Interview by Brandon Husak
Photos by Colt Seman

Hey this is Brandon Husak comin to you from the great state of Minnesota. I'm headed to Summit Boardshop, located just outside of St. Paul to talk with friend and shop manager Craig Weiler...

Craig Weiler, Summit ski manager

How are you are you recovering from "Free 4 All" last night?

Good kept it low key after the premiere. We showed MN Nice a collaboration of local footage, Up 4 It a movie featuring Summit team riders Seamus and Paddy Flanagan, Mike Hornbeck, myself, and other local talent, which was so sick! And we also showed Pretty Good from Rage films, and Can’t Stop featuring locals Seamus and Willie Borm.

Seamus Flanagan reppin SS Crew hard

Cody Ling & Willis Englehar

Willie Borm & Paddy Flanagan

Was the premiere what you expected?

Better. Midwest has a lot of love for skiing. We had a few hundred people roll through the store. We had lots of swag, raffle, and free beer

Why was this premiere special compared to others?

Well we had it in our store for one. We have a huge projection screen and beautiful store it works our great for hosting events like this. We also made everything free. We had free admission, beer, lift tickets and lots of gear. We also offered a 10% discount for newschoolers members and will be doing so the rest of the season on anything in the store!

This store looks a lot different than years past.

Yeah we've been pretty snowboard-orientated in the past. I have been skiing for Summit for a couple years, and now that I’m working with them I’ve been able to have a big influence on the ski side of things. We went from having a few twin-tip selections to having the biggest and best selection of freeskiing gear within hundreds of miles. The store is just something you have to see to believe.

What brands do you carry?

Armada, Rossignol, K2, Line, Volkl, Salomon, Nordica, Moment, Liberty, Marker, Jiberish, LRG, Smith, Oakley, Full Tilt, Dalbello, Technica…the list goes on and on, along with lots of snowboard and skate brands.

What's with all the dirt out back and the sawing coming from the back warehouse?

We have a newly constructed competition/photo venue in the back that we are going to be able to put about seven rail features on. We are planning on hosting a few events as well as film photo shoots. We also have an event series planned with a final in February with up to $5000 cash purse. More details on that soon but this event series is going to be wild. Skate park in our back warehouse is under construction. We are going to offer season passes and session passes. Can’t wait for when I can come into work and skate for a half hour before I punch in. Should be all finished up by early November.

Summit seems to be much more than a retail store. You have a lot of events planned.

Yeah there are not to many events going on around here that people get stoked on. We really want to be known as the shop that throws the biggest and best events. We want to be known as the shop that has a competition venue behind its store that’s better than some of the local terrain parks. I think we may be able to pull that off this winter. We want to hit everything across the board, skate, wake and snow.

Any shout-outs?

Joe Heinen the shop owner for being so passionate about skiing. Paddy and Seamus Flanagan, Mike Hornbeck our newest team riders. Look for some sick edits on our website in the coming months featuring all of the hillbillies. Summitboardshop.com Midwest Represent!

left to right, Cooper Ling, Paddy Flanagan, Willie Borm, Mike Hornbeck, Seamus Flanagan