Interview by Jeff Schmuck

Photos by Ross Downard

How are you doing gentlemen?

Dylan Natale: Doing pretty well, just waiting for the sun to come out.

Kyler Cooley: Doing mighty fine, thanks for asking.

Where are you guys at right now, and what have you been up to lately?

Kyler Cooley: In Salt Lake City at the moment, just getting ready for summer.

Dylan Natale: I just got back to Salt Lake City after spending some time in New England.

Speaking of summer, any big plans?

Dylan Natale: Maybe join a kickball team to complement the soccer and softball leagues I'm a part of. As far as skiing goes though, there is some talk of South America with Liberty so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Kyler Cooley: It looks like I'll be spending my summer in Hawaii with Dan from the former Rage Films, so I'm pretty pumped for that.

How were your seasons?

Dylan Natale: My season was great; hard not to have a good one when upwards of 800 inches fall. It was funny going to familiar drops and cliffs towards the end of April and seeing how covered up and buried everything was.

Kyler Cooley: Mine went really well, I had lots of fun and stayed pretty healthy, which is always good. Didn't check off a few things I had on my list but that always happens, so maybe we'll get er next year.

Dylan Natale

What was your favorite moment from the past winter?

Dylan Natale: Luckily I don't think I have just one favorite. A few highlights that come to mind though would be those early season deep storms in November, a day of snowmobiling in the Uinta Mountains (which I don't think we filmed), as well as that gap we built just off of Brighton Resort.

Kyler Cooley: It’s always tough to pick one out, but I really enjoyed it when the sledneckers hit our jump. That was pretty cool.

 

BC Boys Episode 5

As most everyone knows, you guys started doing a backcountry-focused webisode series called BC Boys this year, and recently released your fifth episode. How has the project as a whole been going for you guys?

Dylan Natale: It was a learning process for sure. It's crazy how hard filming can be, from choosing angles, to keeping a tight subject, all the way down to the editing process. I also think we became more efficient as the season wore on, which took some of the frustrations away.

Kyler Cooley: Overall I'm pleased with it for sure. It definitely is tough trying to do everything. Filming and editing is a whole new game that none of us are really excited about or good at so it forced us to cut some corners, but as time goes on I think we are starting to get a better grasp on things. We're hoping to get a few more crew members on board for next year too so that should be fun.

Dylan Natale

Kyler Cooley

When you first announced the series, you told us that part of the reason you were doing it was to allow the viewers to become both more interested and knowledgeable about skiing in the backcountry. Is that a goal you feel you've achieved in some way with the series?

Dylan Natale: In some way yes, but overall probably not as much as I first thought. I think we both had these visions of a lot more dialogue and explanation throughout our series but turns out we're both a little camera shy and pretty bad at filming anything other than skiing. I think the beacon seminar was more along the lines of what we originally had hoped for in each webisode, but it kind of strayed from the original drawing board and turned into more of just ski edits.

Kyler Cooley: I hope that we've sparked some more interest in the BC. We tried a little bit to do some knowledge type things for viewers but we definitely fell short on that end a bit. It’s tough to stop and talk about what’s going on when we're out there. We are so used to just getting out and doing whatever it is we plan on doing that we don't stop to talk about much, which is probably something we'll work out in the future.

Dylan Natale

Kyler Cooley

Looking back on your first season, what would you say has been the biggest challenge and reward of producing BC Boys?

Dylan Natale: The biggest challenge was the learning curve of editing for me. I didn't know a thing about Final Cut or a Mac so it took some time to get that dialed in. As for the rewards from BC Boys, each finished webisode was individually rewarding. To take what we had compiled over the past four to six weeks and see a finished product was great. It was also nice to see a bit of a following ensue, and to see that our viewers are stoked on the project and our skiing.

Kyler Cooley: The biggest challenge was definitely the filming and editing. We miss a lot of shots, and doing things like setting shots are tough to remember to do, but we are getting better. Slowly but surely. As far the rewards, it’s probably that we get to go and do what we like to do everyday and have the freedom to produce a product on our own.

 

BC Boys Episode 3

Which of the five episodes was your personal favorite, and why?

Dylan Natale: I don't really have one, but probably one that Kyler edited. As bad as it sounds you kind of start to get turned off from the finished product after sitting in front of a computer and editing for hours and hours. The repetitiveness of the song and the critiquing of each shot time and time again sort of takes the allure of watching the webisode away. But at the same time, it’s always nice to have that finished, clean edit to look back on and show to others.

Kyler Cooley: My favorite was episode three I think, the one with the short Dylan spoof. That one was pretty funny and we've gotten a lot of comments about it, which is great.

Dylan Natale

Kyler Cooley

Looking a little further ahead, what can we expect from you guys in terms of the future of the series? 

Dylan Natale: We are certainly hoping and planning on rolling this into next season as well. I'd be stoked to include a few more skiers too if that works out, as well as use it as an excuse to check out new zones. Other than that just continue to get a little more proficient behind the camera and with editing, and keep pumping out new episodes as the footage allows.

Kyler Cooley: Probably more of the same, although we are always looking for ways to keep it fresh. Really we just want to show people that we are having fun, and that they can too.

Dylan

Kyler Cooley

Anything you'd like to add?

Kyler Cooley: Yeah, check out our Facebook fan page. We're trying to keep updating that with pictures and all that good stuff and we need some more likes!

Any shout-outs you'd like to throw out there?

Kyler Cooley: For sure, none of this would be possible without my sponsors: Under Armour, Electric, Liberty, Dakine, Fischer boots, Bern, Alta, Park City and Brighton. Also thanks to Hennie VJ, and to James Gagnon for the help on all the random stuff that we hate doing. Big ups to Ross Downard, Erik Seo, and Brent Benson for trying to keep us in the mags, and all the others that have been helpful along the way.

Dylan Natale: And I'd like to thank the companies that allow all this to happen for me: Liberty Skis, Saga Outerwear, Poc Goggles and Helmets, Da Kine, and Full Tilt Boots.

Click here to watch all five episodes of BC Boys on NSTV.