Danny Davis’ Homeless Hump Day

Support the homeless. Photo courtesy Burton Snowboards 

Once upon a time, contests and filming coexisted in snowboarding, and most of the top pros did both. These days, both have gotten so intense that to be at the top of your game requires concentrating on one or the other. Unless you’re Danny Davis. As one of the few modern pros to straddle the line, Danny’s wealth of experience seemed best to tap into to explore such pressing questions as should snowboarding boycott the Olympics and other hot topics we have time to overanalyze while we wait for the snow to fall.

Was it upsetting being compared to a homeless person on Reddit?

Yes I saw it, Jack Mitrani sent it to me. That was the first time I’d been on Reddit.com and since then I would say like 40 of my other friends have sent it to me. Always a humbling experience to get made fun of, kinda puts you back in your place.

So is your homeless look a protest of the jock image of competitive snowboarding?

That was definitely the goal. It’s actually in support of homeless people everywhere. It’s ok to look homeless, I suppose.

So for some reason last week, the industry czars are once again calling for snowboarding to boycott the Olympics because it’s bad for snowboarding. As someone who’s who’s been, what do you think?

That’s always a tough one, but if they were saying it was the worst contest of the year, I would agree with that. Do they portray snowboarding in a good way? Not really. But there’s two sides to it. That other part is that maybe helps the industry – brings snowboarding to more people, gets more people snowboarding, brings more money in the sport. Which lets people like myself and others do their jobs. It’s a tough one, I didn’t have the best time at the Olympics. I enjoyed it. Would I go again? I’m gonna have to wait until that comes around, I’m not gonna make that decision now. It’s not very motivating what happened at the last one to go to that one. I could save myself like $10 grand and two weeks and do something else.

Hood life. Photo: Adam Moran

Do you think being an Olympic snowboarder gives you more opportunities with your bigger sponsors such as Mountain Dew?

I would say not completely. I tried two other times and fucked that up, they didn’t care, they were still down, They’ve always backed me. But I think for a lot of people, yeah, it’s a way to do what you love to do. A lotta bit of work and it’s just kind of how it goes.

Do you think an Olympic boycott is even possible?

I don’t know, you’re always going to have those national teams that will just go and do what the FIS wants. You’re always gonna have those people I think. To get all those mountain schools and all that shit on board is a mission. And I don’t know that it’s the right thing do to either. The Olympics is what it is. In hockey it’s not the biggest thing in the world. I just think that we need to make something that’s better than the Olympics that more people are into. Just something that is snowboarding. The Olympics can live and be run by skiers if it wants – it isn’t very good anyway. The IOC just isn’t good. I think we need to make other shit that’s better. Are you going to be able everyone on board to make a boycott? That’s a hell of a goal.

You were one of the riders that spoke out about the crappy pipe, did you think about boycotting then?

I mean sure those words came out of my mouth out of frustration to Greg or something, but I was trying to keep my mouth shut at that place as much as I could. Everything you said would just be used against you. I was bummed, you know. Everyone tried to hard to get there and you get there and the pipe sucked. Whatever. A contest is a contest. If you’ve got ride a shitty pipe you do it. I wonder if I should have boycotted. It would have been a lot more fun. And the pipe sucking was one thing, the whole format sucked as well, but I must have known that going into it. It was like qualifying, semi finals, finals, all in one day. That never happens. It was just put together by people who don’t really care for the athletes or care about what’s gonna go down. But snowboarding is back for another three years!

Snowboarders started out as rebels. Are we too complacent or soft these days?

Snowboarding is just more accepted. It’s gotten organized, it’s gotten corporate. It’s changed a bunch, some for good some for bad. But are people too soft? I don’t think we’re any softer or ruder than the first generation. It was the era, too just like skateboarding, so I guess, are skateboarders softer now? It’s just different – Look at all these mountain schools. In two weeks when Copper opens their pipe it’ll just be schools and teams.

If Blotto shoots a guy in the sky shot, that makes it cool, right?

Remember when people could make money doing snowboard contests? What’s it gonna take to bring that back?

I would say people still make money doing contests, I know Mark McMorris makes a lot of money winning contests. But yeah, there’s not enough money in contests. I get like 5th or 6th place and it’s usually like $2-3000 if that, and it costs $2-3000 to get there. It’s tough there’s not a lot of money in contests. I just do the ones that you can win a decent amount.

So is it all about the money?

The shitty contests are about the money.

Is your plan to stay the course and do contests or are you looking into other avenues?

I have always done other things and I want to do more than that for sure, but I’ll always do contests. Dew Tour pipe last year was so good and so fun to ride, and if you don’t get to ride that pipe and that pipe is probably never gonna be like that again because they just don’t take care of it. I like to do certain contests, US Open, X Games is cool. I think I’ll do those, keep trying to learn tricks I wanna learn. If I stop doing well, then that’ll tell me something.

It seems like snowboarding is so divided – on one side you’ve got the video kids that are into filming and being cool and then on the other side you have the contest kids. Some riders such as yourself bridge the gap, but why do you think most people don’t?

It’s kinda like anything else, skateboarding, surfing, they all have different avenues. It allows for more people to shine in the sport, and if it was one way or the other it wouldn’t work. It is harder to come up with a video part. You’ve gotta really stand out. Contests you can kinda work your way up. The core side is ignored by the American public, but then in the magazines there’s not that much stuff about contests, it’s more about free riding and rails.

Why do you think the mainstream gravitates towards contests?

That’s the American way! Win! I think it’s cause they can follow it, there’s something they understand, but that’s something I’ll never know because I’m a snowboarder. I enjoy all aspects of snowboarding. Except Parallel Giant slalom. Although that’s pretty decent as well.

Peace, love and snowboard parks. Photo: Blotto

Have you ever done PGS?

Well no, but I’ve seen it. I’d wear a pair of hard boots, I would love to try it.

Do you think snowboarding is stuck in the past?

I wish it was. That’d be sick. If everyone was just doing grabs and wearing crazy long hats like back in the day that would be awesome. But everybody’s learning lots of tricks fast, so I wouldn’t stay its stuck in the past. What do you mean?

I feel like a lot of the people in the industry are trying to hold things back to the “way it used to be.” Do you think snowboarding needs a new system?

I think things are going back to being style related and more interested in cool jumps and cool things to hit in the backcountry. Everyone is more interested in style and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Everybody wants to progress in snowboarding, maybe it’s not the way of flips and spins. Some people wanna ride mountains, some people wanna ride switch or hit rails.  People progress in different ways. Videos used to be such a big part of the sport and I don’t think it’s as much that way anymore.

Wait, you don’t think videos are still a big part of snowboarding?

I think they are, they’re a huge part, but I feel like less and less get made. Back in the day there were so many and now it’s just content overload, so it’s tough. There’s a new video part coming out every day.

Yeah I don’t think there’s less then their used to be, it’s just a different delivery system.

Yeah it’s just the world we live in.

Dreamy Danny. photo: Blotto

How do NASCAR races compare to snowboard events?

NASCAR is fucked. It’s like the Super Bowl every weekend. It’s like 70k people camping in the parking lot, the most dedicated fans you’ve ever seen and a lot of beer drinking. And NASCAR people are incredibly dedicated to their sponsors.

Do you think sponsor loyalty is important? Does it makes sense to switch brands if you get a better offer?

I think if it’s a good brand then go for it. You’ve gotta trust em and have a good relationship with them. That’s a tough one with a lot of brands. There’s always companies that come into snowboarding that come in a lot of money that will drop out, so there’s always opportunities that you’ve gotta pass up.

Have you ever turned down a brand because you weren’t down with them?

Yeah, totally. Sometimes you have to make the decision, do I want to switch or do I want to stay and you’ve gotta lay everything out and try to be somewhat smart business-wise about it. I think sponsors are always gonna want the next good kid. So you gotta just try and last as long you can, make it happen as long as you can.

Cooler sponsor: Mountain Dew or Martin Guitars?

Mountain dew.

Do you feel like you ever have to justify riding for corporate companies? With Nike pulling out it seems like we’re hearing a lot of anti-corporate rhetoric, so as someone who’s always rode for big non-endemic sponsors, do you think big corporations have a place in snowboarding?

With Nike I would say no, because they tried four times and they didn’t really succeed. It’s bad if companies like that are dropping out of snowboarding. It’s kinda scary for the industry anyway. I never really supported Nike being in it, because they’re not really in it. They’re only in it for the market share. I’d rather see companies in it for the market share because their whole company is snowboarding. Snowboard brands are good. Companies that are big are buying up some of the others and that’s just how it goes. But the companies that are privately owned, I think it’s bad ass that they’re able to do it.

Style? Tech? It’ll never be as fun as riding powder. Photo: Blotto

Are you involved at all in the Frends brand?

I’m not involved at all, it’s Keir and another guy Ryan, and they work super hard and make that thing survive. I have nothing do with that. But if you need some women’s headphones, let us know.

What’s your dream line up for Friendly Gathering?

We were just going through some bands last night. I’m sure there will be some Twiddle and thinking maybe some Charles Bradley. I was thinking another soul night for the gathering because I’ve been listening to a lot of soul music. We’ll see though, it’s too early to tell.

Thanks to the Internet, Michigan is on the map as a snowboard locale. What was it like for you growing up there, pre-internet?

I remember getting AOL and surfing the net for the first time! I was from Alpine Valley, which is confused a lot of times with the one in Wisconsin, which it’s not, it’s in White Lake, Michigan. But there was a tow rope, a jump on the left usually and a half pipe that was cut everyone now and then. A lot of ice. A lot of laps. And night riding, which is how I got to go a lot after school. But I did contests to come up, ya know, I didn’t film, I didn’t really have a crew. I had a bunch of friends in USASA, but I think I bought my first video of snowboarding when I was 14 when I was just starting to get really interested. Chris Englesman is from Michigan too.

There’s a lot of people from there in snowboarding. 

Yeah, I’ve been meeting more and more.

O face. Photo: Blotto

How long have you been a pro snowboarder?

How do you mean?

How long have you been making money snowboarding?

I think the first contest I ever won money in was in 2005. I won $800.

Boom, you’re pro snowboarder!

Yeah, getting paid I think maybe like 7 years.

Do you feel like you have to work harder to maintain it these days?

Yeah I do think it’s harder than when I was coming up. It seemed a little easier, there was more going on, more money in the sport and more possibilities to ride for brands and make a living or at least get by. I feel like I work pretty hard to keep doing what I’m doing, but I would say there’s people who work harder. Yeah, it’s fucking tough.

But is there really anything to complain about?

No, there’s not, I live a really good life.

What’s your plan for the season? Do you have one yet?

Nah, I just wing it. Last year, totally winging it. (laughs) Of course I have a plan! I’m gonna do Dew Tour and then I have a month or so to film until X Games and I’ll film with Burton and maybe somebody else and probably do US Open, film between X Games and US Open and then film after US open until spring stuff comes up.

Peace, bro. Photo: Blotto

Is it gonna snow in Tahoe this year?

Everyone is claiming, it’s looking like El Nino.

Do you get to ride at home much?

I’m here right now, but going to Mammoth opening this weekend. I mean, it’s tough to stay here if it’s not snowing, I gotta go somewhere else if I’m not doing contests. In the summer we do Frendly Gathering for pretty much the whole month of June and I’m in Vermont, and then go to Hood, so I don’t spend a whole lot of time at home. But I love Tahoe. I hope it dumps!

Is there anything else going on in snowboarding that you’re especially hyped on?

I like all the Banked Slaloms that keep popping up. That’s a good thing. I was just talking to someone about how I’m not going to be able to go to Dirksen Derby, but I’d like to see more things like that. I think it’s gonna be a good year in the US too, lots of snow.

Hope so! Wanna finish me off with your current sponsor list?

Burton, Mountain Dew, Dragon, Sony and Martin Guitar. That’s the old NASCAR list, I’m thinking about getting it sewn on my jacket.