In early 2000, I was in my winter semester at MCAD when I get this call from Mark Sullivan, representing Snowboarder magazine. I knew his name. He was from East Infection, a scrappy snowboard magazine from Vermont. I had met those guys briefly at High Cascade Snowboard Camp in the summer of 1995.
The first time was up on the glacier, with “camp cop” Jason Lily kicking those hooligans out of the half-pipe. And later that afternoon down in Government Camp, where Pat Bridges gave me a copy of their mag. And I remember thinking, These are the derelicts we kicked out earlier today? I want to hang with these guys! There was an art director position opening up at Snowboarder.
Duties included doing all the design for the mag, as well the events, clothing and website. The whole mess. Mark was Editor, Pat was Assistant Editor.
It would mean moving down to Southern California, and I remember how unsettling that was. I was so excited to stay and work in Minneapolis after MCAD wrapped up. I even had an internship lined up at Bill Thorburn’s wing of Carmichael Lynch right downtown. Things were looking up for the
upcoming summer. But of course, I was intrigued enough to put together a portfolio to send down to Mark and the guys. If anything, to see what they’d say. Snowboarder had been my favorite snowboard mag growing up. That was the only mag that showed guys I rode with from the Northwest.
Its competitor Transworld Snowboarding was the leading magazine in the
industry and ruled the roost. A year prior, I had gotten a call from my old Bend buddy Dave Sypniewski. He was working at TWSnow, and told me about a design position that was opening up, and how I’d have to move down to
Oceanside. As cool as it sounded, my heart just wasn’t into that mag. I politely opted out.
Something was different about the Snowboarder offer. You got the sense of what they were up against, and their frisky underdog quality. They were shaking things up, which sounded fun as hell. I took the job, finished up the school year, finagled an externship through MCAD, loaded up a Ryder truck and moved it all down to Hellhole, Southern California.
My first morning down there, I remember feeling like I had made a mistake. It was everything I loved about a place: congested, hot and expensive! Great. I instantly wanted to hightail it back to Minneapolis. But Dad had taught me to stick to my guns. I told them I’d do two cycles of the mag, and was determined to slay each and every issue.
With the new team assembled, it was an opportunity to reset the mag, shedding the cliché writing styles, photography, and design. I loved the all-for-one
clubhouse feel. We all worked toward a common goal—getting the issue done.
Covers were always tricky. We had some intense cover battles, internally with our team, and then with the top brass. That’s the one spot the higher-ups would weigh in on; all the analytics and cover tricks would be sort of forced on us. I remember taking the time to hear out our boss, Norb Garrett. And the guys were freaking out that I was consorting with the enemy! I knew there was a way to make both sides comfortable. In the end, we weren’t gonna win some
bullshit battle when possible sales were on the line. Aesthetics? Right out the window when it came to moving product. And that was okay, I did my best to fulfill both sides’ wishes. Design school taught me how to listen, weigh the options, and then show solutions to solve the problem. And that’s what you’ll see below in our cover battles.
Snowboarder is where I met Evan Rose. “Broke the mold” doesn’t really work with this animal. Wild, with eccentric tastes, an eye for bric-a-brac, and one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. He’d call to me, I’d look down from our roost into his cubicle, and he’d be completely nude—“About to put my wet suit on”—just waiting for people to walk in. Funny as hell to watch. That’s who I hung with down there. Pat, Evan and I. Three piles of shit, completely out of our element on that beach.
And the perks? As much gear as I needed! Care packages from Eddie Lee and Gravis. Promo CDs from music labels! Summers were intense, but there would be a lull after Christmas where all the writers and photographers would hit the road, scrambling to amass content for the coming year. I got to travel to New Zealand, British Columbia, Wolf Creek, Mount Bohemia and even Cabo Wabo for an editorial conference.
Here’s what I’m most proud of about my time at Snowboarder: These guys were my brothers and it was up to us to make it work. And we did, and our
numbers reflected it. From Pat’s brilliant captions and stories, to Jeff Baker’s diplomatic photo brokering, to Mark’s editorial calls, to Mike “Chief”
Nusenow’s closed-door deals. It was from our hands. We were responsible for all the output. I’m still so proud of our output those twenty-two months on that damned beach.
September 2000.
September 2001.
October 2000.
October 2001.
November 2000.
November 2001.
December 2000.
December 2001.
January 2001.
January 2002.
February 2001.
February 2002.
March 2001.
March 2002.
Snowboarder Magazine
Assorted Snowboarder magazine spreads. 2000-2002.
Promotional T-shirt design for Snowboarder’s trade show giveaways. 2000.
Driven To Ride giveaway T-shirt for the 2001 motorhome tour. 2001.