Interview with and photos by Kevin Sansalone
How are you? What have you been up to ?
I’ve been really good, thanks. Storm season has hit hard in Tofino so the waves have been fun and it feels like fall.
Where are you living these days?
We do half the year in Tofino and half in Whistler and then sprinkle in some time up at Baldface Lodge in Nelson.
You were helping on the NST (Natural Selection Tour) build at Baldface? Can you talk about it?
Yeah, I’ve done two trips up to Baldface this fall to help work on the NST course for this coming season. We’re bringing it back to the original venue on Scary Cherry, it’s an insane course. The original event was in 2012 so those features have been hit with a lot of harsh weather over the years and avalanches rip that slope all winter so they’ve gotten a little beat up. We went up and refurbished a bunch of the original wood features, we cleared some of the sketchy trees that were in the bigger landings and we built about 8 brand new wood features. We placed the new features on the mid slope area of the course where there was a bit of a dead spot in the past events.
What riders do you got your money on this year for the NST Baldface stop?
Rasman was up there helping us with the build so he’s already got an advantage on the others haha just kidding but I’d definitely like to see Rasman do well.
Can we expect to see a Sansalone wild card entry into the contest?
I don’t think so but I was joking with our head chef Shawn, who was also helping us build, that he was going to get a wild card spot, he’s a ripper. I think one of the staff should get to forerun it or something that would be a super cool story. We have a bunch of staff and guides who shred pretty damn good. How cool would it be if our dishwasher got a wild card spot and made the finals!
Any big plans for this coming season?
I had a knee thing last year so my season got cut way too short so for this year I just want to stay healthy and have a fun-filled full season.
