CBC TV Interview and Story on Grassroots Powdersurfing

Out of nowhere came an email from the Canadian National Television station wanting to do a story on Powsurfing.  They said they couldn’t send a cameraman down to Utah and needed someone in the Whistler area to do the interview.  As luck(?) would have it, Scotty Arnold and I just happened to be in the Whistler area at the time!  I’ve only been to Canada twice in my life and this was a pretty crazy coincidence.  I knew it had to be done so we set aside a day of our trip to do some PR work.

Bob Nixon, Scotty Arnold, and Simon ready for action

Avalanche conditions were high with a fresh couple of feet on top of a deep layer of surface hoar. We weren’t about to take a TV crew deep into the backcountry and put them and ourselves at risk.  We had to settle for some very low angle slopes completely out of harms way.  All the obvious signs of fresh wind slabs breaking everywhere, cracking, collapsing, etc confirmed our decision.  On the approach to a relatively small but steep slope we remotely triggered numerous fresh slides that were a few inches deep, two steps later while crossing a creek the snow cracked loudly, breaking 4 feet deep and sending me into the creek bed below.  One knee and one arm plunged into knee deep icy water. That sealed the deal and we relocated to another zone, very low angle and out of the way of any hang-fire.

The TV crew interviewed myself and Scotty Arnold about the history, the how, and the why.  Really good interviews that kind of ended up butchered in the end, but so goes the mainstream tv world.  The action shots were very mellow due to the sketchy conditions that day. We hiked a couple of short low angle lines and jumped off some small drops for their cameras and called it a day.  Not the most epic day by any means but good for the PR machine. We were just stoked on the opportunity to spread the word about what we love to do and help Grassroots continue to grow.

Luckily we found a couple of little drops out of harms way for the TV crew

Watch the Interview and check the story below:

Interview with Jeremy Jensen about the freedom of powdersurfing:

http://www.cbc.ca/video/watch/News/Canada/BC/ID=2324239337

English Channel Story : “Powder-surfing pioneers seek freedom in a new sport”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/01/09/bc-powder-surfing.html