Marc
New member
I'd love to ski with this guy sometime. This article is from four years ago, but his attitude and class really shines through. It's no mystery why he's been around as long as he has.
Plake interview
Some excerpts:
SP: What gets you stoked for each new ski season?
GP: Mostly the change in the weather. I enjoy it so much, it’s hard to describe. I think skiing is the best way in the world to waste time, and I love wasting time. There’s no better way to waste time than by going skiing. People get too serious about it sometimes and try and make some big inner meaning from it, but nothing really gets accomplished. There’s a quote from the old ski movie Outer Limits. It says skiing is “the conquest of the useless.” To me, that means it’s a fun thing.
SP: What’s kept Glen Plake from getting left behind?
GP: I still love my skiing. I’m involved in every aspect of the sport. I’m not just promotional. And I love skiing with people. love skiing that is attainable by everyone. I still believe that this sport is about what people are doing at their local hills, with their friends, rather than this “Alaska thing.” I’m not a big fan of the Alaska explosion. Not only is it not attainable by everybody, it’s hardly attainable to anybody. It doesn’t represent what skiing is about in the East Coast, or Montreal, or even California a week after a snow, and yet there are products getting developed for this silly pursuit that occurs in one county, in one of the 50 states in North America. Show me how you ski in the moguls. Anyone can see if you can ski in the moguls. I’ve stuck around because I’ve always believed in the heart of skiing. I believe in what’s really going on.
SP: What do you think has been Glen Plake’s biggest contribution to the sport of skiing?
GP: I’m a skier. That’s all I am. I don’t have any titles or trophies to show you. I didn’t come from the establishment of skiing, in fact I’m somewhat alienated from it. Rather than crawling out from the roots and heritage, I came from the sport itself. I’m a product of the sport and not the organizing bodies. What people ask what I’m into, I say I’m into skiing. Then they ask me to explain it, and I can’t. It could be making check turns on the East Coast, practicing downhill or rapid gate slalom, which I think is awesome, in Europe, and slamming ruts in the moguls in Japan - it doesn’t matter, I just love skiing. But not fabricated skiing. In fact, my favorite thing right now is taking these guys out of the parks and showing them the jumps that have always been there. I like them to see the jumps that were made by the mountain.
Everything he says in that article jumps of the page at me.
I'll end this post with my favorite quote from my favorite movie of his and Mike Hattrup, SnoWhat:
Plake: We don't care how big the jump is in our film, we don't care how deep the powder is in our film...
Hattrup (w/ chit-eating grin): 'Cause it really doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter folks. The season is upon us. Now go out and find that little slice of heaven for which we all live
Plake interview
Some excerpts:
SP: What gets you stoked for each new ski season?
GP: Mostly the change in the weather. I enjoy it so much, it’s hard to describe. I think skiing is the best way in the world to waste time, and I love wasting time. There’s no better way to waste time than by going skiing. People get too serious about it sometimes and try and make some big inner meaning from it, but nothing really gets accomplished. There’s a quote from the old ski movie Outer Limits. It says skiing is “the conquest of the useless.” To me, that means it’s a fun thing.
SP: What’s kept Glen Plake from getting left behind?
GP: I still love my skiing. I’m involved in every aspect of the sport. I’m not just promotional. And I love skiing with people. love skiing that is attainable by everyone. I still believe that this sport is about what people are doing at their local hills, with their friends, rather than this “Alaska thing.” I’m not a big fan of the Alaska explosion. Not only is it not attainable by everybody, it’s hardly attainable to anybody. It doesn’t represent what skiing is about in the East Coast, or Montreal, or even California a week after a snow, and yet there are products getting developed for this silly pursuit that occurs in one county, in one of the 50 states in North America. Show me how you ski in the moguls. Anyone can see if you can ski in the moguls. I’ve stuck around because I’ve always believed in the heart of skiing. I believe in what’s really going on.
SP: What do you think has been Glen Plake’s biggest contribution to the sport of skiing?
GP: I’m a skier. That’s all I am. I don’t have any titles or trophies to show you. I didn’t come from the establishment of skiing, in fact I’m somewhat alienated from it. Rather than crawling out from the roots and heritage, I came from the sport itself. I’m a product of the sport and not the organizing bodies. What people ask what I’m into, I say I’m into skiing. Then they ask me to explain it, and I can’t. It could be making check turns on the East Coast, practicing downhill or rapid gate slalom, which I think is awesome, in Europe, and slamming ruts in the moguls in Japan - it doesn’t matter, I just love skiing. But not fabricated skiing. In fact, my favorite thing right now is taking these guys out of the parks and showing them the jumps that have always been there. I like them to see the jumps that were made by the mountain.
Everything he says in that article jumps of the page at me.
I'll end this post with my favorite quote from my favorite movie of his and Mike Hattrup, SnoWhat:
Plake: We don't care how big the jump is in our film, we don't care how deep the powder is in our film...
Hattrup (w/ chit-eating grin): 'Cause it really doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter folks. The season is upon us. Now go out and find that little slice of heaven for which we all live
