Megan Oldham & Birk Ruud, Freeski Innovators and Multiple X Games Champions – UNLEASHED Podcast E501

Enjoy a personal conversation with two leaders of freeskiing’s new school! Listen closely as we get the inside scoop from Megan Oldham and Birk Ruud during a special live episode of the sports and pop culture podcast UNLEASHED with The Dingo, Danny, and Brittney.

UNLEASHED broadcasts live from X Games Aspen 2025 with two of the most competitive freeski athletes on the circuit: Canada’s Megan Oldham returns to competition after missing the last edition of Aspen, looking to expand her impressive medal count of seven X Games medals. What does the reigning FIS World Champion have in store for the crowd in Colorado? Tune in to find out! Hailing from Oslo, Norway, Birk Ruud is a six-time X Games medalist and the reigning Olympic gold medalist in Men’s Ski Big Air. A self-proclaimed ‘action man,’ the thrill seeker likes to get his kicks on skateboard terrain and fearlessly leaps from bridges in Norwegian “Death Diving” competitions. Hear what makes the two innovative freeskiers tick and get their insights on the eve of Winter X Games 2025 – only on UNLEASHED!

Press the play button (and hit Like) on the new episode of UNLEASHED with The Dingo, Danny, and Brittney.

Make sure to subscribe and stay tuned for more UNLEASHED episodes. Regular editions of the show are recorded live inside Studio M at Monster Energy headquarters in Corona, California, and published bi-weekly. Also, follow @monsterenergy for updates.

Transcript

0:04

Now and we are back alive. Hey we are. It's Winter X games, as you can tell. And we're back at the bottom. Well, we're at the bottom. Bottom of the half pipe last year. We're at the bottom now. We're at the bottom. Bottom. And this even better view we get to see everything from here. This is one of the best views of X games. I think there's ever been Danny. And and we know because we're been coming here a long time. We've been to all of them. That's kind of crazy to think about. Yeah. What is this year 20 like? We got old coming to X games. But you guys have gone to 20 X games. Yeah. You just aged yourself so much. Yeah I was we're born here. I was sitting in the athlete lounge today by myself when I was looking around. I was like, fuck, I'm that guy. Yeah, I'm still here. You're legend. Like, they don't even recognize me yet. Guys, we have some legends on the show today. Brittany, how are you doing? I'm good. Thank you. You look great. Thank you. Just off the plane, I. Yeah, like straight off the plane. Right off the plane to the activation to the activation activations. Awesome. There's been all this know all not talk, but it's been freezing here. Like legitimately like stuff closing down. I believe they closed the high school down yesterday because it was so cold. Danny, how are you doing? I'm doing fabulous. And you're here coaching. I am here coaching. Yeah. The US snowboard team here in the half pipe this evening. We'll have a practice 630. It's going to be called. Well, you're coaching the US team. That's correct. Well, our two guests are, non-Americans and, a lot of hardware between these two. Burke Road and then, Mac and all of them. Thanks for joining the show, guys. Doing your, achievements here. It's like six X games, three gold, two silver, one bronze, one Olympic gold medal. And then your seven X games medals, three gold, two silver, one bronze. Reigning this world champion and won the X games. You did you did the first triple Cork. Yeah. That's crazy. That was last year right. That's crazy. Yeah that is crazy. And, you both just coming off. You just came off, locks, silver. Yeah. Was that the first major competition of the year? Yeah. This was like, I guess the second slopestyle, but the first big one for sure. How did you do? I won. You won? Jesus Christ. Oh, I got all my info there and then I just did. Anyway. You won. It's too much info, you know, for you, man. Thank you. So you guys are both coming off two podium runs. It's, it's it's got to be settling, easing into what I believe is the biggest competition of the year for sure. You think? For sure. The biggest contest of the year and the best contest of the year. Yeah. There's something there's something about just kind of the atmosphere here. The energy. The athletes. What? The athletes kind of bring that to the town. And, you know, it's it's kind of buzzing. You're both doing slopestyle and big air. Yes. And I'm doing street too, and you're doing, you know, a street two. No, you look like a street guy. Yeah. I, I'm not doing street. Maybe I'll do it. Next time. It seems cool. It's going to be hectic, though. Yeah. Busy schedule for sure. When is when when are you guys competing? Friday and Saturday. Because the schedule is earlier this year for everyone. We will drop the schedule in there. Event starts Thursday. Friday, Saturday. Nothing on Sunday. So everything's like a day earlier. That's why we're here on Wednesday. That makes sense. Right. Well we just got, we want to get to the action. Yeah. And speaking of the action you guys have got to preview the course and get a couple runs in practice days. Is it bigger than normal. I've heard a lot of people kind of like posting and showing these jumps. They're like pretty massive I would say. So yeah. Yeah. They're huge. I feel like every year you come back to games and like, you know, they're big and then you hit them again and you're just like, it's just different. You're like, these are big, big. I was smiling today after like first round of practice when I hit the jumps. It was unbelievable. It was so much time. Yeah. Like so much time. It felt amazing. I think it's my one of the best courses I have ever done, if not the best one. So you think bigger is better? I like bigger is better. Okay, well, it's kind of tricky right now too, right? Because there's so many big tricks going on, you know, in big air and jumps. And I've noticed like a lot of slope styles, maybe there's like one feature where you can kind of like Max out some of these bigger tricks that you're doing in this course. It seems like you kind of have quite the opportunity to do that 2 or 3 times. Yeah, for sure. All right. So you grew up in Ontario. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Small town sound. You're used to the cold weather. Yeah, definitely. Definitely had school canceled because of the cold for sure. So something here used to, you came up through the Sarah Burke scholarship. What was that? That was at age 17. Sarah Burke. Sarah Burke was obviously a monster athlete, a dear friend of ours. That's really cool that, you came through, that scholarship program. When was that? Yeah, I think I was maybe 16, like, around there. And I had just started skiing, freestyle. And they had this, competition that was going on with, and momentum ski camps, and I kind of got introduced through that and made a video part and got to go to camp because I won a free week and just got to celebrate Sarah's legacy and be part of the new generation of girls skiers. Yeah, those summer camps are cool, Super fun. And then Norway. We love Norway. We're big fans in Norway. That's good. Yeah, we've been there for, into the international, Norway Day. Well, May 17th independence. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Independence day. Yeah. And that's a big part of day. It was huge. We couldn't really keep up. And then they have that thing where, like, you guys all graduate high school, roll on the busses. Yeah. And then you, like, they pimp out these busses like double deckers with full sound systems. And they either just like red or blue, red or blue, or you could be black, I guess. But they party for a month, and it's even before they do the, graduation. Yeah. Before they even graduate, they party for a month and, like, it's like a free for all, pretty much. Yeah, yeah. And then also celebrate your independence at the same time. Yeah. That's what that's when it ends. Yeah. Yeah. So all the, they call it it is. That's like the name of the, the, the like the people. And they end on the 17th. So most of them are just like, they're like sick for a week or they're just like, they're partied out, but yeah. Yeah, their dad, we've got some footage here. We're going to drop in. I think it's begging you first. Of course it's not planned. I think this is your X-Games. Rob was last year or 2023. This was 2023. I was away last year. So where were you last year? I was injured, so I was mainly in the gym, just rehabbing and stuff. We're all good. We're all good to go now. Yeah, yeah. I had a little meniscus, surgery. And unfortunately, with the timing, I just missed most of the season. Has, has anyone done a triple cork since? No. And honestly, I'm starting to question why ever I ever did it. Because it's absolutely terrifying. Yeah. You've kind of reached that, that you've hit the boundary and you're like, shit, I've gone too far. Yeah, no, for sure. And then I'm trying to see if the footage should drop here of it's kind of glaring at me. I but I should be able to drop the footage of Burke right here. This is. I think this is the triple cork. Yeah, this is it. This is the one. Had you landed the triple cork before this never on snow. The one you see is the first one I've ever landed. Holy crap. Yeah. Wow. I think I needed, like, a little bit of the X-Games atmosphere to, like, get in the right headspace to be able to do it 100%. And you held the grab the whole way. Yeah. Wow. So, Stacy, you got the perfect fit for you, which is which is mind blowing. I was pretty surprised by that. I believe that's the first ever perfect score for maybe. Yeah, yeah. Wow, man. Yeah, there has been I think like sometimes. Yeah. Henrik has got, I think there's. But maybe I'm not sure if Matt got that one too. And there's been some I, I know there's been some. Do you ever get a perfect score? Did. I got a perfect score today? Actually, on a college test. That's the 100%. The only the 100 I've ever gotten. And I don't want to say I might have had a little help from online as well, but. But no, not in there. Come pretty close. A lot of 90s and stuff. But that's insane. I mean, you must like what? Really? But can you walk us through the process of building up for this triple cork, like pulling it out on snow? Yeah for sure. It was kind of like a crazy lead up. I just like in the summer I was on the air bag trying some tricks and kind of thought it'd be funny to try it. And so I tried it and it was sort of close. And my coaches, I were like, wow, like, maybe this is something that could happen and then kind of forgot about it. And then going back to this camp, I went to, I wrote in my journal, when we went to that camp, some of our like goals we wanted to achieve. And one of them I wrote was being the first woman to do a triple. I don't know why I wrote that at the time, but I did. And, I found the journal in the summer and was like, you know what? I feel like maybe I can make this happen this year. So then I kind of just put all my energy into that and started training lots. And then. Yeah, brought to X-Games. Wow. And when you say brought, it seems like you hadn't landed it on snow before this or you tried it. Yeah. And like, like full on. Yeah. And for the lead up, I kind of knew, like if I wanted to do a triple, I need a course that's going to have a big enough jump where it's safe to do. And I felt like X-Games was kind of the only place. And then on top of that, just like being the biggest event of the year made it so much more special. So. And do you feel like the kind of writer that you are, like you're willing to take those risks on the big day? Like, did you practice that at all before the actual like competition? Like even on this course on a practice run, did you practice anything close? I did a bunch of set, so I just did some dub tens on the jump before and tried to go as big as I possibly could, just see if there was time. And obviously I had done some of the triples on the airbag, but I hadn't done a single one on snow until you guys saw it. Wow. Yeah. In your head you're just like, fuck it. Honestly, I felt like I just like needed like sometimes when you're in the comp, you just like zone in and you don't hear anything and you have so much adrenaline and you're just like in that mindset of, I'm going to do this right now. I kind of just needed that extra boost of like, I'm invincible, you know? Because when you're in training, you're like, oh, I don't want to fall. Yeah, well, you are invincible. And it's hard to write because you're in training and you're really kind of just doing it for yourself or working or something. But there's something incredible about like that X-Games energy or that finals when people are stacked around the course where you're like, okay, now I'm doing this for like them, me, everything, and just like pulling the energy out of it. Did you ever, like, do something, pull a new trick at X-Games? I did pull some new tricks. I mean, different events, but it was definitely like where I would make a goal and be like, all right, like I'm going to do, you know, a 1080 this year. And then next year it was like, well, if I really want to do good, like it's kind of got to be like back to back to the 80s and like kept setting new goals for each one instead of like just expecting like, alright, I'm going to go back with a new grab and finish. What was the first back to back ten you did? Was the U.S. open? Yeah. Was it? Yeah, 2002. And then the first 1080 you did was at X games? No, no. US open a couple weeks later. It's crazy to think that back then that was that's the standard trick. Now that's crazy. And not even for I mean for me to get in there like, I mean, which is is insane, you know, and there's a lot of energy around women right now too, just watching the progression because it's just like it's so sick watching you all make history, like time and time again. Yeah. You slopestyle big air girls are it's it's you guys go for broke. Which is, which is really sick for preparing like are you do you in a different mindset. You're pretty you're in three events right. So is it a different mindset going into each three of of like all right I'm here now on this or on, you know, you just kind of the mindset going into slopestyle big air is the same or the mentality or it's a different format. Yeah. I feel like it's definitely different. Obviously like certain things transfer over, but I mean, big Air is a totally different format and you're focusing on like your biggest trick. So it's definitely like a little bit more nerves going into and you have to be really focused on one thing. Whereas slope, it's so much going on at once. You really like running your mind of like doing what you're doing in the moment, but thinking about what's next, you know, as you go through. And you won the big air at China. So that was the first, correct me if I'm wrong. Was that the first ski big air in Olympics? Yeah. Yeah okay. And that was a separate setup right. I feel like that had its own that had that had. Yeah. Like Grand Stadium style. Really. Yeah. Super cool with all the big weird power reactors like Simpson style in the back. Like an old, I think like, manufacturer for an iron or something. Yeah, but that looks like a really cool, like, like nice big wide landing where sometimes you go to the some of those big air, those scaffolding jumps and could be pretty scary. Yeah. This one is really good. You mean sketchy? Like, dude, we've been standing on some things that, like, were not approved by. Yeah. People like this is an approved. This is done and set up once they start setting up nets. Nets to catch you. Maybe if something goes wrong you're not really in a good venue. We did this event and, we did the Boost Mobile Pro in Chicago and, the, the scaffolding, the scaffolding up the top was like Jimmy rigged. And the thing was just, like, swaying, like 30 storeys up. And then they had to, like, bring in, like, street style drop in ramp to put on top of that just so you could get an offset. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So you'd, like, get up an extra three feet and just look over the whole railings at like 100ft off the ground, like, oh, I forgot we got some footage here of you. That is, it should be playing on this screen, but it's playing live on the, on the live feed. It looks like you're in Europe here. Yeah. Dubai, Austria. Is that you? Ski mostly. Where do you ski? Just you ski down south more. I, I feel like there's no I don't know where I ski the most within the air because it's everywhere. Like, I feel like for you guys, it's like, all right, contest. You're on the contest circuit and then you guys have your home mountains, but you're not really going back to you. You're not going back to your home mountain. No. Because, yeah, I mean, though I guess this could almost be the whole mountain. I mean, we're going to be here for three weeks, so, you know. Yeah. What's the event after this? I heard somebody say that. Yeah. World Cup, World Cup, Cup, two World Cups. And then, like, I hate to say it, but we're not done. I hate to say it, but you guys are downwind. It's Olympic qualifier time, right? This is a big year. Wow. This year and the next year how how does how does how does the Norway Nordic Norwegian team work like for qualifying. And then I'll ask the same for Canada. So there is four nations pots for everybody. And I think you have to have so four if there's four Norwegians within top 30, we will have four spots. And sometimes you maybe have more. So let's say it was five. That was like, or I don't know, us has been you're doing usually good. So if there's like six people, they can still only send the four, the four best. And it's up to the coaches and I guess like the nation to decide who is going some six, eight shots in your video. Thank you I like that. And then how does the Canadian team work? It's kind of similar. Basically I think there's 3 or 4 spots that are available and then, basically based on your podium results. So you want the lowest score possible. So first place is one point. And they take three results. So you want to have the lowest score. And you just compete against the other people from Canada. It's kind of cool, like the Olympics as I think, you know, it almost looks like you're watching X games. I think that they've done a really good job of, the way that they've, introduced these new sports, and the way that they've grown it and and even acknowledging it, I remember years ago, X games didn't want people talking about the Olympics. And now the Olympics talks about X games and the way they do. Is there any reference they have? And it's cool to it's it's cool to see that grow. And this next Olympics coming up in Italy, that was the last Olympics you were in. That was the last Olympics I was in in 2006. 2006 Beijing. I don't and it was so fun because you guys have got to compete in the last, you know, one. But it's been quite a few Olympics where like, the spectators have really been able to, like, get into these venues. So the energy you're going to see, there's going to be absolutely out of control, because I have fond memories of dropping in where I qualified at like 7:38 a.m. and no one was there, and then dropping in for finals with like a stacked house and everyone shouting me like, Holy shit, these people know me. This is pretty cool. So it's definitely going to be a really good one for sure. Looking up to, like, obviously you two grew up watching X games. Like, what does it mean now to be here and be on the front stage of, you know, the biggest stage in the world? It's so wild. I think, like, you just grow up seeing these athletes and, you know, wanting to be like them and then being here in this moment, it's like even after like 4 or 5 years, you it's you still don't really get used to. You're like, whoa, I'm really here. It's so sick. It's always very special. It's, usually for everybody here. I guess it's the childhood dream. You see it on YouTube. That's where you see all the crazy stuff go down. And then to be here now and have a spot and, to be able to, like, be one of those you we're looking up to, it's, it's very cool. And it used to be a place where and I guess obviously it still does, where you, you know, you drop a new trick. How hard is it to try and, you know, hide that now with social media and try and like, you know, if you're saving something to try and not put it out there, I feel like it's so much different than it used to be, like saving tricks or trying to hold back. I save the trick from. I remember I did a triple Cork 1800 in 2019, and then I saved it for X games here in 2020. And I didn't post it like I it just two years. So now it was summer 2019. Okay, so it was a hat, but it was over six I guess. I guess half a year. Yeah. And I so I only did it, I did it one time in Switzerland and I saved it. So. Yeah. To have that like X factor, and I guess it's hard. Maybe it gets harder now and you have, like, I don't know, you go to air bags, you'll meet the national teams on, like, these air bag camps and you'll see what they're up to. So it's like you'll have to I don't know, you got to be KG where you drop it. Really. Right. Yeah. Everybody's everybody's kind of smiling or everybody kind of knows what's going to happen, right? You can you can tell that there's always going to be an extra one 8360 or flip like, like if you see somebody who is like has the airtime or the power. Where does the bar stop? I feel like every year it's an extra spin or an extra rotation. You know in, in, in for motocross it's, you know, an extra ten feet in the air like, but I think that's not just skiing or snowboarding but like actually the extreme sports in a whole, like is there a bar where we're going to be like, all right it's time to like stop. Like there's, there's there's actually a level of, or if I dance is no. Right. Yeah. It's, I would say no, it is, because there's always way to progress. And, I mean, it depends on the jump. Obviously, if we had like, a small jump here, it would be hard to like there wouldn't be any necessarily new tricks here. So I guess it depends on the air time you have, like, the strength of it. Like, everything has changed. Like a lot of us, like, don't party as much anymore. Like, it's just stuff changes. So you get, like, kind of in the bubble, more serious. You work harder. Yeah. I feel like there was never a where people didn't even go to the gym. And then now this is something that you kind of have to do today. If you're not, you get left behind. Yeah. This is something that you're you're switched on, you know, basically all year round. Yeah. I see that you obviously skate, some good skate, good, good skate spots in Norway. There's a lot of good skates know. Right. I'm not too good of a skater, but I've been skating since I was, young, and I like it as a summer activity. It's a it's a great thing. We drove, like, all the way across Norway at one point. That's not hard. I think dropping all the way north and south a little bit farther in Norway. Okay. Yeah. You went and did the camp thing. I actually do, you know, Mads Johansson, snowboarder. Yeah, kind of old school, but he made some himself history there with, like, one of the biggest jumps ever. And, he was definitely, a looser Norwegian guy. And we kind of went there and, like, hit this spring, jump on him all. And we drove all the way to, full fall in the what's like the one summer for the fun. For the fun. Yeah. The glacier. Yeah. I think we got all the way there after like 14 hours in a car and it was closed and it was like opening a week later. Oh, so I didn't get to go there, but then it looked really fun. Yeah, well, I'm curious. I want to know when when you brought up the that, you know, back then, not many people would even go to the gym. So, like, what is your pre-training? Like to, to prepare for these competitions or like, how are you getting yourself ready. Are you working out two times a day? Diet. What is what what kind of gets you guys both prepared for this? It's a bit of a mix. I think the gym is definitely an important part now. Just like with the level of riding, it's like the tricks have gotten like you got to go to the bottom of the landing to land some of these bigger tricks the guys are doing. And like in order to do that, like you got to have a strong, strong leg, strong body, otherwise you're going to have problems and you're going to be out for like a year with knee injuries and that stuff. So I'd say like typically we try and be in the gym like 3 or 4 times a week. Yep. And then like obviously watching diet a bit, I don't think it's like crucial. But I think again, it's just like it's an added thing that you can do to put yourself a step ahead of everyone else. Yeah. Because you have that energy, you know, that clean food gives you clean. Yeah. Anything you could do like, I guess like sleep if you have a good sleep. Good. If you eat good, like, all of this, like, small thing. I feel like it's a lot in, like, these small things that you can do and, Yeah, it's, like you said, it's a lot of work out, but it feel like it doesn't necessarily feel like working like or not like a job. Some like, it's more like, I know, I like it like it's a part of my life. It's a lifestyle. So it's good. It feels good to feel good, you know, like. Or to be strong. Yeah. Talking about strong real quick. And you mentioned, working in skateboarding, but I don't know if you know this dingo, but he's actually a better snowboarder than both of us combined. Is he on jumps? Yeah, like, I think I've seen footage. He's got clips of doing what? Like double ten's, double 12. Triple double snowboard. Yeah. So was there a point when you were like, could have done both. I tried actually, yeah. You competed in one of the Europa Cups for the last year. I did actually get a second place in the Europa Cup. And I got to ski that. I saw a snowboard, a World Cup in France. I didn't make it to finals. How old are you? I'm 24. You could potentially go. You could, could you do could you go to the Olympics for both? You try the thing. My goal? Yeah. After I won in 2022, I won. I took some time off. I still skied, but I started to snowboard. And, I snowboard it, when I, when I could. And then after 2023, I decided I'm going to try to go pro snowboard. So I, so last year I went for like all in I did the all the Europa Cups that I could to try and get points to get into the national team and to, to actually make it to the Olympics and do both. But recently in, in China at the World Cup, I realized that was the first time I didn't make finals in skiing for five years or six years. I realized I'm not going to be able to be top and top at the same time. I have to choose. And then skiing just came more like back to me. So I'm very like energized. And I'm very like very I don't know, it's like I was kind of reborn as a skier, even though I love snowboard. I just had to. It's like a drug. I had to throw it away. Yeah, yeah. No, that's that's that's really crazy. Nobody, nobody else is even don't really know. I mean, I get that, I do it through 60. I can only do like a 270 on skis. It's pretty bad like Sean Palmer back in the day. Maybe like when they used to do ski cross. Yeah. It's like one really good ski cross. But I'm trying to think of another like skier snowboard. That be a cool story? But you're 100% right. Like it takes. You got to focus on what you got to focus on. And going to win another Olympic medal is is going to be. It's not. It's it's your duty to to go do it on skis you know. Yeah. And it I thought, I thought it would work because it worked for two years since I already had that skill level. But until now, like I, I need to put my everything into skiing if I want to be one of the best. And like, if I want it to be snowboard, I'll have to put the skiing away. What would you find? That your body was sore at different areas from skiing and snowboarding. My body change. I feel like I had to change, like, my flexibility a little bit. And there's definitely like, I thought it would be more similar than it actually is. I thought it would be more, more kind of easy, but I don't know, like to learn a cab double ten. It's like way different than, if you're on skis or snowboard. On snowboard. Yeah. Like then I don't know I. Right. Double ten on skis. Like it. There were so different going from side to side and forward to forward. They like different world. It's kind of a trip. Yeah. It's such a trip. I mean, to be like because the takeoffs are so different, right? When you're going like left to right and this way you're kind of come in more from your like side core, it definitely helps. But the and did you get to. Yeah. Bring anything like did it feel different kind of getting to come back into skiing. Actually I found it like the best was to start skiing so I could just like do it like pretty much anything I wanted and then put on the snowboard and like, I. And then it wasn't that scary because I had already been, let's say I hit the jumps or down the rails. So it's kind of that that kind of helped me a little bit. But, I know I like, I found it was so different that it like, didn't I wouldn't, like, land sideways on skis, you know. Yeah. You wouldn't forget what? You know, you wouldn't forget what you're doing in the air. Oh, it was like. Yeah. There were like, different worlds. Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, going backwards is way different, but it's kind of wild because that's where, like the level is really at in each one of the venues right now. Big air slope, you know, and half pipe, it's like you really have to stay so focused. Yeah. And it's kind of a bummer that the schedule's not more forgiving for people to be able to, like, do more at one time because it's all in different places. The big air and slopes are very split up there with the half pipe, so it's kind of hard to actually be able to do multiple sports at one time. It's not really built for it. I did that one in time in France. I did three like big air slopestyle on skiing and the Snowboard World Cup in slopestyle, and I was just like it affected all the skiing was, so I was just done. That's a heavy board bag. Yeah, like traveling with all my kids. Yeah. Wow. The ski bag and the snowboard bag. Yeah I put both in one. Did you. Yeah. Wow. Got the surfboard in there too. It's a lot colder than it looks. It looks like it's probably warm outside. It's actually one of the coldest X-Games I think we've ever had. Right? I mean, I feel like the temperature just dropped ten degrees in the last 15 minutes. Yeah. Once that sun goes, we are in trouble. Do you guys mind like, Do you, do you like it hotter or do you like a soft landing? Or do you like a, like a like like a nice hard landing. Soft landing? Yeah, that's kind of hard to find though, right? Yeah. You'll find it in March. March, maybe February. Could be. Yeah. I love that spring. Spring writing is one of the best. Wasn't China like really cold? In Olympics? Yeah. At slopes, all those, So minus, I guess, like zero Fahrenheit. It's like -25 Celsius, I guess I don't they don't explain that on the TV. Yeah, like tape, like cold tapes and. Yeah, that's a big thing there. Yeah. They wear these like football tape pads and it's so you don't get frostbite. Yeah. It's kind of cool. We don't do that. It's kind of cool. But it would be nice if it was warmer. Yeah. Would be nice. Megan I'm curious. So I mean, you're you're young. What got you into skiing in the first place? I mean, were your parents skiers? I mean, when how old were you when you started? Yeah. I grew up skiing with my family, like, when I was probably five, but we just go on family trips once a year, that sort of thing. And I was super into gymnastics and figure skating for a while and obviously learned a lot about awareness and just like how to flip and spin and that sort of thing. And my older brother started freestyle skiing just for fun with some friends, and he was the one who really pushed me into it. He just was like, big. I think you'd be so good at this. And obviously I was super and I was going to listen to you. I'm I'm not down. I like gymnastics or whatever. And eventually I went out with him and did a trial day with his team and instantly fell in love with it. Wow. Is that. Do they come with you on all of these competitions? Your brother? So my brother's actually also on the Canadian team, which is super sick. I have two brothers, so one's on the Canadian team with me and the other one is on, a provincial team. Okay, cool. Family affair and intelligent family. Yeah, yeah. What about you? I got into it. I actually did, one year of alpine with, like, two friends. Nothing like I didn't like it at all. I only wanted to. And that's kind of where I discovered free, like, free skiing. I would see a group of people doing backflips, and I was like, know, I just sound like so. And then over there and then I got my first pair of twin tips when I was eight. Oh, wow. And that's, that was the start. And then it was straight into freestyle. Straight into freestyle. When did you start competing? Nine, I guess. Like, I did some local competitions, and I, I, I like I was compared Ella is being competitive but it was more like just like it was cool to see the older guys do the big tricks and that's like kind of what I wanted to do. We had to jump on this like small jump and I just wanted to hit the big jump where the, the big boys were. And that was in Norway. That was in Norway? Yeah. What's the mountain there? There's like, I'm from, she recorded this like, I don't know, it's outside of Oslo, like the small. It's, it's small. It's like, 180m. I don't know, it's like, almost the size of the last landing of the jump, you know, that is. And that's buttermilk behind us. Where, they'll be competing, all weekend. Next game starts on Thursday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. This year, it'll be live on ESPN, ABC, and I want to get it right. I believe it's live on Roku the whole time. I could be wrong. Somebody should tell me if I'm wrong or right. But I'm pretty sure it's live on Roku the whole time. And then ESPN, ABC, check your local listings because it's early. That usual. So there'll be no competition on Sunday, which is usually a snow day. I feel like it usually snows here on the Sunday. So, so we might be, extending our trip. I mean, we get, we get, we get snowed in here. I feel like every year. That would be great because we have a World Cup starting next week, so you can stay for even more freestyle action. But one thing I want to bring up, and I think even for you too, it's not really, talked about enough, like how much dedication it takes for your family to put you guys into these sports, into, like, to drive you to practice and to, you know, it's it's expensive, but it's also just takes so much time. And you to Danny, like when you guys get into this, you really have that family to back you. I mean, my mom barely drove me to school, so I think that that's like another, like, really? What about you? Did your mom. You didn't. You guys moved to mammoth? His mom drove him to school. Yeah, yeah. No, you. I talked my mom into moving to mammoth in my senior year, which is pretty cool. From new Jersey. But then when I got there, dingos mom left him on my doorstep, and I had him. That's why we, you and I would get along. My mom would do the same. But no one of them are, like, the coolest aspects. Like, for me, growing up when we were really young, you know, in that kind of 12 to 16 was like all of the parents taking turns and just sending all the, you know, 5 or 6 of the kids with like one parent. Yeah. So it was like kind of like more everyone taking turns. And I think now it's a little bit more serious where, you know, parents can be really involved because they kind of were the biggest fans of it. Yeah. And now they have kids where our parents didn't know what they were doing. Yeah. You see like alpine dads or like kind of, you know like what I mean that when the parents are like following the kids at, like, when they're like 2 or 3, four years old, like, it's very, a lot more serious now, I guess, like, yeah. It's changed since, only since, like, I guess, like we've been young. Yeah. Because, like, it wasn't even Olympics. And I guess or maybe it was half pipe, but when I was eight I don't think there was, it was only a half pipe I guess. Yeah. I think in like I remember being like 16 and then like showing the Olympics on TV and I was like oh wow. Like this is really cool. But I grew up looking at like, you know, gymnastics and these tumble routines being like, that looks so fucking cool. I'm also like, I can barely do a backhand cartwheel thing. I don't think I'm going to get there, you know? So it's pretty cool that now that like, we get to watch it because I'm sure for you guys, like, you didn't see skiing in the Olympics and now you're like, oh, wait, it's a thing. It's a thing. You were watching figure skating, I'm sure. And yeah, I never expected that this would be my career. Like, I love sports. Thought maybe gymnastics, like, that'd be sick, but like, really just fell into freestyle skiing. And it's insane to, like, look back and be like. I never saw it coming. Did you go watch the figure skating at the Olympics? Never in person. But I do remember being pretty obsessed. And like, every year I'd be there with my mom and we'd be like, watching every gymnastics and figure skating competition at the Olympics. Now that you have this experience through skiing, is there any chance you could go back to figure skating and bring in the first double cork? Is it possible? No, that would be terrifying. I think you could just like there's done, like, double backflips on the ground. Yeah, I guess I guess you could do it. Maybe watch Knuckle Hawk and see what they're doing this week. You know, maybe that could be a thing to bring to figure skating, which should be pretty cool. Everything is possible. Anything's possible. I feel like the. Yeah, I feel like it could be a new sport. Then crossing it over. I'm just thinking, you know, you if you're doing triples action sports, figure skating, action sports figures. Bring it to X-Games. Let's go. Are we going to see quad. Is there is there a the games on ice could happen. Maybe here. You think it's going to happen this weekend could happen. There's one guy who could potentially do quad. Or maybe I don't know is it. You know it's not. It's him. It's him I wish I wish it was there. That's crazy. Like, so when you're sitting up at the top there, you're like, all right, I'm going to do drop it in. So it's it's gold. Gold. I'm just going through the course. It drops in. It's, it's usually it's the three rails or like three rare at rail. Yeah. And then it's, is there the hip there this year. No. It's like three jumps and then it's three, three, three rails. Three jumps. Yeah. And then at the top there you're like, all right, you know exactly what you're going to do a mid-range. You switch it up because of what's going on on the run. Like most of the run. And you know what you're doing. Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah. You've got your on set. Yeah usually. And then maybe you have like you'll step up a 360 or like so it doesn't like you'll step it up but it doesn't change. Like direction. They feel like going switch on last jump. You'll probably go switch on the last jump. Anyway. Yeah. But sometimes I feel like it's one of those sports where, like, you mess up on something like maybe one bullet forward and you end up going switch. You kind of have just, like, improvising the moment. Be like, okay, I'm hitting this next jump switch. And I feel like that happens a lot more risky is too on jibs. I feel like you guys get so it can get so tangled up and you're like, oh shit, it's easy to be like, all right, I'm just going to come up backwards. You're like, all right, I'm going backwards now though. And if you spin around, the judges judge you less. If you revert River, you're on. Yeah, yeah. And hands. God, do you guys both use poles on a pole off for like, just, half a meter? Are they done? Poles are no poles. Poles? Poles. You have to know. Yeah. You do? Yeah. I think it's kind of not it it's it it it looks not cool when they don't wear it. They don't use poles. It looks weird. I feel like okay I guess. Yeah, but it depends. It's like, I don't know, like knuckle hook. You'll be knuckle hock, I get it. Yeah. What's your guys's opinion on knuckle Hawk? Think it's cool? Is it? Get it played out or is it, is it still like. I feel like it was. We had this conversation at dinner last night. It was. It started as a joke. It was literally a joke that now has turned into a serious comment. And it's cool. I like to watch knuckle look. There's some good cool tricks. Like I actually looked at, Knuckle Hawk from, I think it was 2023. And you see stuff that like even now it's like, oh, that was pretty crazy. Like, yeah, new stuff, new stuff. It's all got a new stuff. And this is kind of the talk of the town. But and not that they're using I judging, but they are using and trying it out. So there's going to be for the first ever time. But I'd like to hear your kind of opinion on two for from what you know, you've been going through, or what they had where they're not actually using it, but they're testing it. Yeah. What are your opinions on testing and, judging, and I believe that they're done it in other sports. Do I believe they did it in boxing? And I believe they did it in baseball. But baseball doesn't have judges. Exciting. I would say exciting. I mean, it depends on the data you give the eye judge or you know, but really exciting. I mean, I don't know, it's like it could maybe be more predict, like it could see your airtime, like your amplitude, how long you hold it, like so like so sharp. You know, like that it's not going to miss stuff that humans miss. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty interesting, right? Like, does it create its own formula for like, subtractions. And obviously it's going to be able to count the spin rotation. I know they're kind of like more focused I think on pipe with it this year. Yeah. Because it's like an easy super pipe because it's only real. Like, you know, they can just stay focused on one. I mean, I would like these fake judges starting to fake, but I judges to have a face like I'd like to give them an image like baseline. Like I don't want to just think my computer is now judging this event. Like I want there to be like, you know, like mystery science, Cedar, you know, 2000 or whatever with these little robots. Just like. But I think one cool thing too, just to finish is like that. It takes away that, you know, subjective ness because we all have like, favorite styles. And that's an interesting part where like, that's the coolest part about know how stylish, you know, that switch backside trick is compared to just like another 910 80 could be challenging to say. What's progressive? You know, like in our sport now in snowboard too, there's like a lot of pretzels. And like I would say that would be new data to, an I judge like. And how would that how would it judge that kind of, direction of, progression and style? And I don't know, it's so it's like, it's a tough one, but it's going to be interesting to see. I'm excited. Yeah. The future is, coming at us pretty quick. Do you think we'll be competing in kids robots and I hope not mean, what what country was. It was, it was camel racing, and they banned, jockeys, and they put robots on the camels. Do you ever see that? What? No, they banned like they used to put jockeys on camels for camel racing, and they got banned. So they ended up putting. They put these little robots on top of the on top of the camel now. Okay. Well, what about the other news? I saw that there's going to be sports gambling. This is kind of been going on all season. Have you guys seen this where it's like, start to bet on. Yeah. Riders on World Cups on, riders build your own team and back. Yeah. Cool. That's a yeah. Well, the AI thing is they're just testing it. I didn't I thought it was for skiing as well. So it's just for snowball snowboard. Snowball fight. Just you know what hop. But which hop up makes the most sense? I think, the gambling thing. Yeah. The gambling thing is kind of crazy, like, are you going to put some money down? I don't know. I yet does that. Yeah, I mean, I could you should. Is that inside? It's not a trade. I mean, that's where it gets weird, right? Because, like, we could finish this podcast, find out what they're really going to do on the big air and be like, you know, that is insider trading. That's insider. That's insider. Yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah, yeah. All right. So it's the big steps. Your nickname is busy. Yeah, the busy man. And you starting a new company? Yeah. What's the launching? February 10th. And it may be actually before, when I'm hot. Maybe I'll launch when I get home. Or maybe before. So while I'm here. May be sick. Yeah. And it's all. It's skate, snowboard, outerwear. Yeah. And then just casual wear. Casual wear as well. Yeah, I like that. A lot of fun. We used to, we used to make some cool shit. Grenade. So much cool shit. It's going grenade back. The greatest thing ever. Just like shipping stuff around the world and kind of like seeing it on the mountain and use. Right. And I think he showed off some of these cords. Can we get a look at the. Yeah, yeah. Stand up. Give us a give us a show, man. Let's. You were working with your sample corduroys. Okay. I've dreamed of having a pair of corduroy pants and a puffer jacket. So I want to have that for next fall so I can, you know, cords are fire, man. You're going to get a little like, you know, when you're a kid and running towards like, yeah, yeah, I want to I want to hear that Mike on the rail. See what you see, what you're working with. Do they get wet and heavy? Cool. Yeah. I think they would suck up the water on the outside. Would they have, like, like a kind of like a plastic like. Right. So they're actually, like, pretty windproof. And if it rained, it's like I don't it's not the best, but it's, it wouldn't be too bad. I think it's the best style if it's raining. I don't think you want to be out in the snow anymore. And you know, it's for doing triple cork seven 20s on the hill. It's not for trying to climb Everest and go. What other projects are you guys excited for this year? What's going on? Trying to do a little bit more film stuff, which is sick. Obviously just released my project Counting to Three, which is about the triple, and we showed we showed that earlier. Yeah, yeah. So just trying to kind of build off that momentum and like find some time throughout the season to collect some footage and try and put out some content on YouTube and just for people to kind of see more behind the scenes of the ski world and everything that we do. Do you go up to Alaska? No, but honestly, that's definitely something I want to do is like try to balance and get into the backcountry side and learn a little bit more of that realm of skiing. I think it'd be so sick. Yeah, it's kind of just the evolution of the process you guys go through, right? You get to that point when you've achieved so much and the next thing is to take it to the backcountry, which is which is really cool because you could kind of do that forever. I, I feel like you can't do triple corks, you know, you don't get you know what I mean? It's one of those you can't you can't do forever. And I feel like you guys get younger and younger. I don't know the age of of what it is, but I think my McMorris now is, is, is 31. Yeah. And that's all for his division. Yeah. And and and still and still he's gonna eat gold for another Olympics. Yeah. But that's because the level is so high. It's not like, you know, you could be 16 and all of a sudden you have every 14, 16 right in your bag, you know, like, it takes a, a long time to learn and like, you know, step up to these tricks that these guys are doing. So you're seeing a lot more veterans like sticking around has. Speaking of, has he done a quad bike a yes, yes he did it. I think he did it in like next game. So I think you're right. And maybe he even did it in Olympics. I'm not sure. But I think he definitely did it here. He spins over like and then goes yeah 2022. That's wild. 2120, 21 2160. That's it. When he did it he did back. Oh I was thinking of the rotation. Oh back breaking backward 18. Back quad 18 I'm pretty sure. So I don't have when are the when is what is women's big air tomorrow night. It's on Friday night. Friday night? Yeah. What's tomorrow night? Tomorrow night. I think it's just more training for us. And knuckle style ski knuckle. Okay. Yeah. And then where do you guys. Slopestyle. Friday. Friday. Bigger Saturday, bigger Saturday. We are in Winter X games. It's it looks sunny out, but it is actually freezing outside. That's why they call it skiing. I believe they, can't snowboard, cancel flights coming in here. They canceled school for the first time. Megan's used to it. She's from Ontario. So they cancel school all the time up there for being cold. We wonder how cold it is. Didn't go out cold. I had a friend who sent me some bottles of wine, and my girlfriend stayed home to get them because we missed the first delivery. And then she shows me the video today and they froze and the corks popped out of the bottle, and it was a three bottles of this Napa wine, but completely empty. That's Colorado for you right now. Sam. Who, who are the young kids? Who's coming up? Who should we look out for here? Yeah. Luca, I feel like that's a big one. Yeah. Luca, the rookie, but not rookie. He came off to World Cup wins and bigger. Yep. And he has an alternate spot for slopestyle. But he's in the bigger. He was one of those I would think he could do a quad. He is like this crazy pop and very quick rotation that I'm jealous of. I want to learn that. And he's a monster Army kid, I believe. Yeah. And there's another set of, siblings. Miro and Flora. They're Italian skiers, and they really popped into the scene like the last two years. And I think it's their first X-Games school. Yeah, but they are two. That will be. But I haven't to them. Have you seen them? Not yet, but I think they're on their way. Maybe I'll show up and boom. Yeah. All right. Where are you? Danny. But I kind of wanted down. Do you want to hit off with some of the lightning round questions? Yeah. For sure. We got a couple questions on here. One thing real quick. How. Poppy do you want the jump for big air? Pretty poppy. Yeah. Pop enough to do triples and, or like to to give that juice. Also to you death diving or free skiing. What? Sketchier, say free skiing. I mean, that's diving. Sketchy. The higher you go. And do you, like, try and land on your belly, but you, like, break it a little bit with your hands. I would break it like, And that helps with my fist. Yeah. Just a little fist over, like, almost like I'm diving. Yeah, but then tuck in like a shrimp. Okay. If you could to describe your style in three words. Smooth, flowy. Creative. Trying to be creative. It sounds pretty badass to me. Best place freestyling brought you or favorite place or. Depends if it's competition or shred. I mean, like, this is, almost a free ski Mecca, you know? And, so this place is great. Australia's good. Yeah. Like Switzerland. The one we were at last week was so beautiful. Yeah. Sick. Course. That's such a red mountain, It's kind of like, reminds me, like this mammoth of Europe where it's so centered around the park. And just like, that's the lifestyle, you know? Okay. One at a time. Just cause I really want to get a true answer. Do aliens exist in Canada? Why not? Do they exist in Norway? In the US? They do. Yeah, I knew it, I knew it. All right. Any other questions from the chat? We got? Not really much in the chat. I think we've covered everything there. All your lightning round questions. I mean, he really went off script on that one. I got to be real best, praise snack or drink? Can never go wrong with, like, a good crepe pancake. Great. Oh. So they there's a really good, great place here I want I it's across from the hotel. Yeah, yeah. Pretty far. I gotta hit that up. I don't know, some, I don't know, candy, chips, whatever. Anything. Sugar. There you go. This is a good one. Verdict the best half price snack or drink? Well, it depends what time of the day it is. It's midday. It's after breakfast. Hot toddy? Yeah. Hot toddy. Wait. I have one question that I love to. Do you guys listen to music while you ride? Do you guys listen to music while you ride? Sometimes. But not in competition. Not in competition, I quit. You quit? Why? Why? Because the music can get you to, like a in a nice vibe. Because the music can get you to, like a in a nice vibe. Oh, get. Get you to the, like, in the right mood, but it takes. You're not going to. You're not gonna hear the song while you're skiing anyway. And doing the tricks. Right. If you do, then you're not focused. So it just, like, distracts you kind of distracted me. Yeah. It's kind of like a drug. You do? Yeah. Because if you don't have it in that, it's hard to ride without. Yeah, but you don't want to have addictions, right. Well, to music you could. I think that's safe. What kind of music do you listen to? So when I'm practicing, I listen to pretty much anything trying to get like, hyped up. But I do, like, get Burke's point with the competition stuff. So I listen to, like the exact same song every time, and it's very like mellow, more like yoga styles. Yeah, song. And it kind of honestly for me, just like distracts me a bit from the fear of everything. Yeah. Like the nerves. Yeah. So but he's true that like, once you drop in, you don't hear anything. Yeah. It's just I've got it. Wow. What did you used to listen to that? Cheese. I mean, I had some favorites for sure. The game hater love it. With 50 cent, that was one. I took an Olympic run, too, and I pumped it up really loud. But that was back in the day of headphones and no helmet. So I had like literally these on with goggles. So I heard it all the way down. Did you during competition. Oh yeah. Did you have helmet? No, I did, I think in the second one, maybe the first one, I don't know. Now, the helmet, we were only flipping once, you know. You never know. Helmets in the first 22. You didn't have it in 2006, I had helmets. Okay. That was the first helmets. Okay. Cuz in 2002 is when hockey salsa had the mohawk. Oh yeah, that's right. So no, no helmets then? 2000. Yeah, I think six is the first time because you looked weird. First time wearing a helmet just cuz you never won one. Well, there's that thing. That's another question. Goggles under over the helmet. Is that under. Okay, I'm so back and forth. I switch every day over some fear. But under you feel secure. See? Because I like over just because it made the helmet stick to my head. Otherwise I can have like a little bounce in. But it's like personal. If it for look it could be nice if you're backcountry, maybe on the outside or whatever. Like I didn't even realize you could put them under your helmet. How stupid do I feel? Well, you're wearing tomorrow, you guys, and you see me looking real cool. I am wearing my motorcycle. Brittany has the helmet that comes with the goggles. Yeah, yeah. She's like saying, how do I get the straps? And I did one. I did one cloud nine excursion. And ever since that I wore my helmet. Okay. Cloud nine messed me up for a while. Guys, the sun is setting and it looks beautiful. How big that landing is. How how many feet would we say that landing is? I like I heard that's like 100ft than the last knuckle. Like from the jump to knuckle was like 65ft, 65 to the knuckle. And after the knuckle to the flat, like if you're sending it to the bottom half a pasta knuckle, you're going, you're going like another like 40, 50ft last nine. There is probably maybe another 65ft. I don't know. It looks because it last year you could land pretty low on that. Yeah. You now kind of have to go big like when they get the lines. Right now there's only like kind of three of them. But you're kind of like shooting to land past that third one or on that third line that we see. That's still pretty low. Yeah. Three around there. Three in past have had some speed issues. There's no speed issues this year. It's fine. Yeah. Just the wind today came in the wind. There's never been like this. That's a. Oh yeah. Hopefully that goes away. Yeah. And it's blowing sideways. That's not not good. Not good for you guys. All right. Well we kind of with kind of winding down we have what are we, who do we have coming up next. We have Dusty Hendrickson and in hog it's whoa. Look at those guys. Those guys are going to be jumping in the helm. I have that's you know, I'm stoked that you, you know, I hope that you hope that triple comes out again. We'll have to see. I don't know, I might have some different stuff this year. So some new stuff, some good stuff. We're not going to ask what it is because we're not going to do that because we never get the answer. We don't know what. I wanted to give us the hint. No. No one ever take time for water year or what? Are you going to break out because they're doing crazy shit now, dingo. They're doing like pretzel stuff, but not on rails. It's wild in the air. They're spinning and then spinning backwards. So. So again, can you pretzel. Women's ski slopestyle is Friday. Big airs Friday. Saturday is Saturdays. And then how's the qualifying? Is it just all finals or. There's two rounds. It's two rounds. Kind of like a playoff. So the first batch of people and then whoever does well moves on to the second round. One quick thing actually, before I let you guys go, I heard there was, some there's a judging change or a criteria format change for big air. One trick, apparently one trick, and then three jumps, and then the four top guys will qualify to, like, another round where the scores get reset and two more jumps better count. Oh, same trick again, I guess. Or the best trick. That's interesting. Yeah, there's. Yeah. So it's kind of like a, like a, like a round robin of you can if you. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. You just got it. That should be the other one to wrap my head around that. How does that work? I just miss the old days where, like, big air was best trick winner takes all, and that's in, like, the. It's kind of. Yeah. Now it's just like, best trick and you have to do it I guess two times or like up it again. So was cool. There's going to be one big trick that's really cool where it used to be 30 minute jam session. Best trick wins. I think it's two directions before two direction. Yeah, show like two different ways of spinning. Interesting. Which could be a bummer because if you fall on two and then all of a sudden like your third jump you could make history and still not win. Wow. And then men's is so slopestyle Friday. Yep. Big air Saturday and then big air Saturday. And then you're doing the Rail Jam two. Yeah. That's also on Friday right before big air. That's a busy day for you Megan. It is. Yeah. Hopefully you get some good sleep tonight. Does anybody I slept weird last night. I always sleep weird for the first time when I'm in the mountains. And I remember to drink lots of water and other stuff. All right, guys, well, we appreciate your time. Good luck this weekend. I'm sure we'll be seeing you guys on top of the podium. Now.