Hump Day Learns the Secret to Success with Max Jenke

Max and the men who make Endeavor tick. 

For most people, snowboarding is a hobby at best, but for some, it’s life. Endeavor co-founder and Wildcat for life Max Jenke is one of the people who’s been able to successfully turn a pro snowboard career into a job that doesn’t require death-defying stunts, and still keeps him involved in all things snowboarding. In a world where times are tough, it’s easy to be negative, but Max will have nothing of it, so I decided to catch up with him about growing up, moving forward and making your dreams come true.

Brooke: First off, I assume many of the Yobeat readers may have no idea who you are. So, you wanna give me a little synopsis of what your background is?

Max: Well, I guess you could say that I was a pro snowboarder and I came up as the youngest in the Wildcats crew. I came up under Rob Dow and because he rode for Option Snowboards and I kinda just ended up tagging along with them on lots of trips. It was kinda weird, especially for my parents, me hanging out with someone that much older. I guess he was like 19 when I first met him and that would have put me at like 12. A 19 year old hanging out with a 12 year old is just fuckin’ random.

Brooke: That’s snowboarding. I feel like that stuff happens. It’s ageless.

Max: It is, you’re right. Because I came up under Rob I got to snowboard with people like Devun (Walsh) and the Wildcats crew – which was at one point something, something pretty cool, at least in Canada and in Canadian snowboarding.

Brooke: Yeah it was a big deal in snowboarding. Can you explain what the Wildcats were about?

Max: Yeah. We all came up with the name on a trip to New Zealand, when it was basically just a crew of friends that traveled together. We did this crazy big trip and there were nine of us, and it kind of just sparked this thing that it was really fun to travel together and film and kind of just create snowboarding the way we thought it should be. I mean Devun was filming with Mack Dawg and the Forum thing was happening and that was all super cool and really progressive, but also really serious, so I think it was kind of like a way for everyone just to, you know, do something super fun and really relaxed. It was kind of just at a time when everyone was just into partying and filming and just being a bunch of boys.

Brooke: So are you a grown up now?

Max: I think that maybe on paper I should be, but certainly this last SIA shows that I wasn’t. Even before the trade show fuckin started I got sent to the drunk tank!

Brooke: Yeah, I heard you got arrested, and I heard that a lot of people congratulated you, so that had to feel good.

Max: How random is that, huh? JF (Pelchat) high-fiving me, just like, still got it! I think it was more embarrassing. When I woke up in detox I was like, I’m not responsible enough to have two children. What am I doing in my life?

Brooke: Well, and you run a successful business and you have 2 kids so that’s something – How old are you now?

Max: 35 – 36, 36. I don’t even know how old I am.

Brooke: Do you ever feel like you’re getting too old in snowboarding, like going out and partying, is it overwhelming sometimes?

Max: I don’t feel like I’m old, I think that’s the problem. I think maybe the young kids, maybe the Yobeat readers, are like who the fuck is this old guy?

Brooke: Right.

Max: But, it certainly doesn’t slow down my crew because, like, that night for example, I didn’t have any support because everyone else was drunker than I was. Rob Dow – who again I’ve known since I was 12 and is Endeavor brand manager, so I see him every day – is 42. Whenever we’re all together, it doesn’t feel like we’re old, we’re still acting really stupid. A lot of the time we’ll get into trouble. It certainly hasn’t slowed down JF. I think JF got kicked out of the Hyatt for taking off all of his clothes and jumping on the bar, and I think he’s like 43.

Brooke: Well in the real world, 40 isn’t really that old.

Max: No, I guess not.

Brooke: But in snowboarding it can feel like,“Man I’m ancient” because the whole sport is so young it feels like. Right now it’s like the fourth generation of kids coming up – cause you’ve got the pioneers who are 50+, and then you have all the dudes who are in their late 30’s and 40’s now that were the pros in the 90s, and then you’ve got the top pros now who are 30ish, and then “the kids” are like 18. And then I guess there’s a 5th generation of like the people our age’s kids who are now are starting to snowboard.

Max: Yeah, all the groms.

Brooke: But I feel like it’s creating some generation gaps, between the people who are running/marketing the companies and then the younger kids who really into it and are trying to be pro snowboarders. It’s a different world now.

Max: Yeah I could see that. When I go to tradeshows, I hang out with all the people in marketing roles and even in higher roles. Like Sean Tedore is the head of Ride. It’s is super rad to see that, it’s all kind of staying in the industry and it’s real riders running companies, which is rad.

Brooke: Definitely.

Max: But I mean, we’re hanging out with the Devun’s, and you know the new “kids” for us, or for me at least, are riders like Cam Pierce and Rusty Ockenden. I guess I’m interacting with them because they’re our pros, or on Airhole’s side you have like Pat Moore and Gigi’s. But the the new kids coming up that are 18 just aren’t really on our radar. That’s where I can see the generation gap coming and that’s what’s interesting about what you guys are doing with everyone’s edits. It’s kind of highlighting who’s coming up. I guess it’s just hard to break into it, there’s so many amazing riders, and it’s difficult to be a blip on the radar.

Brooke: Yeah, to survive for longer than 2 seasons before you’re like “oh, no one’s gonna pay me to do this, and I’m getting hurt.”

Max: Yeah it’s hard. I think it’s hard to get a paying job in snowboarding now.

Brooke: Especially as a pro.

Max: It’s very hard. It’s few and far between and the riders that have been making careers out of it don’t wanna lose their jobs. I mean it’s definitely tough to see people trying to transition out. Jeremy Jones is one that comes to mind because he was in the Blueprint episodes and stuff and he’s still doing it and you know still trying to keep his career going. You have those guys and then you have the new young kids, the 18 year olds, trying to break in. Riding snowboards is a tough career move for sure. Especially on the media side. Like on the contest side, it’s probably a little bit more quantitative, if you win a contest you just win a contest, you’re the best on that day, right? But for the film kids that it’s definitely gnarly.

Brooke: You’re someone who managed to take your actual snowboard riding and your snowboard career and transition it into a professional role. How did you do that? Do you have advice for people trying now?

Max: I think it’s always good to have options, and to be realistic with what your plan is going to be. If you’re gonna just put everything into being a pro snowboarder, that’s amazing, but you also just need to keep a gig on the side, whether it’s summer jobs or whatever. If it happens to be in snowboarding that’s amazing too. We have some riders that we hook up that have almost like the dream life where they have like a separate gig, whether it’s involved in snowboarding or not, and they ride like professional snowboarders. They just choose to spend their own money snowboarding. As for transitioning into the industry… I don’t know how you’re supposed to do it.

Brooke: It’s a hard question.

Max: I did it out of necessity because I lost my board sponsor. There was no one I really wanted to ride for and probably no one was gonna pay me what I needed to get paid, so I thought, maybe I could sell some snowboards and pay myself. So that’s kinda how it started, and I felt like I wanted to take it more seriously because I had accomplished a lot of stuff in snowboarding that I wanted to do, and I wanted to take on a new challenge.

Success!

Brooke: How have you seen things change and evolve over the years? Do you think that it’s headed in a good direction?

Max: I think the sport is just going though its normal kind of sport thing. I mean the progression of snowboarding is amazing. And like the shit that dudes like John Jackson are doing, and the quality of the projects that are coming out are unbelievable. I think that it’s been rad that there’s been so much content coming out talking about where snowboarding has come from, and educating people on who the founders were and highlighting dudes that are still killing it, and were really the ones that started taking snowboarding to the next level. I think that’s super rad and I think that people like Pat Moore are highlighting people like that is awesome. Giving respect where respect is due. I think that as long as there are people like that in snowboarding, it’s gonna head in a good direction. There’s gonna be some stuff that’s shitty and having no snow sometimes really sucks. It just puts a damper on the industry and people actually going up and snowboarding. And competitions, it’s not my deal, but I think there are people that are leading the charge and doing it in the right way, like Staale Sandbech. Bringing a fun element to it vs. just a jock kind of thing. So I think if there’s characters in snowboarding, it’s gonna continue to evolve in the right direction. What’s your take on the evolution of snowboarding?

Brooke: I actually think snowboarding is in an amazing place, aside from lack of snow. I think the Internet has given opportunity to anyone who wants to try a do it a place to do it, and the cream will rise to the top. It’s always gonna be who you know and that stuff, but…

Max: Yeah but there are kids that are doing really cool stuff. I agree with you. Like the Yawgoons – I’ve watched every single one of their edits because I think it’s amazing and totally accessible to everyone to come up with the really cool and creative things their doing, and I think that’s amazing.

Brooke: Totally. That’s what I’m saying. I think whatever you’re into right now, there’s a little bit of it. If you’re like I just want to go out and split-board in the backcountry and not see another person, there’s a whole support system for that now. Or you just wanna hit rails? There’s a whole support system for that. I think that it’s cool to see how it’s diversified a lot. It used to be, “you’re a snowboarder you wear baggy pants and have piercings and ride the park” and now there’s less of a stereotype. Anybody can be a snowboarder, which is cool.

Max: Yeah.

Brooke: But it’s also confusing, for the media or the brands that are trying to market to “snowboarders,” because it’s really like niches within a niche, you know?

Max: Yeah. I guess it just depends on what the brands want to do. Like, with Endeavor we just end up doing what represents us, because really that’s the only thing we can do. I’m not gonna go out and pretend that I hit rails and wear tight pants. That’s not the type of riding I do. So I mean it’s possibly more difficult for the brands that want to hit all their markets or all the little different niches and stuff like that. I guess what we’re trying to do is just show snowboarding in our eyes.

Brooke: How are things Endeavor going? You guys brought on Colour Wear and you’re distributing that, right? And you’ve got Airhole as well?

Max: Yes, so the three brands that we have are Endeavor, Airhole, and Colour Wear. We own Endeavor and Airhole, and then Colour Wear we do for North America. It’s kind of like a strategic alliance that we have with them and a couple of other markets like Japan, Australia and New Zealand. When Special Blend and Four Square got pulled and we had some reps that were doing those brands and we just thought that we should fill the Special Blend void with Colour Wear, and it’s been going well. And then Endeavor we’ve had since 2002 and it’s kind of like our little baby. Our little rose bush that we keep watering and it just keeps blossoming every year when we release a collection. Hardgoods are tough so we just kinda keep doing our thing and we’re not really pressured to sell tens of thousands of snowboards. It’s been like a happy thing and we’re still coming up with cool little innovations. We did our seamless sidewalls last year and then this year we launched the channel through Burton, which is really cool. Just kinda doing our thing. And then Airhole is awesome, Chris Brown and Kale initially came up with the idea and brought it to us, and we developed it and now it’s this big international brand that you can find from Whistler to Wanaka in New Zealand to Saint Antoine in Europe. It’s just amazing.

Brooke: Yeah that’s awesome. And it enables you to smoke cigarettes without pulling down your facemask.

Max: We don’t endorse that, but it’s possible. You could also drink through it, and most importantly you can breathe through it without risk of suffocating on your mask. The funniest thing with Airhole is that it’s actually so functional because of the Airhole. Amazing! So this year our big focus is on increasing technical fabrics and putting a lot more innovation into it instead of just the funny novelty masks with the shark face and stuff like that. And we have an amazing team and it enables us to work with some of the best riders in the world like John and Eric Jackson, we just signed Gigi, Pat Moore, you know all these kind of guys. It’s just wicked.

Still got it. 

Brooke: So what’s the secret to success?

Max: Luck.

Brooke: It’s all luck? No timing or hard work?

Max: You have to always endeavor, you have to always try. Yeah. I guess just perseverance and patience. I think honestly the most important thing is to surround yourself with good people that are definitely better than you at their jobs. That’s the secret.

Brooke: I think that Canadians will take over snowboarding entirely one day, mostly because you guys have more snow than we do, but it’s also just different there.

Max: I think Canadian snowboarding is special, and we’ve always kind of said that. It’s kind of hard to explain what it is. Maybe since you’re American you would be better at explaining it. I don’t know, I think that’s kind of why the Wildcats was a really fun crew and why Little Bastards was such a fun movie to make and stuff like that. And there’s definitely some talented snowboarders up here.

Brooke: I have some theories. One theory is that in Canada, it’s more part of the culture. Everyone just does winter sports cause it’s always winter there. Whereas in America, because the country is so much broader and vaster and there’s a lot of places where it doesn’t snow at all, it’s not as normal, you know it’s just another little thing. In Canada, Mark McMorris can be a huge national celebrity, because everyone is involved in some way.

Max: Yeah.

Brooke: I think it puts snowboarding up on a higher level in terms of esteem or prestige or whatever it is that people are after, and it just kind of makes what you’re doing feel more important.

Max: There is something about it, like we get excited when Rusty and his crew drop an edit cause it just has this kind of Canadian flavor that I haven’t seen since the Wildcat days. I don’t know what it is. In Europe, they’ve had some pretty amazing stuff going on too, like the boys that do the RK1 stuff. Europe is also engrained in winter sports as well, but maybe they just don’t have that Canadian carefree vibe or something, I don’t know. It’s kind of like in Twin Peaks, where they cross the border into the Canadian land and it’s all crazy and seedy. Canada – the final frontier.

Brooke: Everybody in Canada is so nice. I think it could maybe the universal health care, too.

Max: It could be. I thought you had Obama care now. I thought that sorted it out.

Brooke: Oh that’s not universal health care. You want me to explain Obama care? People are so mad about it. Before Obama care if you had a preexisting condition, like you got cancer or you have heart disease or anything, you just couldn’t get insurance unless you had it through work. So people are forced to stay at jobs because they had cancer, and if they quit their job they lose their insurance and can’t get insurance. And then it’s so expensive to get treatment, and people go bankrupt all the time. But now with Obama care, by mandating that everyone has to pay for insurance, the insurance companies can’t say, “no we won’t insure you because you’re too risky,” which is great. And then the government subsidizes people who can’t afford it, so that gives people more people coverage. I just got on Obama care, I’ve yet to go to the doctor, so we’ll see how it goes. I’m paying a little bit more but I have way better coverage.

Max: Yeah? Well that’s good. We still pay for health care up here, it just doesn’t cost very much.

Brooke: Well, that makes you a little carefree.

Max: Yeah. Yup. It is carefree. Living is easy up here.

Brooke: Any other wisdom do you have to impart on the youth of tomorrow?

Max: The youth of tomorrow. Don’t give up on your dreams, dreams are still cool. You wanna be a pro snowboarder, then you can do it. There’s so many success stories, it’s just that you have to really live your dream and put everything into it, right?

Brooke: Yeah I think so. Pretty straight forward, don’t give up. I feel like in your case, you’re a hustler. You’re gonna go and make stuff happen you know, and that’s what it takes to be successful in anything, not just snowboarding.

Max: I think you’re right, yes.

Brooke: You just have to work harder than the next guy, want it a little more. You have to have the natural talent you have to have all these things, there’s just a lot more to it now. When I started snowboarding being a pro snowboarder seemed more attainable, because there weren’t that many people that did it. But now there are so many people and it’s gotten to this insane level that maybe kids don’t necessarily see being pro as a potential option anymore? People just want that man am status.

Max: Well, there’s little kids that I see when I go snowboarding with Maddox, my son – he’s like just starting to get into snowboard club. There’s a crew in Whistler called Grom Nation, and those kids are going for it, and it’s really rad to see. They’re going to the Baker Banked slalom and winning races and doing competitions and getting into it and going for it and getting hooked up and stuff like that. If you’re around the right people, there is a lot of encouragement and pushing to be the next Mark McMorris coming out of Canada. It’s very possible, you just gotta surround yourself with the people that are gonna encourage and help you get to that next level.

Brooke: See now that is very encouraging. I feel like maybe I could be a pro snowboarder…

Max: You should be a pro snowboarder!

Brooke: No.

Max: Everyone can be a pro snowboarder, but you know what the new cool thing is? Legend Ambassador status. That means you get to go to Baldface four times a year and just go snowboarding. That’s the real pro status. Fuck the pro snowboarder status. Legend status. Where you don’t even have to do anything. You just get to shred pow.

Brooke: Oh man, yeah how do you do that?

Max: I don’t know.

Brooke: I think I’d have to have gotten better at snowboarding in the 90s.

Max: You’re media though, doesn’t that count? And you just kinda go along and film with your Gopro? Make a Yobeat edit?

Brooke: Yes, I mean I can put my own edits on my site, and I’ve done it on several occasions. Only to subject myself to a ton of hate comments because that’s what kids are into now, apparently.

Max: They’re into what?

Brooke: Leaving hate comments on the Internet.

Max: Only positivity, only positivity.

Brooke: All positive thoughts, I’m totally all positive all the time. Except for I’ll be like saying things and feel like I’m being really positive and someone else will be like “Why are you so negative about things?” I think it’s just – my curse is negativity. I actually think snowboarding is so sick right now. The people who are doing it, and everything about it is so awesome. Except for the fact that stuff isn’t selling, but really I think that the smart businesses are selling stuff, so, you know, whatever. Change is good.

Max: And people are going snowboarding and getting out and riding instead of playing a video game. So that’s important.

Brooke: Exactly. Well, it’s good to be a part of something positive and awesome. I like it a lot.