RIPPING | AUSTIN JOHNSON
Besides being a better chess player than Austin, he has me beat at everything else: pool, skateboarding, snowboarding, filming. It’s hard to hold it against the guy since he’s so damn nice all the time. Austin is all smiles and always having a good time. Except if you’re trying to wake him up or telling him to clean his room. This was my first year working with Austin, and I’m looking forward to another season of talking shit and shooting more insane 50-50s with him. –Liam Glass
AUSTIN JOHNSON
Sponsors: Ride, Vans
Place: Calgary, AB
You’re from Barrie, Ontario, how did you get into snowboarding? Around grade seven, I got my first snowboard. I started riding at Snow Valley and Mount St. Louis Moonstone. Colton Conway came over and set it up with the biggest possible stance.
What keeps you busy outside of snowboarding, besides losing to me at chess?
[Laughs] Yeah, right, dude. In the summer there was a lot of skating, a lot of computer time, working on the latest video with Quin, then just work, really, all I do is skateboard and snowboard.
I found your Transworld Monday Mallet clip while digging through your Instagram. It traumatized me a little bit.
That’s the ACL killer that I was talking about. I was feeling good trying it, but then I slipped off in the middle. My leg went under the rail, and we immediately thought I had broken my leg. After waiting five hours at the hospital, I finally got to see a doctor. I took my snow pants off, and my knee just felt like it was on fire. I realized it was busted.
You waited five hours, thinking your leg was broken.
Dude, Hamilton, Ontario, hospital is hectic. We showed them all the clip, and they were hyped on the clip.
I was not hyped on the clip [laughs]. Tell the roof- to-ledge story.
It’s the end of the day in Barrie. Hadn’t really hit anything. Then we were driving by this one spot I always look at, so we pull up, Mike Rotsaert pulls out the ladder, and I get on the roof to check it out. While I was up there taking a look, he tossed my snowboard up and took the ladder away. Basically telling me I have one way down. I ended up getting a clip on it.
Were you stressing about it?
Yeah, 100 percent. It makes sense when you’re up there, but it’s a big drop to flat if you miss the ledge. I had no choice but to try it. And he knew I could do it, so it was a good move on his part.
Best story from this winter?
Pat, Quin Ellul, Dawson, a few others and I were filming just outside of Toronto. We were driving home and there was only a little bit of snow left. Pat convinced us to drive through downtown. We went to this rail-to- rail spot that had a bunch of security walking around. It was a two-man mission. Security was leaving as we got there. We both just ran up to the spot to set it up. I got the clip in two or three tries and we got out of there. As we were leaving, the security guard was coming back from his bathroom break or whatever.
What's the hole-in-one story about?
Basically manifested getting the clip on the C-rail to triple kink because the shit I took before going there was one long log. It went straight down the hole, and I wiped clean first T, a.k.a. 'a hole-in-one shit'. I was feeling good after and knew the sesh was going to be good. As we were driving to the spot, I was talking shit about how there was no way I wasn't going to land it after that. [Laughs]
What keeps you busy outside of snowboarding, besides losing to me at chess?
[Laughs] Yeah, right, dude. In the summer there was a lot of skating, a lot of computer time, working on the latest video with Quin, then just work, really. That's all I do is skateboard and snowboard.
Anyone you'd like to thank?All the Barrie homies, JJ Shoemaker, Taylor Ricci, Quin and all the BLP homies. Mom, Dad, and the rest of the family—can't really do any of this without them.