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Mike Wass Interview
By: Matthew
Matthew: So what is Mike Wass do in the summer?
Mike Wass: Well I am the founder of ClubIntegra.ca which is a club for Acura Integra's. We do meets, legal racing, car shows, and such. I use to do Aggresive inline skating but my skates got to small. If you know anyone looking for K2 style point bobs w/ abec 5 bearings let me know!
Matthew: So what was the highlight of this past winter?
Mike Wass: Riding with the Tip-2-Tip crew, Ben Wanamaker, Alex, Greco, at St-Bruno and doing the biggest flat 7 that i have ever thrown.. however I over shot the landing and landed on the flat on my back.. I was out for a month but it was pretty sick tick!
Matthew: So how did you start out skiboarding? And why do you like it more than sking or snowboarding?
Mike Wass: Wow I started out a while ago, when Salomon came out with there Salomon snowblades. I rented a pair on a highschool ski/snowboard trip. I was in the park all day doing 360's over a 2.5 meter gap. By the end of the day I was showing off and well ended up hucking the 3 to do a 540 or 7.. ended up a little corked and landed on my side. Later I found out that I fractured my writs. That day I fell in love with skiboarding. Personly I find it better then skiing because I find it harder to perfect. You can get skiis that ar 164cm but you have that 64cm of leway. where as you have 100cm or less to land on. That means you have to have your trix dialed every time. That I find more of a challenge then skiing. I have demo'd a pair of rossis and took them to the tremblant park. I was doing the cleanest 5s over the 40ft table there and stomping them with ease.
So why take up sport that is easy to do (in my eyes). When you can take up a sport that is a challenge and try to perfect it.
Once you got skiboarding down you can switch to skiing and own everyone like Andy Stewart is doing!
Matthew: So how did you start to get your name out and have other skiboarders know your name?
Mike Wass: Well, when I was seaching on the net and found Andy Stewarts site. Honestly I spent tons of time on there studying his video's. Well after that I decided to email him with some questions and such about skiboarding since he was only 1 hour away from where I lived. He told me about a place downtown ottawa called spring action, where you can practice your trix on a trampoline. So i started to with andy to spring action learning off him and Shawn the instructer there. Andy then told me that there was a comp. Call NY X-Games and that Neal Lyons, Brinton, Garvis, Dozell, and a few others were gonna be there. So I was like I am totaly there. I met the whole crew including Ben Wanamaker and Dean Kistler. I stayed at Deans place we talked about skiboarding till we hours of the night. Same with Ben durring that weekend.
From there I just started to hang out with the skiboarding crew (Andy, Ben, Simmons, Adam Lynam, Dean Kistlyer) Met Greco durring the 2nd time I went to NY X-Games, He offered me a sponsership. And well the rest is history.
Matthew: So what are your plans for next winter?
Mike Wass: Well, it's all depending... I am planing on going back to school for business. So I may be hanging up the boards. We'll have to see. I will defently let all of you know what my plans are. Skiboarding has played a big part in my winter season for the past 4-5 years. So like I said we'll have to see.
Matthew: So do you have anything else to say?
Mike Wass: Well, I'd like to give a shout out to, Ben, for filming me this year. Andy, for helping me push myself to go bigger. Lynam, for the laughs at Mount Snow, Simmons, What up son. Dean, Thanks for support. Greco/skiboardsonline.com, for making one of my dreams come true. Baliey and Kevin of Tip-2-Tip you kids are getting pretty sick. For everyone who skiboards, practice and don't let a fall or an injury keep you from progressing. Keep the sport alive and strive for bigger and better trix! That's about it.
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