that we’re on the right path. However, the downside is that we work with less than 1% of the companies in the industry. Our memberships are with less than 0.1% of skiers and snowboarders. So on that level I ask myself why are we still in business. Thankfully there’s been a core group that’s come on, but the fact that we have less than 1% of the companies in this hall here is very frustrating. We’ve done a lot with less that 1%, but in ten years I can’t still be saying that. We need way more support from the industry than we have right now.
Jeremy Jones privat: “You don’t always have to go to the other side of the world. “
What’s on your adventure agenda for 2015?
Jeremy Jones: I’m really into these domestic discovery trips – going to obscure, hard to reach ranges where you need to walk for two to three days before your first run. Places people have never snowboarded. Simply put: getting more off the map, but within driving distance from my house. I find it cool that I can still do that. You don’t always have to go to the other side of the world. If you look there can be lots of local stuff to discover. So every year I make it a point to go into one new range I’ve never been to and that I know nothing about. I’ve just scratched the surface. With Protect Our Winters we have our hands full. We’re getting ready for the United Nations Climate Change conference in Paris in 2015 and there is this ongoing northwest coal export that we’re fighting and that will surely heat up over the next couple of years… In that respect, we just released a momenta film about coal exports to China. The presidential election is coming up and we’re making great efforts to reach out to the kids, getting the next generation involved and educated about climate topics. I feel like each generation can contribute and ours is a long way from done. It’s still our problem right now. The exciting thing on the climate front is that the political stalemate is frustrating but the solutions are largely there. Obviously not every details, but there’s total hope from a scientific side of things. We need to figure out how to embrace the solutions and break through political barriers that are out there in the various countries. For example, a hundred coal power plants closed last year in the US. Ten years ago that was unthinkable. It’s indicators like that which give you hope that we can make good things happen.
Is there a mantra you live by?
Not one, it’s always changing. My snowboard mantra was ”deeper, further, higher” because evolution has always been my goal in snowboarding. I love seeing new stuff. In daily life I like to embrace the present moment and look forward not back. That’s an ongoing quest that I enjoy.
Solid or Splitboard? Couloir or open face? GoPro or “enjoy the moment”?
Jeremy Jones: Splitboard. Couloir. Enjoy the moment – since 80% of my snowboarding is not in front of cameras.