Welcome to the big show! Adam doubles down this week on Out of Bounds by interviewing, fucking legend, Tom Wallisch and talking about "nothing" with Parker White. Nope, not together. Not even sure if these dudes have ever met. Two separate huge and awesome episodes crammed into 80 mins of freshly dumped pod. Ya welcome.
First up is Tom Wallisch. This dude has been skiing at such a high level for so long he seems like he should be retired talking bout the glory days. He's 34. And while some injuries may have cut some things short since he was winning X-games medals for the better part of a decade, he's still skiing and filming. And some times talking about skiing while filming skiing, as he did last year as color commentator for the X-games. Reporting on course live is a wild look and gives some great insight when it comes from someone as knowledgeable as Tom. He and Adam also talk about buzz word, "accessibility" in the ski industry, but in a legit and practical way. They talk pros/cons of mega passes and how the bottom line affects access. Maybe Tom was not far off the bullseye when he said maybe Target should sell some mediocre/shitty skis just to get kids on the hill. Tom also gets candid about the loss of Full Tilt boots and talks about his Pennsylvania roots. He'll always be a rope tow riding park rat at his core as long as he skis, but damnit at his core Tom is also just a good guy. Five star human and skier. Check out his latest project on YouTube, "Fresh Squeezed".
Take a potty break, and grab yourself a snack at intermission, but don't hang-up the phone! This episode steams along right into Adam's chat with Parker White. Parker stars skiing and snowboarding in the latest edit, short film, whatever you wanna call it, from Level1 called "Nothing New". This is a follow-up to their breakout drop last year entitled, "Nothing". Both films are intricate in their simplicity. Just good music, great skiing and riding, good flow and fun. That really mirrors Parker's personality in the interview. The dude skis and doesn't take himself too seriously. Sick stache, glorious mullet and not even a helmet to cover it all up. No political stance, just never really thought about it. Kind of a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality. Likely same reason he's been skiing the same Rossi Black Ops skis for 6 years. He and Adam also talk about the pass roulette game and the bullshit that is Fast Passes, and the decline in quality of the product. Also we get a great nugget of advice from Parker that applies to the ski industry and life for that matter, "everyone just needs to chill the fuck out a little bit."
Think that's a great note to end on. Long episode. Long write-up. Blame Adam. ...But also thank him. Two great dudes and two great chats, one great mega-pod. Listen for yourself now on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your pods. And remember 5 stars from you gets 5 hi-fives from us. Cheers!
