Interview & photos by Jeff Schmuck

So summer camps in Whistler have now come to a close, and as anyone who was on the Horstman Glacier knows, you were absolutely destroying it up there. Tell everyone how it went.

It was pretty awesome. I came to Whistler on the 16th of June and hit the gym every day for two weeks until I really started skiing, because it was kind of crappy up there for the first little bit so I wasn't going up every day. Hooked up with my shredding buddy TJ, and I told him I'd help him get better at rails if he got me good at jumping again. And we pretty much had nice sunny weather every day and I ended up learning a new trick pretty much every day.

TJ & Peter

Yeah I remember you telling Dorey and I one day about all the new tricks you had just learned, and it was pretty cool, because you were so excited you sounded like a camper.

I felt like a camper. It sounds weird, but I had never really been able to do super corked out 5's for some reason. Every time I'd do it my head was close but my body wasn't, so I learned how to do that, and then I learned how to do switch rodeo 5's which I'd always had issues with as well, and then two days after I learned both of those I put them together and started doing switch double cork 10's. And I'd also been thinking about doing a misty 5 to switch flat 3 double for about three years but was always too scared to try it, so this summer I just went for it and stomped it every time but once, so I'm super stoked on that. Also did a lot of d-spin 9's and rodeo 7's so I can start working on double cork 12's, and then I think I should be pretty set on doubles.

Switch double cork 10

Misty 5 to switch flat 3

It must give you a lot of confidence going into next year.

Yeah I'm feeling really confident in my skiing right now, which is awesome. It feels like every new trick I tried I landed right on my feet which normally doesn't happen for me.

What are your plans for the rest of the summer? Are you going to New Zealand?

I'm trying to head down to Chile first and then will bounce over to New Zealand to train halfpipe mostly, because there wasn't a pipe in Whistler this summer. Also going to hit some jumps so I don't lose everything I've learned going into next season, but I really want to get my doubles good in the pipe so I can be good at both next year…and surprise everyone! (laughs)

You were saying to me the other day that it'd be fun to start doing some more big air comps next year with all the new tricks you learned.

Yeah I'd be pretty psyched to do big air again. I was never really that pumped on doing them because I never really had any good big air tricks. So now that I kind of do, and not that mine are better than anybody else's, it would be fun to get back into it, because I won't get totally showed up at every one (laughs). So Craig Lamond (filmer for Momentum) is going to make an edit of what I did this summer and I'm going to send that out with some emails to try to get in all the pre-season big airs. Plus I gotta get my United Miles you know. 1K! (laughs)

How did last winter go for you? Obviously you were at a lot of the competitions, and you filmed with Poor Boyz a bit as well right?

Yeah I was at most of the contests, but I kept getting little injuries that kept me from skiing a lot this winter. So I didn't log as many days as I wanted, but I did film with PBP a bit. Not sure how they're doing their movie this year but I think I’ll have a few shots in it, and I'll have some shots in Simon's movie as well. But overall, to be honest, it was a pretty below average winter for me, but I'm not going to have another one. So I'm psyched for next year.

X Games. photo: Nate Abbott

How'd Momentum go overall this summer?

It was super fun. I coached the last two sessions and had a lot of campers that were super fun and psyched to try to learn doubles, which was perfect because they had the best jump I've ever seen to learn doubles on. So there were kids doing double 12's and all sorts of crazy stuff which is always great to see. The lane was really good too thanks to the diggers, who killed it all summer. It wasn't bumpy like it usually is and Momentum pretty much owns the upper glacier so the t-bar line is never long and you can get tons of laps in.

You took a year or two off from coaching right?

Just one. I wasn't coaching the last year of High North, was just up here riding, and then last year I coached just one session at Momentum. But now I'm fully back on the program.

Waxing Chug

You must be stoked to be back, because I remember during the High North days I would ask kids who their favorite coach was and a lot of them would just stare at me like I was an idiot and say 'Peter!'

(laughs) That's awesome, because I love coaching. It's probably the easiest job in the world. You just tell them what you know how to do and then in your free time you just pick on them a lot (laughs). Ask them to tip their coach and tell them to run through the village naked and for some reason they like you (laughs). And then you get to see them grow up and kill it in videos and comps, so I love it.

And what advice would you give to all those kids out there?

I'd like to say to all the kids out there who are always shredding all the time and just having so much fun skiing...make sure that stays your priority. Make sure that just going out and skiing with your friends is the reason you ski. Don't get bored of it, and if you do, switch it up and try different things. Try skiing powder or pipe or urban, but whatever you do, keep your love of the sport forever, because it's you kids that will keep this sport going.