Interview by Ethan Stone

All photos courtesy of Bruce Rowles

NS: So what have you been up to this summer? I know that the Snowjam's been a major part of your competition schedule the last few summers- what did you do in its absence?

RT: For the summmer I coached my five weeks at Dave Murray, then I pretty much just played golf, went fly fishing and started to look for a new clothing sponsor.

I did two events in Europe in September that were similar to Snow Jam but they were Big Air contests, and instead of crushed ice chips, they used a combination of liquid nitrogen, water and air to make snow inside these 8'x15' tents, then spread it around the inrun, take-off and landing.

How was Europe?

Europe was sick, the events didn't go super well but it was a cool trip. I brought Kelly, my girlfriend (NS's skilikeagirl) over with me for our two-year anniversary and her birthday. After the event in Seville (Spain) we went and chilled out on the south coast of Spain for a few days, then she went home, and I met up with Mauro Nunez and we went over to Mallorca (Balearic Islands) and hung out there for just under a week; then I took a five-hour ferry to Barcelona, chilled there for about seven hours before a thirteen-hour train ride to Zurich for the other event. At that one Pep got injured on his first jump but Tanner, CR, Mickeal and myself all landed our shit but didn't get into the finals; Silva did though. Some kid, Lars Veen from Sweden, threw a switch bio 1260 in the cross-over session and stomped it. Niklas Karlstrom won the event, Jon Olsson was 2nd and Silva was 3rd.

Sounds like a great trip. What was that about a new clothing sponsor?

After three years with Orage, we decided it was time for a change. I've been talking to DNA, Phenix, Spyder, and Nike, and my Atomic Team manager is talking to Asics in Japan about them hiring me to design a freeride line for them. I'm not in any big panic though, if I don't get anything I'm happy with I'll just get a new suit from Comor (Burton or Ronin probably) and spray-paint Jib Culture Logos all over it; then I'm at least representing something I believe in. Right now I'm rocking an Orage suit that I've totally coverd in JC logos, it's pretty dope!

So last year you blew some minds throwing unnatural cork 9s in competitions. Will we be seeing more unnatural tricks from other competitors this season?

I think so, Anthony Boronowski, Cusson, Sterbenz and Henrik were doing them last year too. I know Jon wants all four 1080s (regular, unnatural, switch reg, switch unnaty) by the time the X-Games rolls around. I want all four 9s (because I'm not a fan of 10s) and a bunch of guys like Turpin and Abma are doing unnatural cork 3s. I'm sure you'll see more of it.

9s every way would be ridiculous. I heard that you've got a section in some European film this year, La Nuit Des Glisses. What's that about?

Yeah, I filmed with them a couple years ago too. It's pretty sick, I shot with them in Tignes, France in early December; then in March we went to Chamonix for a week and built two BC-style kickers in La Tour, one that was just a little 50 or so footer and another that was a 60-foot gap with a 10-15 foot step up- we were hitting it at 110KM an hour. Then we went to Les Diablerets and shot some park there and a day of heli in Switzerland. Shooting with these guys is pretty sick, they have a huge heli budget and shoot all 35mm or super 16mm film, and they do tons of filming from the chopper. What it is, is a film that takes ski, snowboard, surf, wind surf, kite surf, skate etc. and brings it all together in a major production. All of their premieres sell out, guaranteed, all across Europe; and I'm not talking little 200-person venues, it's more like 1000-7000 people per venue.

Sounds like things are starting to pick up for newschool in Europe! Do you know if the film will be available in North America?

I know the Head guy was trying to work out some sort of distribution deal with MSP but I haven't heard if that's going to happen, I could e-mail my team manager and find out if he knows anything...

Well, it sounds pretty sick. Will you be appearing in any other films this year?

I've got a pretty good segment in Versys (2TrackProductions) and I think I'm in the Superpark 2 movie, the Junk Show Diaries (Team 13), Volume 10... and Berman said I had one shot in the credits of his flick (I'm so honored), who knows where other shots could end up.

To go back a minute- what's this "girlfriend for two years" business? I thought you were the next Josh Loubek! Maybe skiing needs a new playa.

Yeah, I've had the same girl for two years, somehow the magazines still portray me in that light but I'm getting old, and I've got a great girl. I think we should nominate Turpin or Crichton, but I think Boyd has all that wrapped up.

True dat. I guess he's been wreaking havoc at the Playboy mansion or something. So- any big plans for the winter?

I'm sure he has. For this winter I'm obviously doing all the comps again, hopefully qualify for the X-Games but I'm taking my truck and sled down with me and I hope to get a ton of shooting (both photo and video) done. I'll be in Europe a few times as well and I might have an event in Japan. For the most part I hope to spend a lot of time on my sled landing in the soft stuff.

Well, I'm going to go grab some dinner... anything else you want to mention here?

Uh, I think that's good. Oh yeah- NS is sick!