We are back with a new episode of Real Talk with Chad Otterstrom and Mark Sullivan. In this episode we talk about the preseason as well as the beginning of the new snowboarding season. Then we discuss the question, "What is wrong with snowboarding?"

 

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Send us feedback at mark@thesnowboardproject.com 

 

Here is a transcription of the show:

 

Mark (00:20 .844)
Today we have another episode of Real Talk on the Snowboard Project. I'm joined by Chad Otterstrom. Chad is a contender for greatest of all time status in the sport of snowboarding. He would never claim that for himself, so I'll just claim it for him. How you doing today, Chad?

Chad (00:27 .892)
Yeah.

Chad (00:47 .722)
I'm good, just, you know, I just moved out of Breckenridge for the season. I'll be back and forth. But I've been living in my truck for the last 16.5 months.

Mark (00:57 .756)
16.5, okay. You were counting the days, I see.

Chad (00:59 .963)
the

Yeah, now I'm back. I'm back and I got a place and you know, for my dogs, I live by a river. It's awesome. I'm doing good.

Mark (01:09 .464)
Okay, well maybe you can explain this. It's like you were living in your truck for 16 and a half months. Why?

Chad (01:16 .978)
Um, because I'm trying to crack the code, uh, of passive income. I was trying to Airbnb my condo and see how that went. And instead of renting a place, I just put a topper on my truck and just went rogue. And, and, uh, that, you know, six months to a year turned into 16 months, which is longer than expected, but, uh, now I've cracked the code and, uh, yeah, I was just going to, yeah, I got a place to sleep. I have a bed.

Mark (01:19 .535)
Mm-hmm.

Mark (01:36 .22)
Mm-hmm.

Mark (01:41 .772)
You cracked the code and you're back in the house?

Chad (01:46 .186)
outside of the back of my truck.

Mark (01:47 .82)
Okay, so you were on the road for 16 and a half months. What's like the coolest thing that you saw while you were on the road?

Chad (01:53 .274)
Um, I saw way too many whole foods parking lots. Uh, I did get hit by a semi and Edwards. I was parked at a rest area and the semi clipped me and then took off. And that cost me thousands of dollars because the insurance didn't cover that because they took off. Um, that wasn't the coolest thing. That was for sure. But, uh, I did, I went to Japan. I went to Canada. I went to Alaska. I went to Mount Hood. I did all these things that didn't require my own home. So, uh.

Mark (01:56 .684)
Okay.

Oh.

Mark (02:17 .372)
That's right.

Mark (02:21 .509)
Mm-hmm.

Chad (02:22 .742)
I did all the, yeah, like last year, the only thing I didn't do last year was go to Rick's Grants. And I wanted to put that in the May category. No, it's Colorado, Canada, or Colorado, Japan, Canada, Alaska, Rick's Grants, and then Mount Hood. That would be the ultimate year.

Mark (02:29 .735)
Mm-hmm.

Mark (02:40 .804)
You pretty much like spent the whole year riding.

Chad (02:44 .49)
Yeah, for sure.

Mark (02:46 .38)
Now, is it hard to do works? I know you also are an owner of Academy Snowboards. Was it hard to work for the road or find wifi or whatever? Are we able to pull that off pretty effectively?

Chad (02:56 .446)
Uh, I, you know, what I wasn't able to do was like demos and clinics and things like that. I'd had to do kind of a little more communicating online, but no, I mean, I basically do a lot of the social and organize that. So I, um, I was able to do that wherever I had wifi, which I had everywhere.

Mark (03:01 .96)
Mm-hmm.

Mark (03:14 .636)
Okay cool so it sounds like you were able to maximize your 16 and a half months for your bank account sake.

Chad (03:22 .546)
Yeah, no, I cracked the code. I'm hoping and fingers are crossed, you know the next couple years. We'll see what happens

Mark (03:28 .216)
Okay, so now you've had a couple of months off. I mean, have you been getting ready for this season? What have you been up to?

Chad (03:33 .858)
Um, I mean, I haven't been living in LA going to art shows, but, uh,

Mark (03:38 .08)
Yeah, that's what I've been doing. So, I mean. Ha ha.

Chad (03:43 .222)
No, I, yeah, I mean, what do you do early season? This is the time in the year, like, if you ride till, if you're like really into like riding every day for like meditation is kind of why I do it, but then that ends in July. And you have from July till now to like keep your sanity. So I just find other forms of like, you know, kind of getting out there and doing things. So yeah, I've been, you know, staying in shape. I do, I've gotten into jumping into rivers. It's trending, cold plunging and.

Mark (03:59 .474)
Mm-hmm.

Mark (04:12 .616)
Cold plunging, yes. What's the coldest river you've jumped in?

Chad (04:13 .974)
and it's turning. Oh, it's as close to ice as I can get is what I'm looking for. I want it to be like an ice cube. And I can do like up to five minutes and yeah. And then you do this thing called grounding where you walk around on the ground and then you do, you know, I, yeah, yeah. And then when I do the Wim Hof scene, it's funny cause I listen to a lot of podcasts and then they're telling me what I've already been doing, which is I feel like I'm on the right track, but.

Mark (04:21 .14)
Okay.

Mark (04:30 .188)
like barefooted or something, you're barefoot on the ground.

Chad (04:42 .878)
Yeah, do that and then work out a little bit. Once you're able to hike up hills though, we'll start split boarding just to stay in shape. I'm not a fan of going to the gym, but you're gonna have to a little bit, I guess.

Mark (04:54 .692)
Well, the world is your gym when you're a split-boarder. Ha ha ha.

Chad (05:00 .696)
Yes, this is true.

Mark (05:02 .816)
Yeah, okay. So you're in shape. You're ready for the season. I know resorts are opening, you know, all over the country, but especially in Colorado. I mean, what are you like looking to like get done this season? Do you like goals for this season? Do you like have a list of things that you want to accomplish? Or like, how do you kind of like approach a new season? And like, how do you kind of set yourself up to accomplish things and keep pushing that ball downfield?

Chad (05:28 .106)
Um, pushing the ball down the field. I, uh, well, first of all, I set myself up for a place to live. That's a hard thing to do now in mountain towns because there's, they call it a housing crisis and I think everybody likes to use the word crisis and everything they do these days. We started a production company, you know, with our movies called midlife crisis. So first thing you got to do is find a place to live and then get your season pass. And then, um, yeah, I don't know.

Mark (05:46 .696)
Mm-hmm.

Mark (05:56 .488)
Okay.

Chad (05:56 .578)
just kind of move forward, get the ball rolling. Get your boots broken in, your sticker job done, if you're into getting a good sticker job. Yeah, yeah.

Mark (06:02 .748)
Right?

That's all preseason stuff though. I mean, how about for goals for riding? Like, are you like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do 122 foot, you know, 50, 50. What kind of like riding goals?

Chad (06:11 .278)
Oh.

Chad (06:15 .214)
Oh yeah, yeah. Goals. I have, it's just kind of funny, I guess the more aged you become, you get more into like, I wanna ride that mountain as opposed to I wanna do that trick. I think kids are more into I wanna do that trick or I wanna do that challenge rail or I wanna do this and that. But yeah, for me, I have a list of mountains around where I live right now that I wanna go hike and just ride down and enjoy it. I wanna...

Mark (06:25 .992)
Mm-hmm.

Chad (06:44 .79)
Do some more drone filming this year as opposed to GoPro filming. I'm trying to work on figuring out how to make a drone, do a little more follow than, as opposed to your head cam, you know what I mean? And then that, and then yeah, do a lot more split boarding just cause it keeps me in shape and outside and exercising more.

Mark (06:48 .356)
Mm-hmm.

Mark (06:58 .408)
Totally.

Mark (07:06 .636)
Indeed, indeed. And so, you know, I know a lot of people, you're in Colorado, and a lot of people are like, I want to do all the 14ers. Is that kind of your goal? Or is it is it just like, wow, that's a beautiful mountain or that that's got a great line on I want to ride that.

Chad (07:21 .066)
Yeah, I'm more of the aesthetically fun looking line as opposed to the 14ers. There's a lot of 14ers that are not that fun. They're just high mountains and they're far away. It would be cool to kind of go, I do enjoy like kind of go just tacking certain zones off, not exactly every 14er, but just so I could kind of get a lay of the land of Colorado. I went down to this place called Lake City this summer and hiked a 14 year called Uncompatible Peak.

Mark (07:43 .67)
Mm.

Chad (07:49 .57)
And I've never been there. It's kind of like the Eastern San Juans. And that was kind of cool just to go there and see, you could see Telluride from there and you could see a couple of other things. So it's fun, but I'm not into the ticking off teeners lifestyle. I'm more into like, they're fun looking, ripping lines. You know what I mean?

Mark (08:07 .596)<br