NZSnowboard.com - The home of New Zealand Snowboarding

25th January 2012

Catching up with Will Jackways

Interview by Pablo Azocar

Hey Will, where are you now? Still in NZ or somewhere else?

Hey man, I'm in Squamish B.C and have been here for about 3 weeks, before that I was in Wanaka enjoying summer, playing lots of golf, swimming, biking and helping my buddy build his house.
I also spent a couple weeks up north surfing and seeing family before coming over, so that was much needed.

Is that gonna be your homebase for the season? Any trips planned?

Yeah pretty much it will be, Ill travel around quite a bit down to the U.S and probably into Interior BC as well, and maybe even to Europe shortly but yea I like it here in Squam and its so nice to actually have a base and not be board bagging it all winter.

Photo: Abby Lockhart

Somehow, you always managed to score some pow, snow situation is pretty bad at the moment in the States, how's it over there?

We had great pow in Washington a few weeks back, so I think its just parts of the US like Tahoe, Colorado and Utah that are hurting, but I'm sure theyll get it soon enough.
Snow here in B.C is really good, a lot of spots here are still a little shallow and need filling in, but for the most part conditions have been great.

So who are you riding with this days? Working in any particular project?

When I arrived I spend a few days down in Seattle and rode up Stevens Pass with Roebucks and some other friends, it was fun just to get the legs back and feel out shredding again. Over the last few weeks, I came up to Squamish to film and be apart of the new VideoGrass movie, which I'm pumped on.
Our crew for the last 2 weeks has been Dustin Craven and Eero Niemela plus the filmers and weve been having a great time, not only are those guys amazing snowboarders but theyre also really good sledders, so I've been learning a lot from them.

Photo: Pablo Azocar

Wow, that's great!. Congrats on that, have you worked with many film crews before?

This is the first time that Ive been apart of a production thru the US and working with new filmers .

I've filmed stuff over the years for the internet, bits and pieces for friends / companies back home etc , but I'm stoked to have the chance to do this over here and so far its been going great .

Is there any difference between this crew with others? or are they all pretty much the same?

I'm not really sure to be honest, were pretty lucky because we r all good friends and team mates on Monster and have hung out a bunch together so apart from working hard out there and helping each other out weve also been having a lot of fun and enjoying some laughs as well.

Going back to NZ now, you were pretty busy during NZ season. How was it? Any highlights?

Yeah, our season back home seemed like it went so fast but was alot of fun for sure. There were so many highlights of course, early season when we got a couple meters of snow in 3 days, and doing epic road runs at Cardrona was
awesome.
Being apart of the World Heli Challenge again was a blast and heliing around with everyone. Had a fun day at Queenstown Snowcats riding new terrain and sledding around and we did a spring time Heli / camping mission with Diaries up to Mt. Aspiring national park which was pretty cool.
I also filmed for Prime TVs Crowd goes Wild show, had 5 eps on TV here in N.Z and Fuel TV in Australia, so that was a new and cool experience.

Is it NZ your off season or the Northern Hemisphere one? Or they are just different?

Neither of them are really my off season as I'm still riding a bunch and working, my N.Z season is defiantly more mellow as far as traveling and shredding goes tho.
The northern Hemi season is probably where I concentrate more and try to be more productive, back home I enjoy catching up with friends and riding with who ever is down .

Since you've been in many places around the world,what would you be your perfect spot to settle down?

Ah ... I honestly dont know just yet, I really enjoy living in Wanaka and am stoked to call it home. A lot of my good friends live around there and I enjoy being in the outdoors a lot .
Over the last few years Ive started to really appreciate the ocean and what it offers and would love to one day live near the beach .

Any final words or thanks?

Live life to the full out there and have fun, cause we never know whats around the corner. And thanks to every1 out there that has had in influenced me in some way and people Ive spent time with.
Word up.

LINK : Will Jackways