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Pete Ellis Rider Profile |
| Who
are you? Pete Ellis |
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| How
old are you? 23 |
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| Where
were you born? In Solihull near Birmingham |
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| How
long have you been snowboarding for? Since about 17/18 after I past my driving test, I always wanted to ride but had no way of getting to the snowdome cos no-one in my family did anything like that. So I skated for about 4 years before it and then when I passed my test that weekend I went to the dome. |
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Why
do you do it? I love it, but I guess thats an obvious answer isn't it? It feels great to be doing something yourself, for example driving fast in a car is all good but as your 'closed off from the elements' it doesn't beat riding fast down a mountain on a shred stick - your more vulnerable so when you stick something sweet it feels better, more of an achievement, more exhilarating! You get to do stuff you wouldn't normally do, humans can't naturally fly so floating in mid air feels amazing. |
| Who/what
inspired you to start? I always wanted to snowboard from an early age, as I really like snow (christmas and winter is my favourite tiem of year) and as a kid you would occasionally see snowboarding on tv and knew I wanted to give it a go. When I watched 'The Resistance' for the first time and JP was sliding handrails I knew that was sport for me! |
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What
setup do you use? I ride an Amplid Aggronym stick with Amplid Bachelor bindings. |
| Do
you ride Regular or Goofy? Regular |
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| Stance
width? Widest I can go! |
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| Stance
angles (front and back)? I have a bit of a wierd style as I have to have my bindings set back and the thinnest boots I can get, otherwise I feel all off balance, I think it comes from skating on my toes and having my heels off the edge. I ride duck 21 front, 9 back |
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| What
was your favourite trip and why? Probably Zell am Ziller on a powder day, that and One-Man's land as its completely empty - it's an odd individual chair lift to the top - so the only powder tracks you come across are you and your mates from the run before. One of the best days I've ever had riding was with Kev, Kristoff and Aly in Zell on a powder day through the trees whilst all the punters kept the runs. |
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| How
many seasons have you done? So far just one. |
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Where
and when did you do your seasons? I did my season in Mayrhofen, Austria when making Otium with Hungerpain. |
| What
was your favourite trip and why? One of my favourites was the board test in Solden a few years ago cos the weather so so good we could rag around in just a tshirt, and the rails were great too, smooth as you like. Plus the added bonus of staying in a hotel meant there was a swimimng pool for when you got off the hill! |
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| What
do you love about snowboarding? The creativity with it, no run is the same, you can kind of express youself in a bit of a kiddy way! If you want to go jump of the sides of the piste you can, you would look a bit wierd jumping off curbs in the middle of the high street! |
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What's
your goal within snowboarding? Originally it was to make a snowboard film, and Ive done that with Otium, and then it was too get sponsored and Ive done that too! So Im pretty stoked with my goals so far! I guess my goals at the moment are to get as many photos as I can and as much coverage as I can for my sponsors, support them as they support me so much. I really want to produce some trick tip videos, like short downloadable videos or something with my mate Phil Barber - he's a genius with a camera, as I feel that trick tips are always rubbish and dont teach you anything. There so much crap Ive read when I was learning, literaaly like 'ollie on to the rail, land in front boardslide, slide the whole rail, land and ride away'. Ive literalyl read a tip like that! Pathetic! Ive never read a good one, so I want to make some stuff that actually helps people learn with tips Ive picked up over the years. So maybe my next immediate goal is that? |
| What
aspect of snowboarding gives you the most satisfaction? Rail sliding, it feels so good when you lock in a slide the whole rail in one pose, no flapping of the arms or bending to stay on. Of course, powder is great too, you can go literally as fast as you like and it's so silent, it's amazing, and sadly not something the snowdome can offer! |
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What
style of snowboarding best describes your riding? I'd say technical. Im not really a bit kicker rider, I prefer tech tricks on rails |
| What's
your favourite trick? Without a doubt front 2s onto rails, I love to spin through rail tricks! |
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| What's
your scariest snowboarding moment? I'd say the first time hitting the middle kicker in the pro line at the park in Mayrhofen. It was a bit faster than what I was used to learning in the snowdome! |
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| What
are your top safety tips when riding? Ok, I think this is a good one as I have dislocated my shoulder before and only heard this advise afterwards. Plus one of my best mates Andy Davis has suffered the pain of an arm out its socket too but now swears by this advise. It's pretty obvious and you've probably heard it before but no-one ever really does it - If you ever catch an edge and your falling forward, tuck your arms into your chest and as if you were boxing (have your arms straight up not crossed) and fall onto your forearms. NEVER put your hands out to stop you, you will snap a wrist or get an arm caught and ping it back. It feels wierd as you fall closer to your face, but landing on both your forearms takes up more surface area and thus will be less painful than failing on a single body part. You have to practise to get this to be second nature for when you fall. You will look like a dick purposefully falling over and jumping onto your front at the top of the slope, but it only takes a few goes to make it your natural reaction, and it's important for starting out! |
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| What
advice have you got? I picked this up off Ed Gunn when filming his trick tip with him for an Otium extra but it's worth passing on. If you are spinning frontside, when you land, try to land slightly on your toes as if you land completely flat first you will carry on spinning round from momentum. Landing on your toes slightly will ensure a straight run out. |
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| Where/when/what
was your last competition? I think it was one of the Black Metal events I think? I loved the double kink box thing they had, it was so smooth it was the best double kink I've ridden. |
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| What
events are you looking forward to this year? I'm actually looking forward to Xscapeology at Castelford, those events are always great fun and packed with sweet rails. |
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| What
has been you biggest achievement in your sport? Erm, I think getting sponsored by Blueskin and Amplid was by greatest achievement, as I think everyone has a secret dream of getting sponsored, and when it actually happened I was over the moon. I didn't get into riding to get sponsored of course but it's a nice extra! Plus the companies I ride for are rad! :D |
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| What
other teams/sponsors do you snowboard for? I ride for Amplid snowboards and Dr Zipe goggles. |
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| What
other sports do you do? Kickboxing, Ive been doing that about 10 years now I think? And I used to play basketball a lot but then everybody I was playing against grew to around 6ft+ so then I was pretty much out the runnings! |
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| What
are your other interests? I like to keep fit so I go to the gym a lot, I try to go every other day if I can, but I work a lot so this often restricts how often I get to go. I'm also doing a masters in computer game art so I guess I should say video games, but that makes me sound like a right geek! But hey I'll be honest and include it anyway! |
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| Where
would you like to see yourself in the future? I would like to see myself in Back to the Future, but I don't think that's a realsitic dream, as it's a movie, a movie that has already been made. I'd like to live in Vancouver I think, as there's a load of games companies there so there's job potential whilst Whistler is about an hour/hour and a half away. I'd like to be somewhere that got snow every winter for definite! |
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Who
are your idols? JP Walker, Michael Jordan and I guess I have to say my older brother Steve as I used to idolise him when I was much younger. |
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| What
kind of music are you into? Ah loads of stuff, mainly hip hop, chilled stuff like J5, not 'Im gonna shot ya mommas face off' gangsta stuff really, also old rock like Black Sabbath and Ollie Plumley got me into a lot of electro stuff too. I tend to like old originals, I've got a thing about finding all that stuff, I recently found the original to Dizzee Rascal's 'Fix Up, Look Sharp'. It's by Billy Squier called 'The Big Beat', it's amazing! I love to find stuff out like that, I'm a bit disappointed by 'modern' artists who just sample stuff and pass it off as their own. I used to love Craig Mack's 'Flava in Ya Ear' before Jennifer bloody Lopez ruined it. |
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What’s
your favourite magazine? Whitelines cos they put Otium on the cover! haha and the guys there are rad. Plus Document too I'd say. |
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| What's
your favourite book? Well to be honest I don't read. I was thinking of saying 'I hardly ever read' but that would be trying to make myself look as if I do occassionally, but to be honest I never do! The last thing I read was Lord of the Rings before the films came out, but thinking about it that was ages ago now! |
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What's
your favourite film? I've got loads for different reasons, Transformers for the CG ILM did, Shawn of the Dead, Back to the Future, Waynes World, Afterbang for being a really inspiration snowboard film. |
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| What's
your favourite quote? Haha Ive got tons! Me and Chatt can get into a strong rhymn of quoting Family Guy when we're together! That guy is a genius with remembering comedy! I can remember stuff that I find funny really well, so me and my mates tend to quote a lot of comdey stuff, at the moment its a phase of 'Gareth Margenhi's Darkplace' quotes. Hardly anyone has ever seen that show? But my favourite quotes come from Andy Davis saying 'I know' in the style of Dean Learner, and Plumley quoting the same character with 'yes, I'd prefer a beer' and 'shame, I was looking forward to the chicken!' You have to see that programme otherwise those quotes won't make sense, they will just look like dull sentences! Also my mate Phil saying 'what are you doing?' in a high pitch in the first ever skate video we filmed called Sexist. |
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| Best
cocktail, shot or drink? Stroh, its a dirty 80% black rum from Austria, I like a style of Depth Charge too where you put a shot of Tia Maria in a pint of half coke/half guiness. I don't normally like guiness, I'm a lager man but try it! It's well nice! |
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| What's
your most prized possession? Probably my 6 pack, haha is he joking?! haha, no I had a think and this is cheesy as hell but I'm going to say that my most prized possession is actually my best friends! No but seriously! I know it sounds gay but there so many untrustworthy people in this world that I'm really lucky to have such great friends I would trust with my life. |
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| Thanks
to: Niki at Blueskin, Jay at Amplid, Andy Davis, Phil Barber, and my friends and family. |
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| Anything
else you want to say? Keep enjoying snowboarding and do whatever you enjoy, don't feel you have to do the latest trick, as long as you enjoy it, it will come quicker than you think. And unrelated to riding, trust your own judgement. If there's something not quite right but you can't explain it or put your finger on it, trust yourself and don't apologise for it. That and regret doing something, don't regret not doing something. Word :P |
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