Life Wide Open with CboysTV - CboysTV First Sponsor and How It Happened

Episode Date: August 18, 2021

509 Filmer and Rider David McKinney talks about first coming across CboysTV on YouTube 4 years ago and how he was our first sponsor. He tells about dangerous riding stories, funny party memories with the boys and much more. Follow us on Instagram @cboystv and @lifewideopenpodcast To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenYT Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV You can also check out our main YouTube channel CboysTV: https://www.youtube.com/c/CboysTV For merch check out: https://cboystv.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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FM to get started. You imagine just like we have like a 50 foot super kicker out there, 50 foot. But like kicker out there and we're like, oh yeah, none of us can ride it, but it's sweet. To an airbag? It would be nice. The airbag is sweet. That'd be a waste of $30,000, though. For sure.

It comes with a snowmobile. That's the thing. The snowmobile will never be going in the airbag. It could be everything else you guys own. Snowbird will never get off the ground. All right. Well, anyway, we're going to get this rolling. We're already rolling an hour late, which our guest today is all too familiar with.

It's got to catch a flight in like two hours. So we're going to get this rolling. But thank you guys for watching, viewing, commenting, liking. Everything on the podcast lately has been crazy. It's been great. I don't know when this podcast is going live, but hopefully we're going to hit 100K pretty soon here. That'd be pretty sweet. hit it hit 100k in a month it's not bad that's not bad so keep running up the subscribe and uh shown

us love we appreciate it between all of us we read like all the comments too so let me jump right into it let me introduce today's guest many of you guys may recognize him from a couple legendary seaboys videos and trips that we've taken over the years bought a relationship with him goes much deeper and started out oddly corporate so we're going to take this time to interrogate the shit out of him tell some stories from snowmobiling and dirt biking trips that probably should never see the light of day and quite possibly get him fired from his big boy job okay anyway give a warm welcome to the one and only david mskiney mckinney i think i need to compose myself after that intro yeah no honestly it took me a little bit of time to uh to get because i didn't i didn't want to

dishonor the name i said you did not but also everybody at the office I'm sorry if this is the last time I ever hear from you guys. Are you worried? No filter. Let's go. Really? Oh, yeah. All right, let's get into it.

So I want to start out by having you kind of explain, give a quick brief on your role at 509, your big boy job, and then after that we'll get into kind of how we got to meet. But I want the viewers and listeners to kind of understand who you are and what you do. So as you guys know, as you chat with me more and more, I'm obsessed of snowmobiling. Like, I still ride dirt bikes, do all that stuff. but snowmobiling is what I live for.

I grew up in northern Minnesota, so instantly kind of had that Midwest connection, meeting you guys. Same kind of thing. You guys growing up, riding everything, trying to turn it into a profession, and I just continuously chase that dream, and there's a lot of information between how we got there,

but day job to answer your question is a creative marketing manager at 509, so a lot of athlete sponsorships, a lot of the media side did five of the films, so volume 11 through 15 and then recently we jumped in and started a YouTube series managing all the athletes locations for those shoots a lot of the marketing content the social media side of it it's I'm kind of in a lot of different locations and running around constantly but I wouldn't change it for anything absolutely love every second of it so for those

that don't know what 509 is what is it everything is snowmobile helmets goggles outerwear No pants, jackets, boots, socks, gloves, everything you need to get out and ride, whether you're a trail rider, whether you're a mountain rider, and then also off-roadside dirt biking. You know, if you're a track guy, if you're a single-track mountain rider, we kind of covered everything in two wheels and a track. And when it first started, it was just goggles, correct? Yeah, it was just goggles. The founder, Tom, I think he was dropped out of college, and he started, he sold a software

of some sort. I want to say like an antivirus software and took that as a startup money and was passionate about snowmobiling and ran with it and was like we need a goggle that works. Everything's like super small. You can't see anything. The foam's all crap. This was in 2003. And at that time it was. Yeah. There was nothing out there. There's no other options. And he designed this goggle and just kind of ran with it and hit it hard on the marketing side. And then the turning point was they went to winter X games one year and did a booth. And something there just clicked. Like, it went from, like, 10,000 followers in Facebook to, like, 80,000 in that weekend. From there, he said, hey, you know, we need to get out just goggles.

There's more where we can produce. And the helmets came, and then the outerwear came, and then now it's head to tone everything you could possibly need. And, you know, Midwest, East Coast, mountain riders, whatever, there's something for you. So how did you go from small-town Minnesota filming snowmobile races to ultimately landing your dream job across the country? Obsession. Like, you guys know, small town, Minnesota. I'm from Cloquet, Minnesota. For those of you don't know, I always just say Duluth, right?

It's 15 miles west of Duluth. And my dad got me a sled when I was three years old. He brought it in the back of his Jeep Grand Cherokee and didn't tell my mom. My mom was, like, pissed. He's going to kill himself on this thing. He can barely walk. He's just learned how to walk, and now you want to stick him on a snowmobile. And I didn't ride it.

Looking back at who I am now, I didn't ride it for the first year. I was terrified of it. and now you can't keep me off them, which is ironic. Yeah. And I wrote it every day. And like people say I've been riding, you know, I've been riding 23 years, and they dabbling it here and there. I've literally, like, every day when there was snow riding laps around the house,

until I was out of gas. And my dad would drive home, and I'd be sitting there, like, freezing. Not going, it could go inside and wait for him, right? But I wanted to be on the sled and he'd top it off of fuel. We'd go again. And that just escalating to, you know, buying sleds as I got older. and riding them and going more places, meeting more people.

But then skateboarding, snowboarding, all of that came into my life and watching skateboard, snowboard films. I kind of found, I love photography, and I love filming, and we thought we were really good skateboards, and we were terrible. Like, yeah, we were to get a sponsorship

to the local skate shop, you know. You and Evan? Yeah, dude Evan, bro. Yeah. I have so much footage of Evan from, like, 2005 to, like, 10-ish of us, like, hitting the middle school, the iconic spots everybody has in their town.

know yeah like the five stair at the middle school like we're going to get that sponsorship man and we're terrible right so then i'm like i like snowmobile more than this started to figure out the photography thing more but it was always one of those things where like people are like what do you really want to do when you get older it's like i want to film snowmobiles but they're like yeah let's that's all in the west like what do you really want to do that that's what i really want to do and just kind of stuck with even my mom got a little concerned for a minute she's like david we support you fully but How do you actually want to make a living? Because what?

You were just filming Flatland, like hitting drifts? Yeah, anything. Just playing with the camera, learning things. And this was like pre- YouTube, so either you had to know somebody older who'd been doing it to learn how settings, aperture, shutter speed, all that. You don't need to know that. I know you guys.

We still don't know that. We'll talk about it five years. We'll talk about your full auto settings later. Hey, they get the job done. Fuck, that gets me going. Anyway, carry on. There's no way to learn it. just had to either meet somebody who was in the industry or figure it out on your own.

Yeah, eventually YouTube came out, but I did end up going to college for cinematography and production, so learned a lot there. But that was more like narrative film-based, like, let's go make an actual movie. Nobody there I'd meshed with. They were all kind of hipster filmmaker vibe, and I'm just motorhead trying to get the degree. Yeah. But, yeah, I just kept following it and started working at the National Snow Cross Circuit, I went to all the races, you know, Duluth National, everything, Lake Geneva, Canterbury, all that.

And so Snowcross was, like, in my blood and started doing a lot of marketing with them on the social media side. Had an opportunity to go out west in, like, 2013 or 14? When was the first time you snowmilled out west? Like, how old were you? Dude, it wasn't that long ago. It was like eight years ago only. Dang. Yeah.

And so it was foreign to me and had an opportunity to go west with Sledhead 24-7. got invited out there and did my internship out there. At the time, I met a guy who was working for 509. And hindsight, I don't know how it played out because I met him when I was hammered at the Buffalo Bar in West Yellowstone. That was the first impression with somebody from 519. I was like, here's this 20-year-old.

I don't even think I was of age, maybe 21. And I'm just tossed. And I'm talking with them, and I vaguely remember the conversation, but I must have left, like, a decent impression because I get a call like a week later. It's like, you want to come out to the 519 heli shoot? Like, yeah. Hell yeah.

Yes, please. And which we need to do again. We used to do a shoot end of the year up in Canada. We'd rent a helicopter for a day and take the best guys out there and build jumps and everybody would just send huge flips. So that was like the top tier thing in the industry to be a part of. Can we come? Let's just spark it up again.

Yeah. Dude, it's interesting. Ryan will absolutely eat himself off of a jump for a good heli shot. Sure. So do you think that's changed a little bit now the drones came out? Like, hell he shoots now are like the cream of the crop. Like, if you do that, there's something cool, badass about them. I feel like they fizzled out for a bit, but now they're coming back.

So, like, the drone thing got a little stale. Yep. And you can't beat the helicopter shadow on the snow. Yeah. It's pleasing to have shots of a guy hitting something. There's a chopper buzzing right under him. I never even did a job interview. That was the wild part.

You sure you got hired? Well, the guy that I met left, like in November of, like 2014 or something and he was supposed to shoot the film and it's you can he was the he was the filmer one of a filmers yeah he was producing it editing it and shooting everything so you literally replaced him well to leave in november in this industry is like full panic mode for my boss because you can find a million camera guys better than me i have zero you know issue admitting that there's a million guys better but it's hard to find somebody that can use a camera then ride a snow will be on the backcountry that dwindles down to like 0.0 you know

0.1%. Tom calls me up, founder of 509, and goes, shit, this guy just left. Can you shoot this film? It was like November. Cancel everything I had planned. Move west to one of our athletes' basements, shot the film, and that was like my resume. Handed that in and then offered me a job, and it's been history since. He hasn't asked me about my diploma either ever, or my Eugene college. Why did I even get this? Book Club on Monday. Gym on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday.

Quiet night in on Friday. It's good to have a routine. And it's good for your eyes too. Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers, you'll know just how healthy they are. Visit Spexsavers.cavers.cai to book your next eye exam. Eye exams provided by independent optometrists. So was it like surreal for you?

Because obviously you were watching the 509 movies. And for those of you watching right now, 509 makes a snow, well, I guess used to make a one big snowmobile movie after through the whole winter and then drop it in beginning of fall. Yeah, so it was like pretty big in the snowmobile industry. So to get that call, like, hey,

we need you to come and produce this. Like I'd imagine you were watching those films your entire life growing up, right? Same concept as what you guys are doing. You just have these moments where they're kind of pinch me moments, right? Yeah. Especially coming from a small rural area. That's when you realize, like, the hard work and determination pays off

when all of a sudden something that was a pipe dream comes to life. Then I was out there hanging next to guys I've been watching for 10, 15 years, and still, to this day, I don't take it for granted. Like, every time with, like, a Brett Turcott or anything or end up at X games or something, and I watched every single minute of X games for probably 15 years straight, it doesn't get old. And I'm thankful it doesn't because then I need a real reality check

and somebody might have to give me a kick in an ad or something to realize that you're becoming a prick. Yeah, no. I mean, we even go through the same shit where it's like you hate to get tainted or you hate to get used to it. Yeah. Because that's almost what got you there in the first place

is like that passion and drive and ambition, you know? So it's like I don't want to lose what got me here in the first place. And I've watched you guys from early subscribers to now. and there are moments when, much as you hate to admit it, you can get desensitized of things. Yeah. But then, like, walking in here, it was my first time at your new shop, and that was one of those moments where I was like, guys, look what you've done.

This is rad. Like, you were slinging shirts in your mom's attic. Yeah. Not that long ago. A lot of people don't understand our relationship and how we came to be friends. And I stated in your intro that it started out pretty corporate. So we had like 140,000 subscribers at the time and maybe had like one winter worth of Yeah, I think it was our second winter going in.

And David reached out to actually CJ. I don't remember what you said, but I think you were just like, hey, do you guys want some 509 helmets? And we were like, yeah? I think I reached up to CJ because he didn't have a 509 helmet. He had that old Fox helmet. Yeah. I noticed you guys did. I'm like, hey, should help this guy out.

And so that's how David came into our life. You were the first person to take a chance on us when we were smaller. Like, you were the first, like, brand to really see potential in a group of guys that are so stupid. And they do the randomest shit, but they're entertaining. Right. And you saw that from a business standpoint of, like, oh, I think that they could, you know, help promote our brand and, you know, get the people wearing helmets, get the people wearing five and nine goggles. to this day we still talk about it all the time how you you were the first guy to see that in us it sparked something in us when we're like oh shit brands actually do care yeah do you remember

that how did you run across us just say what did you think of us at first you played into it well because the story i just told like that's what i saw it was like watching myself all over again almost i was just at the point where i was getting comfy at my job and had that pinch me moment right i came across it was your seely lake video like it's too deep that video that video that video i remember that was the one and i was watching it and i was like man these guys kind of suck it riding but like i'm really i'm really into the vibes about this front to back and then i dug deeper into the channel i'd seen some stuff prior to that but it was all your summer stuff and dinking around of cars and drifting around jake's dad shop and all that stuff but uh it was really just

like minnesota bread guys doing the same thing i did growing up and consistently hustling and like kind of saw like there was a glimmer of this could go somewhere and i think right when i like refreshed i want to say like a week later i circled back you guys you'd gain like 10 000 subs like it was right in that bubble where you start taking off yeah my other people are definitely seeing this also and then we chatted at heydays i think it's the first time but i i remember you guys were like you know me a couple years ago kind of like school girl fan like fan boeing out when we we were chatting at the 509 booth definitely i'd followed i'd followed you on instagram for like three years prior to that and then I met you and I go that's what he looks like I've never seen him

scrawny looking at scandinavian kid not expecting that always sunburned even when it's cloudy yeah yeah hey days was the first time we met so hey days is like this snowmobile event in Minnesota and uh biggest in the world yeah it's biggest in the world it's crazy how many people like 100000 people it's a lot nuts and there's there's a part where there's booth set up for businesses which is probably half of it and then the other half of it is like campgrounds and for our C-boys booth at the time we set it up in the middle of the campgrounds and we were just like this is what I'll we're in if you guys are at Haydays come say what's up I think we threw a flag up eventually I t-shirts yeah and I was like I'm gonna roll the dice on

these guys yeah no it's crazy though to look back at and then and then hey days the year after was a little bit bigger I think we got pushed to the edge of the of the business booth section and then the year after that obviously we were in it and it was insane we had like an eight hour line so when was that was it 17 so yeah it must have been because three three years ago or four years ago time flies time flies that's crazy dude yeah i mean i'm just so curious how you saw us at low subscribers and we were like so reckless and we weren't brand friendly at all and not saying that we are still but like you didn't care about that you never did which great that's why we love you guys so much is you've never tried to put us in a box and

and try and you know tell us what we can and can't do i think it helped that we we were into the brand before we'd met you yeah that's like we would never want to do anything that would like even accidentally taint it or anything we were just stoked we're both stoked that was a funny thing is because i was into what you guys were doing and you guys were into what we were doing yeah so it was just instantly like this is perfect a lot of people weren't stoked though a lot of people weren't stoked A lot of people didn't think that, you know, a couple of YouTube kids should be sponsored. Oh, we're going to talk about the hate comments. I've read plenty of those.

Like, there's not as many as you may think, but there was plenty. Yeah, because they're like, we're the first people to admit we suck it riding. We're like, we're the first people to admit we suck it riding. We're not snowmobiles. We're YouTubers. And you'd say that. Yeah. You would address everybody and just say, we're not professionals.

Yeah. And people still got worked up about it. Did you have people at 509 that thought that? they're like, why are we dealing with these kids? No, so Tom, I'm the founder, president still, working there. Maybe a year afterwards, he, like, pulled me aside. He's like, where'd you find these guys? I'm like, kind of told him the story.

He goes, is there more of them? Like, can we find another group like this? I understood he's coming from, but I'm like, no, no, no, we're just keeping these. It's like, I don't want others. And these are perfect. And so he was, like, on board from, like, year one after he saw how it went. But, no, the hate comments for a while there were comical, but it, it like phased out after you guys established yourself a bit more and people kind of figured out

I think it was guys that like never watched your videos and only saw something we'd post with you and they dive into your page and be like why the heck do these guys get a deal and I sent in 12 you know sponsor applications and these dudes get it and now I think people kind of figured out what you're about and it's yeah I don't ever want to label like you guys like influencers in a sense I mean that's part of your role for sure but you're more of like like, just action sports advocates is kind of what I look at. We're just personalities that fit. But that's why I always appreciate you will always go to bat for us.

Obviously, you run a lot of the social media accounts for 509, but like you'll always go, no, they're with us because they're stoked on the sport. And they're stoked about everything that we're doing. Like, how could we say no to that? I like the term advocate. Yeah, I did do. Nice. It's probably the nicest term whatever labeled you guys.

Athletes don't prioritize social media as much as they should. And we almost caught the wave of, you know, we're only social media. We're only personalities. And at the end of the day, we're going to sell a lot more helmets than an athlete will. No offense to the athletes listening. But, like, you know, they're only getting in front of so many people. It's a new generation. You guys are right in the middle of it, like the changing of the guard.

And it's kind of a weird thing to watch. because there's guys that have been doing this for 15, 20 years that are legends. But it's just the reality of where media is going. Yeah, I mean, there's zero, yeah, zero discredit any of those guys. I mean, that's just what's in now in the direction everything is headed in. And you guys saw that right before I think it kind of took off and a bunch of other people tried to kind of mimic it and started doing the same thing. And as far as what I saw, people reaching out to me saying,

hey I got a channel here I got a TikTok channel here and there's a lot of like similarities to what you guys are doing and I feel you guys kind of spark that at least in the snow and motor industry you kind of drove that for a while yeah motor's still a lot different because I think the motor industry is so much bigger yeah so much bigger like what do you think the percentage of snowmobiling is to motocross think about where you can ride a sled in the world versus it's limited right and then on top of being limited it's only amount of months out of a year. Yeah.

And then all those places that you can ride a sled, you can also ride a bike during those other months. Yeah. So, I mean, you're probably talking, what, 20% of the whole world, maybe get snow? I don't know the stat on that. So, I mean, it's millions and millions and millions of motorcycles out there. So snow buildings are sliver. It's definitely a niche market.

Yeah, for sure. But it's really, like, tight knit. Everything, we all share the same followers. And you kind of, you can definitely plateau in the snow industry. So that's why you've got to continuously. Think outside the box and try and, you know, rope somebody new and that's never seen it. And it's like, I got to try that. Yeah, we run into that a lot with our audience, obviously.

I think we did hit a cap of, there's only so many people in the snowmobiling industry on YouTube and our demographic that are going to watch our videos. So when we go out and film a snowmobile video, especially on the mountain trips when we drive 12, 15 hours, you know, get a cab and spend all this money for lodging. and gas and food and then you make a video that gets you know 50% as many views as a video of us literally filming anything else like home like it's it that's hard to justify because the snowmobile industry is small and granted but the tough parts you guys love doing it too that's that's that's that's the hardest part is actually like our favorite yeah at the end of the day if we do

it completely for fun and we don't even film it that's almost harder than just because then it's like oh this is so sick I just want to film this I could take a snowmiling trip and not film it

there's not a chance it's just too fun and I get there's a difference between I could definitely take a snowmiling trip and just film the cool shit and be lazy about it because that's what you

like when you actually have to go make a full feature vlog basically then it gets it gets to be a lot it's also hard it's really hard to vlog on a snowmobiling trip because your batteries are dying.

You've got to lug a camera around with you. You're wet. There's no oxygen. You're wet. You must be not layering correctly. You want to talk about layering? No, no, no, no, no, no cotton talk. No cotton talk.

But David, you know that better than anybody. Like, filming in the winter, especially in the backcountry, bringing on your gear, making sure it doesn't break or die. There's so many damn variables. Yeah, everything. Weather, wind, snow depth, elevation. and for you guys to pull it off, I mean, you've come a long way you're riding. First couple times you guys were kind of just, you know, goons.

Yeah, it stuck everywhere all the time. And now you guys are rippers, and because of that, I think it's made filming a lot easier for you. But I remember the first couple trips, you guys were, like, on your deathbed, and it was a struggle to even make a video just because of all those variables. And now you're a bit more conditioned, and Ben finally put on a couple pounds. Maybe too many. He's looking healthy. And not even necessarily got a hit back at you because that wasn't a hit at us.

But you started out a good snowmbiler. No, I was bad. I was really bad. You should talk to summer athletes. You're stuck chasing after professional snowmobilers. And now we're definitely the ones having to chase you because you're, you just cruise now. Well, I did not for a while. There's a couple riders that probably wanted to call Tom the first few times I was

out with them and like, let's get rid of this kid. Send him back to Minnesota, get him back on his trail sled. Because he's slow. It was bad. I went through, I had an XM that I had like 4,500 miles on and zero maintenance at all. Put zero maintenance into that snowmobile, and the suspension was blown out. It was down like

1,000 RPMs. I wrote it for a whole season. It took it to Baran, so like 12,000 feet. And that was the moment. I think Chris Barant was really skeptical on who we hired. So I understand that, But it's seat time with anything, you know? Like you guys, I can't lift the front tire off a bike to save my life, and you guys are dragging hands doing wheelies everywhere.

I mean, on pit bikes. Yeah, still, I'm never going to do that, but it's just anything, you know, seat time and practice and constantly being thrown into the fire. I remember you saying I don't even like riding dirt bikes, and you're like, yeah, maybe I do like it a little, but you're like, I literally just do it because I miss snowmobiling, and it's the same crowd and it's the same type of adrenaline,

but you're like, I really don't even like it that much. I don't like summer. Yeah. No, I live for winter. How many days do you spend on the snow? 70. It's between, I don't know. It depends on the season.

Somewhere between 60 to 80. Dude, that's nuts. It's like 2,500 miles in the mountains probably, which mountain miles, that's a lot. You can do trail miles, no problem. But 2,500 in a mountain is, your sleds are absolutely hammered by the end of the season. I think my sled had like 200 miles on it at the end of the season. Yeah. And they still get hammered.

Yeah. Yeah. it's the wear and tear is amplified big time like mountain riding for those of you that have never done it is quite honestly dangerous as fuck yeah insanely dangerous like you there's so much that you have to take in from you know snow conditions for avalanches to other riders where where it are other riders are they stuck i got to make sure that we don't lose them like there's so much going on so But you spend 70 days on the snow. Like, I can't imagine how many, like, sketchy things that you've gotten into and ravines

that you've dropped into. And you're like, oh, shit, I'm not sure if I can get out of this. Avalanche is for sure is the number one thing. And last winter in particular was awful. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've seen a lot cut off by guys that landing, hitting jumps, and massive three-foot crown and a 500-foot-wide avalanche that makes you never want to ride a snowmobile again. Dude, I hear about them and I don't even want to ride a snowmobile again.

Yeah, that's the number one terrifying thing, but losing your buddies out there, not having a radio, dead radio, and 99% of the time everybody's fine, but you have that panic moment. Because there's horror stories, the guys being, they're like, I'm going to go ride over here for a second. And they're underneath their sled and they suffocate to death. And it's like, holy shit, that could happen to any of us. You know, I mean, just with you guys, how many times have you done one maneuver where you're kind of stuck and you're in a situation that you're like this isn't the best and that happens every single day and every single season somebody goes out that way that seat time just keeps playing in nobody's invincible but you understand how to get away from certain situations and like assess the terrain and tackle it

in the safest manner you can but nobody's invincible if I had fair share of close calls and I've seen a lot of really close calls I mean if you don't want to talk about it that's fine but the story of your of your buddy without the tether. Yeah. Like that had to have fucking, like, that one sucked. That was the worst day I've ever had snowmobiling by far. Most snowmobiles come with a tether for you guys that don't know.

It's just a line attached from you to the snowmobile is a key. If you fall off, it pulls out and the snowmobile dies. Motor shuts off, no power. And some sleds don't come with them from the factory, and I always installed them. Number one thing, tell every guy. have a tether, have a tether. And yeah, we were out riding one day, doing some R&D, actually,

just doing some product stuff for 519, testing some gear. I had a guy that was from the Midwest who worked for 509, and he's learning how to mountain ride. He's learning how to set his ski on edge and do a side hill, just getting the fundamentals down. And I remember looking back, there was kind of like a hill that rolled over the top here. I remember glancing back, and I saw him lose his edge.

So he went from riding side hill, and he went to, like, neutral position. so both skis are on the ground. He's fighting the thing, so it's going downhill. And I crested over the edge, and I hear this shriek that is unhuman-like. Like a pack of wolves is the best way to describe it. Something that no human should make. And my heart sank because I feel like I knew what was happening.

There was no avalanche danger right there. There was no trees around. I saw where he was, and I had a feeling I knew exactly what was happening. So I turned around and I bombed up there, and he the sled had rolled upside down the throttle was stuck in the snow completely pinned wide open and when he rolled over the track had started spinning and sucked him in between the back of the snowmobile and the track and it was wide open on his leg like 8,000 r pms and so I bailed off and I just dig in for the kill switch to shut the thing off and smack the kill switch and it looked at it and at this point I couldn't even see him

because the belt blew. There was so much heat, the belt blew, and so the sled is building with smoke. My first thought is, like, fuck, he's on fire, and he's stuck in this thing. First thing I did was to open up the side panel before anything and make sure the sled's not on fire. And the belt's, like, liquid. It was so hot, just dripping goo and everything's steaming. And so it threw a handful of snow in there just to, you know, make sure while we're assessing this, he's not going to burst in the flames on top of everything that's happening.

And I look at him, and I'm like, are you okay? Like, can you move your toes? can you wiggle your knee, make sure he's got feeling and everything. He's like, yeah. But, I mean, he's in the sled completely. So when I got to him, like, this arm is out in his head, and the tunnel's, like, right here. He's fully in the snowmobile.

And I'm like, dude, I got to pull you out of here. We got to get you out of this. There's two more guys down at the bottom of the hill, but they're not mountain riders, so they couldn't get up to us. I'm like, I got to get you out, and then I'm going to run down and get those guys. So put my own.

arms under his armpits and just said dude this is going to fucking hurt but like you gotta get you out give him a pull and yank him out and that's when i saw his leg and it was bad it was i don't know how descriptive you want me to get but i'm looking at exposed bone at that point and realizing that this is really a bad situation like below his knee yeah so like the calf like half muscles like gone and I'm looking around the snow and realizing what's in the snow and it's pieces of leg and I'm like all right just take a deep breath take a deep breath I dig in my bag what I have with me at a first aid kitchen and wrap him up as best I can and bomb down to get one of the other guys I throw him on my sled ride him up to comfort him

and uh how do you want to get out of here like do you need a helicopter and we kind of assessed he's not bleeding out. He's good. He's not losing a lot of blood. So I kind of build a shelf so I don't have to sidehill him because I didn't want to bump him. I didn't want to lose it and then roll the sled riding with him double. Like that's the last thing I want to do is make this even worse for him. So we get him down to the trail and he's like, I'm going to ride out. You're going to what? He's pale, so pale, like just white. He's like, yeah, I just, there's no faster way to get out of here. Even if we want a helicopter, it couldn't have come in. It was so cloudy out. They wouldn't have been able to land. So that was on the back burner. How far out were you? Fourteen miles from the

truck, long, an uncomfortable distance. And I made the mistake that day of not having my sat phone on me. I always carry a GPS that I can call search and rescue on because we were just going to do a trail cruise, just something tame. So I bombed down to the parking lot where I knew there was service and called 911. So they got somebody there. By time I met the guy and I threw him on the sled, threw the EMT on my sled, and they were about halfway back at this point. They had put him on a snowmobile. There's three sleds in a row, like taking up the whole trail. He was in the middle, and they were just barely moving.

So if he passed out and went left or right, they could, like, block him in and make sure he wasn't going to. Oh, he was riding his snowmobile. He rode out. He rode out. So what was he doing with his leg? It was just wrapped up and not moving it. He was just sitting and looking straight ahead, concentrate on getting the hell out of there. So I come flying back with the EMT, and the guy's like, is everything good?

He assesses it. He goes, he's not losing much blood. If he's comfortable right now, let's just keep doing what we're doing. There's nothing I can do out here on the snowmobile trail as far as getting you back faster. Yeah. Get him back. Get him in the ambulance. Carries on.

I get an update that night. Like, how's he doing? I knew it was bad. I knew it was going to be a life altering handicap, but I didn't realize it was. was going to get as bad as kind of what came of it. And they go, yeah, he might, they might have to amputate it. I'm like, what? Why?

His whole leg or knee down? Knee down. Like, why? Well, they go, well, when you saw the bone exposed there, do you notice all the black marks on it? Yeah, he's like, that was the rubber of the track that essentially did a burnout. So that friction, he actually went through the main artery in his leg, and there was so much friction, it cauterized it on the spot.

otherwise he would have bled out and been gone right there no there there was that much friction right there sealed it up done deal so in a way that saved his life it did and there was like hardly any blood that was the thing i was noticing him like how was there no blood and it was pretty clean cauterized it right there on the spot holy shit but the concern was it got so hot that it might have killed the marrow in the bone six surgeries later he's walking you wouldn't even guess it Obviously, if he's got shorts on, it's got a gnarly scar and one hell of a story. Yeah. But he's riding his motorcycle.

He's riding snowmobiles. He's loving life. Wow. He doesn't have a handicapped parking spot. Like, he parks wherever. He can walk, you know, all day long. But moral of the story is always wear your tether. And I see it on social media all the time.

There's dangle in there. And it can happen to anybody. I never thought it would happen. But, dude, eye-opening, terrifying experience. having the right stuff in your pack, making sure you got a first aid kit, somebody that you trust that's going to stay calm and not panic. It was gnarly, but there was a lot of things that happened that day that worked out for him, and that's why he's here today.

Damn. I know, that was a heavy story. I'm really sorry if anybody's, like, down and out right now and terrified to go ride this winter, but it's preventable. I think that's preventable. It is, but it's just part of the game. Like, those are the things that you need to know. People don't talk about that.

People don't talk about it. gnarly people from minnesota don't talk about the danger of avalanches and how fast you can just fucking disappear yeah we've been riding mountains for like i don't know six years at this point and like just in the past couple winters have like really had some eye-opening you know conversations with people of like oh do you have this on you at all times is is are you guys doing beacon checks um are you guys charging your bags like there's so much that goes into it where you can just forget about it and then that's the day that it goes wrong yeah and you're just got to have that checklist and make sure you go through it every single day no matter how excited you are

if it's the deepest day ever it's so easy to overlook and just want to get in the snow but it's it's not worth it you guys want to talk about partying now yeah no that's that's heavy that's heavy um damn so yeah i mean to lighten the mood bro we've taken so many trips together at this point Keep this emotional roller coaster going. We have so many memorable trips. Like, easily at my most memorable trips are with you. And they're all filmed me because I watch so many videos. I'm like, ah, man, I wish I was there for that.

That looked like fun. We have a lot of fun when we're together. And they're all filmed and we create amazing content. And so many of the trips are like absolute banger videos. But it's what happens off camera that's almost more entertaining than what happens on. I mean, where do you want to start? I want to start with Revelstoke. Yeah, I was to say, let's go Revelstoke.

Let's just dive deep. Okay, so Revelstoke, British Columbia. It's like the snowmobiling capital of the world. It's absolutely incredible. And we just so happen to find out that it's quite possibly the best city ever to ever be inexistent. Mostly because of like the nightlife. And everyone's just stout. Everyone's just stoked and everyone's just hammered.

Everybody's just crossed. Everyone's so drunk. They warned us about it going, into it they were like no rebel stoke like we do a different there holy shit did we find out we do it different there and it's like everywhere you look you're seeing legit prosolombilers but they're exceeding our level of of what we're like oh yeah we could party i know ben's like oh no ben's introing this and my gears are turning and i'm like man there's a lot of different things that have happened there i mean we'll start we'll start this out we find out about

this drink it's called a shaft shot i got and it's uh it's basically coffee with alcohol in it but it's just straight espresso. No, no, so it comes in a... Here, let me give you the science on this. I've had a lot of them. So it comes in a glass about yay high. Probably about 8, 10 ounce glass. You got to take it as a shot, though, through a straw.

It's a shot of Bailey's, Kaluwa, vodka, and espresso. So it's three shots of alcohol, and then a shot of caffeine straight to the heart. Something is correct. Probably only have one of, you know? Yeah. No, you should take one. Definitely should.

Yeah, but we took, like, five. Yeah, you should. And then you guys ripered. Yeah, before you know it, it's 5 a.m. That's the thing about it. And you're wandering around Rebel Stoke. It goes from 10 o'clock, we rode all day. I'm tired, you know, and then you have like one shaft shot.

You're like, I'm feeling it. And then you have two, and you're like, let's watch the sunrise today. Then you, like, come back in and you're bowling, but with the weird little bowling balls at the bowling alley. Yeah, Canadian viewers, what the hell's up with that? You guys do not have regulation-sized bowling at all. But it's fun. It's fun. Yeah.

But it's just caught me off guard the first time. Okay, so this story isn't really about you, but it's about Revelstoke. And I've always, I just want, I just want people to know this story. And I'm sorry, but it's at the fun end of my. It is, but this all just depends on how you tell it. If Ben tells it and exaggerates and lies. No, no, no, no, no. It's going to be pretty damn embarrassing.

It's pretty hard to exaggerate that one because that all really happened. It really did happen. No, bro, we're at a, we end up at a punk rock concert. It's actually a ska band, if you know what that is. We're at a punk rock concert in Revelstoke. This guy's got Liberty Spikes on, and he's playing the trumpet on the stage. It was so lit. He had on, like, the clout goggles, and he was playing trumpet jumping from, like, table to table.

And Ryan's dad's there with us. Playing Pong. Play Pong with, like, 21-year-old girls. We were like, damn, Ryan. I think Randy's going to bring more chicks on. than you amazing it was a phenomenal night so next thing we know there's this dude there and he's and he's kind of just wandering around aimlessly and next thing we know him and mike hit it off see now you're already lying what we didn't hit it off yeah you guys definitely hit it off you

were talking for like 20 minutes speak real words to me how do you hit it off with you weren't either like you guys are just holding each other and just staring into each other's eyes. No. Yes. No. This is happening, yeah. This dude was holding Mike.

Well, I should say Mike was holding him actually. Yeah. Yeah. That did not happen. And this dude goes in for the kiss. And he definitely did not try to kiss me. Yes, he did. I'm just going to pull up the videos.

We can watch the video, but it's like, I lived it. I lived it. Would you like to go on the record saying he did not try to kiss you yes okay here it is we'll let the comments i'll put in oh this looks like they're hitting it off it looks bad that i'm getting defensive but it's like bro oh man there's a lot of videos oh yeah there's there's a ton oh no does this look like two people hitting it off they're chopping it up look at them chopping up right there laughing look at them chopping it up oh yeah i'm i chop it up with all you guys then yeah and we're hitting it off dude we're friends all right okay and ear

Oh, this is the guy playing guitar. Who knows what's going to be in this? I think he's standing on the boat. No, he's just in the... There he is. He was on the bar later that night. I miss that guy. There's also a video of Jake standing there

talking to a couple people and we were with our buddy Kyle and Kyle goes, hey, film this. And he goes up and he pants Jake in front of this entire group of people. But he grabbed it all. Boxers and all, everything. Yeah, he grabbed it all.

Somehow we didn't get kicked out. I thought it was the funniest thing, right? and I filmed it, and I thought there was, I thought there was no shaft. Yeah, and then you put it in my story. I wake up in the morning. Lots of responses. Yeah, definitely. And a weird amount of screenshots.

I definitely posted a video of Jake's dick on my story. Yeah. It took us a few hours to realize that actually happened. Okay. Oh, my gosh. That first frame. Oh, it's so good. It's off.

All right, maybe I did exaggerate. a little bit but if you hold up it goes in for it there's another one i have one of cross frame by frame to really get the full effect yeah there was all right so starts it starts out with just a good hug just a good bro hug and then and then right here that was here this is where i thought i was capturing gold it goes in for it might kind of like kind of pulls back there for the guy you can see his hands go Like, oh, what, bro? What? You don't want a kiss?

But didn't he ask you? I thought you said something like he brought the topic up. I don't think so. All I know is that he was on drugs. Yeah, we later found out that the guy was high on PCP or something like that. He looked at some dude's dick in the bathroom and ended up getting punched in the face. Yeah, it was a whole night. And then we ended up getting kicked out because the bouncer was like,

what are you guys doing? He was all cracked out. I remember that? No, that was the night I don't remember, to be honest. Yeah, David, you also got drug that night. Crazy. Revelstone, crazy.

The riding's pretty fun, too. I was like, it was deep as balls. And Ben and I were on snow bikes, and David hate snow bikes. I don't hate it. No, I doesn't hate it. I thoroughly dislike. I would choose a snowboard any day,

is what I would say. In that deep conditions, it did. It sucked ass. It was, like, so hard to move. Revelstoke is only at, like, what, 5,500 feet? Yeah, you ride at 5,000. So you have tons of power and tons of snow, and it's just like, you can't beat it. So, but combine that, drained riding all day, deep snow, and then you just hold all night after night there.

Somehow we kept going, except for that one day. Who ended up going? Was that? I did. I went and I got McDonald's for everybody. We had the best sunset. You and Trent were so hung over. You switched helmets the entire day.

Yeah. So we always make the noon crew joke, right? You go on at noon, noon. No, no, no, no. You hate us for it. No, because you stole it from me. And then you put it on a t-shirt, and I got zero royalties out of that. I don't know if I'd go that far.

So we went out at noon, which is fine in March because it's light out until 8 o'clock. But noon in December is like a three-hour window of light. And for some reason, we committed to going riding after heavily, heavily drinking the night before. And all day long, I ride, take a bunch of photos. We're like, it's a good photo op day. We get back, and like a week later, I'm going through the photos. and I realized that whole day I was so hung over, I wore Trent's helmet, and Trent wore my helmet.

And we didn't notice the whole day until I saw a photo. So that means we took the gear off, put it in the bags and everything, and it still didn't dawn on us. That's when you knew he had a good time, though. Yeah, that was great. That's just a drop in the bucket, though. Another party night that comes to mind. It wasn't on that trip, but it was when we were at Uncle Sains.

And we had that Airbnb rented. And it was a nice It was a nice house Yeah But it was a two-story Airbnb And it had this little stairway that went downstairs

That just so happened to be The perfect spot To pour beer out from the top From the top floor To the people below Laying on our backs I kind of want to backtrack a little And talk about Ryan's

Style of riding a snowmobile And kind of where the mindset is Wide open until something stopped You are the only person I know that can get countless GoPro clips of hitting the only tree on a hillside time and time again. You know you can not do that. It's quality content. Is it, let's be honest here, is it for the content? Or are you genuinely just that out of control?

I sometimes suck and then sometimes I'm good. Normally, if I turn a camera on or someone's filming me, I tend to suck a lot. And to be fair, we do film the difficult parts where it's like, hey, you might end up in this tree, so we should probably film this. Yeah, you look at a hill that we've torn up, like, ten times. Like, all right, go hit it. And I'm like, well, I got to do something cool for the camera. And then I fall.

He's just really good at executing on the you might part. Right. It's, you will for Ryan. Yeah. At first, we did, you know, the typical, oh, do you go to tree magnet in your sled? But then we're like, dude, do you actually have a tree magnet in your sled? Maybe this year I'll keep this snowmobile out of the trees. Last year was too far gone.

I had a turbo, didn't know how to ride it. That's still the insane part. I know we have talked about this on a lot. video but Ryan went from riding skadoos his entire life and and also was on a finger throttle like on his later years of the skidoo and then put a turbo on an axis with the thumb throttle that a snowmobile you've never ever ever ridden and then just threw you into the fire yeah it's no miles right you did all that zero miles yeah we put the turbo on revelstoke yeah nobody helped me but we do you concerned yeah I watched did it in like an hour and a half

you guys were hammered no trend was I think you're hammered no Trent was I think think we were yeah can you briefly explain i mean you guys have seen trent on the videos oh man um and trent's from michigan i'm not even sure how you know him just a piece of shit there god i hate he's out feeding america every day and then somehow he's roped himself into hanging out yeah he'll come with you on the trips and he will take phenomenal photos for you sometimes not phenomenal but and then just feed them all to you that's why i love actually taking or taking trips with you and trent so we get all of our like uh funny mess around content We get all our own videos too.

And then you and Trent get like cinematic, just beautiful, buttery shots. And then when we get to sit down and produce the Zonbill films or whatever videos, the best. It's like the best combination of shenanigans and cinematic shots. And I'm kind of bummed. I know we all got busiest here and dropped the ball, but we didn't do anything this summer. And I saw some comments about that. We need to do a moto trip again. That was a blast.

We definitely need one good sled video. but I don't know we got to think a little outside the box I don't know how we can amplify it from what we've done but there needs to be a little extra wow factor in there whether it's watching the sunrise in Revelstoke after 18 shaft shots if we really want to dive into that or Micah on a late night adventure we need something something in there was one night out

Snapchat video we just watched that would not consist of my late night adventures I had to leave homie down the road you know but One night in Revelstoke, like, I didn't even, I was just like, I'm having too much fun. You guys just leave. And you're like, this is your first night here. You've never, do you know what you're doing?

I'm like, nope, I'll find a way home. Dude, okay. Speaking of trips also, last time we went to Gold Creek, we got in a little bit of trouble. Oh, you want to talk about that? I mean, it's interesting. Yeah, it was a, like, honest mistake, though. It was a sign. I think it's bad to explain because, like, I weren't trying to be malicious in any way.

Yeah, I think we talk about just so people are aware, to be honest. Yeah, so we go to this place called Gold Creek, Idaho every year. It's a dirt biking place. Some of the best riding in the world's single track. We were riding down this trail looking at this massive mountain next to us, and we're like, hey, we should go up that. Just like we do snow wheel. For the record, there was tracks going up.

Exactly. Yeah, yeah. We were like, hey, let's go up that. That'd be a sick view. So we do that. And we film it. It was great content. phenomenal view we dropped the video a year goes by we get a call actually no we get an email

a pretty aggressive email and it was from uh national forest service saying that they were going to find us for riding off trail and not having a film permit yeah and to contact us now yeah otherwise we're going to jail yeah we were like david is this a thing well but it only started a few of you And then they somehow continuously, like, tracked all of us down. Yeah. It took a week or so, but then we all got the email. Because at first, we're like, nah, it's probably just a joke. They're probably, like, not that serious about it.

It's like, who's going to call? Are you going to call? Who's going to call back? Like, do you want to do it? I'm like, I don't want to do it. It's a weird feeling having to call, like, almost like calling yourself in. Oh, by the way, it's me, Micah. I'm ready for that ticket now.

So, long story short, we, you know, had a conversation with the National Forest Service about what we had what we did and we were like quite honestly i didn't even know that that was a rule so for those you guys watching right now it's a rule can't ride off trail i mean i knew right what was misleading was the amount of people that had ridden there and any of us can fall for that like it looked like it was a trail so many people had cut off there and the signage in the first place is non-existent so yeah we made a mistake and we ended up paying 280 dollars i did get a sweet office decoration. I started framing my tickets with this.

Oh, $230.30. If you want some artwork for your walls. But it was, keep in mind, it was $230 each to David, Ryan, me, Ben, Evan. There's like seven. Honest mistake. Honest mistake. That'll happen, though. That's the cost of doing business sometimes.

But when we went on our first goal, so Gold Creek is in Cordillane, Idaho. It's really the only intense single track that we've done, but so, and it is intense. And I remember we took Ryan and Ryan. It's not really much of a dirt biker, and you did great. Not a dirt biker. My first trip, I had literally never ridden a dirt bike for more than an hour. Yeah, other than around the driveway. And that was the first time that we met Evan.

I know he mentioned that a little bit, but so David texts us and goes, hey, you know, I'm originally from with Clow Kay, and I have this buddy that I went to high school with, and he loves dirt bike, and you guys know that. And we're like, sure, yeah, he can tag along with us, and he's a quiet kid before he knows you. And so we drive 20 hours out to Cordo Lane, and he probably says, like, 10 things the whole time. And we're like, yeah.

But he drinks 12 teas. Yeah, he drinks 12 teas and just gets ripped. And we, gosh, dude, little did we know that he's probably one of our best friends now, as are you. Little did we know that you, we thought you were just going to be our coordinate guy at 509. But now you're, like, legitimately one of my best friends. Likewise. But what are the odds that two guys from Cloquet, Minnesota, like, weasel into this? group somehow.

Very weird. And now it is where it is. Why do you think it went from like a corporate relationship of just us working together from a brand standpoint to us being homies? I think just so like-minded. Yeah. I mean, I know it that way with all the riders, almost all the riders. We're really good at what we've learned in all these trips at work and play.

Combining the two and knowing when to draw the line and then going back home and kicking ass, right? And there's not many people that do that. Either fall off one end or they're strictly dedicated to work and they have no social life or they have way too much of a social life and they have no job. And it's hard to balance those things. And you've got to have fun, but you also got to leave, you know, with mission accomplished. And then also we're all absolutely hilarious.

That's a huge bonus. We're pretty funny when we get to it like us and then you and Trent. I don't know if other people think we're that funny. No, we're the funniest guys we know for sure. But you want to kill us, like, 90% of the time that we're together. Just because of your time management, holy shit, man. Like, I think the last time I wrote with you in Wyoming this last year, you were like two hours late.

The first day was brutal. You were, like, you guys, I haven't been pissed. Yeah. I haven't been actually upset with you until right now. Like, if there's any time, I'm upset with you guys. I don't know what happened, like, the series of events for you to be that late. There wasn't much going on. It was just mundane things like, get in the truck, drive there, stop at the gas station.

But Ben was just slow motion. Things do take a while, though, for us, for everything we do. Ross Robinson's with us, and then Trent and myself, we're in the parking lot. I've been geared up for like an hour, fully geared up. And I got there 15 minutes late. And I called Ben. Like, what are you doing? Oh, we're coming, playboy, don't you worry?

That just gets me going. And that just like tease me off even more. He goes five minutes away. So then Ryan, years ago, don't undo this, shared his location with me, so I still have it. And I'm, like, watching them at this gas station, and he's like, be there five minutes, 20 minutes passes. You guys haven't gone anywhere. Then you finally get there, and I'm like, just get your gear on, let's go ride. The video comes out, and I see this, like, montage, you guys just dicking off of the gas station.

It's funny. It's funny. Meanwhile, I write in the parking lot, and you guys are literally, doing nothing we're being entertainers man we got to keep the people entertained i get that but i'm just like i want to ride and you guys are i don't know what you're doing that's that's the issue is we're entertainers first and snowmobiling second it's just part of the trips now i just i'm aware it's going to happen and you guys know but you still get so i know but you guys know that's going and then trent's always like the mediator of me going he's back and forth what's going on here

and he's like what do you mean what's going those are two fucking hours late Trent's already had his lunch in the parking lot Because you haven't left yet Yeah you know that's just part of it though And you've you've started to understand that I still get irritated but For sure yeah Just kind of comes to the territory

I think we've started getting to the point where It's just almost funnier I know you try you try you definitely Push my buttons As soon as we find out something that just irritates somebody A little bit we're just like this is it I'm gonna start enjoying it What if I like start enjoying it

Then when it's just the novelty wear off for you? No, we'll just get worse. We'll just get later and later. And then you'll pretty soon. Yeah, you'll pretty soon just go back. I just don't even show up. Yeah. That would probably teach us.

Damn, we've really, we've really flourished our relationship. Yeah, it's going a long way. What are you guys? 1.2-ish now? Yeah. And that was like blink of an eye. Every now and then I'll call you on like monumental moments. Like 500K.

Like, so stoke for you guys. 750. This is wild. Holy crap, you hooked it. Look at this. This is the only million plaque that we got so far. YouTube. It's not bad that we didn't get one from YouTube.

So he's like, well, you guys need something. It is sick, though. So this was probably cooler than a million plaque anyway. It means more. Yeah. How much time we cover? Do you want to hit on that goggle? That was cool.

We kind of overlooked that. Yeah. Like the only co-lab you guys have really done. A real. I also, let's speak on how you say collab. Colab. Yeah, yeah. I've adopted it a little bit, but Collab.

Collab, whatever. Collab. Yeah, that was our first real brand, like, co-lab. Should we say it real quick? Three, two, one. Collab. Oh, collab. We did that gogg last year over Black Friday?

Mm-hmm. Oh, no, no, no. Sebermont. Same week. Sorry. But then we were doing the same thing this year. We got another completely new goggle coming out, which is a dream come true. Yeah, and you got more of them this year because they sold out really fast.

We got much more. Still limited, but much more. Yeah. Same time frame, too, I think. I think we originally shoot for heydays, but the classic COVID excuse, trying to get everything here. So probably Black Friday timeframe. Yeah, we get some sick stuff coming down on the pipeline, hopefully a helmet maybe in the next year or two. We got to have that meeting.

Please, Uncle Tom. Yeah, that'd be sick. And we got, for those of you listening that are in the area or tri-state area, we will be at heydays again this year. They didn't have it last year because of COVID, and so we're, like, double-double-stoked for it. Everybody in the snowmobile industry will be there. So if you are into snowmobiling,

come meet us and everyone else. Even if you aren't. It's like worth scene. It's such a good event. If you just want to, like, eat yourself to death and drink beer. Yeah. We're bringing, like, a pile of people that have never been. So it'll be fun.

Yeah. It's going to be probably one for the record books, I think. I agree. You guys are going to be slammed. Yeah, we've got to figure that out because you can only take so many pictures You can only see so many people So we got to figure out a little bit more of a Saying that's my problem

I can't go anywhere now No, it's just got to be efficient So you can see everyone It is one of the toughest things About those events Like the people that come to it Like we want to literally If we could talk to everybody for an hour

We wish we could But it's so tough Like people wait in line You want to give them a good experience People keep coming up So if you come We really appreciate everybody that shows up Yeah I kind of want to chat about that

because I've never cared about the quote unquote fame side of it. 90% of people that run into me are stoked on what we've done for the brand or 509. And the satisfaction I get out of that is solidifying like somebody's passion for the sport. If they say, hey, you know, I saw this video you did and I went out and bought a new sled or, you know, my dad and I are riding way more now. Like that's what I want to hear. I don't care about. I mean, it's still cool.

Like, don't get me wrong. I don't want to care about like. Love what you do. I'm super stoked to see videos, but when I hear somebody's like, we're 100% committed to the sport now, you guys really, you know, sold us on it. And, you know, we were spending time with my buddies, been getting out taking trips, or you recommended this location or this gear set or whatever, and it changed their outlook on the sport. Like, that is so satisfying.

I know it's different for you guys. You got a little different style of fan base, but I love those interactions. And I always tell people, like, I'll get a message that say, I saw you, I just didn't want to say something. I'm like, dude, let's chat. I don't care if it's July. I'm at a gas station. I'll chat about snowmobiling, whatever it is. And it's just, you know, it's rewarding to hear that from people.

What's the one dude that came up to you the other day? Oh, gosh. At the grocery store? It's in Hermantown, Minnesota, of all places. I don't live in Minnesota anymore. I'm out in Spokane, Washington, and I was back for a wedding this weekend. And that's why I'm finally visiting you guys. And I stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few items.

And it's like, I'd say, say 55 to 60-year-old man, gray beard, bald, everything. I saw him kind of looking at me, and he finally says, he goes, hey, man, I recognize you. And my first thought is, like, maybe from when I grew up here, or you think you know my dad or something like that, he goes, yeah, like, 509 and, like, C-boy stuff. I'm like, really, this guy?

But he never references like he has kids. He just goes, huge fan. And his wife comes by, and he goes, I told you, honey. She's like, I was telling him, there's no way it's him. You can't go up and say that to that guy. Why would he be here? But that diversity in the crowd is just awesome. Like, never judge a book by its cover.

You don't know who's watching you. Everybody. I don't even think he had kids. I think he just genuinely liked what we were doing and was kind of living vicariously through it. We definitely get stoked in old people. You know, older dudes or whatever come say that they watch. We're like, yes.

Especially when they don't have kids. That's an interesting demographic. Africa, huh? I wonder what the percentages of that. I think a lot more people than you would think. As far as older and no children? Yeah. Really? I don't know about the no children aspect of it, but yeah, I mean, so many times people come up to us and that, hey, my son's such a big fan.

Well, I am, can I get a picture too? Right, right, right. It's like, yeah, man, of course. That's awesome. You wonder if he just, like, wants to rub it in his son's face a little bit or he, like, genuinely is that stoked? Oh, I found the video of the house and athletes. Oh, my. Oh, Mike, you got the...

That's a professional athlete, folks. God, dude, that's so fun. With my exact response, too. I was like, oh, no. Hyperventilating. That's why we put the Airbnb's in David's name after this. Go to the one. Go to the one where Mike is getting the haircut.

I wasn't getting a beard cut. Oh, beard cut. You do not look healthy. I don't look good, though. Why did we do this? Waking up and looking at you. I thought you were like some random guy that spent the night there. And then the next day, so they basically shave handlebar mustache or whatever into me and we're all so hung over.

Then the next day we go to Ken Blocks and tour the headquarters. And that was a regret. I have legitimate He's bleeding Never mind, not handlebars So yeah, this is David's first time In visiting us in Cormon ever I'm sorry

Visit you a million times That's okay though More to come We'd love to have you back We'd love to have you Evan and Trent back at the same time Oh that would be quite legendary Yeah I think we should do like a trail bomb Get together this winter

You know bar hop, little lake action I'm down for it I would say actually we're planning on having a ride out like we did last year and please, God, more snow than we had last year too. All right, bro. Thanks for coming on. We appreciate you. We love you.

Thanks for taking the chance on us early on. And look at us now. Likewise, boys. Best friends. Some of the best buddies I could ever ask for. So thank you for having me. Love it. Hope you guys enjoyed it.

Make sure you subscribe if you haven't already. And rate us five stars on Apple Podcast. We appreciate that too or subscribe on Spotify, if that's what you're listening to. But that being said, we'll see you guys next episode. Thanks, y'all. I don't know why I say it like that.