BEST STORY EVER | SEAN MISKIMAN

Always Answer Your Phone | By Sean Miskiman

It all started a couple of years ago. I started getting these random phone calls from a blocked number. At first, I didn't answer, but after the second or third call, I thought I should. It was a couple of kids who must have randomly come across my phone number and started calling, thinking it was fun. Every time I would answer they would switch up their accents, messing with me, it was kind of funny so I went along with it. Once every few weeks they would call, prank style, they thought it was hilarious. I had some good laughs with it, too. They did the classic phone jokes for a few months and finally, one day, they forgot to block their number. So my homies and I thought we would get them back. It was in the fall, so we made an ad for free birch firewood, knowing they would get a ton of phone calls. Anyone who has a wood stove on the Sea to Sky knows the struggle of trying to get firewood in the fall months. You wouldn’t believe the number of calls they got. They called me 10 minutes after the ad was posted asking me to take it down. I had told them I would—under one condition—they had to promise that they would be better, kinder people. I told them that doing something like this was a waste of their time and that you never know what someone else is going through at that moment.

I felt so good, like damn, maybe I just helped these kids learn to be better to each other. I probably should have known, as soon as I took the ad down, my phone started to blow up. I was getting bombarded with phone calls inquiring about free firewood. I got outsmarted. Eventually, I had to change my number. Turns out some people never learn their lesson. Fast forward a few years later and I was on a King Snow trip, right before COVID shut the world down. Somehow this story came up around the cafe table and we had a good chuckle about it. Fresh into the lockdown, I was thinking of ways to make some extra cash on top of my summer job, and I suddenly remembered how many people had called me about firewood, that was it. This past September, I started stockpiling rounds of wood to split and sell. The business was booming, I straight up could not believe the number of people who wanted to buy firewood. I had cords of wood stashed all around my spot. Then one day at work I get a phone call, asking about firewood. When I told him my prices he started laughing. I was confused, this guy is not taking me seriously. Thinking I was some young kid joking around. Then all of a sudden, he goes, “Dude, Sean, this is Crispin Cannon from King Snow. I don't want to buy firewood.” Crispin had no idea that I had actually started to sell firewood, he just thought it would be funny to mess with me as he knew the story. That call turned out to be the one I have always dreamed about. He asked me if I would be into filming a project with snowboarders I had looked up to and watched for years. I was straight up at a loss of words. I guess everything happens for a reason—so always answer your phone!