Episode #57
For this episode we sat down with Avran Lefeber during the SIA trade show in Denver. Avran is the founder of the longest running independent snowboard review website, The Angry Snowboarder.
We hear his thoughts on the SIA trade show which I’ll give a quick trigger warning for industry folks listening – he pulls no punches. On the other hand as you likely know, the SIA show was recently purchased by Outdoor Retailer, so in some way Avran’s thoughts on this may have been vindicated by the marketplace.
We also get into his reading habits, workflow, Russian hacking, just in time learning verses the legacy education system and how that applies to staying relevant in the digital world, dating in a ski town, how to get banned for life from Vail Resorts, and much more.
I saw Avran lay down turns like this at Copper – BTW, don’t go to Copper.
This episode touches on the following topics:
- SIA and the state of trade shows.
- Avran’s love for swivel bindings
- Denver VS. Las Vegas for SIA
- Made in Japan (Justin at Old Man Berkins Bookstore) – the Sony story.
- Reading books – Barb and the girls at the Breckenridge Library
- The Four Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss
- Thoughts on college and making time for reading.
- Fighting with his brother.
- Turing his home town into a cult or burning it down
- Book writing – How to be a snowboard bum sucessfully
- Tinder VS. Bumble – “dating” in a ski town.
- How to get banned from Vail Resorts
- Getting fired and going full bore on Angry Snowboarder.
- The struggle of working at and living at a resort
- Product reviews
- WordPress hacking
- Is Twitter still relevenat – Snapchat and Insta
- Blogging’s peak and how to adjust and survive
- Fake Tinder Accounts and Sock Puppets
- Ask a Black Snowboarder with Marcus Stevens
- Is Beaver Creek the whitest resort in America?
- System for video producion
- The YouTube Creators Academy
- Subtle lingustic ninja moves
- Pickle Dicks and Snow Carnies
- The History of Snowboarding FB group
- How being the designated driver led him to get rid of his drivers license.
- Near death spleen injury
- Celebrity Death Match on Morphine
- Hospital sponge baths
- Avran’s favorte boards
- Developing the Marhar Lumberjack
Quotes from this episode:
“This is the smallest SIA for snowboarding I’ve ever seen…and I’ve done 12 or 13”
“When you walk in you have to go through the ski side – which is like dead mans zone.”
“They have death valley – where they put all the crappy brands that will be out of business by fall.”
“This is the the most pathetic SIA I’ve ever seen, thank god it will be my last….I’m just going to go to on snow.”
“Trade shows for me have changed so much”
“It’s the biggest industry circle jerk…I used to have to register as a fake buyer or go to Kinkos and copy a badge.”
“I don’t drink because I’m missing organs and stuff.”
“Fuck SIA. I’m over it.”
“The regional shows are destroying SIA.”
“We have most of our buying done by the beginning of January (at The Lumber Yard in Breckenridge).”
“Sony tried to make plasma TV’s in 1982.”
“You gotta keep your mind fresh, you’ve gotta be reading.”
“I’m banned from Breckenridge..”
“I have a photographic memory… and I also have an audio graphic memory.”
“We’ll if you’ve ever been to where I’m from there’s nothing exciting about it – that town should just burn to the ground.”
“Amoxicillin is a great drug.”
“Theres not a lot of dating in ski town, but there’s lots of adult sleep overs.”
“I’m just contemplating what would be worse, having nipples for thumbs or dildos for fingers.”
“You supplex one person in the lift line and you’re the asshole.”
“I’ve watched Vail ruin the mountain for locals.”
“Amazon Prime and commitment.”
“I started Angry on September 11th.”
“Like a steak knife fucked a banana and it was a piece of shit (first skate banana review).”
“A fat cat doesn’t hunt.”
“Anyone can start a snowboard website… How far are you willing to take it?”
“I got hacked by Russia and they turned my site into a viagra porn store.”
“You’re a cock juggling thunder cunt.”
“I’m actually a really private person.”
“I don’t have a spleen.”
“My brother has about 10,000 photo’s from the US OPEN around 92-94.”
“I’ve been hit by four cars..”
“KY tastes awful… they check for internal bleeding by putting a finger in your ass.”
Want to help the podcast grow? Just click the banner ad below before shopping on Amazon and the podcast will receive a small commission from your purchases at no cost to you.
Thanks in advance -Nate and AJ
