Eddie Wall interview
HUCK talks to the pro snowboarder about his new website Video Hyper Shred.
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If you are old enough to remember the film Video Gangs back in 2003, Eddie Wall's part would have stuck in your mind for some serious jibbing and an even more serious shattered knee cap. Fast forward a few years and he's hitting a kicker flanked by a rally car in DC's Mtn. Lab 1.5 film. Eddie and interesting footage just seem to go hand in hand.
Fortunately enough then, he has now teamed up filmmaker Pierre Wikberg to create Video Hyper Shred, a new snowboarding website that is promising yet more noteworthy clips from Eddie, Pierre and a whole host of guests.
Having just launched last week, HUCK got the lowdown on VHS from the man himself.
HUCK: What's the story behind Video Hyper Shred?
Eddie Wall: It basically started with me parting ways with Forum and DC right before the season began. I had no video to film with and no plans. That’s a scary thought in December. I started thinking about how everyone is really hyped on seeing footage on the internet because you can see what people are doing a few hours after they actually did it. So I thought it would be cool to start a website. All I needed was a filmer and someone who knew computers. I called Pierre Wikberg as I had filmed with him for a few years on the DC movies and we always had similar visions. I started telling Pierre about my ideas and he just started finishing my sentences. We were on opposite sides of the world and basically dreaming up the same idea. We talked everything over and he just flew to California from Sweden a few weeks later.
What impact are you hoping to have?
To show people everything about snowboarding! With traditional video parts, there is so much of a season that people do not see. They see 25 tricks and two face shots of a person and that’s it. There are so many crazy places we go and people we meet, and stuff happens that’s really funny and interesting. Now we can just show people what’s going on everyday. Along with all the gnarly riding and stuff.
What can people expect to see on VHS?
Everything: fun laps in a park, powder, gnarly stuff, street rails, big stuff, small stuff, party stuff, meeting up with tons of pros from snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing. It may be a five minute video that’s edited really good, or just a one minute sketchy interview with a pro in the bathroom at a party filmed on an iPhone.
You say that "VHS is open to work with all snowboarders and companies." What’s behind the thinking for that?
The site would obviously get boring if it was just Pierre and I the whole time. Our mission is to meet up with everyone. One day we may be skating in LA with Tony Tave and the Circa team, the next day we may meet up with Blair Marlin and surf with a pro surfer, or be at a company or magazine interviewing some of the people that help run these sports.
You say there's more to snowboarding than a two minute video part. Do you think the days of snowboard films are numbered?
Well, there’s no doubt that DVD sales have decreased drastically in the past few years. Some of the best snowboard videos lately are only selling 15,000 copies. There are websites getting one million views a month. How can we even compare them? Most people will just go onto a website or YouTube to try to find a video part rather then buying the DVD. Not to mention people are around their computer and phones all day. I think it’s pretty obvious that things are moving that direction and we are just trying to make the change.
Will this make riders stop trying as hard to progress when they aren't filming for a particular video part?
I think that depends on the rider. Some riders may just chill but we are still trying to get gnarly shots and progress snowboarding. This year got off to a bit of a slow start because of snow conditions, sponsor change and launching VHS so we were not able to get on as many good trips as we wanted. We are going to go strong for the rest of the season and do our best. Going into next year, we are treating this just as if we were filming for a normal production company: rail trips, backcountry and still trying to get all the crazy shit that is in any other video but also getting all the great behind-the-scenes footage and posting that as well. At the end of the season, we would still be able to go back and grab all the first class shots and make an actual 2 minute video part to showcase the season.
Now that the season is drawing to a close, what is VHS planning for the summer?
That is another good question. We haven't even really talked about it yet. It's a little rough starting this late towards the end of the season, but we just wanted to get it going sooner rather than later. I am doing a trip around the world to some crazy places like India, Egypt, Thailand and Japan so maybe we can be updating our travels and adventures. Maybe we will try to get some New Zealand and Mt. Hood trips to get some snowboarding in there.
You moved to Weekend Snowboards and Bond Outerwear after being with Forum and DC for a long while. What's the story behind that?
As most people probably know, the economy in the US is not doing so great right now so an industry like snowboarding is obviously going to suffer. Budgets are getting smaller by the minute. I had been with DC and Forum for 10 years and both of my contracts were up. I decided to part ways and go with Weekend and Bond. Basically, two of the main guys at Forum left and started their own company along with a good friend of mine who had left Circa. All three are good friends and started a great company. It was hard switching up sponsors after 10 years but now I am really happy. I am with a smaller company where your opinions and suggestions matter.
I understand you are hosting your own competition next month?
Oren Tanzer from Mammoth Mountain and I had always talked about doing some sort of fun event but could never really pin something down until this season. Rail contests have kinda faded out and I thought it could be fun to do something a little more creative and just have a ton of weird wall rides. It’s called the Eddie ‘Wall’ Ride Invitational and will be held at Mammoth on April 30. It will be a jam session with a bunch of unique wall ride set ups right in front of the Main Lodge. There’s 25 invited riders including Peter Line, Kevin Jones and Kyle Clancy. Bond, Weekend, Active, Vestal, Fuel TV and Mammoth are all sponsors of the event and the prizes are going to be engraved watches, Apple iPads and obviously some cash! It’s going to be a crazy event.
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Eddie Wall interview (text) by Ed Andrews is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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