THE KING SNOW MOVIE | JODY WACHNIAK • FULL PART + INTERVIEW

Jody takes his unmistakable style and consideration for tricks to a new level. His latest backcountry part is a rewatchable stunner.

THE KING SNOW MOVIE Available Now

How was the winter? Was it better than others? Was it worse? Just different? What were the highlights?

It was definitely different trying to navigate a pandemic and everybody having their own thoughts towards it. Everyone’s just navigating it in different ways. It was an interesting year, and I was blown away by how much we got done. I think it just shows maturity in the crew, how to navigate more than just snowboarding apparently, but also a pandemic. We started looking at life and what we do with a lot more appreciation. It’s exciting to be out there with a group of your close friends. I think that you can start to take that for granted. And these last couple of years being so complicated made us all so grateful to be out in the mountains, filming snowboarding, with people who share the same passion. Everyone has a new perspective, as snowboarding is more than what we used to think it is. It’s essential for your mental health, for friendships, just having that thing that makes you so fucking happy. It’s really cool to share that with people, especially in these times. Yeah, no. It was a really good season.

I know you had a couple of days with Mikey Ciccarelli and Sean Miskiman. Did their youth add to the mix at all?

It got me really excited to film with the younger kids. When you film with your best friends for such a long time, you navigate and look at things a certain way. So it’s just really rare to have a fresh set of eyes out there. And instead of talking about Tesla, and stocks, and houses, and... babies! Now you got a couple of young kids in the mix, and it’s some fire conversation on going to the bar and only talking about snowboarding.

“Jody’s always really fun to watch. It’s pretty crazy what he can do; take like a tree jam and make it look so cool, or hit some little pillow popper and do a Back 3 and it’s an A-Grade clip.”—BEAU BISHOP

You’ve been taking your riding in a different direction over the last couple of years. I feel like it’s really come together with this last part. Is that something that you’ve consciously been working on?

How do I put this? I wanted to start riding more the way I want to ride and that my mentors ride. And I was also very timid in the backcountry due to my own anxieties, the backcountry and snowpack. I would overlook my own vision a lot of the time. So I think I’ve gained a bit more knowledge over the last few years. That has made me really comfortable navigating and picking out my own features. And now I’m excited, I know what I’m capable of doing, and more than ever I know how I want my riding to look. So it was really fun to let myself take my riding in the directions I wanted to take it, instead of following in the footsteps of others due to the stresses of the backcountry and learning how to manage that. And it’s nice when your crew starts believing in your vision because they’ve seen you put those pieces together.

I think that’s really come across in your part. We’ve made a classic 30-minute video with a bunch of parts and a friend section—all of the old-school bullshit. What’s your take on that? Are we dinosaurs? Or is there still a place for what we’ve created?

I think dinosaurs have always been awesome and everyone else does, too. Because they are awesome. I feel like the video part, and the full-length movie is something that will never die. There was a time when brands, riders, magazine companies, and everybody started to question: Are they relevant? Are they dying? I think that more than ever, the youth has shown that they want to go to premieres. It does so much more for snowboarding than just put out a video. It builds a legitimate community.