Todd Kirby’s Life Changing Hump Day

Photo: Ben Gavelda

I’ve been meaning to do a Todd Kirby Hump Day for a hot minute now. Minnesota born, but Montana bred, Todd is and has been an insane snowboarder, and of course, a really nice guy worthy of a little coverage. But like most things that happen in Montana, it’s been easy to overlook. I’m not even sure they have Internet there yet, ya know. I finally got a chance to catch up with the powder power house and, the good news is, he has a lot more to talk about now than he would have a couple years ago. Life is crazy like that.

How was your season?

It was good, I surfed like 20 days, went snowboarding inbetween when there was snow. The best part about this season I think was that everyone was freaking out about what a shitty season it was, and there was no snow, and it was raining in Washington, and Colorado was getting snow for the first time ever. But the best part about Montana is there’s not really a shitty winter. We rode a shit ton of powder and I think you’re gonna see that in Brett’s movie, the Impaler. Well, they’re doing a short that’s coming out this fall, there will be a lot of rail riding, but there will be some powder footage, which I don’t think many movies will have.

How did you, who grew up in Minnesota, become such a powder hound?

It just happened. I went to college in Montana, in Bozeman, and my first year out there I got a Bridger Pass. I pretty much went from Hyland Hills and Trollhaugen to riding Bridger Bowl and getting a beacon and shovel and probe and split board. I just met the right people, I guess. People like Shane (Stalling) and Kyle (Miller) and just kinda kids through college that did that. It was life changing. I love riding park at home, but riding powder in resort with no park, it just changes your view of snowboarding.

Do you think if you had been a few years younger, you may have gotten heavier into rails? It seems like you left before that scene really blew up.

Kind of. I started to get into it, and it was fun, and I guess if I hung out with some of the kids I met later I kinda would be a rail rat, but I’m kinda glad I’m not, because I think powder is so much cooler. Plus the rail game is fucked up, people like Jesse Paul, Collin Wilson and Aiden Flanagan, are just insane. To keep up with that is pretty crazy.

Have you brought any of those guys to ride powder and pointed and laughed as they flailed around?

No, but Brett was trying to get Collin out there, and I know Collin was jacked to get out there. But everytime he could come it was 50 and sunny in Bozeman. Brett has filmed rails his entire life and he came out to Bozeman and got it really good and his just filmed for a couple weeks straight powder footage and didn’t film a single street clip really. People like Jack Thonvold, you’d never expect to love powder, but he went to school in Bozeman for a little bit, well, before he smoked too much weed and had to drop out. He rode tons of powder and was stoked on it. He was just this Technine thug ball that was high all the time, but he was ripping powder.

Photo: Reid Morth

Would you ever wanna live anywhere other than Montana?

Well, right now I’m living in Minnesota, but it’s kinda hard to see myself spending a winter not in Montana. Not to spoil it, but it’s so good there all the time and I have a crew of friends there that all have snowmobiles and we know all the terrain and the weather patterns so well. I could spend a winter in Washington I think, if it was more of a guarantee it would snow. I’ve always wanted to because Washington snowboarding is completely different than Montana. Just the terrain and the snow is so different. I could spend a winter in Washington. I feel like Mt Baker would be another life-changing place to spend a season.

Definitely. It makes you better at snowboarding too.

Yeah, riding a mountain and using the terrain progresses you so much more. Riding a mountain and learning to turn. If you can turn and be in control that makes you so much better of a snowboarder when it comes to hitting jumps and riding lines and everything. Resorts help you do that.

Well, compared to a garbage dump in the midwest where you’re just hitting park boxes.

Yeah, you’re like side slipping to the rail and then going straight until you hit the rail, land and side slip. It’s kinda what you do.

Did you not learn to turn until you moved to Montana?

Pretty much I would say. I competed in rail jams when I first moved out there and I won everyone that I did and people we’re like, who is this kid? Oh he’s from Minnesota. And it was cool for a bit until I was like, ok, I’m like 24 years old competing against little kids. This is stupid. So I gave up on competitions, except for Smash Life and Banked Slaloms, cause that’s turning.

And you’re fast. Were you able to defend your Smash Life title this year?

Yeah, I try to be. Me and Kyle (Miller) both blew out on our runs. Kyle and I are pretty competitive, but we’re really good friends so it works out. But we did a switch race, or a fakie race as Jay Mohr would say. I won the fakie race, which was kinda sweet, and I actually beat Shane Stalling’s time going regular, going switch. (laughs) So that was pretty awesome. That actually was better than winning. We were all sitting at the top with the radio and when I went down I was like, let me know if this beats Shane’s time. So I just sent it and when I got to the bottom Shane was just screaming it me, like fuck you. It was so funny.

Photo: Ben Gavelda

Can you explain, for those who don’t know, who Shane Stalling is?

He grew up in Minnesota and rode park and then he went out to college in Bozeman and spent a semester and dropped out. He actually took 8 years to get his college degree, but he got one! He is just the nicest guy, but he’s a drunk and he’s just well known in Montana for snowboarding because he blew up during the time there was a scene out there. He’s just been there for 15 years now, and he’s the guy that’s associated with Montana. If you’re a pro snowboarder and you need info, you call Shane and he’ll get you black out drunk at night and go snowboarding with you the next day. It’s hard to explain who he is, but once you build up a relationship with him he’s like your best friend. You love him but you hate him. We call him Uncle Shame. The stories that go with him are endless.

Did you graduate from college?

Yeah I did it in 5 years! I have a degree in Science and GIS planning, so it’s geography, mapping and cartography. It was actually sweet going to school in Bozeman, because I went to school full time, but I could work my schedule and they’re pretty flexible, so I could have Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes or I could just have Tuesday-Thursday classes. So there were some winters where I would only have class Tuesdays and Thursdays, and have four-day weekends, which was awesome. You get a crazy student discount for season passes and everyone in your class rides. There were days that my teacher would cancel class because it was a powder day at Bridger Bowl, and then I’d see her up at the mountain.

Are you using your degree now? What do you do to make money?

Right now I am kind of using my degree, but I’m kind in the crazy split between real life and trying to snowboard. But I work for civil engineering company doing surveying work.

So you’re the guy on the side of the road with the tripod in an orange vest?

(laughs) Yeah, there’s more than that. Last summer it worked out great because I worked May to November and then they laid me off, so I had my winter off. This year I’m trying to do the same but they want me to go full time. I’m in a tough spot.

Photo: Ben Gavelda

Sounds like you’re at the point where you might have to grow up?

Yeah, but I don’t know if I want to yet.

How old are you?

25.

Fuck that, you don’t have to grow up yet.

I’ll be off my parent’s insurance in November and I have a lot of shit to pay for. As you know, snowboarding and money and making money in snowboarding doesn’t really exist. You get a lot of sick stuff, which is awesome, but you work your ass off for 6-8 months of the year making money and they you spend it all traveling. Like I try to get a plane ticket to Superpark and they’re like well, we’re out of budget, and I’m like ok, well I guess I’m not going.

You didn’t get the promotion to Ride global am team?

No. The whole transition Ride did was awesome. Their new image is definitely more catchy and hip and I think it’s a good direction for the brand. To kinda bring Ride back to its roots. I got brought on with Ride six years ago through Matt Sickels, who is downright the best dude ever. He was running the program and doing a great job with it, but then the last few years it kinda started sliding and then just needed a new image, so they brought on Tedore and Tanner and those guys. It’s cool, but I had a contract to be on the Am team with Sickels all lined up and I just needed to sign it. I was gonna get paid x amount of dollars a month, and it was gonna be amazing, like the dream. But then everything changed, and they decided not to pay me. I love Danimals and Derrek and all those new street kids. I think it’s great for the brand that they’re on top of the new street kids, but they could use a little powder in there. I am still on the international am team, whatever that means.

Better than rails. Photo: Reid Morth

You’re a cancer survivor, right? What happened?

It was crazy. I had just finished college, and I was planning on spending the winter in Washington. I moved out there to work for this logging company, and it was set up perfect. They were like we’ll hire ya for November/December and then we’ll lay you off. And I was like, this is awesome. But I just had this strange bump growing in my lower abdomen area. I went into the doctor for it, just like a family pracitioner, and he was like, you need to go see an oncologist. I was like, what’s an oncologist? So oblivious to anything. He was like, that’s a cancer doctor. I saw a doctor in Seattle who was like, I’m gonna need to do some sugery and biopsies, take it out, see what we’re working with. So I had surgery, and I had this backpacking trip planned with my dad and brother in Bozeman. While this was happening, this trip was coming up and so I had surgery and went to Bozeman a few days later to see my family. When I was there I got a call from the doctor saying I had Hodgkins Lymphoma. It’s a blood cancer that attacks your lymphnodes. Crazy enough, it effects young male athletes. It was just a whirlwind. I hadn’t had any tests done and they were like, we don’t know if it’s stage 1, 2, 3, 4, or what’s gonna happen until we do all this work. But if you’re gonna have it done you’re either gonna be in Seattle or back home in Minnesota. So my parents come out to Washington, packed up my life, I had a house and everything, we drove 2000 miles to Minneapolis, and I moved into their basement. Within a week I had done all that. That was kind of a crazy life-changing moment. I got all my shit done in Minneapolis. I went to the university of Minnesota cancer center, which is world renowned for its cancer care. They got everything done and it turned out to be stage 1, with some stage 2, and it hadn’t spread. When it spreads to the rest of your body, that’s when it gets really bad. But it was pretty contained to my abdomen and groin, so I went through treatment and like a year later I got clean scans. Which meant I was in remission and I was “cancer free.” I’ve been clean for a year and a half, which is awesome. It sucked for a bit, but it happened so fast and it was done before I knew it. It was just a crazy thing that happened in my life that really makes you a completely different person, with a different outlook on life.

And you got through it without crowd-sourcing money, which is great.

Yeah, haha. Thank god for my parents. If I had to pay for my medical bill alone, holy shit. I can’t imagine going through what I went through and not having the support of a family. It’s insane.

Do you have any other wisdom to impart on the Yobeat readers?

Go out and snowboard for fun. There’s a lot of things that a lot of people spend too much time worrying about in snowboarding. The best thing you can do is get a group of friends and go snowboarding at a mountain. Ride the hill, ride the terrain that it offers. Yeah, riding park is cool, but there’s a lot to be said for natural terrain.

Wanna give a shout out to your sponsors?

Ride Snowboards, Nate at Common Apparel, he’s just been a buddy and awesome and gives me a balaclava so I can still claim I’m from Minnesota, even though I ride a bunch of powder. Pow Gloves, Jake and Ally there. Duke at Von Zipper, whenever I get ahold of him, he’s awesome. Jay Mohr at World Boards and Matt at the House Boardshop. They help me out when I’m home, too.