Interview med Mike Hornbeck
Mike Hornbeck er manden, der de seneste år er blevet berømt på at filme de mest progressive urban-parts med Level 1, som Newschool-bevægelsen har set, samt park-edits som alle håbefulde unge parkrotter uden tvivl har prøvet at efterligne; han er stilikon og trendsætter.
Mange tror måske, at Hornbeck har fået sin skikarriere serveret på et sølvfad, men virkeligheden er en ganske anden. Ikonet er vokset op med at køre rundt på en bakke som nok bedst kan beskrives som en amerikansk pandant til Vallåsen. Hvis han kan, hvorfor så ikke en dansker?
Nyd dette lille edit hvor Mike Hornbeck Shredder rundt i nærheden af hans hjemstavn:
Riders.dk har fanget Newschool-fænomenet til en snak om sponsorskift, stil, denne og næste sæson:
So Mike what are you up to currently?
I am in Colorado getting ready for the season to start. Keystone opens Nov 6th; Just going to be shredding around colorado getting ready for contests and filming.
How would describe your year? (filming, contests and personal progress) Would you say you accomplished your goals for the season?
This past year was awesome. I took a lot of time to myself and just skied the park a bunch. I feel like it helped me get better at skiing and I got to make a couple cool edits while doing it. I would have liked to shoot more for my level 1 segment but I am happy with what I ended up with! I didn’t compete at all; I like doing contests I just didn’t get into any. I also filmed with Ride the Planets for “cant stop”. I got a little segment in there that im stoked on!
What are your plans for the upcoming season?
This season I plan to compete in a few slopestyles and film a bunch. I really like filming and feel that is where I can show my skiing the best. I also have a web idea that is in the works. It should be sick!
You recently switched from Liberty to Armada (both skis and outerwear), how would you describe becoming a part of perhaps the most infuental freeskiing-company?
Liberty was a cool company to ride for; much respect to them. This summer I switched to Armada head to toe and It was like a dream come true. I started really getting into freeskiing right when Armada came about. I have always looked up to Armada as a company. It’s really crazy to me because I never would have thought back then I would be on “Armada”. It’s awesome.
I think it’s safe to say that you have a fairly unique and progressive style, where do you get your inspiration from?
I really like skateboarding. I used to do it a lot before really got into skiing. I also got inspiration from a skier at my home mountain that was a bit older then me. He kinda took me under his wing and guided me.
You hail from Michigan, not the first place one would suspect a skier of your caliber to come from. How did you get so good? What advice can you give to any young-guns Denmark (an even more unlikely place to breed a professional skier) wanting to make it in skiing?
I grew up skiing on landfills that were 200ft vertical. They had piles of snow that were “jumps” and a couple boxes and rails. They also had night skiing which was open until 9 pm. So I would ski all day and then into the night a lot of the time; Just hitting the same few features over and over. The best advice I can give would be to ski as much as possible; The more you are on your skis the better they will feel.
If you had to point out a person or trend in skiing to watch this season, who or what would that be?
Skiing is crazy these days; sometimes its best to just ski a ton and do your thing. I like watching Brogan, Montage, B-dog, Henrik, Wallisch…. the list goes on.
Is there anything you would like to change about the sport of skiing?
I would like to see more diversity, team videos, etc..
Finally, is there anything you would like to tell people out there?
Ski to have fun, not to be sponsored.
Jeg kan personligt anbefale at man spæner ned til sin lokale ski-pusher for at få fingre i Refresh, hvor Mike Hornbeck blandt andre giver den hidtil usete mængder gas til et kommentarspor af skifilmslegenden Warren Miller.
Refresh Trailer:
Mike Hornbeck er en skiløber, man med sikkerhed skal holde øje med i fremtiden.
Tekst: Jacob Molzen