All language subtitles for Dear Rider 2021

- The following is
a presentation of HBO Sports.

♪ ♪

- Surfing on snow,

in the back of my mind,

I always knew
it could be a sport.

I mean, I saw a sport,
but I did not see Shaun White

on the cover
of "Rolling Stone" twice

or snowboarding being
in the Olympics.

But it's been exceeded...

I wouldn't even say dreams,

'cause I never dreamt anything

on the level that we're on now.

♪ ♪

- Live from beautiful
Vail, Colorado.

The bluebirds are singing.
Not a cloud in the sky.

Here we are in the fullness
of progression,

celebrating the legacy

of the one and only Jake Burton.

The crowd, they are deep,
linin' up both sides

of this modified superpipe
at the Burton U.S. Open.

- And what better way
than with all that

magic Jake Burton spirit
in the air right now.

- And quite honestly, I can't
think of a better rider

to kick off
than this guy right here,

Danny Davis,
starting things off.

- Whoo.
- Yeah, here we go.

- Chopping block today, baby!

- These riders will not be
holding back.

Well, here we go.

♪ ♪

- Danny Davis sets the tone.
- Whoo!

- Feel that energy.

- Ridiculous.
- Whoo!

- It is game time.

- Rah!

- Unbelievable.

- Just feeding off each other.

All: Oh!

- Look at how big he sends it.

- That was huge, dude.

- Full send all day.

Whoo-hoo!

- Oh, my God, dude.

- And if that looked big on TV,

try standing on the banner line.

Oh!

♪ ♪

- Ah!

♪ ♪

- Jake interview take one, mark.

- With us live
from Stowe, Vermont,

is the man who did
for snowboarding

what Bill Gates did
for computing.

- The man who some say
started the sport itself

is Jake Burton Carpenter.

- Jake is really that badass
grandpa of snowboarding.

- When you think
about snowboarding,

the first person
that you think about

in terms of the history is Jake.

The godfather.

- The sport itself can be
traced back to Jake Burton,

an iconoclast who,
starting in the late '70s,

taught the world
how to surf on snow.

- When I started Burton,
I had no idea

that the sport would
get this big.

I saw it as, like, a back hill
alternative to skiing.

- Jake had the vision.

- People followed his lead.

- What's important, you know,
being around this industry

is really having a passion
for it.

- Oh, he was, like,
Mr. Laid Back, cool.

Underneath, man, he is driven.

- He will compete, he will put
a goal, he will achieve it

and put another goal,
he will achieve it.

- If you ever challenge him
to something,

that's when the real Jake
came out.

- I tell any company that wants
to compete against us,

they better have that going
for 'em or...

Or you're gonna be
in a world of hurt.

- He was so cutthroat.

- He had the eye of the tiger
in him.

- And he was always
kind of talkin' shit.

- The most unassuming person
you could meet.

- A lot like a father figure
with no filter.

- He's created an Olympic sport,

a wildly popular lifestyle,
and a global industry,

all because of a toy
he played with as a boy.

- I was born in 1954

in New York, right in Manhattan.

And I grew up on Long Island,
pretty close to the ocean.

My earliest positive memories
were definitely about snow.

Not having to go to school.

Sledding.

The sledding hill was
such a great vibe,

like your skate park now
or something.

My family was middle class.

My two sisters and my brother
were all

sort of overachievers.

I was just sort of a wiseass.

- Jake inherited traits
of both of our parents...

Our mother's sense of humor
and of mischief.

She was really a soul mate
of Jake's.

Dad, he was very disciplined,
determined in his way.

And he said what was
really, really important

was to have passion.

That belief really blossomed
within Jake.

- When I was seven,
these friends of ours had

a house in Vermont,
and so we'd go up there

and my dad learned
how to ski in his 40s.

I just loved it immediately.

- I can remember
being in a chairlift and...

And looking down
and just seeing this, like,

broad smile on Jake's face
and the parka wide open

flying behind him and just,
you know, going straight down,

and you could tell
he just loved it.

- I really got into skiing.
I was like...

In my town, I mean,
this is Long Island, but I was,

you know, like, maybe
the best skier in the town

and I really was also
sort of wannabe surfer.

My parents never got me
a surfboard.

I'll never forgive 'em for that.

One year, they were going
to get my Christmas present

out in the back,
and I was like, "Oh, my God",

they're gonna bring in
a surfboard."

But it was a new desk.

I was like,
"Fuck, are you kidding me?"

So when the Snurfer came out,

I just fell in love
with it immediately,

'cause I could read snow
so well from skiing

and I wanted to surf so badly.

- Jake said, "Here, let me...
I wanna show you this... "

You know,
this present I just got."

And he just instinctively
made it work.

- ♪ Strange face,
with your eyes ♪

♪ So pale and sincere ♪

- The Snurfer for me was magic.

That meant an opportunity
to surf on snow.

- ♪ You have nothing to fear ♪

♪ ♪

♪ For the dreams that came
to you ♪

♪ When you were young ♪

- The minute I started
doing it, I just felt like,

"God, this is the sport."

- ♪ Spring has sprung ♪

- It was a 4 foot long
piece of wood

that was about 6
or 7 inches wide.

Brunswick made them.

They sold 800,000
or something like that.

But it developed
this sort of cult,

in a positive sense of the word.

From the very beginning,
I was passionate about it,

but I don't think
I was thinking about it

as an opportunity

until the age of maybe 16 on.

It was percolating
in the back of my mind.

- ♪ You sail to the sky ♪

♪ On the crest of a wave ♪

♪ ♪

- I went to college

and I started a job
my senior year

for a company that sold

little companies
to big companies.

I needed something else.
It just wasn't rewarding.

I'd had the idea
in the back of my head

of making snurfing a sport,

and I couldn't believe
that it hadn't happened.

- Jake was a nonconformist.

He didn't feel
there was a prescribed way

you had to follow,
as long as you had a plan.

- I figured if I could make
50 snowboards a day,

I could make 100 grand a year.

The whole thing started

as this sort of
get-rich-quick scheme.

So I started the company in '77,

making my first prototypes
in New York City.

And then I said,
"I gotta move to Vermont."

- You don't get
to the first snowboards

if you didn't already have skis,

which had edges,
which had P-Tex,

surfboards, which had fins,

and then there were skateboards,

which were
horizontally laminated.

Those were the chromosomes
that formed the DNA

of those very first snowboards.

- I made pretty much
exactly 100 prototypes.

I tried furniture construction,

boat construction,

and then I tried
surfboard construction.

But those boards were
very fragile.

And then I started working
with skateboard construction.

Pretty light, pretty flexible,

and it worked.

♪ ♪

I drove down to Montpelier,
Vermont, and incorporated,

did all the paperwork
and everything.

It was a big moment for me.

You see, here's the...
How the board looks.

Here's the silk screen
right here.

Now, this is how the board
looks when it leaves here,

before they put the matte on.

But it's all urethane.

And it's got a serial number.

Silk screen on the bottom too.

I hired two relatives
and a friend,

and we were making
50 snowboards a day.

The problem is,
in the first year,

all I could sell was 350.

I went from myself
plus three full-time employees

to basically myself.

The toughest part of it was
just the loneliness of it.

I didn't have any sort
of camaraderie or people

that were snowboarding with me
or anything like that.

And as a kid growing up,

I was very lonely
for a long time.

- Jake was 12 years old

when our brother, George,
was killed in Vietnam.

And then Jake was only 17
when mummy died.

He was really feeling
kind of lost and alone

when that happened.

- I just became
incredibly independent.

And I think that I attribute
a lot of my success

to that independence
that I developed

through that experience
of losing people

very close to me.

I'm not a great salesman,

but I would load up
the station wagon,

go out and try to sell 'em
to retailers door-to-door,

and do demos and...

One time, I remember,
I went out with 38 snowboards

and I came home with 40,

'cause one dealer had said,
"I don't want this crap."

And I was going down
to New York,

I was teaching tennis
and bartending.

Friends and stuff would just
laugh at me, and it was like,

"You know what?
I'm gonna prove them wrong."

Gonna prove to them
there was a sport here,

and that was all I... I didn't
care about the money anymore.

And once I just focused
on the sport

and putting everything...

All of my energy and my love
and my time and my money

into making it a sport,

that's when everything
sort of started to work.

Because there were these
pockets around the country.

There were these places
where people had snurfed,

and they got it.

We would advertise
in the skateboard magazines

and a little bit
in the ski magazines.

We would send out
these brochures.

We would send them out

with a little mail order form
in it.

And then you'd open up an
envelope and it would be like,

four snowboards for a family
in Connecticut.

Then the Japanese came along,

and they ordered 100 snowboards,

and I was like, "Wh-wh-wh-what?"

The next year, I had
one kid working part-time.

We're packing up the boxes like,

"Hey, that's our 700th board."

It was like, wow,
if you double numbers,

you remember how quick
they get so big.

That was the moment it was like,

this is going
in the right direction.

- Action.
- All right.

I'm Jake Burton Carpenter
of Burton Snowboards

from Londonderry, Vermont.

- Here's this guy,
he's goin' door to door,

ski area to ski area,
evangelizing this opportunity

for people to enjoy
the winter sports world.

- It's a good sport, and hope
everybody around the country

gets into it.

- And in an era
before the Internet,

the Burton catalogue itself
was the biggest touchpoint

to snowboarding that people had.

Jake would write the intro
to the catalogue every year

and that intro was Jake's
opportunity to evangelize

his vision of snowboarding
to the community.

He was on a mission

with snowboarding as his bible.

- ♪ Ooga-chaka, ooga, ooga ♪

♪ Ooga-chaka, ooga, ooga ♪

- ♪ When you hold me
in your arms so tight ♪

♪ You let me know
everything's all right ♪

♪ I-I-I'm ♪

♪ Hooked on a feeling ♪

- Dear rider, snowsurfing is
wintertime's finest high.

The experience of riding down
a steep hill with fresh powder

can only be compared to surfing

a hollow 6-foot tube.

If there is as much
as 3 inches of snow,

you can ride
from your own backyard

to the Rocky Mountains.

But the finest riding is found
on that deserted back hill

where there is nothing
to interfere with you,

only your friends, your board,
and plenty of virgin powder.

- ♪ I'll just stay a victim ♪

- Jake.

- ♪ If I can for sure ♪

♪ ♪

- It was New Year's Eve, 1982.

I saw him coming out
of the bathroom.

And he had a smile

that lit up the room.

And he said his name was Jake
and he made snowboards.

And I was like,
"Oh, that's cute."

We went out to dinner,
but he was working a lot

and he seemed kind of tired.

Right before dinner ended, I go,

"Well, show me this thing."

And he kind of woke up,
you know?

He was like, "Oh, okay.
I'll show it to you."

I went to my house and I got
a pair of high top sneakers.

I fell
and the board went flying,

but it was fun.

I was living in New York City.

I was going to Barnard College.

I was the least likely
to get married.

I was the least likely
to have kids.

You know,
I was a little tribeless.

He would show up
at my apartment in New York,

and I knew he had been working,

like, 12 hours a day,

and he would fall asleep
on the couch.

My friends said to me,
"Are you out of your mind?

This guy?"

But he had this spark.

We adored each other.

Ah!

- I love you.
- I love you.

But it was difficult having
a long-distance relationship,

me being in New York and...
And him being in Vermont.

We had, like,
these weepy two days

where we're both crying

and, you know, "Oh, my God,
I can't believe it's over."

And I just remember going back
to my room at school and...

And, like, not being able
to move,

and he called me and he said,
"We can't do this.

We can't break up, right?"

And I said,
"Yeah, you're right."

He said, "Well,
let's get married then."

♪ ♪

- ♪ Once I had a love,
it was divine ♪

- Get the ball!

Donna's lookin'
just as beautiful as ever.

- Whoops.
- I'm totally naked!

- I'm not shooting below your...

I'm not shootin' low.

Ooh.

- ♪ In between ♪

♪ What I find is pleasing ♪

♪ And I'm feeling fine ♪

You don't really want one,
do you?

- I'm going shreddin'.
- Yeah?

- I'm the shred queen.

- Teaching her
how to ride was tough,

but she's so passionate
that you can't stop her.

She didn't pick snowboarding.
Snowboarding picked her.

- Jake and I,
we created our own community

around snowboarding.

We created our own family,

and that's how it always felt

from the beginning.

- Jake was a fictional character

before I met him.

Jake was like God.

- It's safe to say
I was shittin' myself

when I met him the first time.

- I don't know if intimidated
is the right word,

but I've always really
respected him and admired him

that I was a little bit, like,
shy when I was in his presence.

- I met Jake in 1982
when I went to apply for a job

at his new factory
in Manchester, Vermont.

- And it wasn't,
you know, like...

like it is now where people
look at Jake Burton

and put him on this pedestal
and think he's this,

you know, super god.

He was just a guy
that was making these boards.

♪ ♪

- I first saw a snowboard
before I even knew Jake.

I took to it straight away.

He was the best guy on the hill
for a while there.

We just watched what he did.

- Jake had a small barn
in his backyard.

We converted it
into a small woodworking shop.

- There's a process,
before we put the fins on

and the bindings called dipping.

You have to dip the boards
in polyurethane to seal 'em.

It was a little toxic.

The ventilation system we had
wasn't that tech.

It was a respirator
that was connected to a hole

that we had drilled in the wall,

so we were basically
breathing in fresh air.

But in hindsight,
some of that urethane

was probably comin' out...
Up and around, so...

you could get a headache.

- They would blow marijuana
through the hole,

and we'd come out, like,

completely stoned,
and we couldn't get out.

You know, you can't stop.

- We were hiking these little
hills around the factory.

Jake is like a goat,
really into hiking,

and we weren't necessarily.

The rest of us, we kind of
grew up on ski areas.

- This one resort, Bromley,
you could drive up

to this village
that was quarter of the way

up the mountain.

If there were four of us,
one guy would stay in the car,

the other three would
snowboard down the hill,

and then we'd meet
at the bottom and do it again

and again, and then ultimately,

Sno-Cat drivers would
give us rides.

- I used to pack
boxes of brownies

and thermoses of hot chocolate
for the Cat drivers,

and they would drive us
all night long.

- Suicide Six
in Woodstock, Vermont,

that was the first national
snowboarding championships.

They would take a picnic bench
and bury it in the snow,

so you had
the two legs sticking out

so you could push yourself
out of the gate.

- It was a pretty crude contest,

but after that,
Burton picked it up,

and we've run the event
ever since.

There was slalom.

And there was downhill.

- Go! Go, go, go!

♪ ♪

- Snowboards didn't
turn back then.

Nobody knew how to stop.

Doug Bouton went
63 miles an hour

wearing basketball shoes.

You were so happy just
to survive the whole thing.

You didn't even care
if you won or not.

But then it became

an important way to show people

what you could do
on a snowboard.

♪ ♪

- It was Jake
inheriting that event

that gave him the people

to help evangelize the sport
for him

in a way that was tactile.

Seeing is believing
for ski area operators.

- And then Stratton signed up
to do the event.

- Go.

Then we named the event

U.S. Open
Snowboarding Championships.

- Jake said, "Hey, we're gonna
do things on a higher level."

He brought a professionalism
to that side of it.

- How is it snowboarding
in your home land?

- We are now in Japan 45,000,
I don't know, 50,000.

- How about in Australia?

- Australia, we have,
uh, no one.

- People could just post up
right at the finish line

or at the hairiest turn
or whatever

and watch the show.

Andy Coghlan beating Peter Bauer

by a 100th of a second.

I mean, it was tight.

- Yahoo!

How?

- Women were always a big part
of the community,

right from the beginning.

The women compete
on the same courses.

And I remember saying to Jake,

"What do we do about
prize money for the women?"

And he's like, "Well",

why wouldn't we just
pay them the same?"

- Let's hear it for Jenny Ha.

Andy Coghlan.

- You figured out
that getting ski resorts

involved was gonna be something,

and I think Stratton was
the first one.

- Yeah, Stratton does
a terrific job

of hosting the event,

but the riding
in the resort thing

was a difficult process.

And so I met up
with Paul Johnston and he said,

"Nobody wants you on the hill."

He said, "But nobody had
a good reason not to let you"

on the hill, so we're gonna
give you a shot next year."

And there were
a lot of conditions.

We had to certify people,
you know, 'cause he said

if we screwed it up,
we were out of there.

Snowboarding was perceived
as the antithesis of skiing.

We had to fight for our right
to get on the hill.

- When you're learning
how to snowboard at first,

we refer to the turns
as a heel turn and a toe turn.

The heel turn is when

you're putting the pressure
on your heel...

- People used to have to go
through a mandatory lesson,

and we had
these laminate passes,

and then they'd wear 'em
around their neck.

- It had to be done.

We had to be the assholes
for a minute there.

- We ran it for a full year
that way,

and the program was
very successful.

This year, we've decided

to expand it
to the full mountain.

- Once we got Stratton,
we leveraged that

into getting onto other resorts,

but it was very challenging.

- The resorts are run
by conservative

ski industry guys,
and for them to see young guys

come in, they wouldn't
always show the respect.

- Quite a lot of them
are uncooperative.

- They're just like a missile.

- Some of them have had
a little bit to drink.

- And most of them
have no brakes on 'em.

- If you ask them very nicely
to leave,

that they're endangering
the public, they swear at you,

they tell you to get lost,
mind your own business.

- One time
at, like, a trade show,

we had this little slideshow
of snowboarding

and these two guys walked by
and they were looking at it.

And then right as I'm about
to talk to the guy,

he says to his buddy, he goes,
"What a waste of good powder."

I was like...

- Jake had had a gentleman
working for him

called Paul Alden.

- Stratton at this point
is probably more interested...

- His number one job was
to go to the resorts

and get them
to allow snowboarding.

Paul Alden opened up
most of the resorts in the U.S.

- But these resorts,

they weren't built
for snowboarding.

They were built for skiing,
and we started adapting

the ski technology, and we went
through the whole process

of learning how a ski is made.

- Jake made appointments
to visit ski manufacturers,

and they all said,
"You're out of your mind."

He had one last trip set up
to Keil-Ski

outside of Salzburg, Austria.

And it was a huge snowstorm.

- I got there
in the middle of the night,

and they greeted me, and they
had a lot of automation

and just a really cool place.

Talked to them about making
something that's molded

and has steel edges in it
and P-Tex base

and a wood core,

and he was like,
"Yeah, no problem."

- So he said, "How about
if we live in the Alps?"

I'm all in.

♪ ♪

- I didn't go over there
to make boards for Europe.

I went over to make boards
and ship them to the U.S.,

and then I started
getting these inquiries

from these people
that want boards in Europe.

- He said,
"Hey, you should run Europe."

The next thing I knew,
I was setting up an office.

I mean, it was almost like
it just propelled itself.

Like, there was demand.

We didn't know
what the hell we were doing,

so we asked people, "Hey,
how do you do business here?"

- I met Jake in 1985.

My first impression was,
"The guy is crazy.

What is he doing here?"

He said, "You know what?

"I would like to start
European operation.

Maybe you're gonna help me."

Few weeks later,
he sent a letter, and we met,

and we sat together, and then
we started writing down

how to set up the operation
in Austria.

After two hours, he said,
"Now we have a deal."

I said, "What do you mean
we have a deal?"

"Yeah, we have a deal.

We're gonna start
Burton Europe."

- This is my...
My friend, Hermann Kapferer.

I'm so happy
that I could meet Hermann

and lose so much money together.

- We are so happy.

- It is really
a special opportunity.

- Our goal is to lose money.
That's it.

- Dear rider...

here at Burton,
we take our fun seriously.

And we made snowboarding
what it is today...

Winter's hottest sport.

The number of mountains
offering snowboarding

in North America has tripled
to over 250.

It's only a matter of time

before the remaining areas
catch up...

And snowboarders will be welcome

on any mountain they choose.

♪ ♪

Freestyle riders are no longer
confined to the pipe.

The entire mountain
and everything on it

has become one big playground.

Our secret?

Full-on commitment,

full-on intensity,

Full-on...

evolution.

♪ ♪

Jake.

- Now, Jake isn't alone
in the '80s.

There were a lot of people
trying to make something

way better than the Snurfer.

People like Dimitrije Milovich
in Utah,

Chuck Barfoot in California,

and then you had Tom Sims.

- Tom and Jake, they just
had it out for one another

or maybe... maybe something
happened we don't know about.

- Whatever animosity there was
between Tom and Jake,

I do believe it started

at an action sports retailer
trade show

where Tom was
hawkin' skateboards

and Jake had the Backhill.

Tom walked by and saw
what Jake was doin',

and sure enough,
12 months later,

at the next trade show

there were those plastic
first Sims boards.

Jake earnestly believed
that Tom stole his idea.

- Let's get back to basics.

- Snowboarding really evolved
and grew

between the West Coast
and East Coast.

- The West Coast was definitely
more freestyle.

It was complete opposites.

- We were definitely
just so much more driven

by having fun.

I would say those guys were
having fun on the East Coast,

it just didn't look fun to us.

- We were coming out
of a ski racing tradition.

We thought that's where
the sport was going.

- Here in California,
skateboarding was

what was happening.

Snowboarding was
the next evolution.

We had this ditch
it would take hours to dig out

and make into a halfpipe.

Tom Sims showed up
with some photographers.

Why are we gonna let
this guy ride it?

He just seemed like a guy
from Southern California

that was trying to capitalize
on something

that might be a new fad.

- I'm Tom Sims and I invented
ski-boarding 18 years ago

in 1963.

- Sims saying
he invented the sport,

you know, that was just crazy,
and Jake was like,

"There is no inventor
of the sport."

- This is a snowboard
that was made in the 1920s.

You might find a lot of people
out there that claim to have

invented the sport, but this is
a sport that evolved over time.

- Come on, Jake!

- Come on, Jake!
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

- Tom and Jake had
completely different ways

of going about doing things.

- Whoo!
- Come on, Jake!

- Jake grew up in the ski world,

a little more East Coast.

Tom came from that skateboard,
West Coast surf.

- The rivalry
between Jake and Tom

really played out
like a game of chess.

The kings and the queens,
let's say, are the contests.

Jake had the U.S. Open,

so Tom started the Sims Worlds.

- At the Worlds, Tom would
just make turns down the hill

and then have the guys go
set gates on his turns.

And that was the course.

- He's rippin'.

- Fins were
coming off the board.

We saw high backs.

We went right back to Jake

and told him
all these new ideas.

- Then rooks, bishops, pawns,
knights are the team rider.

- The Burton team showed up,
they all had speed suits on

and they're like, "Ah!"

I mean, they were trained
and padded up.

But it was daunting for them
to come out to the West Coast

and have to compete in a pipe,

'cause they never got to do it.

- Jake's team didn't do great.

The blind spot of Jake

with freestyle snowboarding
was obvious

when Sims introduced
the Terry Kidwell Roundtail.

♪ ♪

Terry Kidwell was

the number one
freestyle rider for Sims.

"And he's like, "Listen,
Tom, I want a round tail.

"I want a tip
on the tail of my board

'cause I wanna ride backwards,
I wanna land backwards."

- Yeah!

"- "Terry, we're gonna give you

the Kidwell
signature model board."

It was the first snowboard
that you could ride backwards

pretty much as good
as you could ride forwards.

Very disruptive product
in the marketplace.

- Tom Sims as a designer,

Jake had tremendous respect.

He was like, "That guy knows"

how to design
a great snowboard."

- But meanwhile,
you had this archetype

of the modern pro snowboarder
named Craig Kelly.

- Oh!
- Good style.

- Craig Kelly rode with Sims,
and he clearly had style.

And he was riding everything.

He was riding Alpine
and freestyle.

And Craig won
the overall World Championship

several times.

- And Craig Kelly, who was
winning the most contests,

felt underappreciated
in that whole paradigm

of the Sims team.

- Craig and I had always had

a relationship through the years

and we talked about,
if he ever got an opportunity

and was looking for a sponsor,
give us a shout.

- Craig was
an engineering student.

He knew how to strategize.

He knew how to achieve
the best end result.

Tom's sittin' there saying,

"Well, I don't have
the deep pockets of Jake.

"In order for me
to succeed at this,

"I need to bring on a partner
who has more capital,

"has more resources.

I need to license the name."

Vision took over the Sims team.

- Vision Streetwear was
much more of a skateboard

and an apparel company,
and they were not

as interested in the sport
of snowboarding.

And then Craig decided
to make a move.

- Craig, he actually
approached me and said,

"Hey, do you think
Jake and you would be open

to taking me on
as a team rider?"

And I said, "Oh, my God."

Like"...

You know, act real cool.

One of the things Craig said
to Jake directly was,

"I'm gonna ride for you,
but you gotta listen to me."

- Craig was an engineer,
but I wasn't into feedback.

I gotta make these decisions.
I gotta decide

on the graphics for this board
or the shape for that board.

And then when we started
making the first board

with Craig, he knew so much more

about the sport than I did.

I had to listen.

- I was poorly treated
for a while.

And once I tried to escape

the environment
of poor treatment,

the people that were
treating me poorly said,

"We don't want you to leave."

- Sims sued Craig.

The judge just figured
that Craig was just

some kid snowboarder
and ruled against him.

"The judge said, "You can
make product with Craig Kelly,

but you can't put his name
on it."

So we made a board
called the Mystery Air,

which we sold in a box.

- I can't say
what kind of board it is,

where it's made,

or... or who I'd even like
to ride for.

I'd just like to be able to do
all those things right now.

- And then we appealed
the whole thing,

and they immediately
reversed the decisions.

We started pumpin' out
Craig's boards.

♪ ♪

He taught me how to listen
to riders

and how to get their feedback
and incorporate it

into the product.

And now, that's our soul.

I've been listening ever since.

- In first place,
riding for Burton Snowboards,

Craig Kelly.

- And thanks to Jake, because
this contest wouldn't be here

if it wasn't for him.

And thanks again to Sims

for giving me the motivation
to try harder this year.

And thanks to the Ninth
District Court of Appeals

for making it all
worth my while.

- There was two sides to Jake,
it seemed like.

You know, he loved to party,
loved to travel.

You know, he was
just one of the guys,

but he was very competitive
and driven.

You know, he just wouldn't stop.

- He would go dark sometimes
and get super frustrated.

And that frustration was built
out of that competitiveness.

- So competitive, would never
take no as an answer.

That was the drive
that made him who he was.

- Sorry, you guys.
I mean, I get too, uh...

This stuff is so important
to me,

and I get obnoxious and loud
and opinionated and...

- You do, man.

- Once snowboarding started
to hit critical mass,

all of a sudden
this guy, Bob Weber,

popped up on the space

selling the patent
to the snowboard

to the highest bidder.

Bob Weber had the foresight

to patent a snowboard
at some point.

Jake had the most to lose,
had that patent emerged

into more nefarious hands.

- So I had to buy it.

But part of the appeal was
this was an opportunity

to fuck Sims.

- Get a letter
from the Burton Corporation

that, you know, "You're gonna
have to pay us money"

because we own the patent
for snowboarding."

It threw a whole, like, panic

into a lot of small companies.

They were just struggling
to get by, struggling to grow.

- It's a good,
savvy business move,

but Jake was not prepared
for the backlash.

- The industry rebelled
against it.

- Right away, I said,
"We'll give all the money

that we get under royalty
to charity."

And then that still
wasn't enough.

So then I just said,
"You know what?

I'm just gonna bury this thing."

And I never looked at it again.

- Jake had to be like,
"All right, screw it."

But Burton never got that
target taken off their back.

- Biggest PR fuckup of my life.

- Whatever came of that rivalry,

at the end of the day, Jake said

Burton was a better company

because Tom was
a great competitor.

- So, shots, what do you guys
think of this house?

Has it been...
- We love this house.

- Has it been great?
- It's been great.

Right, Ruff?

And we had
this really simple house.

I remember it wasn't insulated.

He would bring the mattress
down to the living room

in the winter,
next to the wood stove.

We were scrappy.

- Okay, let's go look
at the new house

and the status
that it's in right now.

- Ruff says goodbye.

- Now we're driving
down the road.

Here we are.
You got the little barn,

the garage on the left side.

Here's the house.

- Really nice to have
those many years together

before we started a family.

- Is it gonna be a big step up
like that?

It looks kind of awkward.

- You take a left. I take right.

We go into the kitchen.

This is the kitchen.

- Okay.
- Okay.

- To be honest, there's one
reason we bought this house.

Ultratron dish, commonly known
as the Vermont state flower.

With this apparatus,
you can watch football games

in the East Coast, then...
Or basketball games...

- The '90s was, I'd say,
about finding

some people that we could trust.

- I started out working
in this shop

that sold Burton products.

And after the Mystery Air,

I heard Burton was
gonna hire sales reps,

and they never had reps before.

I just had this feeling that
I wanted to be a part of it.

When I first started,
Jake was super intimidating.

At sales meetings,
he'd always say,

"Don't fuck it up."

And you'd just be like,
"All right, I got this."

The '90s were the boom years.

The trade shows were crazy.

We had ski on one hall

and then snowboard in the other.

And the ski side people are
wearing ties

and it was really quiet
and calm and civil.

And then you went
to the snowboard side, dude,

and it was like
a three-ring circus.

- It was like a boom town.

Snowboarding had
600, 700 companies.

- There was a...
A line called Crap Snowboards.

- And all of a sudden,
skiing was stale

and snowboarding was taking off.

- That's when
the ski companies started

making snowboards,
so the same people

that were giving us shit,
all of a sudden they're going,

"We make
the best snowboard ever."

- Salomon, the biggest player
in skiing, was like,

"We're gonna buy our way
into snowboarding."

People who didn't want
anything to do with us

ten years earlier
wanted to squeeze us

for everything
that they could get.

- Everyone was pro partying,
going apeshit.

- I drank a lot
of Jack Daniel's last night,

about seven beers today,
and I'm gonna win it.

- Get off me!

- We sort of went
from being a nuisance

to a bona fide threat.

- Give me your camera, punk.

- Well, snowboarding's gonna
keep growing,

and probably the scariest
word associated with it

is maturity.

- We started to have kids
in the '90s.

- First day of walking.

We're not sure
if he's gonna do it.

He's ready to go.

This is it, man.
The kid is walkin'.

- From the moment
they could walk,

they were part of the gang.

- The deceased was found
in this position.

Christmas gift overdose.

Closest next of kin was
at the scene.

- Our family was getting bigger

and the company was
growing, growing, growing.

- I'm Monique and I work
in hard goods.

I babysit all the guys in there.

The girls take care
of themselves.

- Planning on sticking around
for quite some time.

- The company was trying
to mature,

but it was a wild party.

You worked hard
and you play hard,

and Jake was just
kind of this mystery

that would walk
through the office.

- Those kids,
I learned so much from them.

And watching them go
through these stages

is so much fun to be around.

Yeah, I'm starting
to think a lot lately

about what snowboarding means
to me, and, you know,

having kids now,
I got three boys

and it's... it's really

like a kid to me in that
it's gonna keep growing,

and that's reality.

And we're having to figure out
how to deal with that

without losing the personality
of the sport

or the individuality
of the riders.

- Right around then is when

we had our first big journalist.

And we wined and dined her,
and we're like,

"We're gonna get
some great press,"

and she just totally
slammed our culture.

Ah!

- "These are
a bunch of derelicts."

- Whoo!

- "This sport is going nowhere."

- Dear rider, the best thing
about snowboarding

is that all of us decided
independently

to get involved in it.

It's not a sport your parents
or some coach shoved

down your throat.

♪ ♪

This is a common bond...

That unites us all.

♪ ♪

Jake.

- You wanted Pennywise,
you got it.

- Snowboarding is different.

You feel free.
You feel also cool.

Actually, it's a...
It's a funny word to say,

but you feel cool.

- What I love
about snowboarding is,

you can do your own thing
and you can wear what you want

and ride how you want,
and it's such a personal style.

- To do what I feel like doin'

without anyone telling me
how to do it is...

Just makes snowboarding
kind of an extension

of your personality.

- Snowboarding to me is freedom.

It's just, like, an artform.

♪ ♪

- When you hold a snowboard
in your hand

and then ultimately
mount it up and ride it,

what you're holding is an object

that's got a spirit in it.

♪ ♪

The top, the base,

you are having a relationship

with a piece of art

that symbolizes your beliefs
and your identity

every single time you get on it.

It's cultural commentary.

People were defining themselves.

- Snowboarding's got
so much attitude

and so much creativity.

You talk about something
that's youth-driven,

I mean,
that's our energy source.

Our design needed that.

- At one point,
we had 60 different logos.

Which was,
to traditional design,

suicidal.

But he understood
he was also accountable

because of what we had
all created together,

and it was this radical space
of freedom.

- Creative people

and the people
around the product

and the team,
you gotta give them room

to do what they believe in.

- We took a page
from Madonna's sex book

where she talks
about her genitals.

We scratched it out
and replaced it

with a discussion about a board
instead of her crotch.

And that ran as a national ad.

- A lot of resorts,
they just said,

"Okay, we can't buy
your product,"

and certain shops got all bent
out of shape about it.

You know, you gotta live
sort of on the edge

and once in a while, you know,
you spill over it.

Nobody's trying
to shock anybody.

Just trying to have
a little fun.

- It was freaking full-on

build it as you go,

destroy to create.

That's what the '90s were.

That confluence of music,
art, sport, life,

that was why I think
snowboarding just exploded.

- $50,000 of mega prize money!

The top riders are here today
to show us, you, the people,

and the crowd,

and believe you me,
the crowd is...

- ♪ I'm the humdinger,
the microphone singer ♪

♪ Super bell-ringer,
here to bring ya ♪

- It's fun
and everyone's figured it out.

- ♪ Coming right out
of your speakers ♪

♪ And never
reaching the peak-a ♪

♪ Perfection, direction,
in any section ♪

♪ My style is kicking
like Chinese Connection ♪

♪ Most Valuable Poet,
eighteen years strong ♪

♪ The island of wrong
is where I belong ♪

♪ A musical crony,
down when I was bony ♪

♪ I'm one of the funkiest
masters of ceremony ♪

♪ Jam, jam, jimmity jam ♪

♪ Let me, let me,
let me tell you who I am ♪

♪ I'm the humdinger,
the microphone singer ♪

- There were so many contests.

In order for you to get
the right field of riders,

you had to offer
better prize money,

$50,000 to $100,000.

Network television was like,
"How can we cash in?"

ESPN starts the X Games.

- Here is the first woman
to spin off the big jump.

- Still say
it's the worst new sport,

but it might be
the most profitable.

- ♪ Like a poor hustler,
like a homeless beggar ♪

♪ When it come to rappin',
I'm the Alpha and Omega ♪

♪ Supercalifragilistic,
kickin' the ballistic ♪

♪ If you don't know
my track record ♪

♪ Check the statistics ♪

♪ I'm mad like LL,
I'm badder than... ♪

♪ I'm colder than zero ♪

♪ And burn you like a jalapeño ♪

♪ I'm the humdinger,
the microphone singer ♪

♪ Microphone singer,
microphone singer ♪

- Terje Hakonsen pulling out
some insane air,

putting him in first place
in sky hang

compared to the rest
of the riders.

- Terje came along
and right from the start,

it was just... it was clear that
the kid had incredible talent.

- Terje was one
of those unique individuals,

'cause he was pushing so far
out to the edge.

He was doing things others
couldn't even comprehend.

- He just elevated the sport,
just the level of performance,

and I think he learned
a lot of that from Craig.

- I just turned 15,
and Craig Kelly came to Norway

in '90, and we got
to ride with him.

So I just tried
to copy him 120%.

Craig mentioned to Burton
that they should invite me

to this talent camp.

The team manager at the time,
she was like,

"Oh, we wanna do a contract
with you."

And I was like, "Well, I haven't"

really done a contest yet."

I think I got some help
from Craig,

but I took it.

- Terje just spend every minute

that he could around Craig.

Craig had an incredible career,

and then he stopped competing.

Through the moves
that Craig made in his life,

he demonstrated to Terje
that, you know, in this sport,

you can shape your future and...

And shape the sport
any way you want.

When Terje was the best rider
in the world,

all of a sudden,
we found out one day

that snowboarding was gonna be
in the Olympics

and it's gonna be run
by a ski federation,

and nobody in the industry
was really involved

in that decision.

What's really critical to us
as a company,

and me personally,
incredibly important,

is that the sport doesn't lose
the individualism that exists.

The bottom line is that
it's the athletes' decision,

and if they wanna compete
for a gold medal,

then so be it.

Terje called me up saying,

"Hey, I'm not gonna ride
in the Olympics.

'Cause it's just not my cup
of tea," is what he said.

- Jake's just like,
"Totally understand you.

Totally get you."

He supports the guy
who wants to go,

and he supports a few of us
who didn't go.

- The fact that the greatest
snowboarder on Earth was like,

"Nope, I'm not going," that...

That's snowboarding.

- The Ski Federation was
running the event,

and they didn't know how
to run a snowboarding event.

We got to the venue
and the word "snowboarding"

was spelled wrong.

It was like, "Okay,
this is gonna be interesting."

- It was a driving rainstorm,

"and they said, "Okay, we can't
have the men's downhill.

"We would never have
this prestigious ski event

"in a rainstorm, but no,
the snowboarders, they can go.

"They can get...
Risk life and limb

and not be wearing goggles,
it's raining so hard."

- There's a lot of negative
effects around the Olympics.

But the positive effects
that I look at

and what I really love is,
it's really nice

to see the world come together
and celebrate something.

- It was 1998,
and I was 14 years old.

And I remember everything
about that day.

I remember where I was.

I remember
what the weather was like.

And I watched snowboarding
become an Olympic sport.

And from that point forward
as a freshman in high school,

I devoted everything I had
to this sport,

to this career,
to this community.

I started riding for Burton

two years before
the 2002 Olympics.

And I was just, like,
rookie rider on the team.

The first time I ever really
got a gauge for Jake,

I walked away blown away.

I think it just took meeting him

and seeing his passion
and his love for the sport.

That really gave me motivation
and inspiration.

- What changed between Nagano
and Park City?

- The weather cooperated

and the riding was
just phenomenal.

The venue was
super well prepared.

I mean, the best venue ever.

And just a lot of things
happened right.

And the fans that were there...

The people that were there
were just fantastic.

And so many of them
had never seen

a snowboarding event before.

That was the incredible thing.

- At the 2002 Olympic games,

snowboarding made this leap
and transition

from something that people
maybe were even afraid of

to something
that people embraced.

Ross Powers, JJ Thomas,

Danny Kass, and myself having
such a successful Games.

- Kelly Clark has done it!

The first gold medal
for the American team!

- America really opened
their arms after that.

♪ ♪

The men swept the podium.

And the boys had big celebration

to go on the "Today" show.

It was a pretty early
wake-up call,

and the boys
weren't gonna make it.

- They are all passed out.

- And so Jake stepped up.

- A great thing
about board sports

is, there's no real bad habits,

'cause if you do
something wrong,

you end up on your butt
real quick.

- He had every right to be
the face of our sport

'cause that was kind of
our coming out party.

- So then we got going
and snowboarding

was partying and having fun.

And the next thing you know,
we were devastated.

- Three Americans
and four Canadians

were in the lower group
when the avalanche happened.

Among those killed
was the world-famous

36-year-old snowboarder
Craig Kelly.

He was described as an icon

and a leading figure
in the sport.

- When people think
of snowboarders,

sometimes they think
of that brash,

Generation X-type personality.

What kind of person was he?

- He was on top of the world.

He was
a professional snowboarder.

He made plenty of money.

And then he went out
and became a guide,

which just speaks so much
about his passion

for being in the mountains.

He was doing it
simply because he loved it.

- If this kind of thing
could happen to him,

it could happen to anybody.

Does that speak to the sport
and just how risky

it actually is?

- I think it speaks more
to just how risky life is.

He did everything right.

It was just incredibly bad luck.

He was, in many ways,
the soul of the sport.

♪ ♪

- When we lost Craig
it was like...

was losing, like,
that big brother

that helped you out.

Most of the guys tell you
to relax,

don't be so serious.

♪ ♪

- I've always
pretty much followed...

my heart.

Something inside of me said,
"I wanna do this for fun.

This'll be the way
to have the most fun."

♪ ♪

For a while,
professional snowboarding

seemed like a lot of fun to me,

but now I'm thinking more
about really just enjoying

the purity of snowboarding,

why I fell in love
with the sport to start with.

♪ ♪

- The cool thing
about snowboarding

is that it's not
just competitions.

There's so many, like,

different aspects
of snowboarding.

- They go out on the mountain
with friends

or people that don't compete

that just do it
because they love it.

And that's what anyone
that snowboards

should be doing it for,
because they love it.

♪ ♪

- That's the thing that,
as a kid, I didn't know.

I just wanted to do tricks
and I wanted to win

and I wanted to flip.

♪ ♪

But really, once you have
your first day of freeriding

riding really good snow,
that's when you've found

the soul of snowboarding.

- Just the feeling
of weightlessness.

♪ ♪

This deep powder turn
will make your whole day.

But I've definitely had
snowboarding become

a very serious part
of my life as a job.

Having to deal
with the snowboard business

is always an interesting thing.

♪ ♪

- In a post-Y2K era,

Burton is the dominant player
in the marketplace.

And that's when Burton
bought Channel Islands.

And then in skateboarding,
he bought Alien Workshop.

They started a sneaker company.

Burton emerged as...

the big B.

- We had become the big guys.

We were forcing growth,
we were forcing product

to retailers that didn't
want it or didn't call for it.

- Any time that you're
an industry leader,

you could be viewed
as the big bad wolf.

- Everybody wants to see
that top dog fall.

- And it hurt Jake.
"Burton's the man.

Burton's the corporation."

That hurt him.

- At some point,
do you get too large?

- You know, you look
at a company like Nike

and it just, you know,
blows your mind

to think
what they have accomplished.

- He's telling me
he doesn't wanna be Nike,

and everywhere I look,
there's stuff that has

nothing to do with snowboarding.

- We lost some heart and soul

because I think we were focused
on growth at all costs.

And then you say, "Uh-oh",

kind of what's happened
to the culture here?"

- In 2003,
Shaun White emerged as...

the face
of American snowboarding

to the mainstream.

♪ ♪

And Shaun's meteoric rise

was largely in parallel
to Burton's drive for growth.

- Shaun first came
to the U.S. Open

when I think he was
8 or 9 years old.

It was kind of like a sideshow.

It was like a circus act almost

watching this little kid.

Next year, he'd come back
and he'd get a little better

and then a little better.

- I was slowly, like,
moving my way up the ranks,

going pro,
finally landing on the pro team

with Burton Snowboards
at a very, very young age.

- He comes
from humble beginnings.

He saw the cause and effect
firsthand

of doing good
in snowboarding competition.

He has fun snowboarding,
but he loves winning.

- There was a point
in my career where

I didn't really
wanna ride for Burton.

The team was massive

and I didn't feel as much
of a part as I used to.

And I started taking
these meetings,

and Jake got word of it
and flew out to meet me.

He was like,
"We gotta... no, no, no."

Like, "Shaun's a priority."

I was just so pumped
to be accepted.

I was rising in the ranks.
I had sponsorships.

Magazine covers.

There were moments where,
like, I was winning everything

and people would be like,
"He's the guy! He's the man!"

And then, like,
you win a little too long

and they're like,
"I hate that guy."

- The community's not feeling
Shaun's rise

as much as they might have
if he had done more

to be part of the community.

But to be a true champion,

can you be that
kind of... community guy?

Jake always said that Shaun

was the most competitive person,

and that's why
he was a champion.

Jake always understood that
about Shaun

and respected that about Shaun.

- Where would my life be today

without Jake taking a chance
on me when I was younger

or sticking with me
after I was injured,

or, you know, like...

Like, pull the fire alarm
at a hotel, being an idiot.

He just calls me laughin',
"Did you have fun?"

Like, "You idiot."

When you're pro at 13 up to 30,

you're gonna make some mistakes
along the way,

like, just in life in general.

And he was always there
to support and back me.

- He's got an incredible
sense of style.

He is a superstar.

- 33 million people
watched him win

the Olympic gold medal.

That's just the United States.

- He's transcended the sport.

It's not something
we should be ashamed of.

It's something
we should be proud of.

- Every snowboarder really
does benefit from that.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Now, Travis, I was watching
a lot of footage today

of your snowboarding,
and I don't do that.

♪ ♪

- ♪ I need a gun ♪

♪ To keep myself among ♪

♪ The poor people ♪

♪ Who are burning in the sun ♪

♪ They ain't got a chance ♪

♪ I need a gun ♪

♪ 'Cause all I do is dance ♪

♪ ♪

- Burton is a family business.

Experts continue to guess
at your annual sales,

but you don't have to tell us.

Is that part of your decision
to stay private?

- One day I ask him,

"Have you ever thought
about selling Burton?"

And he told me, "Anyone
who owns Burton Snowboards"

"has to love snowboarding
more than me,

and I don't know anyone yet."

- I mean, it's the best job
in the world.

Why would I ever walk away
from it?

Not too shabby, huh?

- The snowboarding lifestyle
is something that we all live

as a family
and many of my friends.

It's just all meshed together.

- Hit it, son.

Nice.

- There was never a division
in our lives,

"This is work, this is play."

It was all the same.

You had to be up
for adventure at any moment

at any time.

I used to call him
our cruise director.

- Whoo!
- Whoa!

- Looking back, we were living
a different lifestyle,

but it felt pretty normal.

♪ ♪

- He was our baseball coach,
our flag football coach.

- Towards the second,
look alive.

- And it was never
about winning.

It was about fun.

Oh!

- That's not nice.

- It's like, did we really have
a basketball hoop

in the middle
of our living room?

- Safe!

- Not only did he want you
to stay up late and have fun

and take tequila shots
and party,

but at 6:00 a.m.,
he was pounding on your door

going, "Let's go!"

And you're putting
all your sunblock on like,

"Oh, my God, what's happening?"

♪ ♪

- He's ruthless.

- Jake will go through life
like he's flying.

♪ ♪

- I think I was 11 years old,

and we had this cat
named Midnight.

One day,
Midnight brought in a bird.

And the bird was kind of, like,
still moving a little bit.

And so my dad, I shit you not,

gave the bird CPR right there
on the kitchen counter.

Little, like... little beats

and then put his mouth
to the beak

and tried to give it
a little bit of air

and, like, tried to revive
this little bird.

And that's when I realized...

my dad had such an appreciation
for life.

- You all right?

- Good as gold.

I was feeling like shit

and I had
a little bump on my neck.

I just wasn't expecting
I had cancer.

- Like, stage IV.

And the doctor says to Jake,
"You have testicular cancer."

But you are so happy
because it is curable.

You know, the chemo is brutal.

It's an awful, awful chemo.

But he was so damn determined.

♪ ♪

He was a fighter.

For sure.

♪ ♪

- The following winter,
I went with my family

on a trip to Baldface Lodge.

I was still sick
from the treatment.

But we only did it
for a few days.

So I sort of had the strength
to do it.

♪ ♪

The love and the fun
started coming back.

♪ ♪

- Snowboarding again was
that light that drove him.

- Okay, that's it.

Thanks, Donna, and thanks,
everybody, for coming.

We'll see you at our house
for the barbecue.

Can't believe it.

I feel much better now

than eight months ago.

- Whoo!

♪ ♪

- Dear rider,

I write this letter every year,

and every year I say
how snowboarding has grown,

but after
a personally tough year,

I spent a reflective week
riding with the ones

who've been by my side
through it all.

It reminded me not just
of what we've created...

But why it really matters.

Have as much fun as possible.

Jake.

- I was back to snowboarding
100 days a year,

and I got a knee replacement
from a lot of wear

on the lateral portion
of my knee.

- I had done
Jake's knee replacement.

He was out
of the hospital quickly,

and about I week later, he said,

"Hey, you wanna go
for a workout?"

I'm talking a week out
from a knee replacement.

And he's up and down
and moving and bending

and he's on the rowing machine,
and I couldn't believe it.

I mean, it was
absolutely phenomenal.

He said, "You know,
I think I can snowboard."

Couple days later, he said,
"Do I look okay?"

And I said,
"Yeah, you look fine."

And he goes, "Well,
I'm not seeing really well."

It seems like something's
double or blurry."

As we left, I said,
"Okay, buddy, listen,

"tomorrow morning,
if you're not feeling better,

call me first thing right away."

And he said, "Okay, no problem."

"Should I call you and that guy
standing right next to you

that looks like you?"

- And so I went
to Dartmouth-Hitchcock,

and they very quickly analyzed
what was going on,

and within 24 hours
of me being there,

"they said, "If you have
what we think you have,

"tomorrow, you won't be able
to swallow.

"The next day, you won't be
able to open your eyes.

And the next day,
you won't be able to breathe."

[tense music

♪ ♪

I had a ton of fear.

I just didn't see how I was
gonna ever get better.

All I could do was write,
and it was such a gift,

because you can't talk
when you're on a ventilator.

And I was blind,
but I could scribble.

And scribble I did.

♪ ♪

- I just had this stack
of white paper

and a clipboard.

And whenever he needed to say
something to anybody,

he would write it.

It was a lifeline.

It was a way
for him to communicate

because his body is paralyzed,
but his mind is fine.

♪ ♪

- Would kind of hold his hand

or show some kind
of physical contact

to let him know I was there.

- The low point was talking
to my kids about suicide.

♪ ♪

- Those doctors were telling me,

"He will get through.

"We can't tell you how long
he'll be paralyzed...

But we can tell you
he will come out of this."

♪ ♪

- Eventually, I would see
these little, like,

hints of improvement.

You know,
that I could open my eyes.

And I could do something
a little better

than the day before.

And once you get to that point,

then it's game on.

Then it's up to you.

- When a friend would come
visit him,

he would just light up
and he would just glow,

and that's where he got
his energy

and his love and his passion

was through his community
and through his friends.

- One day he wrote,
"Okay, now I wanna live."

♪ ♪

- As he started to get better,
I was like,

"How are you... like, dude,

you were, like, dead last week."

This dude straight up
has nine lives.

Scribblin' on notes, and they
were pretty hard to make out.

But if you could make out
a note,

it would have
the exact same Jake humor.

- He wrote,
"Doesn't make want good."

And then he'd get pissed

and I had to put
another sheet and...

And after the fourth one,
I finally read it.

And I'm leaning over his bed
and I have a Burton T-shirt on.

And he had written,

"Didn't know
we make shirts that big."

- And we're all, like,
in tears, like, over him,

and he's like,
"First time I've seen

three dipshits in a while."

- We would have
chair dance parties.

We'd all sit in chairs
and kinda sway our hips

'cause that's what he could do.

- I needed it.
I needed the support.

I don't think
society understands

how emotions comes in
to making you better.

The power of what your people
that are close to you

can do for you.

What you've put
into the relationship

with them comes back.

♪ ♪

- I learned more about my dad
through those cards

than I had my whole life.

- It's almost like
I'm glad this happened.

♪ ♪

Because we learned to love
and appreciate each other more.

- He probably came home
a little too early.

Like, he was still not quite,
like, all there.

We went on a little hike...
A little walk...

And he was ahead of me,

and I was like, "Are you sure
we should be doing this?"

And he was really
out of balance.

And he fell
into this little ditch.

Like, face down,
arms to the side.

And I had this evil split second

where I wanted to take
a picture of it.

I told that story later
and he was like,

"Dude, why didn't you
get the picture?"

♪ ♪

- I love the process of healing.

♪ ♪

I was determined

to recover
from that terrible disease.

♪ ♪

- Six months later,
he was snowboarding.

Six months later,
we were surfing.

He was just raging the recovery.

- Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven. Whoo-hoo!

Three.

Two. One.

♪ ♪

Whoa!

Runaway trot.

♪ ♪

- We went to Burning Man
together.

Burning Man was his home.

It's this place of community
and friendship

and looking out for one another,

but just having so much fun,

and he would go crazy.

- Came from... we're listening
to Phish, Grateful Dead,

to Drake and, like,
all these rappers.

And he's just, like,
a different person.

- He wanted to get 100 days
every year.

- 100 days.

- I was like, "That's not
that big a deal."

100 days snowboarding
is a big deal.

♪ ♪

- When you would leave a trip
after being with him,

you'd be like...

- No pictures. No pictures.

- There was never a moment
where he was, like, down

or tired or anything.

Like, he was swimming
across the lake

when he was living
in Switzerland.

So as hard as he was going,

he was still, like,
getting everything done.

And what do I know?

Like, how am I gonna be the one
to say,

"Jake, you need to slow down"?

♪ ♪

Maybe Jake could look at us
and say,

"You guys need to speed up."

- You know, he was always
living life in the fast lane.

Now instead of going 80,
we're going 110.

♪ ♪

- Hip-hop nation!

- He was traveling.
He went here and there.

Then he went back to Europe.
He went to Switzerland.

He was riding there.

♪ ♪

Sometimes I got the feeling,
"This is too much."

- Either he had that feeling...

He knew that what happened
before was gonna come back,

so he was living
a really full life.

He knew.

♪ ♪

- He called me. I was in Zurich.

He said,
"I think I have pneumonia."

And, you know, I was like,

"Well, you're probably not
sleeping enough.

"You're probably not
taking care of yourself enough.

You need to do this.
You need to do that."

- Couple days went by and a week

and an X-ray that didn't
look so good.

And he called me and he said,
"I'm flying out to Mayo.

I'm gonna get this checked out."

- Donna came.

A lot of people around,
and she goes, "Hermann",

"I need to talk to you
and, uh...

let's go in a separate room."

And then she said,
"I talked to Jake.

He said the cancer is back."

- Then I got a text
and it just said,

"My cancer is back.

And I'm prepped to fight it
and I'm gonna work hard at it."

- "I was gonna have a good
prognosis and I'm, like...

"I got this, don't worry.

And good to know that I have
you guys beside me."

- My friend had a feeling,
like, he's like,

"His immune system
can't beat that.

You know, he's been through
too much."

And he was explaining that
to me,

and I was like, "No, no, no."

I go,
"He sounded good yesterday.

Like, I think he's gonna
beat it."

- Dude,
I'm buying an alarm clock

for my hospital room, okay?

Let's not get too serious now.

- You've been here before.

You know how to do this.

We know what the outcome is.

That faith and that hope just...
For me, it remained.

- Yeah, this one says
"adjustable dimmer" on it.

I just wanna see... I'm pretty
sure this is a plug-in,

but I'm just gonna...
- "USB charging."

- Open it for you.
- Yeah, that's...

Thank you so much.

- This one actually
is not out on display.

- Mine.

- So we should have a display
of it out.

- I remember thinking,
"Oh, he'll beat it again.

He'll do it again."

But I think something...

You know, I think he knew
he didn't have it in him

to fight again.

- Let's get the biopsy
because I didn't wanna...

- It was almost like he was
almost resigned...

Like the fighter part was gone.

He was gonna go through
the motions, but he wasn't...

His heart wasn't in it.

He was just too tired.

I had arranged
for a masseuse to come

in the morning for Jake,

and when I went
to wake him up...

you know, he was
kind of groggy like,

"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting up."

And then I said to Cox,
"Hey, go get him up.

You know, it's been a while."

And Cox said,
"He ain't getting up."

♪ ♪

- I didn't understand
the word spiritual.

I didn't really get it.

♪ ♪

But I very much developed
that, you know,

"live life to the fullest

and don't take
anything for granted."

♪ ♪

I learned what family was.

And friends and love and pain.

All that stuff that you hear

really crystallized for me
in a very real way.

♪ ♪

- All the boys were there.

His sisters were there.

He was being kept alive
by machines again.

And we said,
"It's time to let him go."

- I got a text message
from Donna.

"Hermann, sorry, it's too late.

He passed away."

It hit me right in
the middle of the heart.

I said, "What the fuck?"

Am I really 8 hours late?"
It was the case.

♪ ♪

- Everyone came together
pretty much on that day,

and, yeah, it was...

Yeah, it was snowing.

So it was probably Jake.

♪ ♪

- I don't think anybody imagined

that being the outcome,
'cause we knew Jake.

We knew that he was
in the business of beating...

anything that came his way.

♪ ♪

- But he lived a good life,
that dude.

And we've been living
a good life

on account of him, so...

♪ ♪

- ♪ I've waited many years ♪

♪ Every print I left
upon the track ♪

♪ Has lead me here ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And next year,
it'll be clear ♪

♪ This was only leading me
to that ♪

♪ And by that time,
I hope that ♪

♪ You ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Love me ♪

♪ You ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Love me ♪

♪ I move with the trees
in the breeze ♪

♪ I know that time is elastic ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And I know when I go ♪

♪ All my particles disband
and disperse ♪

♪ And I'll be back
in the pulse ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And I know none of this ♪

♪ Will matter in the long run ♪

♪ But I know a sound is still
a sound around no one ♪

♪ And while I'm in this body ♪

♪ I want somebody to want ♪

♪ And I want what I want ♪

♪ And I want you ♪

♪ ♪

♪ To love me ♪

♪ ♪

- Yuto Totsuka.

Wow.

Unbelievable.

- 97!
- Yeah, Yuko!

- Great run and a great show.

We're celebrating the spirit

of the one and only Jake Burton

who made this thing possible.

And the one thing
that we do miss

as we celebrate Jake's life is
seeing that face and his energy

at the bottom of the corral.

♪ ♪

Now, this is the first year

that we are without that energy.

We miss you so much, Jake.

♪ ♪

Right now,
as we head back to the top,

it's a who's who
in the history of this event.

So many generations
of snowboarding

about to take a very special
ride for Jake Burton.

♪ ♪

- Shaun. There goes Shaun.

♪ ♪

- Fuck, fuck, fuck.

- Fuck, fuck, fuckety,
fuck, fuck, fuck.

- Fuck.
- Fuckety-fuck.

♪ ♪

- Snowboarding is a family.

And more than just a sport,
it is something that you live.

We can continue to push
this culture forward.

It was not a memorial.
It was a celebration.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- The rider.

♪ ♪

The product.

♪ ♪

The process.

♪ ♪

This is my heart and soul.

♪ ♪

I just love the freedom
that snowboarding gives you...

♪ ♪

To do whatever...

The fuck...

You want.

Jake.

- Whoo!

♪ ♪

- ♪ Bite my hand ♪

♪ ♪

♪ After I made sure
that you were fed ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Gonna speak my mind ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I got chains on, but no,
I ain't lyin' ♪

♪ ♪

♪ You like to steer that blade ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Bleed me dry and walk away ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Gonna wash my hands ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I hope you find
another chance ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Now you're all ghosts to me ♪

♪ Ghosts to me ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Now you're all ghosts to me ♪

♪ Ghosts to me ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Ghosts to me ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I took you in ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I treated you
like you were kin ♪

♪ ♪