Bend Magazine's The Circling Podcast with Adam Short
Hear from a variety of guests ranging from professional athletes, local business owners, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, nonprofits, industry leaders, and more on Bend Magazine's The Circling Podcast.
Join Adam Short as he has conversations and shares the stories of those in our community who make up the soul of Central Oregon. Those who are helping shape the growth of our region, ensure opportunity for more and maintain what we all love about where we live; the beauty, the adventure, the way of life.
Though most of our content and guests are local, the insight, perspective and value learned of each episode can be applied in your own community, no matter where you call home.
Bend Magazine's The Circling Podcast with Adam Short
Mike Ranquet on Recovery, Snowboarding and his relationship with Bend Oregon.
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We sit down with Mike Ranquet in Bend, Oregon and trace the whole arc, from that first childhood feeling of rolling on four wheels to moving to Bend in 1987 with Craig Kelly and the responsibility Craig modeled behind the scenes. Mike tells the truth about addiction patterns that “turn a corner,” why rock bottom can have a trapdoor, and what it’s like to face emotions you never learned to process. We also dig into dopamine and compulsion beyond alcohol, including gambling and the many ways people try to keep the high going after the mountain day ends.
Along the way, we keep it grounded in board sports: what “rad” actually means, why style and taste matter, and the legends and scenes that shaped a generation. Mike shares Japan stories from an all-time winter, plus the less-talked-about mental health side of recovery, including recognizing post-addiction psychosis and choosing to get help. Buster Tronolone jumps in with a perspective on sober support and what it looks like to show up for your friends.
If you care about snowboarding, recovery, mental health, or simply doing hard things with honesty, this conversation will stick with you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find it.
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Four Wheels For Life
SPEAKER_04Oregon Media.
SPEAKER_03I remember riding down the street the first time with the the street I grew up on, you know. And I was riding down. I just remember looking at the cement going by and just thinking, wow, I'm gonna do this the rest of my life. Like this is it. It was before, you know, years before you could Ollie, anybody could, not just me, you know. It just wasn't a thing. It was way before I knew there was even a skateboard store. You know, I wasn't like, yeah, I'll work at the skateboard shop. I'll become a pro skateboarder. That wasn't a thing. But I just I knew I'd be doing this. I just had this inherent feeling that I've I've I've pondered on for years. You know, like, wow, what was it? It wasn't like I did a front sitair, you know, which feels sick, which you would think would lock me in, but it was just the act of rolling down on four wheels. Yeah, the easy part's quitting drinking, you know. Really? The tough part's like uh you know, facing your emotions that you haven't ever felt, and you're like fifty-five years old, like, whoa. Is that supposed to make you cry?
SPEAKER_01You know, you know, like I'm gonna go.
SPEAKER_04On this episode, I sit down with my ring and our beautiful friend, Mustard Trumble. If you know your snowboard history, you know the gravity of rinquin is happening on the snowboard. Not just in the Pacific Northwest, but on a global scale. He brought a rock skate-influenced approach with a fundamentally redefined style at a time when snowboarding was still defining itself. Today, Mike is over two years into recovery and doing the heavy lifting of redefining his relationship
Meet Mike Ranquet
SPEAKER_04with his family, his sport, his podcast Rad Matters, and himself. Today at work I was looking like I was wondering when the last podcast you posted was. It's almost, it's just over two years ago. Yeah. Get that mic closer, man.
SPEAKER_03It was um it was uh prior to prior to getting sober. Was it? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So I believe, yeah. What was the catalyst for you like really pursuing sobriety? Like what what were what were the series of events either, you know, like recently or maybe it was a series of events over years, but kind of because I was there, you know, I've shared with you about quitting drinking because of kind of the grip it was taking on. And what were the series of events for you?
SPEAKER_03Um, I I I finally reached that point
The Moment Sobriety Became Urgent
SPEAKER_03uh um where I was like, whoa man, this shit's gonna kill me. Yeah, you know, like it it went around a couple corners that I couldn't back around. All of a sudden I just had habits with my drinking that I never had. And um, yeah, there were some other factors involved, but none of them were being busted or the law, you know. It was there were just some other factors involved. There's some other addictions involved, you know. Yeah, man. I do know, and a lot of people know. So I I guess the catalyst was I I was in New York City and I remember I actually remember coming out of this bar and looking down this alley, and I just was I just spaced off and I was like, holy cow, I'm gonna die. You know, I was like, this is gonna kill me. You know, it was wild. I was like, um, okay, and I I I was with somebody that you know gave me the the room to get sober, I guess. Because I I did need a little bit of room, you know. Yeah, it it it was I I was 53. I started drinking at you could say roughly 13. I wasn't getting hammered at 13, and but you know, I probably started sipping at 13, 14. So I had a 40-year run. The last eight of which just went around some corners as far as habitual, as far as my behavior, you know, so it it um yeah, then you know, it as if it wasn't all just killing me in every which way it took me like to push it to a point that I had to feel physically feel like wow, the next step is I'm gonna die. Like it was pretty wild. So yeah, so that that's what sensed it for me. Yeah, man. I I'm pretty sure they call that rock bottom. Yeah, you know, yeah, something something like that. But rock bottom uh has a trapdoor a lot of times, maybe, you know. I don't know, so I don't know what to call it because I thought I'd hit rock bottom before, but I found a trapdoor and went further down, you know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I traded my shovel for a a hoe with back payments, you know, like uh dude, I've had a I've had a ton of fun hanging with you the last few weeks and just kind of getting to know you. I appreciate kind of the chairlift rides we've had and like sharing some of the stories. Um, you know, I I I've been thinking about like, you know, I think it's kind of an interesting I think it's interesting that you're back in Bend, Oregon, spending time, I think the most time since like the late 80s when you moved here. And you know it's wild. I think that's I think that's more than just
Returning To Bend With Purpose
SPEAKER_04coincidence, dude. Like we were talking about on the chair, like where you're at in life, what your goals are, kind of who your community is, the people that you have the most in common with, you know, just as Mike Rankwit, not as like Mike Rankwit, the pro snowboarder kind of, you know, but just as a human being.
SPEAKER_03The human being I am, I feel like there's a lot of people cut from the same cloth around here. Totally, dude. You know, yeah. Older guys that are, you know, bored sporters, you know, avid board sporters. Um, you know, yeah, no, it's it's been an interesting couple weeks. You know, because I I didn't come to town thinking, oh, I'm gonna move here, and I'm not like I'm living here. It's more like if I could ru keep two simultaneous homes, one where my kids are and in Hawaii and Maui, yeah. And then one on the mainland, that mainland home would be in Bend. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, man. I I love it. I mean, tell people a little bit, because a lot of people won't that will listen to this will know you, but won't know kind of your your early story about why you moved to Bend, Oregon in the late 80s.
SPEAKER_03Um, yeah, I know that was uh 1987. Um what I was like 16, 17. Uh and uh Craig Craig wanted to move down here basically.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Craig, Craig Kelly, Craig Kelly, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And so he and his girlfriend, Kelly Joe, and his best friend Steve and myself moved to Bend, Oregon, and it was the only ski area in the northwest that not only you know allowed snowboarding, you know, 365, but um it was just a big ski area here, you know. It wasn't Mal Baker was only open Saturdays and Sundays back then.
SPEAKER_04Oh, was that right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, we we went up there almost every weekend, yeah.
SPEAKER_04You know, yeah, you were telling me you made the drive from Ben to Baker many, many times. Hundreds. Yeah, yeah. What do you remember about Ben back in the late 80s? Like, like had you been here before you moved here? No. Do you remember that first drive in?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it smelled like campfire wood. Like, you know, all the wood stoves. Yeah. Um, and the mill running. And the mill running. Yeah. So it was a very welcoming smell. I remember that.
SPEAKER_04Welcoming because it like signified like Northwest. Yeah. It just felt woodsy, homesy. Yeah. You know. See, like, I don't know how many people will listen to this, but I guarantee them to you, a lot of the audience is from the Pacific Northwest and can will be able to identify with that kind of like aroma is does something in the in the Yeah, I know it was wild.
SPEAKER_03It was uh it didn't get that smell anywhere else. Yeah. But in it and it was very comforting. Yeah. Like, oh sick, I'm in Ben. You rolled down the window, it smelled like a wood stove, you know. It was like right. And not in any pollutant kind of a way. No, not at all.
SPEAKER_04Just like heating with wood, man. I mean, when I was a kid, we would cut like 15 cords of wood every like September, August, and September, you know, and my dad was like, you better stack that so tight I can have a gunfight behind it, you know? Like, so like, yeah, I I get it. There's something about um heating with wood that I don't know, it's primal, slash it just, yeah, it's simple. Yeah, that's that's funny, dude. That's funny that that's one of the the hallmark memories. What else? What else?
SPEAKER_03Like, what about your first like um we got we bought mountain bikes, Craig and I didn't when we got here, yeah. Do you remember from there? Specialized rock hoppers. Oh, damn, dude. If that was back in the late 80s, yeah, it was probably like it was right around the corner from where we live. Like we lived on Fort 1465 northwest Baltimore. Are you kidding? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04There you have it, people. I love it. Sorry if you live there now. You might get some driver buds.
SPEAKER_03Just a block off, I guess, century drive. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So you're back for like two weeks and you already got the names dialed. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um so yeah, it was uh, you know. I was you know, I was hitchhiking up to the mountain then. I've I've always hitchhiked up to the mountain. Yeah, you know, like I still do that anyway anywhere.
SPEAKER_04I love it. When's the last time you hitchhiked?
SPEAKER_03Um probably last year at Baker.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04What like from Glacier up? Yeah, just from glacier. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Love it. Every car is going there. Where else are they going? Then the the parking lot is full of hundreds of cars that are gonna drive by where I live. You know, hundreds of cars.
SPEAKER_04What do you think Craig taught you the most about life outside of snowboarding, dude?
SPEAKER_03Um I probably all the shit I'm trying to figure out now.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know.
SPEAKER_04Which is.
SPEAKER_03I don't know. He he was really responsible, you know. He was a very responsible young man. Yeah, you know, like had his taxes in order, had his, you know, just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Everything was, you know, so he knew inherently he and Kelly Joe, you know, started that camp, you know. I I don't know exactly how that ended, but they started that.
SPEAKER_04Ultimately, I think it ended with a lack of snow.
SPEAKER_00What camp?
SPEAKER_04Champ of can't camp of champions, right?
SPEAKER_03That's what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah. I'm just saying in the beginning to have the gumption to do that, yeah and to just to run all of that, to you know, have to go to the post office and pick up your mail and like all these requests, and yeah,
Craig Kelly And Real Responsibility
SPEAKER_03you know, they were on that shit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and that's way before internet. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like it took a lot of like what's cool about that is analog gumption, you know. Totally. It's it's cool because you think back around how many lives were kind of put on a trajectory because of their decision to start that camp, you know. Yeah. I mean, including yours, but I I I was he didn't hire me pretty pretty early on.
SPEAKER_03I got the boot from Craig from the camp, although I lived with him at the time. Um yeah, I lived with him in Whistler, and he lived separate from the camp. We had this condo thing down the street, and I worked for him, but then I got fired.
SPEAKER_04What do you get fired for?
SPEAKER_03Um getting wasted. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just doing stupid shit. Just like I I was with like I was with um it was Kidwell's birthday. And and you know, Kidwell's probably yeah, 22, 23, maybe, you know, like and I I was like in my teens, you know. Maybe Kidwell was 21. I don't know, but like I was in my teens and just walking around this hall in his camper, um, where all the campers were saying, just spraying a beer, just like, fuck yeah, it's Kidwell's birthday, and just walked around the corner and Craig just locks eyes with me and just like he he didn't even have to say you're fired. Yeah, you know what I mean? It was like bam, done.
SPEAKER_04Do you do you remember kind of your first private interaction with him after that?
SPEAKER_03Um kind of.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. It's a long time ago.
SPEAKER_03I had a lot of kind of interactions with him where I I I got in some trouble. So I I I do remember that, you know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Is there one that like uh I mean I guess this goes back to my question because I, you know, I mean it's it it's not hard for people that know you and know the history of snowboarding and the sport of snowboarding to to understand kind of the influence that Craig Kelly had on you, and like, you know, it's it's it's it's a massive chapter in the history of the sport. Um, but there's more to life than snowboarding sometimes, you know, and and the people that are in your lives through snowboarding can oftentimes have a massive effect on your life in other areas. Yeah. And that's what I was curious about this week was just like, you know, I I wonder, I wonder how like Craig imprinted on you outside of, you know, um learning how to ride the way you do, or and just the you know, the outside of bite my shit.
SPEAKER_03Um no, he had a huge impact on me. Um I mean, he he he kind of plucked me, saved me from the implosion of my family at the time. My sister just died of cancer, and like, you know, she was like 21, I was like 15.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_03And you know, like so like a year after that when I was 16 was when you know we were starting to talk about moving to Bend. Yeah. And so it it it I I think for my mom at the time, it was like, oh, cool. So here's a responsible young man, sure, you know, going to college, um, smart as a whip, uh carries himself well, you know. What could go wrong? You know? Um and uh so yeah, I mean, that's where that's where he, you know, he really stepped in there, you know. So outside of snowboarding, um yeah, no, it's pretty wild.
SPEAKER_04Well what I'm hearing is he was just consistent, yeah, and cared about you, yeah, and like stepped in to kind of offer another, you know, it'd be intra-man, yeah, you know. Did you ever have that conversation with him? About what? Just kind of like why he leaned into you at that point in life?
SPEAKER_03No, not really. It wasn't, you know, probably until I got sober that I really looked at it and was like, wow, that was impactful. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, oh shoot, you know, like that kind of shaped every uh I I was, you know, about to be a very loose cannon, you know. Yeah. Um, and Craig just kind of swooped in and was like, here, I I got him, you know, at least for a couple years. I'll I'll give it my best shot, you know. Which had I just stayed in Renton, never met him, I never would have taken snowboarding seriously. I would have been skating, and but I would have blown that apart with some kind of implosion in my teens, you know. Um, so yeah, that I I guess that's outside of snowboarding.
SPEAKER_04What was your childhood like growing up in Renton? Like, were were your parents together? Yeah. Are they still together?
SPEAKER_03Uh they're both deceased. That's what sucks about parents. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's a true statement, man. It's the inevitable. Yeah. Yeah. Do you do you read much? Yeah. I got a good book for you. I think it's called 4,000 weeks. And it's about um it's called 4,000 weeks. All the author's name's Oliver Berkman, and it's a it's it's called like 4,000 weeks, time management for mortals. It really has nothing to do with how you manage your time and more around the relationship with the time that you have if you live to be 80. Because if you live to be 80, that's a that's 4,000 weeks, which is kind of crazy to think about it like that. Yeah, you know. Yeah. I'm proud of you, man. You know, I don't know you incredibly well, but what you've shared with me over the past couple weeks has been like, you know, because the easy thing to do would be keep going down that road. Yeah. So, like, if nothing else, man, you should be super proud of yourself for not going down that road.
SPEAKER_03Because at that point, you're not pumping the brakes. No. You know, it's like, oh shit, I got some explaining to say you know what I mean? Like it you know, when when you're in that party mode, you just you do something more ridiculous to cancel out the last thoughts of the ridiculous shit that you just did. You know?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I do know. The more guys I meet in the middle age that are have you know chosen to quit whatever that thing is, and it's not always chemical substance, too. You know, it can you can get addicted to a lot of things. Oh, it's gnarly. Um gambling, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like gambling's no joke, dude. Like I I I've I've felt the claws of a gambling addiction enough. You know, the ups and downs of coming up and down in Vegas when you're when I'm should say you're um when I was um on substances, uh the those highs and lows are so extreme. And what what's wild is is you know, with with any kind Of substance, alcohol, or others, you're entering that into your body. That's a new thing coming in, and make and driving you crazy, doing all these things, but essentially driving you crazy and making you believe that everything's fine. Gambling does that same thing without anything entering your your your body without a chemical.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, man. Dopamine release is uh is kind of unlike.
SPEAKER_03I've never been a gambler. I just want to point out I'm not a degenerate gambler, okay. If you were to gambler, yeah.
SPEAKER_04If I was, what's your game? Um roulette. Uh-huh. You know what roulette is? Buster, get on that mic, man. Get that thing closer. Because you because maybe people don't know
Dopamine Chasing Beyond Alcohol
SPEAKER_04you as well as Mic Buster, but introduce yourself. Get that mic close, man.
SPEAKER_00Yep. How's it going? How's it going? Is this your first podcast, Buster? Yeah, I've never done this.
SPEAKER_03I haven't even done a podcast.
SPEAKER_00I'm usually behind the camera, so uh, but yeah. So but no, this gambling thing. My my uncle went through it, so I seen him firsthand uh go through gambling addiction. Yeah, and he he you know, he was in yeah, he went through it really heavy. It it took him down, so yeah, dude. But it's not just a substances, yeah. No, it's food, even it can be. Oh, totally.
SPEAKER_03I've dealt with somebody lately that that's their you know, substance is gambling, you know, like they're they're sober otherwise, but they can't stop doing this, and it's totally wreaking havoc, you know, and it's like, whoa, dude, that's just that shit's powerful, you know.
SPEAKER_04You know, I work in healthcare, but by no means we bet him a hundred bucks that he can stop. That's funny, dude. Did you win? No, I was like, I'm on the way to stop. I think it's all that that chemical reward system, you know, it's that it's that dopamine rhythm you get in and the things that can reliably create it is really synthetically create something that we do without trying naturally, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, just by snowboarding, just like oh whoa, whoa, whoa, that was amazing. But there's a blink of a of a point where you just get this incredible shot of something. I I I don't know what that is. It's dopamine. Yeah. It a hundred percent it's a big one.
SPEAKER_04What what have you filled that void with?
SPEAKER_03Well, that's what we did for years. Is we'd get off the hill and we uh you know, I I I didn't look at it so um scientifically, you could say, you know, like I I didn't look at it like it was a dopamine shot. Well, why would you? We didn't know that stuff back then. I just got off the hill and was like, let's get effed up, you know, just hyped. Just hyped, you know. I do know, yeah.
SPEAKER_04A lot of people listening to this will will be able to relate with that, you know. It's it's keep that feeling.
SPEAKER_03And it was it wasn't just me. It w I'd get off the hill. There'd be like 40 of me. And you know, not 40 of me, you know what I mean. Like 40. 40 people who are kind of living the same lifestyle, exactly. Yeah, and and it was it, it just made sense, you know? Like decade decades of of perfectly aligned alcohol advertisements and movies, and just how it evolved and what we saw projected onto us like as okay, acceptable, and heroic almost, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, like that there was so much of that in the 70s and 80s, you know, and and it just happened to, you know, you know, w when you do something like you know, prohibition, it's gonna have decades-long tailwith effects. Totally. And that's one of them, you know. Like maybe not directly prohibition, but like that era, they had it right, you know what I mean? Like it that they they were on track, you know. It it's fucking up society, you know. That whole idea started probably a century before that, you know, with the I forgot what it was called, some women's movement, you know, a bunch of brads, you know, um got together and we're like uh this, you know, alcohol is is like making our husbands come home once a week and beat the fuck out of us and and be awful to the kids and spend all the money. And yeah, like this is horrible effect on families, yeah, you know, and so I don't know what I'm talking about. You know, you know exactly what you're talking about, but but it all kind of led up to this, you know, mass, you know, like it's Miller time, you know, just shit like that. That's just ingrained in our our collective kind of DNA-ish when we talk, you know. It's it's and it um, you know, it it it was at a yeah, there just had to be certain things in society to be perfect for it to just slip right through and just really affect a generation of us, and and but at this point were the examples that the next generations are looking at like you know, you don't want to end up like that, you know, like like wow, look at that, you know, like because it it you know, you you're you're playing with something that that fucks up the entirety of your life in so many aspects, you know. And and I'm not talking dudes having a beer like uh at a barbecue every two weeks, you know.
SPEAKER_04That this not um no, I I think I think people understand what you're saying, man. You know, I think this is this this stuff's worth talking about. I I love that like it goes back to what I was saying about kind of observing this trend and this this world that we're all familiar with of people getting sober and and kind of sharing their story. I think it's inspiring. I think young people coming up, especially in this sport that are in their mid-20s, if they're honest with themselves and and kind of evaluate their relationship with whatever it is weed, nicotine, alcohol, pornography, food, gambling, you know. Like I I think it's just it's healthy to just kind of pause and be honest with yourself, you know, and and pornography's cool. I would disagree, bro. Yeah, just kidding. Yeah, that's a whole other podcast. Maybe we we I'm I'm down to have that podcast. We have a lot of shared friends in the snowboard industry, and you know, like I know, you know, and I look at kind of like you know, it's it's been rad kind of looking over your Instagram account as just a way to kind of like what does Mike think about? Because usually like a social media nowadays I view as kind of like to some degree, obviously it's what you want to project to the world, but it's what's important to you. One thing that I've been you know kind of excited to learn more about is you know, you named your podcast and that I think you started in 23 or 21. What year did you start that? Uh I don't even know. It was it was it was it before COVID or after? Um, do you remember? Probably during 20.
SPEAKER_00It was yeah, 19 or 20.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, okay. So you called it rad matters. Yeah. First of all, I I've been wanting to ask you like, what is your definition of rad and why does it matter?
SPEAKER_03Um rad. My definition of rad. I don't know, just donkey kicking with a fucking with a board under your feet, you know?
SPEAKER_04But deeper than that, like what is it about that that makes it rad? Because I agree with you.
SPEAKER_03Um I don't know. Board sports are interesting in that you know, you can take just an otherwise schlup of a guy, you know. Like, I I I know guys that are so graceful on their skateboards, like so freaking graceful, you know, just so they can just blunt everything, front side blunt, just bah bah bah bah just like flipping, grab just popping it, perfect bam, you know, like but they're otherwise just in you know, just complete schlups, you know, like like you wouldn't hire him for a construction job, you know what I mean? Like, dude, that guy can't carry a bucket, you know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I framed houses with some of those dudes in this town. No, I swear to god, they could skatevert like nothing else, but like framing a straight wall was a challenge.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, um I think that's rad. Um like that ability. Style and
Defining “Rad Matters”
SPEAKER_03finesse, right, packaged in otherwise you know, foreboden cat packages. You know what I mean? Like, you're not supposed to like what's in there, but you take it out and you put it on a snowboard and like, oh, snap, like that person's fucking rad, you know. Um that that's always been interesting to me, you know. Like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's it's that's a great answer, Matton. You know, I I uh I look at back back and and the diversity of the people in your social media that like you say so and so matters because and it's like everything you just said right there is you know, whether they're and sometimes it's not even like the act of snowboarding, but it's almost like their contribution to the thing, you know. That was the other thing I noticed, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and when when are you gonna do it again? I don't know when do what again. Come on, Rick, but you need to post again.
SPEAKER_03I know. Um I've just been a little bit of a rut, you know.
SPEAKER_00But no, people love love those.
SPEAKER_03It's like your writing is so slowly start writing, and uh and and and yeah, no, those those are fun to do. There's no reason I'm not other than I just got out of super stoke zone, you know, just to you know, a small room where like uh you know, like in Japan, even like everywhere, you know, you just walked outside, it's like, oh sick, it's dumping, you know what I mean? Like yeah, sometimes they're just natural rhythm stuff, surrounded by it, yeah. And so it's like it just kind of screeched to a little bit of a halt. I didn't want it to screech like that, but whatever, it's just thoughts, anyways. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04It's um there's no rules, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I guess for context, like did you guys meet in Japan? Uh no, we we met in Maui, yeah. Yeah, um we may have met in Japan some years ago. Well, we is that the first time we met? We didn't meet in Japan, no, we met in Maui. Okay. At Shanti's house, okay, or at the beach, yeah. Um yeah, a mutual friend of ours. Yeah. So yeah, we that was probably eight or nine years ago. And then uh we actually did see each other in Japan like six or seven years ago. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, at the volcano Osai Dake. But um, but no, we we got to we actually got to snowboard in Japan in January. This January, yeah. We were of 26. What a good three weeks or so.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was um the the snow itself, the conditions were unreal.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was great.
SPEAKER_03I mean, we were right, it really was.
SPEAKER_04It was like and that's I mean, you've spent a you've I mean you've been to Japan probably over 50 times in your life. I don't know, dude.
SPEAKER_03You know, almost 70 times. Is that right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, just hovering around there, yeah. Um, and it it was it like top five you've ever seen?
SPEAKER_03It it was so freaking good for so long. It you know, like you're taught your muscles got tired. Like I had to stop by two. Did you start to take it?
SPEAKER_04It's easy to start taking it for granted when it's that good all the time.
SPEAKER_03You have to, you know, like you get super picky and like you know, like it I remember doing traverses where I had to put my arm out just to shave out the side of the mountain as I was flying along. Like, because like if I if my body just sunk into it, I would have my it would have just stop me. Yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_04Had to like put my arm out, just to shave off that speaks to do things, the slope you were on and the lightness of the snow, man.
SPEAKER_03It was unreal. It just it just sustained. It was like it was like this, I don't know, 10 to 20 degree weather, which uh I would, you know, to me is a little too cold to for snow to accumulate,
Japan Powder And Best Turns
SPEAKER_03but you're within a hundred miles of the Pacific Ocean, so you get this marine layer pack that or this marine pack that it but this was like cold that that but cold, you know what I mean? Baker, but cold, yeah, and it was it was unreal, like and it just stayed freaking cold. It never it it got it drouted out for like 10 days, but it but it came back two or three more times, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um I had I had left before that happened, but yeah, it was yeah. We mean we were at one point just saying best runs that was the best run of my life. Yeah, some of some of them were then the next run was that was the best run of my life. Can I come visit you guys? Time you're over there.
SPEAKER_03Well, there's there's like a rotating top five in my head, you know what I mean? Like yeah, sometimes it was like but some of like definitely my the best turn that I I can think of this best single turn of my life, and it was in Japan. This last year? No, not this. This one was like decades ago, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Describe it.
SPEAKER_03Um goddamn. It it it was like this, it just like let's say like it was steep and then it kind of shelved out flat and then steep again, and I wanted to just like fly along the steep section and just diagonal across the flat and just pop into the but I did something weird and and pop in the air and went under where it was flat, and I just popped out of the snow, like like I went through the snow completely and I fucking turned, like put all my weight into it and just and just snapped the tail and you know sucked up my body and just boo she just popped. My friends I think my friend James was there. Um Sean Sullivan was like those guys saw it, yeah, and they were just like, what the fuck was that? You know, it was it was uh yeah, that was an enchanting night. One night in in umutsu or something like that. I'm sorry, it was Naseiko. Naseiko. Yeah, it was main main run in Naseiko, just like right over, you know, to the left.
SPEAKER_04I wish I knew, man. I've never been there. One day I will go.
SPEAKER_00You'll go.
SPEAKER_03I'm going over. Um I I don't know as far as what's exactly scheduled, but I know I'll be over there with that Alkaline Lodge with Ed from uh late last week of December, first week of January. Red. And I think Ryan was talking about popping out then and just doing a free ball trip, you know? Yeah, like that, that would be sick. Yeah, oh yeah. I would I'm definitely in. Yeah. I wanna I'm down, yeah, man. Pencil me in. Yeah, no, I I'm just I'm just planning to spend as much time in Japan this winter.
SPEAKER_00When we shot pictures, like you hadn't shot for a while, probably probably, huh? Yeah, years.
SPEAKER_03I mean decades, really. Like I remember second day in shooting with you, just realizing, oh, getting photos is fun. Yeah, you know, I I can actually do it, you know. Like, it's not like we shot all day and we had no photos. It was like, oh, sick, and you're a great photographer, so yeah, you have gotten good, dude. Yeah, you've you're really good somehow. I can't believe it. The power of technology it's it's amazing.
SPEAKER_00I can still blow it, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. We we can all blow it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, daily, dude. Daily, but no, it it was fun. Like it was such an hopefully get to do that again. Yeah, we will.
SPEAKER_04Uh um, what else have you been doing for the last couple years besides pause it?
SPEAKER_02I can all right.
SPEAKER_04Back from the piss break. That's what we call it. You're back. All right. Uh I I don't really remember where we left off. I think I think we're talking about politics and racism and gender equality.
SPEAKER_03I wanted to know what what year were we?
SPEAKER_02Oh dude.
SPEAKER_04Has anyone ever told you you're a good egg, Mike Ranquet? You're a good egg, man. Yeah. I don't say that about everybody either. You know. Uh I think we left off with uh, you know, I I'd kind of just just inquir inquiring, because I'm sure a lot of people are curious, you know, like like what you've been up to the last couple years, and and from my perspective, it seems like it's been really focusing a lot on kind of your sobriety and mental health from what you've shared with me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, um, in the last two years, let's see, I got sober just over two years ago. Uh, and I I ended up in a psych ward about a year ago. It was a year into my sobriety, and I was still crazy. Um I I just realized I was taking classes at uh at a community college for um drug addiction counseling. Oh yeah. And in New York? Yeah. And the the thesis was you know my final thing. And I hadn't been in a classroom environment since you know, I dropped out of high school 38 years prior. So but you know, my my big
Post Addiction Psychosis Wake Up Call
SPEAKER_03my big pro you know write-up was um post-addiction psychosis. And and I turned it in, you know, did all right, whatever, got a B probably. I can't remember.
SPEAKER_04That's above average, buddy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, I I I was pleased, ever, you know. I I but uh when I got it back, I read it that night and was like, oh my god, that's me. Like everything in it. And I was like, and I I just checked myself into a uh psych war the next day. Yeah, I just I was like, wow, because I just had all sorts of bad ideations, uh, every day, like on the daily, you know, like the when when you grow up with just being infused with alcohol, um the normal emotions of of just say stubbing your toe. You know, you're like, oh, that hurts. Um that'll work itself off. Me, after 40 years, uh, you know, after stopping drinking after all that time, I just stub my toe and just be like, I should blow my head off. Yeah, I'd I just go straight to that. I mean, that didn't literally happen.
SPEAKER_04No, I'm hypothetical there.
SPEAKER_03Well, you're making a point. But the the point is I didn't have tools in place to navigate basic situations in life, you know, without without just going really extreme on it, you know.
SPEAKER_04Why do you think you lack those tools? Do you think it was like never hear a no?
SPEAKER_03I went through my twenties. Yeah. The all of my twenties and teens. Let's not forget the teens. Basically without ever hearing the word no. You know? Um, I I got kicked out of Japan. It wasn't because I was snowboarding bad. It's because I got drunk and you know, and wrecked the hotel, basically. And I tripped upwards from that, you know. And you know, you you compound that over 30 years, and all of a sudden when things don't work, you you know, you have a short fuse.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, man. Yeah, it's it's I was telling you about, yeah, you know, this this uh yeah, there there's a book that I again that I I learned a lot from. Uh it's called Coddling of the American Mind, and it has to do with kind of Who's that? Jonathan Height. Jonathan Height, yeah. Yeah, good memory. It's a great book.
SPEAKER_03Well, I I know the name and I'm familiar with the book.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's it's it's it's a great book, you know. It it just talks about, I guess to boil it down in its simple most simplistic form is basically cause and effect, right? Like what you either are exposed to or allow your children to be exposed to at certain periods of life and how it helps them acquire the skill sets to navigate life in, you know, not always, but probably more a more you just have more tools in your toolbox. You know, that's that's probably the easiest way to think about it. You know, more tools in the toolbox to like work on whatever the thing in life that you're you're having to work on.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, just everything, you know, I just swung for the fences on everything, you know. Like and as far as snowboarding, like I I was just down for it, you know, like you fuck with snowboarding, you know, fuck you, you know. Uh I I was like a fundamentalist snowboarder, you know. Yeah, we don't do it like that. We we do it like this, and there's a wide array of this, but this is how we do it, and apparently we did do it like that, also, you know.
SPEAKER_04That could mean a lot of things, yeah. Everywhere from like where you grab for a method to like how you approach.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um uh had a lot to do with a lot of that.
SPEAKER_04I know you did, man.
SPEAKER_03I remember, you know, I mean those delineations, you know, like well, I think it's important. Um you know, yeah. I mean, um Methodairs could easily just turn into donkey kick tabletop, you know, just you know what I mean, like really fast.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, man, rad matters, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Rad matters.
SPEAKER_04You know, I mean, I don't know how to put that into words, but you either get that or you don't.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. If I have to explain it to you, you're not gonna understand who it is, you know. Yeah, I mean uh, you know, and then yeah, no, it was a while. I was like the middle kid of the Northwest pros, right? Like Craig Kelly, myself, Jamie Lynn, you know. Like I was a middle kid, you know. Um yeah, that that was pretty wild, you know, just on just seeing Jamie come out and and just kick those methods the way he did so early on. It wasn't like, oh wow, you see he's got a pretty sweet method coming along. It was like boom every time, like from when he was like 15. Like it was like, oh, here's that rocker kid from Auburn that does those sick methods, you know. It was it was immediate, you know. And that's what I mean. That's what I was saying earlier about that, you know, those those skaters that just do not all of a sudden are just so graceful, you know what I mean? Like Jamie was so graceful in the air on a snowboard, yeah. You know, it was it was pretty I liken it to seeing a mirage on the horizon sometimes when you see somebody really, really good because your eyes aren't even used to seeing what is there, and you're like, is that real? Did did he, you know, like I remember I I've skated with with Daewon one time and he did a a trick and it was like that. It was like, Did I just see what I thought I saw? Yeah, like was that like a mirage? Well, you don't have the luxury of rewinding it to convince your life. You don't have the luxury of putting up against anything else comparable. No way, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04Like, um that's funny you brought up Daewon's song, man. I was just watching, I mean, he still puts out clips that
Jamie Lynn And Skate Style Legends
SPEAKER_04like his gnarly dude, his manuals lately, like the the manual transition combos he puts together, are it's I I mean, I don't think people really have the foggiest idea of how hard that is, man.
SPEAKER_03No, he's he's a wizard. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_04When when's the first time you met Jamie?
SPEAKER_03Um at this guy's ramp in Auburn and skating, yeah, probably 1984, 1983.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's a long time ago.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like he was a kid, a baby, but he just had this barrel chest, like it was like almost funny looking, like these string beans sticking out from his this this baby boy arms is sticking out from this like Hercules chest, you know what I mean? Like, like I think he was born, like yeah, everything else grew, but his chest was been that big for that long, you know. He's just yeah, it was wild. I remember just going, Oh, keep this one close, you know.
SPEAKER_04Was it a vert ramp?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was like uh I think the guy's name is Ron. Yeah. He skated with, I can't remember his buddy that he skated with in Auburn. Um, but uh Ron might be right. Um was at this ramp, and I remember I was doing backside boneless, and that was like, you know, that was like a trick. I was, you know, I was a shit. I could do backside boneless ones there. And Jamie, by the end of the session, just he ever like skaters know this guy that like just hops up on one leg with his board and a backside boneless and just jumps in and just eats it, you know. Like, like everyone's seen this in skating. You've seen that guy do that, and you're like, oh dude, that's a way easier way to do that, you know. But um, but he made it like after like three, and then I saw him at this granny's ramp out in Linwood, and um a couple times I skated there. I skated with him for a couple yeah like years off and on, because there's probably only the greater Puget Sound area all the way up to like Mount Vernon. It's probably 40 of us skaters, real skaters, you know. And he became in that crew pretty because you know, he I think it was Ron. I I hope I'm right. Uh he had a car. Paul Farrell also lived down there in the South End, and I skated with him a lot because he he was part of this you know crew of 40, you know. That's probably a liberal number. Yeah, I saw him just come up in absolute slow motion, yeah. It was like, oh well, you know, telling guys about him for years, you know, like but but like it before even telling anyone, like I can remember showing Craig one time, like we stopped on a run and Jamie and his buddies, you know, the FGHC guys or whatever, they were in the half pipe at Baker, and and I was like to Craig and Dan, maybe even Steve Graham was there too. Um but I was like, oh guys, you know, like here's that kid. And he just did like a 30-foot method error out of the pipe, like off a jump that nobody hits. Like it's it's just a washboard landing, you know, just you know, sometimes those flat landings kind of you can get find that little bit of none of that. It was just boilerplate washboard, and it just rode away like he didn't even jump, and it it was yeah, and um I can also remember him in the Breck pipe in 1990. After the contest, he stayed in my room for a night or two. I knew he was in town, and we just rode the pipe together. But like, I I can remember like like show telling Noah and MacDog, like, dude, there's this kid, and he told he just drops in the pipe and just waffles. Just I forgot what it was, but he just ate it, you know, and then like an hour later, same type of thing, he drops in in front of MacDog and Noah and just completely blows it, you know, and that that probably delayed his discovery a year, you know what I mean? Like, I just thought at the time, okay, they even made fun of me. Oh, yeah, the Demi guy, you know, like it was and like a year later, I remember Noah going, That's that kid, huh? You know what I mean? Like, I was like, Yeah, that's that kid I've been telling you about for like half a decade. Yeah. But when he got in front of Mac Dog and Noah, he completely just waffled. I forgot exactly what it was, you know. Sure, man. But um, he didn't go off and do his signature donkey kick. Yeah, that that wasn't in the cards that day. How do you get into skating? Sister's boyfriend had a skateboard.
SPEAKER_04Your sister that passed away?
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_04You have two sisters?
SPEAKER_03I have three.
SPEAKER_04Three.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04You're the only boy?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And where are you in the lineup?
SPEAKER_03Um I'm the youngest. Oh, you are? Yeah. And so so my sister's boyfriend, she um he had a skateboard, a kryptonics board with urethane wheels, you know, like I'd skated around the neighborhood on my like yellow banana board, sure, yeah, with just whatever dog shit wheels came on it. Um just rattled those off. And then he came around with this smooth ass, you know, like a real skateboard with trucks and you know, um, yeah, it was it was wild. It was like uh I remember riding down the street the first time with the the street I grew up on, you know, and I was riding down. I just remember looking at the cement going by and just thinking, wow, I'm gonna do this the rest of my life. Like this is it, you know, like it was before, you know, years before you could Ollie, anybody could, not just me, you know, it just wasn't a thing, you know. Like it was way before I knew there was even a skateboard store. You know, I wasn't like, yeah, I'll work at the skateboard shop, I'll become a pro skateboarder. That wasn't a thing, but I just I knew I'd be doing this. I just had this inherent feeling that I've I've I've pondered on for years, you know, like wow, what was it? It wasn't like I did a front sitair and you know, which feels
Punk Rock And Finding A Tribe
SPEAKER_03sick, which you would think would lock me in, but it was just the act of rolling down on four wheels. You know, there was something there was something about it. I I don't know. Um I I enjoyed doing it. I could do it, you know. How old do you think you were? Probably 11 or 12 when I started doing that. Yeah. And then it was a summer from seventh to eighth grade that um I found Mark Lion's ramp on Cougar Mountain. And that's when I started, you know, meeting skateboarders like Mark, like my friend Alex, like you know, the guys from the scape from gravity sports, so the guy, you know, I thought someone was like, oh, this is what they do. You know, it was like a vert ramp in the woods, you know. Um, that sucked me in. I th I and I think it did feel a little bit secret society-ish, you know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, dude. Well, I mean, you you start putting the pieces together, and it's like I'm a firm believer that, you know, kids maybe even as early as 11 to like 15, they will connect with something that gives them their first sense of like self-empowerment. Like the thing that like no one taught them, they discovered on their own and they're good at it, and it kind of resonates. I I believe that whether that's sport or academics, skating, whatever that is, it happens, you know, and you're kind of combined with you found this tribe of people, you know, yeah, in a in a time in your life, you know, like it just all makes sense, man. You know, and it it sets a trajectory. I think a lot of people can identify with that.
SPEAKER_03And then the music back then, too, the punk, the it that that was a huge contributor of to everybody on their own levels, right? Like, but I I came from like going to stadium rock shows. That's what I like to do. If Boston was in town, I was going, you know, Rush, Aussie, Def Leopard, Scorpions. I saw all those bands. Is it young? Yeah. Did your parents listen to that music? No, uh uh. My sister did, yeah. For a short time, she claims like, you know, it's not her claim to fame. Yeah, I got my brother into rock music, you know. Um, but it's some of the best recorded music of all time, you know. When you listen to Zeppelin in Rush, I'm like, well, I grew up with such a high meter for things, you know, such a standard, you know. And then mixed with the 80s punk that was just so like so basic instruction, like just bam, bam, bam, like three chords, just you know, there's no production value. There, like, so it's like this mix of you know, salt and sweets, you know what I mean? Like it was perfect, you know, just made this driving, kind of driving rhythm, you know, metal and punk, basically. And and like really crossing those bridges in the 80s because like the those were fighting words, so you didn't even have to word it. Like, if you looked like a new waiver and you were hanging out with a bunch of rocker guys, like, let's kick his ass, you know what I mean? Like it was just like that. It was like you're so it was like for skaters to cross all these thresholds, all these bounds of like dirty, gritty punk rock with um with physical graffiti, you know what I mean? Like a very produced, but like, oh, I can hear the great music in both of these, you know. Yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, no, that that that was a some very, very many burgeoning scenes, you know. Yeah, especially in the Seattle area, man. Yeah, okay. It was massive.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I mean, I grew up four and a half hours east of Seattle, it felt like a world away, you know. Yeah, it was, yeah, it's true. For sure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but I mean it's a long way. Well, back more so back then than now, right? For sure. That's like 12 hours now. Totally. So I always say like two addictions in the 90s? That's like five addictions now. Yeah. It was gnarly. Yeah. Where are you going? Where are you going, Buster? Yeah. God.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, this is. Do you remember going into your first? Do you remember going into your first skate shop?
SPEAKER_03Yep. Gravity Sports in Renton, Washington. I couldn't believe my eyes. Like skateboarder magazine at the time. It was like, what? There's a whole world that's been here for you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04Like it was pretty wild. How long after that was like when after you had that experience where you were like, I'm the I'm like, I'm all in to like going into your into the skate shop. How far how much time you think went by? Two or three years. Is that right? Yeah. Wow. Did you get a skateboard other than the banana board in in that time frame?
SPEAKER_03No, like I I eventually used or just kind of was gifted this skateboard that um my sister's boyfriend would bring over. Yeah, you know, I think he just time all I was doing was going to the store and back, basically. Yeah. You know, maybe running through the local elementary schools and you know, butt boarding and you know, right, right. Yeah. Um, so there wasn't much wear and tear on it. It's not like I needed a new board, no, you know, ever. You know, that board probably still fine. Do you have it? No. I mean that who took you there? My mom. Yeah. Uh how'd that sequence go down? Yeah, it was like, oh, there's a skateboard shop in Renton, you know. There's also the bike factory in Bellevue. Those were the two shops. Like I was I was right in physically
First Skate Shop And Early Snowboarding
SPEAKER_03in the middle between gravity and and bike factory, basically. I found gravity a little bit earlier, and um my friend who I met very fast, I don't know exactly when or how, but it was through skateboarding. My friend Tom Pia, he lived up the street from gravity. So gravity was our shop, you know. That was it.
SPEAKER_00That was in Seattle, yeah.
SPEAKER_03That was in in downtown Renton.
SPEAKER_04Renton, Renton. Yeah, yeah, that's at a time too where like skateboarding and BMX stores were kind of like that's where you would find skateboards.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like the bike the bike factory, you know, the unassuming name for a skateboard shop, you could say sure, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Gravity, um they had they had a pretty major effect on snowboarding in that that's where dale boots were sold. And so Craig used to pick me up at Gravity, you know, to because these same years I'm talking about skateboarding, is right when I started snowboarding. So um Craig would come down to Gravity, and I remember him checking out the liners, the Dale boot liners, you know, and what ended up happening was we rode these liners for years. All the guys from Baker, we would we learned to get them from the Dale boot factory in Utah whenever we drive through Utah and put them in Sorels? Yeah, we put them in Sorels because they just wrapped they're they're basically the modern, you know, like boot liner, yeah. Yeah, and um yeah, Craig first found them at the at Gravity, and then you know, within five years, Burton owned the company. Yeah, Burton bought them. Oh, is that right? Yeah, I don't know exactly what's but you know they enveloped that style of a bootliner into their their whole line, basically. I don't I don't know where it is in the evolution of things now, but it was an early piece, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, th that that would that's an awesome time in the in kind of the history of skating and snowboarding, you know, like launch ramps and yeah, it's fun, man. Super fun. I I feel really grateful that I got to grow up at that time, you know, grow up in an area where close to a basketball court where a guy had a fly ramp, and you know, like there weren't there were only like three or four dudes doing it, but it was super fun, you know. Do you remember like um I don't know, I don't know how much this is just fun to talk about because. I haven't thought about this shit in a while, but like some of those first movies, those skate movies that would come out, like kind of Hollywood style, like Thrashin.
SPEAKER_03I remember going to Thrashen to in the movie theater. At the movie theater.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Josh Brolin.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I mean Tom Peel. I think Marshall Reed was there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I think Pear, what was that guy? That that freestyle skater for Powell Pear. Villander? Yeah, Villander. He had that, he had a cameo in it. It was what was rad about that movie is that like if you were into skateboarding, it was like the most authentic kind of production about skateboarding that I had seen, at least when I was that age, you know.
SPEAKER_03So and they introduced the daggers to the world. The daggers. That's the sickest beef. Wow. I think I gotta go watch that movie again. I mean, I mean, Duncan told me, like, cuz it was years into him being all like daggers, daggers, you know, like, and and one time he told me, he was like, you know, you know, how I really started it was I was in Brazil skating this pool, and he said, like, way off in the jungle, and just went into this little how just something where he was one-on-one with this guy, and this Brazilian guy, and he was pretty gnarly, and he just looked at him, just like, you're Dave Duncan, you're a dagger. Because he he was recalling from the movie Thrasher. Holy cow, when that when that was their thing in the movie, like we're we're the daggers, you know. And that's that's when Dave took he took that shit global at that point, you know what I mean? Like, like he was like, dang, thanks, bro. I am a dagger. So yeah, he didn't need ayahuasca or any of that crap. He just needs some some crusty old Brazilian dude to tell him he's a dagger. Politics again?
SPEAKER_04Should we? Yeah, don't blow it, Rank with Yeah, don't blow it. Yeah, we're living in interesting times to say the least.
SPEAKER_03These are the end times.
SPEAKER_04You know, it's it's funny what a bubble we live in in this town. You know? Like it's like an island. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03It is like a land island, kind of separated.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I don't know if that's good or bad, you know, but I think it's just worth being aware of.
SPEAKER_03Glacier being on a dead end road, right? Mountpaker Highway. Yeah. That's as close to living on an island as you can get being landlocked. You know, like living basically off of a dead end road, you know, a road that you're always gonna come to this road, no matter what. Because an island, you're always gonna come to one road, you know. Did you get up there this year? Yeah, it was um, it was awful. Yeah, I th I think it was uh it would snow like 12, 14 inches from like say five in the afternoon till 7 a.m. and then just switch to rain. Yeah, by nine by nine a.m. it would all be washed away every night for weeks. So it was like this constant, it was like edging, I think it's called you know, just just right to the brink, right to the brink, right to the brink.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. T the T's. Is there terrain up there that's changed since you were like spending a lot of time there? Like either grown over or around. Not much.
SPEAKER_03I mean, you know, of course, some big something's gonna come dislodged
Baker Terrain And Small Town Bubbles
SPEAKER_03everywhere, like some big root is gonna fall in the middle of that shoot, yeah, every 50 years. Um, that there's stuff what really changed the terrain up there was after that giant snow season. I mean, this is like 30 years ago, but I still remember it well. Uh 98, 99, there were the climax slides that spring that went down to the dirt, yeah. The final slide, you know, because it was like a hundred feet of snow.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And it took out sections that opened up like I mean, that's what created fly in the wall at Baker. Like the next winter was like, oh whoa, there's a line there now. Wow. That was because of climax slot. So, like that whole section, which is I love that area. Um, that was created after that huge year. So, I mean, things like that have happened, but um, it's not so wind-driven the terrain, it's more terrain driven, you know what I mean? Like Bachelor, a lot of it's wind-driven. I can look up and see something. That thing probably wasn't there 20 years ago. Yeah, you know, it's probably over here, over here, over here. You know, Baker things are generally where I remember them. Yeah, that makes sense. No, it makes total sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, bachelor, bachelor changes season to season.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it really does. It's like the sandwich.
SPEAKER_00It's all dependent. When when was that year that you you were living here? 1988 was you know, it was 87, 88. When was snowboarding allowed at Bachelor first the first year?
SPEAKER_04I don't know. The first year. That's a good question. Before 88. Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_00I I I was talking to Jerry and I think he said 86. Yeah. Probably snowboarding was allowed first on Bachelor. But I'd we'd have to look it up. It's interesting you came right after that.
SPEAKER_03Like yeah, no, it was yeah, no, that that was a interesting year. Living that was the first time I think I lived in the snow. You know, because Baker is all driving up from the wet valley. Right, totally, you know, yeah. Whereas here it was like, you know, you woke up, there's snow, there's feet of snow in your yard, yeah. Typically, yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_04It's more of like living in the side. Certainly in the 80s, yeah. Yeah, no doubt, for sure. Yeah, back then it seems like kind of just huge snow drifts, racist everywhere.
SPEAKER_03It almost feels like back. I guess I find that funny because take a poke of my nicotine pen, is that alright?
SPEAKER_04100%, yeah. I can no, it's all good. I got my uh spiral wax candle burning over here. Do you know much about Tim's brand Spiral Buster? No, you don't? No, dude. I recorded a really cool podcast with him. Do you know Tim Karpinski? Uh no.
SPEAKER_03He's he was Oh, so that's the the wax spiral. Spiral wax. I just started following him on Instagram.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. It's the it's a it's a super cool brand. I went through a business accelerator program with him last year. I was taking my my business story booth through it, and he was taking Spiral through it. And it's a rad program. It's called Bend Outdoor Works, and it's made up of a bunch of like like do you know Gary Braclin worked at Morrow for a long time? Yeah, yeah. So he's he's one of the founders of this business program, and it's focused on taking outdoor brands through kind of a I would call it like a little micro MBA, you know, and it's uh and it and it it was it's insane. Just the people you meet and what you learn, and and I don't have much of a business background, so like for me it was very educational. But um in any event, I met Tim through that program and and I learned the story behind Spiral. Like Tim was one of the co-founders at Grenade with Danny and Matt, Cass, and they all grew up together back in New Jersey, and so I learned that whole story from kind of his perspective, um, and how it and then he was like one of the graphics, graphic designers at Mervyn for a while, and then specifically.
SPEAKER_03I liked his logo with the snail. Yeah, that was a fun that was uh funny for wax like logo. I mean the spiral fit on it perfectly, yeah. But I just thought it was a funny uh like a snail for snowboard wax.
SPEAKER_04Well, that the the the intention
Spiral Wax And Building Healthier Brands
SPEAKER_04and thought behind that brand is it's one of the most authentic, like legit things I've seen that really plays into kind of what we were talking about before with sobriety, because a lot of his story is around his relationship with alcohol, kind of growing up through the grenade years of just we all remember kind of the the vi part of that brand was party.
SPEAKER_03Oh, like like I remember when when those guys would roll through Seattle, they'd all stay with me. Yeah, you know, like like two vans would pull up in front of my house. I'd have like 20 dudes, yeah. And um, yeah, we just partied and then we laid around, hung over, and then we partied, we skated better than anybody, you know, like and then try to replicate it with with chemicals, like you know, basically.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but yeah, so he just he kind of talks about that, and then you know, just there like the whole kind of dichotomy of a wax company that's really c trying to communicate, slow down in life and be healthy and be a you know, like it's just um it's it's it's a really cool man. I'm I'm totally backing it. And I went over to his house and kind of poured wax with him one day.
SPEAKER_03And uh, you know, just he's he's does he have wax figures around his house, like of his friends? No, but if I was a little wax, I had a wax company, I'd do that for sure.
SPEAKER_02Like, yeah, like a like wax mannequins.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Bob Hope. Elvira. Yeah, like Elvira. I think this was fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this was fun.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, get Buster to fucking open up his mouth a little bit, right?
SPEAKER_00Well, I like I like listening to the stories, Right. It's good.
SPEAKER_04You got any questions for Buster, Mike?
SPEAKER_03Um, no. Other than that, like, you know. I know, like, just thoughts um about just how different people take sobriety seriously and they don't have to go to the edge of the world to sometimes you can see somebody in your peripheral that's doing that just fine for you. And I think Buster has some of that. So I've really connected with him on a lot of sobriety issues, you know. I I mean I'm not bringing it into play, but I yeah, that that's it. That's it was an interesting part of learning to look learning, you know, getting to know him in Japan this year.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Talk more about that. Like what like when did because you've known each other for eight, nine years, but you've only been sober for a couple.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I've only been yeah, I've been sober for two years. Yeah, I don't I don't mean only.
SPEAKER_04I mean in the relationship that you're yeah in the in in the in the context of your guys' relationship, Buster, you've you've seen Mike kind of like I don't make the choices that have led him to where he's at. What's that been like for you?
SPEAKER_00It's it's just cool to see him like sober doing that that thing. I just I'm so proud of you for doing doing that, making those choices like in your life. And I mean being sober is everything. So uh it's it's hard, not everyone does that, you know, and and uh it's it that was you know that was the big reason why I wanted to join you in Japan. You know, I thought that would be yeah to have someone there, you know, to relate with. Do you drink? I don't, so and my wife and I both don't, so it's uh it's been a long time and and uh yeah, you know, that's a that's a it's it's nice to support people in doing that. So totally it's also hard to do that too.
SPEAKER_03So but it's uh you know, I think it Buster's like you know, not to go into his deep story, but like I think he's been surrounded by by people that that kind of went my route, you could say. Yeah, you know, and so he's very understanding of of different thoughts I've had and different, you know, you know, the easy part's quitting drinking, you know. Really. The tough part's like uh you know, facing your emotions that you haven't ever felt and you're like 55 years old, like whoa,
How Friends Support Sobriety
SPEAKER_03is that supposed to make you cry? You know, like or just stuff, you know, but um I guess getting back to it, like Buster was a really good good person to to have in Japan at that time, yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_00Man, I'm thank you, Mike. I'm glad I could be there for you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, it was it was important. There's a lot there's a lot, a lot of shenanigans going on around us. So it was good to have, I think both of us were solid for each other, you know. Yeah, we kept kept the stoke, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well and and we'll keep that going. Yeah. So it's it's cool having you here in Ben.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's funny, it's like the first mountain town that you you lived in, and now you're you're kind of full circle back here.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, it's wild. Um I wouldn't, you know, like I I touched on it earlier, I forgot what I said. Uh, but it's not like I'm looking, I'm just looking at yeah, it's the first town I've been in in in a couple years where I'm like, oh wow, this this actually physically, geographically, um support-wisey, everything ye works for me. Yeah, you know, this is a good this is a good, yeah, good, um, good plant to have, you know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think so, man. It makes a lot of sense for you. What do you got going this summer? Um you're working on getting back to Hawaii.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, just working to get back to Hawaii. That's that's really my underlying underpinning thing. Um, I would just if my kids lived in Akron, Ohio, I'd be wanting to get back to Akron. My kids live in Hawaii. So that's where and and I want to re kind of reestablish myself as a dad and as a professional snowboarder, as you know, somebody that, you know, can can I you know, like when I first moved to Hawaii, it was kind of I was all in. You know, I I remember I remember one point two years going by and I hadn't left the island. I was stoked on that. And now I look at it like I'm just gonna base myself there and probably do trips to Japan. Trip, you know, and I want to get my podcast going again. Yeah, and I don't know what that's gonna look like at all. I don't know if anybody wants the opinion of a you know 55-year-old washed up um uh non-active addict, you know, ex-alcoholic.
SPEAKER_00Encyclopedia.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but I I think a lot of people would really appreciate that.
SPEAKER_03Um, you know, and I think I'm gonna work with you two on just getting the motivation to do it. I I think, you know, it it's hard, it's hard to isolate and then in that same room of isolation, just set up a fucking microphone and then just press record, be like, hey, what's up, man? You know, like it's I I think there's a little bit of um
Hawaii Plans And Restarting The Podcast
SPEAKER_03coming physically in some, you know, just like going to work, you know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, man. You're you're it you're you're gonna rediscover your relationship with it just like you have everything else since you've chosen to be sober. And it's gonna be a it's it's it's you know, we you and I were talking the other day about like when we were riding up the chair about the the joy of doing hard things, like challenging things again. Like I I think it's all kind of how you frame it, man, but but I'm absolutely supporting you on doing that because the world would be worse off without Mike Rankwitt's kind of opinion and perspective and story, man. And and that's just you know that's a guaranteed. You're making really good choices. Trying to, right?
SPEAKER_03You're not perfect, you know, you know, but you're you know while crawling out of while crawling out of the the the debris of decades of bad choices, I'm finally starting you know to at least accept the fact that I might you know put a good choice on the docket one day, you know.
SPEAKER_04You already have. Yeah, you have. Appreciate you, man. Thanks, thank you, thanks, guys.
SPEAKER_00Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Adam.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, this was super fun, boys. Make sure to visit Ben Magazine come and remember the inner promotion. I'd like to say a special thank you to all of those who participated in the making of this episode, as it wouldn't be the same without your contribution, and I appreciate your choice. Lastly, if you know someone who you think would enjoy today's episode, please share it with them. Hey, thanks for your time, Central Morgan. Get outside. We'll see you out there. And remember, the health of our community relies on us.
