Jared Lee's tale is a testament to the power of community and perseverance. From advocating for a skatepark at town hall meetings as a youngster to seeing the fruits of his labor in the form of a state-of-the-art facility, his journey underscores the significance of mentorship and communal effort. His influence extends beyond the skatepark; it's felt in the passion he instills in others, and in the way he champions environmental protection. It's a narrative that celebrates the collaborative spirit—how a united community can shape thriving environments for youth to chase their athletic dreams.
In this heartfelt discussion, we don't just walk through Jared's personal milestones; we also examine the broader implications of outdoor activities and community engagement in enriching lives. We delve into the creation of memorable events like the Cat Classic and the Waynetown Throdown that bring people together over shared passions. Moreover, Jared's entrepreneurial spirit shines through as he balances his love for board sports with running a business, all while contributing to the stoke of his community.
In this heartfelt discussion, we don't just walk through Jared's personal milestones; we also examine the broader implications of outdoor activities and community engagement in enriching lives. We delve into the creation of memorable events like the Cat Classic and the Waynetown Throdown that bring people together over shared passions. Moreover, Jared's entrepreneurial spirit shines through as he balances his love for board sports with running a business, all while contributing to the stoke of his community.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Town of Waynesville
Waynesville Skate Park
Cataloochee Ski Area
Skis and Tees
Salty Dogs, Maggie Valley
FUMC Waynesville
Town of Waynesville
Waynesville Skate Park
Cataloochee Ski Area
Skis and Tees
Salty Dogs, Maggie Valley
FUMC Waynesville
Mike Andress
Host, Exploration Local
828-551-9065
mike@explorationlocal.com
Podcast Website
Facebook
Instagram: explorationlocal
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ever wondered how a single passion can ignite change
in United Community?
Jared Lee's story is one thatexemplifies this phenomenon,
painting a vivid picture of hisprofound connection with the
great outdoors and histransformative impact on his
hometown through his love forboard sports.
As a child, gifted with alifetime hunting and fishing
license, he was destined tointertwine his life with nature.
(00:21):
His zeal for skateboarding andsnowboarding reveals just how
finding one's true path can leadto advocacy.
Jared's tale is a testament tothe power of community and
perseverance.
From advocating for a skatepark at town hall meetings as a
youngster to seeing the fruitsof his labor in the form of a
steady-the-art skate facility,his journey underscores the
significance of mentorship andcommunal effort.
(00:42):
His influence extends beyondthe skate park.
It's felt in the passion heinstills in others and in the
way he champions environmentalprotection.
It's a narrative thatcelebrates the collaborative
spirit, how a United Communitycan shape thriving environments
for youth to chase theirathletic dreams.
In this heartfelt discussion,we don't just walk through
Jared's personal milestone.
We also examine the broaderimplications of outdoor
(01:04):
activities and communityengagement in enriching lives.
We delve into the creation ofmemorable events, like the cat
classic and the Wayne Townthrowdown, that bring people
together over shared passions.
Moreover, jared'sentrepreneurial spirit shines
through as he balances his lovefor board sports with running a
business, all while contributingto the stoke of his community.
(01:25):
Prepare to be moved by storiesof transformation, the
importance of fostering abalance between the digital and
physical worlds, and theundeniable impact that comes
from nurturing the athletic andenvironmental interest of the
young and old alike.
I'll see you on the other side.
Music.
You're listening to ExplorationLocal, a podcast designed to
(01:49):
explore and celebrate the peopleand places that make the Blue
Ridge and Southern AppalachianMountains special and unique.
My name is Mike Andrus, thehost of Exploration Local.
Join us on our journey toexplore these mountains and
discover how they fuel a spiritof adventure.
We encourage you to wander far,but explore local.
Let's go.
(02:10):
This is going to be a reallyfun episode.
Jared, I appreciate you makingthe drive over to the studio.
Man.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Thank you, Good to be here.
I'm a big fan listening in along time.
Cool to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
That's awesome, man, so good to have you here.
People are going to find out,probably within the first 30
seconds, your passion for theoutdoors here, but we're going
to talk about the communityactivating and some of the
things that you've done.
You've made a major impact inthe outdoor life and you I know
you and I have talked and youprobably don't think that, but
Steve Reinhold, he talked to meseveral weeks ago and said that
(02:40):
you were one of the biggestinfluences on his life when he
was growing up, getting him intothe board sports, the
skateboarding, the snowboarding,just outdoor activities in
general, and he said you werethe original stoke maker for him
.
So, dude, I can't wait tounpack this.
I love the big grin on yourface.
I love it right now, whichpeople can see.
We should maybe we shouldprobably video these things.
But anyway, jared, you havegoing all the way back to like
(03:05):
before your first birthday ormaybe on your first birthday you
got a really amazing gift.
So let's kind of set up youbeing from here and your passion
for the outdoors, and thenwe'll start to get into some of
the board sport stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I feel like I was introduced to the outdoors for a
very early age.
My first birthday, my parentsgifted me with a lifetime
hunting and fishing license toNorth Carolina, obviously with
no clue if I would ever use thator it would be worth the
investment.
Interesting fun fact $100 backthen.
I don't even know what alifetime fishing license would
cost now, but you can thinkabout what a blessing is in my
(03:37):
life to go fishing and I neverthink about purchasing a license
in North Carolina or knowingthe price of it.
Yes, my parents got theirmonies worth out of it.
Now, as a 40 year old personwho every single year spends
time in the outdoors, it'sdefinitely shaped me, it
fulfills me.
There's something magical andmysterious about being in the
(03:59):
outside and broader spaces.
And then, of course, you findsomething you like and that is
powerful in your life and I feellike you want to share that
with others and obviously youwant to protect that.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, so the skateboarding is one of the
things that you migrated to atan early age as well, and it's
something that really just madean impact on your life.
And did you start skating?
Is snowboarding kind of at thesame time, or did one proceed
the other?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Pretty close back to back.
I had started skating when Iwas like 13.
I had grown up playing sports.
My parents introduced me toabout every sport Let me pick
and choose which ones I wantedto play and I loved it.
I had a lot of fun with it.
And then, I think, sometimeduring middle school, you know,
you start going through maybeyour rebellious phase of where
you want to be your own personor do something different.
(04:48):
And I would walk up to thelibrary every day to get picked
up by my parents from school andthe first Methodist Church
parking lot in Waynesville.
They would let kids skate thereand there would be a
congregation.
The middle school kids wouldwalk up there, the high school
kids would drive there andthey'd let them set up ramps and
that was all there was.
But I saw freedom.
I was so used to telling me thisis when and this is how, and
(05:10):
this is your team.
And I think at that point, justseeing that freedom that these
guys had was very alluring to me.
And yeah, and parents got meaboard and I just started at
home and once I felt confident,like skating around our little
colder sack, you know, I made myway to the first Methodist
Church parking lot and I guessthat's where the journey really
(05:31):
just really started from there.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
That's cool.
Did you say that was FUMCWaynesville?
No way, good people, by the way.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
The most community activated church people I know.
We're doing skate lessons withthem here.
Next month they're bringingtheir youth group down to the
skate park for doing a lesson.
I'm a big supporter.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
That's cool, alright, so you get into skating, you
get into snowboarding.
At what point did you startpulling other people along into
the sport?
Or did you just kind of findthere's a community here and
they're skating and I just kindof joined in, or how did you get
involved in all that?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
My friends who skateboarded pulled me into
snowboarding because we skatedtogether and they was like you
have to try snowboarding.
Went once with them and I gothooked.
But then I was in the dilemmaof, like, this is pricey, this
is not as accessible as having askate deck and some shoes and
going out into a parking lot androaming around town.
So then it became thisconundrum of like alright, how
do I afford to be a part ofsomething that is kind of out of
(06:32):
my price range to do on theregular?
And I got a job at a local skishop so I could get a pass, get
a discount.
I'm still there because I fellin love with the atmosphere of
being in a shop.
I really think there's somethingvery sacred and special about
ski and snowboard shops, bikeshops.
I think that space and I thinkif that space is utilized right,
(06:54):
the change that can come out ofthose spaces to affect a
community is really powerful andit's going to be different than
a space coming out of even awreck department.
So that's for one reason whyI've stayed in that space for so
long.
But it originally just startedso that I could go snowboarding
at Kataluchi.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Okay, okay, yeah, well, I get it.
You and I met this winter.
I was first time mountain hostand you do it.
Obviously, it's a nice perk toget the ski for free, but, yeah,
it's a way to give back and beable to enjoy the sport that you
love at the same time.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yes, and then, following what you're saying, I
guess you could almost say maybeyou do it with your friends,
but obviously skateboarding,snowboarding, is a solo thing,
and so there's a lot of maybeyou could call it selfishness I
don't know if that's the rightword for it you are, it is
something that you're solo doing, but you do it with other
people at times and I do thinkjust years later in life it just
(07:50):
became more apparent to me.
It's like this has affected mylife and this has been very
powerful in my life.
And this is a very simple thing.
I don't know if this is true ornot, but I think there's a, I
believe there's a scripture.
It talks about, you know, usingthe simple things of this world
to shame the wise or the highpowered things.
And I'm not saying this is truthor not, but I do think there's
something almost similar to thatin skiing and snowboarding,
(08:14):
that it is so simple and basicand uncomplex that it makes it a
very good place for clarity andmaybe finding yourself.
And so once I you know, mypassion grew with all these
things, you get to a point whereyou're like and you just
realize you're getting older inthese sports.
I mean, I look at the average.
You know pro skateboarder nowand it's like 16.
(08:34):
So I'm at that age where it'slike let me use the knowledge
that I have and start trying tofigure out how to give back and
give somebody.
Maybe what I wish somebody elsecould have given me when I was
at age and I was given a lot.
But let's give the next kidmore.
You know a better opportunity.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah Well, that goes back to some of the earlier
comments.
We kind of started where Steveand Reinhold said kind of some
of the very same things and Ithink for him that's what you
gave him.
You sort of started him on thatjourney and we know where the
Appalachian adventure company istoday and you know, at some
level we have to believe thatsome of the influences from
(09:11):
people like you, you know, whogot him stoked on sharing the
stoke of the great outdoors, Ijust feel like it probably had
something to do with that.
And I've had the, the pleasureI'll call it the good pleasure
to have talked with you a fewtimes and kind of meeting you
and you know in person beforeyou are very much a person who's
passionate about bringing otherpeople along to the sport that
(09:33):
you love, getting them involved,and that's great If it's like a
group of people that you'regetting ready to go, you know,
take on a or, you know, to meetat the park or to go on a
snowboarding trip or do whatever.
But you've kind of taken this tothe different level.
You've gotten involved in thegovernment side the man or
excuse, not the management, butthe the town hall side meeting
(09:54):
with local government to reallykind of make resources available
for people to enjoy At leastthe skateboarding part, and
there's kind of two events thatwe'll talk about later and they
both speak to just that.
But I love to talk about howyou've saw your sport, your
interest in the sport and whatwas missing in the sport, and
(10:14):
then how you went out andstarted making Efforts and
contacts with the localgovernment to to really make
change, to be a change agent foryour community.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
It started with my mom.
You know it's really youngskating around the streets of
Waynesville getting caught introuble.
Nobody wanted you there.
You were a liability.
You didn't make the businesslook good if you're, you know,
tick-tacking around in front oftheir business.
And you know I, my mom, justyou know, was trying to be
encouragement of anything Iwanted to do that was active,
that seemed positive.
(10:44):
I got very fortunate.
From a young age.
I had an older skate mentor whoyou know, took me on the road,
took me on skate trips, andreally was a positive influence.
I mean, I think, every singleaspect of life, you know, you
have your maybe more negativeinfluences and you have your
more positive ones.
And it skateboarding, obviously, you know, with its background,
you know maybe rough around theedges, but I got really
(11:05):
fortunate with the older guy whotook me under his wing and,
like, took me to other towns togo skating.
And I think that still, as youknow, we're just like each one
teach one.
You know he did that for me andI was like I want to share that
the kids because it was.
It was awesome.
I got to go to all these othercities and skate their parks and
but my mom, you know she, shewould get calls late at night
(11:27):
from the cops me like we sawcaught your kid skating around
town, you know, and she would.
She was awesome.
She would say, the second youcatch him doing something he
really shouldn't be doing.
You call me, but if he's just,if that's the worst he's doing
is pushing around town at night,don't bought, don't wake me up.
But she told me she's like theonly way you change this is you
start going to town meetings.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Really.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, so I mean, at like 14 I started going and
using my two minutes at thebeginning of a public town
meetings to express the need fora skate park in Waynesville and
she told me she's like, allright, you've gone to one,
you'll, if you want it, you keepgoing, and that persistence
will be what.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
What this will be if you want to see it through wow,
what an amazing parenting joband shepherding you as a young
person.
That's amazing man.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, very grateful.
Yeah yeah, still to this day.
I mean she's.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Well, our moms are yeah, yeah, good, good that you
recognize that, yeah, so youcontinue to go, you continue to
be a part of these.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Um, yeah, there was.
There's some big gaps and a lotof other cool things that
happened in between that.
I started that.
My boss at Ski's and tees, youknow we started selling
skateboarders there because Iskateboarded.
He did really well with that.
He started that.
He opened a skate shop inAsheville.
He had one in the Biltmore Mall.
I mean, it grew for him and itwas cool.
He didn't skate, but he could.
He liked us and he could seethat there was a business there.
(12:51):
He have then opened a skate parkin bossam, between Waynesville
and Silva, and it was there forlike seven years and it ended up
closing down in the 08recession.
It was just like we just feltthe hit as soon as it came that
you know.
So we had a private park.
So while we had the privatepark, there was no need to go to
town meetings.
We had an indoor place.
We had a key to it.
You know we were doing lock-ins, we were doing contests, like
(13:13):
we had this whole littleatmosphere as these young group
of guys.
It was amazing.
Well, you really couldn't askfor anything better.
When OA happened, the parkclosed.
The positive thing was, insteadof just me going to the
meetings, we had all these guyswho were used to having a place
to skate and now I don't know,they had to place a skate, but
we had a group of people.
(13:34):
So it was like what do we do?
We rally, you know.
So we would go to thesemeetings and there'd be 20 of us
.
You show up with 20 people tolike a few times.
Towns kind of have to start tolisten right.
And I hate to be like the rudedisruptor because I feel like a
lot of people abuse thatprivilege.
Yeah, but it it works.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Well, you know, as you're saying that, my mind
immediately went back to yourmom at 14.
This isn't a new.
This isn't a new rodeo for you.
You've been here before and youknew how to act and respond and
do this well.
And that's exactly where mymind went, like I can see how
that can happen.
And it does happen.
These, these loud disruptorsDoesn't change anybody's mind,
it just doesn't yeah you knowyou can scream and fuss all you
(14:16):
want, but you're not gonnachange somebody's mind.
You figured out how to do this,the right way.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, we, you know, we had a group of people and we
would consistently keep showingup.
And then Alderman Gary he wasAlderman, he's the mayor now of
Waynesville.
He was the Alderman at the timeand he came to us and he's like
I'm gonna see you through, I'mgonna see you guys through on
this project.
He would travel with my mom toother towns to look at skate
parks, get other towns to sendher blueprints, talk about legal
(14:42):
stuff.
And he was true by his word.
I mean he saw us all the waythrough to it to the day of the
ribbon cutting.
He's been the mayor.
You know this is his secondterm as mayor and for me I saw
government work as at a youngage.
So of course I was like, okay,this, it can work.
It's just painful sometimes.
(15:05):
And it's slow and it's annoying,yeah, but yeah, there's always
that, but right yeah but greatstuff can come from it, you know
, and sometimes you just runinto dead ends.
But if, if you're not yourvoice, you're asking somebody
else to be the voice, and that'salways sometimes that's not
gonna work, because thennobody's gonna be the voice.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Wow good words you know.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So I just learned that that is like you know, If
my, your intentions are pure andyou feel like you're pushing
something that's not skewed butit is pure and it's gonna be a
benefit to the community and thepeople who live in the
community, Then somebody needsto speak up good for you.
Yeah, and you did, and you haveyeah, and then you know, since I
saw it work, I've continued tobe like I want to.
(15:47):
I want to do.
You know, you want to helpshape your community and be the
to the Raddish place it couldpossibly be.
I mean, I'm choosing to livehere.
Why wouldn't I want to live inthe Raddish place?
So let me help shape that,instead of just sitting around
with my friends at dinner andcomplaining about it, because
enough, that's what it is,that's all it's ever gonna be is
you and your friends and youcan have great points.
(16:08):
You got it.
Some point.
You got to go do that dirtywork, whether it's DIY
grassroots yourself or going thegovernment route, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
So let's talk about the fruits of that then.
So you travel, you're involved,you're hearing 20 people show
up Consistently.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
It obviously led to some fruits of that labor
eventually, you know we gainedmomentum and Next thing, you
know, we're ribbon cutting outthere with the mayor and other
town leaders on a piece ofground that used to be an old
horse track that wasn't usedanymore in Waynesville.
And there's these plans anddesigns for this.
What, for a small town at thetime, was a state of the art
(16:43):
skate park like a big deal Cool,and still it was like we did it
right.
You know, they talked to usskaters all the way through.
They asked for our advice ondesign, how it should be ran in
management, and there was a guyfrom Charleston there earlier
this week and he's like this isthe best skate park in North
Carolina.
Wow, we're not the biggestRight and I don't even know that
(17:04):
we're the best, but people likeit.
It's laid out well, the vibefeels very good, it's still to
this day, it is a positive andfor kids from 10 years down the
road it'll still be a positivebecause it's good.
But I really think so much ofthat is because the government
and the skaters we listened toeach other.
Good, good, good it wasn't justthem taking the reins and saying
(17:25):
, all right, this is how it'sgoing to be.
It's like if you really want tobe good, you need to work with
the people who are actuallyusing it.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Good, good, and you have and you've worked with them
, and then now you have createdthese amazing events and we're
talking about events and justkind of your overall thought
about what events do but all ofthis has kind of led to the
first ever.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
The Wayne Town.
Throwdown the Wayne Town.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Throwdown.
That's right, and this is so.
Is this the inaugural, or isthis First one?
First, one.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
The skaters have done grassroots stuff there, like
little events and stuff, but wealways had to do it under the
radar of the town because wewere technically illegally using
this space for an event.
When you needed all this extrainsurance, you need to be paying
these fees.
I didn't care For me.
It was like if you want to comeafter me, I'd rather be doing
(18:15):
good than us not doing anything.
You have this awesome facilitythat people use.
Nurture it Just because youbuilt it.
Don't just let it sit here Ifit already works and people will
tell you Wayne's.
Well, this is the mostconsistently used facility.
I mean, if it's dry, there'snormally somebody out there.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Wow, that's great.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, so that's a testament.
So I'm like to me, I'm like youalready have something that
works.
Build on that, Because you'vedone the hard part.
And I just felt like the townhad built it and they walked
away.
So I you know my engagement forlast year, since that was
constantly going through, withthem being like, hey, like we
got this good facility, what ifwe did an event?
What if we did you know justsomething, and same thing as the
(18:55):
skate park.
It took a long time, but herewe are, you know, finally I
found the right people in townwho, you know, heard the call
and was like this is cool, thisis cool, let's do something down
there, Like let's figure outhow to get through all the red
tape and having a bit down here,Cause it could be really cool.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Cool, all right, and so it has grown from that
concept to now.
You're talking about bringingpeople in from outside, coming
in local people too.
You're talking about giveaways,and you know all this Talk
about how this is affecting theskate community here and also I
don't know if it's safe to sayregionally, or where do you,
where do you anticipate peoplecoming from?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Well, hopefully, you know, georgia, South Carolina,
tennessee, obviously NorthCarolina, the skate community is
pretty close.
We've done events in Cherokee.
We've done multiple events inCherokee.
We've done stuff for streetfestivals in silver, you know.
We've done video premieres atlocal breweries and pizza spots
(19:55):
in Wayne'sville and stuff.
So we've done a lot of eventsand we've that's the thing about
doing all these events is ournetwork is big because we've
done these events.
So it's like I feel like nowwhen we reach out and say hey,
we got this going on, it's easyfor us to get ears and people to
pay attention.
I think people have also seenthat's like all right, these
guys really genuinely try tomake it fun.
They're all the same ick of us.
(20:16):
You know they are.
You know it's not just somegovernment people trying to do
an event, it's like it'sactually done by this skate
community.
So I think we got a broadnetwork of people and I think
our community is so hungry forevents.
You have to think about, likeyou know, a soccer team.
You play a game every Saturday.
If you're on a sports team, youplay, at least you practice,
(20:38):
but you play once a week.
You know, and I kept using thisas an example to when I would
talk to town people.
I was like, imagine if youplayed a team sport.
You go to practice Tuesday andThursday, never a game.
It's not that the sport's notawesome, but you need something
that holds that retention, thatgets you excited, that makes you
want to put your best footforward every day that you step
(20:59):
out there.
That's motivating and that'sgood and I think that's healthy.
And I was like the skate park'scool.
We all use it, what it?
But kids need something to beworking for.
Now that there's a contestcoming up, I know kids are gonna
be at the skate park even morebecause they know that that day
is coming and it's not about thecompetitive side, but the fact
(21:20):
that it motivates you and thatyou're gonna maybe spend more
time there than maybe sitting onyour couch you know, yeah,
we're doing whatever else.
Yeah, you know and you know we Ihad started doing skate lessons
in town.
Well, after the skate park hadbeen there, I'd never grown up
using lessons.
Skateboarding was always justgo out and try 1,000 tries, like
(21:44):
there's no easy button to this.
But I just kept seeing parentswho had come out to the skate
park and be like gosh, like Ican shoot a basketball, I can
throw a baseball, but I cannotphysically help my kid when he
is interested in this activity.
And for me I was just like Ijust heard that call for a need,
so much that I was like I willdo this and I think we were also
(22:04):
finally getting well, notfinally, it was a bad thing, but
I think we were getting into anera where parents were for the
first time and maybe ourlifetime, where they were
dealing with the dilemma of kidsof like how do I get them off a
screen?
You know, like we have had TVand stuff, but it was the first
time that really started whereparents are like this is an
(22:26):
issue and how do we combat this?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
So I was like all right, yeah, I believe being
outside and being with otherpeople and applying yourself to
something, even if it'schallenging, even if it's gonna
hurt you sometimes, buteverybody respects you out here
because you're trying somethinghard and we know that.
Because I'm out here tryingsomething hard, like I've been
there, if I see a kid trying atrick, even if I'm way better
than him, I was like I've beenthere.
(22:49):
I know frustration and to getto that point to learning it
that everybody's very supportiveof each other.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Yeah, that's good, and you've always talked about
that.
When we talked about some ofthe events of just that's the
whole community building andpeople rallying around each
other, and it wasn't just thecompetitiveness of that
particular event, like you'resaying.
It was pulling everybodytogether, giving them something
to shoot for.
You're speaking in commonlanguage.
People are finding community,whatever that means to them.
(23:17):
They're finding it in that kindof space.
So that's cool.
I mean, I love the fact thatyou're kind of facilitating all
of that.
So tell me some of the stories,then, that have come out of not
just this event that's comingup in a couple of months or so,
but just in general, leadinginto this the community that
it's built, the differences thatit's made in people's lives,
and you just talked about theparents saying it's screen time,
(23:39):
screen time, and this isdefinitely a positive
alternative to just sitting infront of your screen.
But I don't know if any, aswe're kind of talking any names
or just images come into yourmind about conversations with
parents or kids or connectionsyou've made along the way.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
There's a lot.
I'll give you the most recentone.
We just did our snowboard videocontest and had our premiere of
it.
One of the kids I think he gotthird place.
I saw his mom a couple of dayslater and she was like my kid
was so good that next day hehelped around with chores around
the house.
His spirit was high, he wascheerful and it was almost like
(24:17):
she had seen a side of her kidthat she maybe don't get to see
all the time and it's like, yeah, if I could get the gas a kid
up and get a kid excited, I'mcool with that.
Like, get excited.
I want people to be excitedbecause I feel like if you're
excited, you're engaged andyou're more likely to invoke
some change because it overflowsyou and you want to pour that
(24:38):
out.
Yeah, so that's just one of themost recent ones.
But it's like just doing theseevents, like I would encourage
everybody, like, in your own way, try to get more involved.
Like I like the events nowbecause it broadens who all I'm
meeting you know I'm meeting somany new people.
Like I announced an event.
I'll get a message from a bandin Knoxville.
(24:58):
I'll be like can I come play atyour event, or can I bring this
thing, or can I come do this?
And every time we do an eventthere's different people who
reach out and you just broadenyour network of people who can
help you and bring them intoyour community.
Cool, and that's fun.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, that's real fun .
Well, you mentioned it.
So let's kind of segue intothis first annual cat classic.
This is really cool.
This is like out of the boxthinking and I love.
I know there's a backstory andyou'll kind of set it up, but
yeah, I love to kind of you'reon your first thoughts to how
this could be, to the things youwent through, to what it
ultimately ended up being.
Let's hear about the firstannual cat classic that was just
(25:36):
had this past weekend.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah yeah, the cat classic.
This was brand new to us but wewanted to try, put our best
foot forward and try somethingnew and just see if it went
somewhere or not.
But to try was the mostimportant part.
Growing up at Cattalucci, Iremember younger years.
There would be rail jams, therewould be big air contest and
stuff like that and I loved it.
(25:58):
I thought it was so fun and itmade, towards the end of the
season, so exciting to havethese things coming up and
they've gone away for a lot ofyears and I feel I just felt
really bad for kids who aregrowing up at Cattalucci.
I was like, if you've startedsnowboarding at Cattalucci at
the last I don't know at leastseven years, you've never seen
an event, but you've watched ZebPowell get two medals in the X
(26:19):
games.
But if you want to go to anevent you got to go to Boone and
a lot of kids that's likethat's a tough reach.
Just to ask right now get yourparents to drive you to Boone to
go to this event.
That can be very intimidating,cause those people are riding
that stuff every day of the year.
They're riding jumps and railsand you know from being at
Cattalucci.
It's limited and that's okay,and part of that's the fact of
(26:42):
where it's located, but it alsodoesn't take a lot to do
something to stoke people outand just to stir excitement.
So we had heard all through theyears about that.
We couldn't do stuff atCattalucci because of liability.
I get so tired of that word, Ifeel like it's such a roadblock
(27:03):
of a word.
I was like I get liability butlet's find, if there's a will,
there's a way.
If there can find somebodywithin a corporation or a group
that's willing to have aconversation to look into
another alternate way.
I was like there's a way.
We just especially if all theseother mountains are having
events, there's no reason why wecouldn't find an avenue to have
an event.
So what we did and this is goingback to a testament of being in
(27:27):
a shop atmosphere is you sitaround with other guys of
like-mindedness and you thinkabout what can we do to give
something back to our scene.
So we came up with this idea.
I was like, well, if we can'tdo a contest on snow at
physically there, let's do avideo contest where we create an
email on the Instagram page, welet kids film for a certain
(27:48):
amount of time and then theyturn their one minute of edited
footage.
You can put music to it, youcould clip it up, you could do
one run top to bottom.
There was really no rules.
It was like just participateand submit it.
We opened up filming for twomonths and then they submitted
footage.
The idea was to edit it all andput it all into one video where
(28:10):
everybody played and we puteverybody's names and like
Instagram handles at the bottomof the videos, have a premiere
and set it up at a place whereall these people could come
together and really just get toknow other people who are into
the same passions they are.
Cause I had told you in otherearlier conversations, I was
like I was so used to the skatepark atmosphere where, if
(28:31):
somebody shows up a few times,you talk to these people.
You're in this little kind ofboxed in area.
Nobody's wearing ski mask orgoggles.
You're not on this likedifferent time wave because
people on a chair lift andyou're on the snow, but you
could see people by their gear.
You're like you're fanaticabout this, you're really into
this, but I don't.
It's hard to just break thatice sometimes, but at the skate
(28:52):
park it was so easy and I wasjust got so frustrated.
I was like I feel like there'sso many passionate people in
this area, but I feel like Iknow so we're not unified by any
way.
And so I was like let's dosomething and at least we'll get
people together and peoplestart knowing who each other are
and hopefully will grow ourcommunity.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
So I was able to see on Instagram just some of the
clips of some of the videos.
I guess there maybe thecompilation of the video that
you all put together, which wasreally really kind of unique and
it's just kind of cool.
But it's totally different thananything, because you're just
using the, basically like ifelements were set up, you can
write those manmade elements,but it was also natural elements
too that people were usingtrees, you know, drops, I mean,
(29:32):
and that's a cool thing aboutsome of those upper snowbird,
lower snowbird, when there'swhen it's full, there's a lot of
variety there and I didn'trealize that until this year.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Kelly's terrain is incredible.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
It is.
It is actually.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, I mean the natural terrain of it.
When it has snow on all thosewalls, I was like it's a
playground.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Well, I always wonder , look around at snowboarders
and like where are they?
Man?
I know they're right in thetrees, you know I mean the lifts
, but you know they'd be rippingdown alley cat or maybe
sometimes on upper Omegosh.
But you go to the lowersnowbird and upper snowbird man,
on good days and it was just, Imean, I would sit there and
just watch, literally I mean,even though I was a mountain
host I would just kind of postup and just I'm there to kind of
watch people.
But the snowboarders were kindof fascinating and I remember
(30:14):
going, I mean, and we're sittingat one fence and this right at
the intersection of alley cat,where lower snowbird comes into
upper, comes into lower, and youcan sort of make that left and
there was a drop big snow.
It was one of the best daysI've had out there.
And all of a sudden this guyjust drops over the alleged and
I probably shouldn't say thisout loud, but ski patrol and I
looked at each other and werelike, well, you know, probably
(30:34):
should say something.
But that's pretty rad, man, Iprobably would have done the
same thing if I was 18 years old.
But anyway, not to take awayfrom the story, but amazing
terrain, which led to amazingvideos too.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah, I mean, people are surfing the white winter
wave up there, that's for sure,and it's a blast.
And you could I mean there's somany people that you can just
tell like share that same joyand passion.
I think if you're blessed andyou're fortunate enough to be
able to get up there andexperience skiing and
snowboarding, you know thatyou're like this is special,
like this is a really coolfeeling to be able to slide down
a mountain at the speeds thatyou can and the turns that you
(31:06):
can make.
But not everybody getsexperienced that and I think
that's a part of our goal too isjust like how do we make this
thing that more accessible tomore people?
Because it is awesome and it isreally it's.
I think it's, I think it'shealthy for folks, yeah, to be
in outside the mountains and,you know, being able to express
your own creativity andindividuality.
And that's what's cool aboutthe video contest is like you
(31:29):
know there's no rule, there wasno rules.
You know there's no sidelinesthat you can't go out of.
It's like you, you makecreative.
Yeah, and you make your video.
We just wanted to open that upto people but we had no idea up
until you know, a couple of daysbefore the deadline, if people
were going to be into it or notinto it.
All like it was a roll of adice.
(31:49):
People would ask me all the waythrough, like are people doing
it?
I don't know.
I don't know, but we're havingI mean, we're having fun setting
this up.
I know, like the guy who woulddo all our IT work like if you
go in the cat classic Instagram,it's like he was doing all our
graphics and stuff and he justmade it funny and fun and not so
serious because we're not atWest trying to be a part of X
(32:10):
games, we're in the South.
I mean we're literally about tobe done with skiing within the
next week, or so.
So don't make it what it's not,but it is a celebration and it
is a blessing and fun to be upthere and there is a lot of
talent, of people doingincredible stuff.
That's like somebody shouldcelebrate this, cool.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
You know All right, so tell us about your
celebration.
Then you had how many videos.
How many people were there?
Sounded like it was a greatnight, great food, great music.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Yeah, Break it down for us.
Well, we had.
In the end we had 24 entries.
Obviously we would, we would,we would have loved more, but I
think for first year, we are sopleased.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
And the amount of response that we got from the
people who were involved and thepeople who sponsored it and
other people who, like, came tothe event, I think was enough
testament to us.
I was like, cool, we didsomething that we should have.
We did something we should havedone.
Cool, yeah, 24 entries.
We wanted to do a women'sdivision, you know, of course,
(33:08):
but you know there had been anycontest around here in so long.
Anyway, I think any contestwould have been welcome.
But I was like, man, I want toknow what ladies are out here
ripping the slopes that I don'tknow about, right, you know.
And then also the youngergenerations, like I want to know
who these people are.
People made incredible videos.
They edited the music.
You know, it was fun.
(33:28):
I mean, we just got a widevariety of different, different
takes on people riding themountain, but people
participated and it was cool.
So then we set up the premiereand called Salty Dogs Backyard
Bar in Maggie Valley so youcould go ski the mountain, come
off the mountain, come eat somebarbecue and, like, watch a
video of you and your friendsand cheer and just try to make
(33:48):
it as fun as we could.
We had a traumatic experiencewith one of the cooks actually
choked.
Cpr had to be done in mouth tomouth and I think it was a real
traumatic and scary experiencefor a lot of us.
You know, you never expect orhope for anything like that to
happen.
The good news is, I mean hesurvived, but it was.
(34:09):
I mean it's happened right inthe middle of the event that a
man choked.
I told you early, one of themost incredible parts of the
story was two kids who hadentered from Asheville, not that
familiar with their parents,brought them to the event.
They had skied Cattilucci thatday, come down there for the
event.
This gentleman choked andthey're the ones who did CPR and
mouth to mouth and save savethis guy's life.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Wow, it's amazing.
Yeah, Still gives me chills.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
That man left in an ambulance and you know it was
traumatic for everybody and sowe.
You know that's a tough one tobring the vibe back from, but
you know I knew people stillwanted to see the videos and the
entries and I just toldeverybody, you know, just think
about that, this could have beenany one of us.
Keep this man in your prayersand your thoughts and let's send
(34:56):
him all the good energy.
But I know that this man hehelped me organize this thing he
wants this to happen.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Oh, I didn't know that we did, oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah, he was one of the you know employees of the
restaurant, like technically oneof the owners, and so when we
were first planning of it, hewas the guy I would sit down
with at the restaurant and weworked through like, all right,
this is what we think it's goingto be.
All right, you're going to dothis food.
All right, we'll start at thistime.
So he was very excited.
He wanted this to happen.
He's like I like this idea, youknow, and it was just
(35:26):
unfortunate what happened.
But once you know he left, Ijust told me I was like I know
this.
He wants us to party.
Like for us to hang it up rightnow would bum him out.
He would want us to party.
So we did the best we could andbrought the vibes back.
We had live music from dudeswho work at Kataluchi, which was
(35:48):
so cool.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Cool, cool.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, to be able to be like oh you guys work at Kat,
but you have a band, let's go.
Of course you guys can get onthe stage.
So we did music we made.
We made like big cardboardchecks but we made them out like
nice wood and everything andpainted them Cool.
And I remember going to skatecontest as a kid and getting a
few of those big checks andstill to this day they hang up
(36:11):
in the ski shop and I love itand people are always like
that's so cool.
All it is a fake check.
Yeah, it's big, but it invokessomething like this is special
and like unique, and I was likeI just wanted to pass that on to
kids to get them stoked.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
And that's what you've done.
I mean, I feel like you'vespent a lifetime doing that.
You started out as a 13, 14year old youth, got stoked, got
into it, and then you just keptwanting to bring other people
along and you haven't let upLike I don't know, you don't
know how to let up on that, doyou?
No, no, but.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
I'm blessed, you know , and I know you know life can
change at any point.
But the friends that I'm makingfrom it and the connections
within my community andeverything he's like, why would
I want to give that and just tohave the opportunity to try
stuff now you know to be like,all right, let's try this.
Are some people going to beoffended by this contest?
Maybe or not.
Yeah maybe, but I think ourintentions are good and I think
(37:10):
we want to invoke Good change.
So I think the good faroutweighs the bad is the way I
viewed it.
And if nobody else is, nobodyelse is doing it for the youth,
you know.
So they does, they deserve it.
I think.
What I think the talent withinthe skate world and the
snowboard world around here isCool and is good, and it takes
(37:30):
very little to make gas kids upand make them happy.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Yeah, well, so what?
There's many things to loveabout this, but one of the
things in particular I thinkthat I love is that there can be
you going back to your mom, youCops calling your mom saying
this kid, there's this, there'sthis mindset that these kids are
gonna come and tear up anddestroy and thrash, and you know
all the things and theirsubcultures within scale.
(37:55):
There's all these things youhave to kind of overcome, but at
the end of the day, there'svery, very positive things.
They're out, they're active,they, you know, if it's that
they're chosen way to expresstheir own creativity.
You can have a mountain bikerdoes the same thing, a kayaker
it's really no differentwhatsoever and there are kids
who now have outlets, and italso makes a huge economic
(38:16):
impact as well.
And so the towns, people, themayors, they're traveling,
they're seeing the impact thatthese events are making.
You see them popping up allover now.
I mean just down the road inMills River we have I don't know
if it's gonna be a skate park,but they're completely
Revitalizing that pump tracks, awhole nine yard.
I mean it's really cool to seewhat's happening and those that
didn't exist before.
(38:37):
I mean I'm preaching to thechoir with you and I don't skate
, but I just remember, you knowI what I do remember is back in
the 80s in high school, goingfor the school newspaper to do a
Story on the local skaters whohad just built.
There was nothing for themanywhere and it was just
literally a half-pike in thebackyard that there wasn't place
for people to do that kind ofstuff.
And there is now and you seethat, and I've kind of have just
(38:58):
watched, even though I'm not askater myself, I have, I have a
longboard, you know, with, with,with a stick, it's great on
flat ground.
I start to get on the theinclines and going downhill I
really realized real quickly I'mout of my element here, I
better hang on.
But I understand the stoke andyou can see it in the kids and
you see that they have an outlet.
And one word that you usedearlier I keep I was calling you
a change agent or, you know,community activator, and you
(39:20):
just said you know it's, it'spositive change.
I'm gonna create positivechange and you've said that over
and over and you've said it acouple times here today and and
that's what's happening in bothyou and I think it's also
happening in these, facilitiesare being built for kids too.
We have a skate park just nottoo far away in in
Hendersonville too.
That's a pretty widely popularskate park.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
I'm in Hendersonville .
I'm going there after our leafhere.
There you go See all the wayout here I'm gonna, you're gonna
skate birds with one stone.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
I love it.
Oh, that's great, that'sawesome.
Well, listen, man, you're thetype of person that every time
we've talked, we always kind ofjoke and say we should have hit
record Because we could have hadanother episode that came out
of that.
Even standing in the dininghall at cat one night, you know,
I applaud and really kind ofcelebrate what you do, man, what
you do for people.
And you know, again, stephenReinhold, we got to give him,
(40:06):
you know, a shout out forEncouraging me to have this.
He knew that you'd be somebodythat people would love to hear
their story.
And then there's more to thatstory too, I know, and there's
more to be told in this storywith you, I think, with future
events.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, we're gonna keep doing and I feel like
what's cool about this is, youknow, you find people within the
same energies and the samepassions as you and you grow it.
I mean, that's how I hear withyou today.
You know I had come across yourpodcast through being involved
with BOC and made by mountains.
Yeah and I, you know, startedlistening to you while while I
worked.
I was like this is somebody whois self, that same ick as I
(40:40):
feel like, as I am, you knowcool and To broaden that and to
make a new friend.
You know it's like supervaluable and cool, you know.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
We are today.
Here we are today.
I know I love it.
I really do celebrate you andall the work that you're doing
before I let you go, though, andgo skate, because I know that's
what you really want to get to.
You want to talk about, youwant to do it.
I would love for people to knowhow can they find out more
about where you work, number one, and then also about the Wayne
Town throwdown a little bit moreabout how people can find out
about that and get involved.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
You know my social media is just underscored.
Jared Lee, if you don't livearound Haywood County, we're
going to be posting up signs atthe skate park to have QR codes
so people can pre-register andfind out any info on the event.
We'll post those same QR codes,you know, through our social
medias and spread them throughthe skate world as well as we
can through shops and whatnot,so that you can find out about
that.
(41:30):
Come out.
If you don't skate it that day,come out Watch Support.
We're going to have some foodtrucks.
We're going to block off thewhole parking lot and let some
people, let us set up some rampsin the parking lot so while the
younger kids are skating intheir part of the contest, you
can still go skate the parkinglot and just hopefully have an
atmosphere where people justhang out all day.
So we're going to be spreadingthat.
You know, in the winter months Iwork at Ski's and T's in Maggie
(41:51):
Valley.
We go in there and we serve thevisitors of Maggie and try to
help them have a good time whenthey go to Kataluchi, get ready
to phase out of there and go domy summer work, which is I just
have a lawn care business.
It pays the bills.
I get to be outside, I get tolisten to podcasts like yours
and others, and so that's great.
And then you know, I've run athing called Big Brother Boards,
(42:14):
which is like a skate camp.
Well, we did, we've done camps.
Right now We've just been doinglessons, but there's a lot of
cool things, hopefully in thefuture, that are coming together
with that.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Well, keep spreading the stoke dude.
Every time I'm with you, man,your smile is infectious, your
vibe is infectious.
Yeah, you, just you're a funguy to be around, man, and I
just appreciate you making thedrive down here and sharing just
a tiny bit of your story.
I know there's a lot more therethat I can't wait to unpack and
learn as the days go on.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Well, I'm grateful and thankful for having me.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
As we reflect on Jared's journey, we're reminded
of the power of perseverance andcommunity support.
From advocating for a skatepark to spreading the stoke for
snowboarding, jared's impactresonates far beyond the
confines of his town.
I hope you've been inspired byJared's story and the broader
implications of outdooractivities and community
engagement.
Let's continue to celebrate thecollaborative spirit and shape
(43:02):
thriving environments for all topursue their dreams.
Be sure to subscribe toExploration Local so you'll be
one of the first to know aboutmore heartfelt discussions and
stories of transformation.
Join me on Instagram andFacebook and drop me a note at
Mike at ExplorationLocalcom ifyou ever have a suggestion for a
future episode or if you justwant to say hello.
Until next time, keep embracingyour passions and fostering
(43:25):
connections within yourcommunity and, by all means,
keep wandering far but exploringlocal.
And by all means, keepwandering far but exploring
(43:58):
local.
Ever wondered how a single passion can ignite change
in United Community?
Jared Lee's story is one thatexemplifies this phenomenon,
painting a vivid picture of hisprofound connection with the
great outdoors and histransformative impact on his
hometown through his love forboard sports.
As a child, gifted with alifetime hunting and fishing
license, he was destined tointertwine his life with nature.
(00:21):
His zeal for skateboarding andsnowboarding reveals just how
finding one's true path can leadto advocacy.
Jared's tale is a testament tothe power of community and
perseverance.
From advocating for a skatepark at town hall meetings as a
youngster to seeing the fruitsof his labor in the form of a
steady-the-art skate facility,his journey underscores the
significance of mentorship andcommunal effort.
(00:42):
His influence extends beyondthe skate park.
It's felt in the passion heinstills in others and in the
way he champions environmentalprotection.
It's a narrative thatcelebrates the collaborative
spirit, how a United Communitycan shape thriving environments
for youth to chase theirathletic dreams.
In this heartfelt discussion,we don't just walk through
Jared's personal milestone.
We also examine the broaderimplications of outdoor
(01:04):
activities and communityengagement in enriching lives.
We delve into the creation ofmemorable events, like the cat
classic and the Wayne Townthrowdown, that bring people
together over shared passions.
Moreover, jared'sentrepreneurial spirit shines
through as he balances his lovefor board sports with running a
business, all while contributingto the stoke of his community.
(01:25):
Prepare to be moved by storiesof transformation, the
importance of fostering abalance between the digital and
physical worlds, and theundeniable impact that comes
from nurturing the athletic andenvironmental interest of the
young and old alike.
I'll see you on the other side.
Music.
You're listening to ExplorationLocal, a podcast designed to
(01:49):
explore and celebrate the peopleand places that make the Blue
Ridge and Southern AppalachianMountains special and unique.
My name is Mike Andrus, thehost of Exploration Local.
Join us on our journey toexplore these mountains and
discover how they fuel a spiritof adventure.
We encourage you to wander far,but explore local.
Let's go.
(02:10):
This is going to be a reallyfun episode.
Jared, I appreciate you makingthe drive over to the studio.
Man.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Thank you, Good to be here.
I'm a big fan listening in along time.
Cool to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
That's awesome, man, so good to have you here.
People are going to find out,probably within the first 30
seconds, your passion for theoutdoors here, but we're going
to talk about the communityactivating and some of the
things that you've done.
You've made a major impact inthe outdoor life and you I know
you and I have talked and youprobably don't think that, but
Steve Reinhold, he talked to meseveral weeks ago and said that
(02:40):
you were one of the biggestinfluences on his life when he
was growing up, getting him intothe board sports, the
skateboarding, the snowboarding,just outdoor activities in
general, and he said you werethe original stoke maker for him
.
So, dude, I can't wait tounpack this.
I love the big grin on yourface.
I love it right now, whichpeople can see.
We should maybe we shouldprobably video these things.
But anyway, jared, you havegoing all the way back to like
(03:05):
before your first birthday ormaybe on your first birthday you
got a really amazing gift.
So let's kind of set up youbeing from here and your passion
for the outdoors, and thenwe'll start to get into some of
the board sport stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I feel like I was introduced to the outdoors for a
very early age.
My first birthday, my parentsgifted me with a lifetime
hunting and fishing license toNorth Carolina, obviously with
no clue if I would ever use thator it would be worth the
investment.
Interesting fun fact $100 backthen.
I don't even know what alifetime fishing license would
cost now, but you can thinkabout what a blessing is in my
(03:37):
life to go fishing and I neverthink about purchasing a license
in North Carolina or knowingthe price of it.
Yes, my parents got theirmonies worth out of it.
Now, as a 40 year old personwho every single year spends
time in the outdoors, it'sdefinitely shaped me, it
fulfills me.
There's something magical andmysterious about being in the
(03:59):
outside and broader spaces.
And then, of course, you findsomething you like and that is
powerful in your life and I feellike you want to share that
with others and obviously youwant to protect that.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, so the skateboarding is one of the
things that you migrated to atan early age as well, and it's
something that really just madean impact on your life.
And did you start skating?
Is snowboarding kind of at thesame time, or did one proceed
the other?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Pretty close back to back.
I had started skating when Iwas like 13.
I had grown up playing sports.
My parents introduced me toabout every sport Let me pick
and choose which ones I wantedto play and I loved it.
I had a lot of fun with it.
And then, I think, sometimeduring middle school, you know,
you start going through maybeyour rebellious phase of where
you want to be your own personor do something different.
(04:48):
And I would walk up to thelibrary every day to get picked
up by my parents from school andthe first Methodist Church
parking lot in Waynesville.
They would let kids skate thereand there would be a
congregation.
The middle school kids wouldwalk up there, the high school
kids would drive there andthey'd let them set up ramps and
that was all there was.
But I saw freedom.
I was so used to telling me thisis when and this is how, and
(05:10):
this is your team.
And I think at that point, justseeing that freedom that these
guys had was very alluring to me.
And yeah, and parents got meaboard and I just started at
home and once I felt confident,like skating around our little
colder sack, you know, I made myway to the first Methodist
Church parking lot and I guessthat's where the journey really
(05:31):
just really started from there.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
That's cool.
Did you say that was FUMCWaynesville?
No way, good people, by the way.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
The most community activated church people I know.
We're doing skate lessons withthem here.
Next month they're bringingtheir youth group down to the
skate park for doing a lesson.
I'm a big supporter.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
That's cool, alright, so you get into skating, you
get into snowboarding.
At what point did you startpulling other people along into
the sport?
Or did you just kind of findthere's a community here and
they're skating and I just kindof joined in, or how did you get
involved in all that?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
My friends who skateboarded pulled me into
snowboarding because we skatedtogether and they was like you
have to try snowboarding.
Went once with them and I gothooked.
But then I was in the dilemmaof, like, this is pricey, this
is not as accessible as having askate deck and some shoes and
going out into a parking lot androaming around town.
So then it became thisconundrum of like alright, how
do I afford to be a part ofsomething that is kind of out of
(06:32):
my price range to do on theregular?
And I got a job at a local skishop so I could get a pass, get
a discount.
I'm still there because I fellin love with the atmosphere of
being in a shop.
I really think there's somethingvery sacred and special about
ski and snowboard shops, bikeshops.
I think that space and I thinkif that space is utilized right,
(06:54):
the change that can come out ofthose spaces to affect a
community is really powerful andit's going to be different than
a space coming out of even awreck department.
So that's for one reason whyI've stayed in that space for so
long.
But it originally just startedso that I could go snowboarding
at Kataluchi.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Okay, okay, yeah, well, I get it.
You and I met this winter.
I was first time mountain hostand you do it.
Obviously, it's a nice perk toget the ski for free, but, yeah,
it's a way to give back and beable to enjoy the sport that you
love at the same time.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yes, and then, following what you're saying, I
guess you could almost say maybeyou do it with your friends,
but obviously skateboarding,snowboarding, is a solo thing,
and so there's a lot of maybeyou could call it selfishness I
don't know if that's the rightword for it you are, it is
something that you're solo doing, but you do it with other
people at times and I do thinkjust years later in life it just
(07:50):
became more apparent to me.
It's like this has affected mylife and this has been very
powerful in my life.
And this is a very simple thing.
I don't know if this is true ornot, but I think there's a, I
believe there's a scripture.
It talks about, you know, usingthe simple things of this world
to shame the wise or the highpowered things.
And I'm not saying this is truthor not, but I do think there's
something almost similar to thatin skiing and snowboarding,
(08:14):
that it is so simple and basicand uncomplex that it makes it a
very good place for clarity andmaybe finding yourself.
And so once I you know, mypassion grew with all these
things, you get to a point whereyou're like and you just
realize you're getting older inthese sports.
I mean, I look at the average.
You know pro skateboarder nowand it's like 16.
(08:34):
So I'm at that age where it'slike let me use the knowledge
that I have and start trying tofigure out how to give back and
give somebody.
Maybe what I wish somebody elsecould have given me when I was
at age and I was given a lot.
But let's give the next kidmore.
You know a better opportunity.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah Well, that goes back to some of the earlier
comments.
We kind of started where Steveand Reinhold said kind of some
of the very same things and Ithink for him that's what you
gave him.
You sort of started him on thatjourney and we know where the
Appalachian adventure company istoday and you know, at some
level we have to believe thatsome of the influences from
(09:11):
people like you, you know, whogot him stoked on sharing the
stoke of the great outdoors, Ijust feel like it probably had
something to do with that.
And I've had the, the pleasureI'll call it the good pleasure
to have talked with you a fewtimes and kind of meeting you
and you know in person beforeyou are very much a person who's
passionate about bringing otherpeople along to the sport that
(09:33):
you love, getting them involved,and that's great If it's like a
group of people that you'regetting ready to go, you know,
take on a or, you know, to meetat the park or to go on a
snowboarding trip or do whatever.
But you've kind of taken this tothe different level.
You've gotten involved in thegovernment side the man or
excuse, not the management, butthe the town hall side meeting
(09:54):
with local government to reallykind of make resources available
for people to enjoy At leastthe skateboarding part, and
there's kind of two events thatwe'll talk about later and they
both speak to just that.
But I love to talk about howyou've saw your sport, your
interest in the sport and whatwas missing in the sport, and
(10:14):
then how you went out andstarted making Efforts and
contacts with the localgovernment to to really make
change, to be a change agent foryour community.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
It started with my mom.
You know it's really youngskating around the streets of
Waynesville getting caught introuble.
Nobody wanted you there.
You were a liability.
You didn't make the businesslook good if you're, you know,
tick-tacking around in front oftheir business.
And you know I, my mom, justyou know, was trying to be
encouragement of anything Iwanted to do that was active,
that seemed positive.
(10:44):
I got very fortunate.
From a young age.
I had an older skate mentor whoyou know, took me on the road,
took me on skate trips, andreally was a positive influence.
I mean, I think, every singleaspect of life, you know, you
have your maybe more negativeinfluences and you have your
more positive ones.
And it skateboarding, obviously, you know, with its background,
you know maybe rough around theedges, but I got really
(11:05):
fortunate with the older guy whotook me under his wing and,
like, took me to other towns togo skating.
And I think that still, as youknow, we're just like each one
teach one.
You know he did that for me andI was like I want to share that
the kids because it was.
It was awesome.
I got to go to all these othercities and skate their parks and
but my mom, you know she, shewould get calls late at night
(11:27):
from the cops me like we sawcaught your kid skating around
town, you know, and she would.
She was awesome.
She would say, the second youcatch him doing something he
really shouldn't be doing.
You call me, but if he's just,if that's the worst he's doing
is pushing around town at night,don't bought, don't wake me up.
But she told me she's like theonly way you change this is you
start going to town meetings.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Really.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, so I mean, at like 14 I started going and
using my two minutes at thebeginning of a public town
meetings to express the need fora skate park in Waynesville and
she told me she's like, allright, you've gone to one,
you'll, if you want it, you keepgoing, and that persistence
will be what.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
What this will be if you want to see it through wow,
what an amazing parenting joband shepherding you as a young
person.
That's amazing man.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, very grateful.
Yeah yeah, still to this day.
I mean she's.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Well, our moms are yeah, yeah, good, good that you
recognize that, yeah, so youcontinue to go, you continue to
be a part of these.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Um, yeah, there was.
There's some big gaps and a lotof other cool things that
happened in between that.
I started that.
My boss at Ski's and tees, youknow we started selling
skateboarders there because Iskateboarded.
He did really well with that.
He started that.
He opened a skate shop inAsheville.
He had one in the Biltmore Mall.
I mean, it grew for him and itwas cool.
He didn't skate, but he could.
He liked us and he could seethat there was a business there.
(12:51):
He have then opened a skate parkin bossam, between Waynesville
and Silva, and it was there forlike seven years and it ended up
closing down in the 08recession.
It was just like we just feltthe hit as soon as it came that
you know.
So we had a private park.
So while we had the privatepark, there was no need to go to
town meetings.
We had an indoor place.
We had a key to it.
You know we were doing lock-ins, we were doing contests, like
(13:13):
we had this whole littleatmosphere as these young group
of guys.
It was amazing.
Well, you really couldn't askfor anything better.
When OA happened, the parkclosed.
The positive thing was, insteadof just me going to the
meetings, we had all these guyswho were used to having a place
to skate and now I don't know,they had to place a skate, but
we had a group of people.
(13:34):
So it was like what do we do?
We rally, you know.
So we would go to thesemeetings and there'd be 20 of us
.
You show up with 20 people tolike a few times.
Towns kind of have to start tolisten right.
And I hate to be like the rudedisruptor because I feel like a
lot of people abuse thatprivilege.
Yeah, but it it works.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Well, you know, as you're saying that, my mind
immediately went back to yourmom at 14.
This isn't a new.
This isn't a new rodeo for you.
You've been here before and youknew how to act and respond and
do this well.
And that's exactly where mymind went, like I can see how
that can happen.
And it does happen.
These, these loud disruptorsDoesn't change anybody's mind,
it just doesn't yeah you knowyou can scream and fuss all you
(14:16):
want, but you're not gonnachange somebody's mind.
You figured out how to do this,the right way.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, we, you know, we had a group of people and we
would consistently keep showingup.
And then Alderman Gary he wasAlderman, he's the mayor now of
Waynesville.
He was the Alderman at the timeand he came to us and he's like
I'm gonna see you through, I'mgonna see you guys through on
this project.
He would travel with my mom toother towns to look at skate
parks, get other towns to sendher blueprints, talk about legal
(14:42):
stuff.
And he was true by his word.
I mean he saw us all the waythrough to it to the day of the
ribbon cutting.
He's been the mayor.
You know this is his secondterm as mayor and for me I saw
government work as at a youngage.
So of course I was like, okay,this, it can work.
It's just painful sometimes.
(15:05):
And it's slow and it's annoying,yeah, but yeah, there's always
that, but right yeah but greatstuff can come from it, you know
, and sometimes you just runinto dead ends.
But if, if you're not yourvoice, you're asking somebody
else to be the voice, and that'salways sometimes that's not
gonna work, because thennobody's gonna be the voice.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Wow good words you know.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So I just learned that that is like you know, If
my, your intentions are pure andyou feel like you're pushing
something that's not skewed butit is pure and it's gonna be a
benefit to the community and thepeople who live in the
community, Then somebody needsto speak up good for you.
Yeah, and you did, and you haveyeah, and then you know, since I
saw it work, I've continued tobe like I want to.
(15:47):
I want to do.
You know, you want to helpshape your community and be the
to the Raddish place it couldpossibly be.
I mean, I'm choosing to livehere.
Why wouldn't I want to live inthe Raddish place?
So let me help shape that,instead of just sitting around
with my friends at dinner andcomplaining about it, because
enough, that's what it is,that's all it's ever gonna be is
you and your friends and youcan have great points.
(16:08):
You got it.
Some point.
You got to go do that dirtywork, whether it's DIY
grassroots yourself or going thegovernment route, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
So let's talk about the fruits of that then.
So you travel, you're involved,you're hearing 20 people show
up Consistently.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
It obviously led to some fruits of that labor
eventually, you know we gainedmomentum and Next thing, you
know, we're ribbon cutting outthere with the mayor and other
town leaders on a piece ofground that used to be an old
horse track that wasn't usedanymore in Waynesville.
And there's these plans anddesigns for this.
What, for a small town at thetime, was a state of the art
(16:43):
skate park like a big deal Cool,and still it was like we did it
right.
You know, they talked to usskaters all the way through.
They asked for our advice ondesign, how it should be ran in
management, and there was a guyfrom Charleston there earlier
this week and he's like this isthe best skate park in North
Carolina.
Wow, we're not the biggestRight and I don't even know that
(17:04):
we're the best, but people likeit.
It's laid out well, the vibefeels very good, it's still to
this day, it is a positive andfor kids from 10 years down the
road it'll still be a positivebecause it's good.
But I really think so much ofthat is because the government
and the skaters we listened toeach other.
Good, good, good it wasn't justthem taking the reins and saying
(17:25):
, all right, this is how it'sgoing to be.
It's like if you really want tobe good, you need to work with
the people who are actuallyusing it.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Good, good, and you have and you've worked with them
, and then now you have createdthese amazing events and we're
talking about events and justkind of your overall thought
about what events do but all ofthis has kind of led to the
first ever.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
The Wayne Town.
Throwdown the Wayne Town.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Throwdown.
That's right, and this is so.
Is this the inaugural, or isthis First one?
First, one.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
The skaters have done grassroots stuff there, like
little events and stuff, but wealways had to do it under the
radar of the town because wewere technically illegally using
this space for an event.
When you needed all this extrainsurance, you need to be paying
these fees.
I didn't care For me.
It was like if you want to comeafter me, I'd rather be doing
(18:15):
good than us not doing anything.
You have this awesome facilitythat people use.
Nurture it Just because youbuilt it.
Don't just let it sit here Ifit already works and people will
tell you Wayne's.
Well, this is the mostconsistently used facility.
I mean, if it's dry, there'snormally somebody out there.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Wow, that's great.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, so that's a testament.
So I'm like to me, I'm like youalready have something that
works.
Build on that, Because you'vedone the hard part.
And I just felt like the townhad built it and they walked
away.
So I you know my engagement forlast year, since that was
constantly going through, withthem being like, hey, like we
got this good facility, what ifwe did an event?
What if we did you know justsomething, and same thing as the
(18:55):
skate park.
It took a long time, but herewe are, you know, finally I
found the right people in townwho, you know, heard the call
and was like this is cool, thisis cool, let's do something down
there, Like let's figure outhow to get through all the red
tape and having a bit down here,Cause it could be really cool.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Cool, all right, and so it has grown from that
concept to now.
You're talking about bringingpeople in from outside, coming
in local people too.
You're talking about giveaways,and you know all this Talk
about how this is affecting theskate community here and also I
don't know if it's safe to sayregionally, or where do you,
where do you anticipate peoplecoming from?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Well, hopefully, you know, georgia, South Carolina,
tennessee, obviously NorthCarolina, the skate community is
pretty close.
We've done events in Cherokee.
We've done multiple events inCherokee.
We've done stuff for streetfestivals in silver, you know.
We've done video premieres atlocal breweries and pizza spots
(19:55):
in Wayne'sville and stuff.
So we've done a lot of eventsand we've that's the thing about
doing all these events is ournetwork is big because we've
done these events.
So it's like I feel like nowwhen we reach out and say hey,
we got this going on, it's easyfor us to get ears and people to
pay attention.
I think people have also seenthat's like all right, these
guys really genuinely try tomake it fun.
They're all the same ick of us.
(20:16):
You know they are.
You know it's not just somegovernment people trying to do
an event, it's like it'sactually done by this skate
community.
So I think we got a broadnetwork of people and I think
our community is so hungry forevents.
You have to think about, likeyou know, a soccer team.
You play a game every Saturday.
If you're on a sports team, youplay, at least you practice,
(20:38):
but you play once a week.
You know, and I kept using thisas an example to when I would
talk to town people.
I was like, imagine if youplayed a team sport.
You go to practice Tuesday andThursday, never a game.
It's not that the sport's notawesome, but you need something
that holds that retention, thatgets you excited, that makes you
want to put your best footforward every day that you step
(20:59):
out there.
That's motivating and that'sgood and I think that's healthy.
And I was like the skate park'scool.
We all use it, what it?
But kids need something to beworking for.
Now that there's a contestcoming up, I know kids are gonna
be at the skate park even morebecause they know that that day
is coming and it's not about thecompetitive side, but the fact
(21:20):
that it motivates you and thatyou're gonna maybe spend more
time there than maybe sitting onyour couch you know, yeah,
we're doing whatever else.
Yeah, you know and you know we Ihad started doing skate lessons
in town.
Well, after the skate park hadbeen there, I'd never grown up
using lessons.
Skateboarding was always justgo out and try 1,000 tries, like
(21:44):
there's no easy button to this.
But I just kept seeing parentswho had come out to the skate
park and be like gosh, like Ican shoot a basketball, I can
throw a baseball, but I cannotphysically help my kid when he
is interested in this activity.
And for me I was just like Ijust heard that call for a need,
so much that I was like I willdo this and I think we were also
(22:04):
finally getting well, notfinally, it was a bad thing, but
I think we were getting into anera where parents were for the
first time and maybe ourlifetime, where they were
dealing with the dilemma of kidsof like how do I get them off a
screen?
You know, like we have had TVand stuff, but it was the first
time that really started whereparents are like this is an
(22:26):
issue and how do we combat this?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
So I was like all right, yeah, I believe being
outside and being with otherpeople and applying yourself to
something, even if it'schallenging, even if it's gonna
hurt you sometimes, buteverybody respects you out here
because you're trying somethinghard and we know that.
Because I'm out here tryingsomething hard, like I've been
there, if I see a kid trying atrick, even if I'm way better
than him, I was like I've beenthere.
(22:49):
I know frustration and to getto that point to learning it
that everybody's very supportiveof each other.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Yeah, that's good, and you've always talked about
that.
When we talked about some ofthe events of just that's the
whole community building andpeople rallying around each
other, and it wasn't just thecompetitiveness of that
particular event, like you'resaying.
It was pulling everybodytogether, giving them something
to shoot for.
You're speaking in commonlanguage.
People are finding community,whatever that means to them.
(23:17):
They're finding it in that kindof space.
So that's cool.
I mean, I love the fact thatyou're kind of facilitating all
of that.
So tell me some of the stories,then, that have come out of not
just this event that's comingup in a couple of months or so,
but just in general, leadinginto this the community that
it's built, the differences thatit's made in people's lives,
and you just talked about theparents saying it's screen time,
(23:39):
screen time, and this isdefinitely a positive
alternative to just sitting infront of your screen.
But I don't know if any, aswe're kind of talking any names
or just images come into yourmind about conversations with
parents or kids or connectionsyou've made along the way.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
There's a lot.
I'll give you the most recentone.
We just did our snowboard videocontest and had our premiere of
it.
One of the kids I think he gotthird place.
I saw his mom a couple of dayslater and she was like my kid
was so good that next day hehelped around with chores around
the house.
His spirit was high, he wascheerful and it was almost like
(24:17):
she had seen a side of her kidthat she maybe don't get to see
all the time and it's like, yeah, if I could get the gas a kid
up and get a kid excited, I'mcool with that.
Like, get excited.
I want people to be excitedbecause I feel like if you're
excited, you're engaged andyou're more likely to invoke
some change because it overflowsyou and you want to pour that
(24:38):
out.
Yeah, so that's just one of themost recent ones.
But it's like just doing theseevents, like I would encourage
everybody, like, in your own way, try to get more involved.
Like I like the events nowbecause it broadens who all I'm
meeting you know I'm meeting somany new people.
Like I announced an event.
I'll get a message from a bandin Knoxville.
(24:58):
I'll be like can I come play atyour event, or can I bring this
thing, or can I come do this?
And every time we do an eventthere's different people who
reach out and you just broadenyour network of people who can
help you and bring them intoyour community.
Cool, and that's fun.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, that's real fun .
Well, you mentioned it.
So let's kind of segue intothis first annual cat classic.
This is really cool.
This is like out of the boxthinking and I love.
I know there's a backstory andyou'll kind of set it up, but
yeah, I love to kind of you'reon your first thoughts to how
this could be, to the things youwent through, to what it
ultimately ended up being.
Let's hear about the firstannual cat classic that was just
(25:36):
had this past weekend.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah yeah, the cat classic.
This was brand new to us but wewanted to try, put our best
foot forward and try somethingnew and just see if it went
somewhere or not.
But to try was the mostimportant part.
Growing up at Cattalucci, Iremember younger years.
There would be rail jams, therewould be big air contest and
stuff like that and I loved it.
(25:58):
I thought it was so fun and itmade, towards the end of the
season, so exciting to havethese things coming up and
they've gone away for a lot ofyears and I feel I just felt
really bad for kids who aregrowing up at Cattalucci.
I was like, if you've startedsnowboarding at Cattalucci at
the last I don't know at leastseven years, you've never seen
an event, but you've watched ZebPowell get two medals in the X
(26:19):
games.
But if you want to go to anevent you got to go to Boone and
a lot of kids that's likethat's a tough reach.
Just to ask right now get yourparents to drive you to Boone to
go to this event.
That can be very intimidating,cause those people are riding
that stuff every day of the year.
They're riding jumps and railsand you know from being at
Cattalucci.
It's limited and that's okay,and part of that's the fact of
(26:42):
where it's located, but it alsodoesn't take a lot to do
something to stoke people outand just to stir excitement.
So we had heard all through theyears about that.
We couldn't do stuff atCattalucci because of liability.
I get so tired of that word, Ifeel like it's such a roadblock
(27:03):
of a word.
I was like I get liability butlet's find, if there's a will,
there's a way.
If there can find somebodywithin a corporation or a group
that's willing to have aconversation to look into
another alternate way.
I was like there's a way.
We just especially if all theseother mountains are having
events, there's no reason why wecouldn't find an avenue to have
an event.
So what we did and this is goingback to a testament of being in
(27:27):
a shop atmosphere is you sitaround with other guys of
like-mindedness and you thinkabout what can we do to give
something back to our scene.
So we came up with this idea.
I was like, well, if we can'tdo a contest on snow at
physically there, let's do avideo contest where we create an
email on the Instagram page, welet kids film for a certain
(27:48):
amount of time and then theyturn their one minute of edited
footage.
You can put music to it, youcould clip it up, you could do
one run top to bottom.
There was really no rules.
It was like just participateand submit it.
We opened up filming for twomonths and then they submitted
footage.
The idea was to edit it all andput it all into one video where
(28:10):
everybody played and we puteverybody's names and like
Instagram handles at the bottomof the videos, have a premiere
and set it up at a place whereall these people could come
together and really just get toknow other people who are into
the same passions they are.
Cause I had told you in otherearlier conversations, I was
like I was so used to the skatepark atmosphere where, if
(28:31):
somebody shows up a few times,you talk to these people.
You're in this little kind ofboxed in area.
Nobody's wearing ski mask orgoggles.
You're not on this likedifferent time wave because
people on a chair lift andyou're on the snow, but you
could see people by their gear.
You're like you're fanaticabout this, you're really into
this, but I don't.
It's hard to just break thatice sometimes, but at the skate
(28:52):
park it was so easy and I wasjust got so frustrated.
I was like I feel like there'sso many passionate people in
this area, but I feel like Iknow so we're not unified by any
way.
And so I was like let's dosomething and at least we'll get
people together and peoplestart knowing who each other are
and hopefully will grow ourcommunity.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
So I was able to see on Instagram just some of the
clips of some of the videos.
I guess there maybe thecompilation of the video that
you all put together, which wasreally really kind of unique and
it's just kind of cool.
But it's totally different thananything, because you're just
using the, basically like ifelements were set up, you can
write those manmade elements,but it was also natural elements
too that people were usingtrees, you know, drops, I mean,
(29:32):
and that's a cool thing aboutsome of those upper snowbird,
lower snowbird, when there'swhen it's full, there's a lot of
variety there and I didn'trealize that until this year.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Kelly's terrain is incredible.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
It is.
It is actually.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, I mean the natural terrain of it.
When it has snow on all thosewalls, I was like it's a
playground.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Well, I always wonder , look around at snowboarders
and like where are they?
Man?
I know they're right in thetrees, you know I mean the lifts
, but you know they'd be rippingdown alley cat or maybe
sometimes on upper Omegosh.
But you go to the lowersnowbird and upper snowbird man,
on good days and it was just, Imean, I would sit there and
just watch, literally I mean,even though I was a mountain
host I would just kind of postup and just I'm there to kind of
watch people.
But the snowboarders were kindof fascinating and I remember
(30:14):
going, I mean, and we're sittingat one fence and this right at
the intersection of alley cat,where lower snowbird comes into
upper, comes into lower, and youcan sort of make that left and
there was a drop big snow.
It was one of the best daysI've had out there.
And all of a sudden this guyjust drops over the alleged and
I probably shouldn't say thisout loud, but ski patrol and I
looked at each other and werelike, well, you know, probably
(30:34):
should say something.
But that's pretty rad, man, Iprobably would have done the
same thing if I was 18 years old.
But anyway, not to take awayfrom the story, but amazing
terrain, which led to amazingvideos too.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah, I mean, people are surfing the white winter
wave up there, that's for sure,and it's a blast.
And you could I mean there's somany people that you can just
tell like share that same joyand passion.
I think if you're blessed andyou're fortunate enough to be
able to get up there andexperience skiing and
snowboarding, you know thatyou're like this is special,
like this is a really coolfeeling to be able to slide down
a mountain at the speeds thatyou can and the turns that you
(31:06):
can make.
But not everybody getsexperienced that and I think
that's a part of our goal too isjust like how do we make this
thing that more accessible tomore people?
Because it is awesome and it isreally it's.
I think it's, I think it'shealthy for folks, yeah, to be
in outside the mountains and,you know, being able to express
your own creativity andindividuality.
And that's what's cool aboutthe video contest is like you
(31:29):
know there's no rule, there wasno rules.
You know there's no sidelinesthat you can't go out of.
It's like you, you makecreative.
Yeah, and you make your video.
We just wanted to open that upto people but we had no idea up
until you know, a couple of daysbefore the deadline, if people
were going to be into it or notinto it.
All like it was a roll of adice.
(31:49):
People would ask me all the waythrough, like are people doing
it?
I don't know.
I don't know, but we're havingI mean, we're having fun setting
this up.
I know, like the guy who woulddo all our IT work like if you
go in the cat classic Instagram,it's like he was doing all our
graphics and stuff and he justmade it funny and fun and not so
serious because we're not atWest trying to be a part of X
(32:10):
games, we're in the South.
I mean we're literally about tobe done with skiing within the
next week, or so.
So don't make it what it's not,but it is a celebration and it
is a blessing and fun to be upthere and there is a lot of
talent, of people doingincredible stuff.
That's like somebody shouldcelebrate this, cool.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
You know All right, so tell us about your
celebration.
Then you had how many videos.
How many people were there?
Sounded like it was a greatnight, great food, great music.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Yeah, Break it down for us.
Well, we had.
In the end we had 24 entries.
Obviously we would, we would,we would have loved more, but I
think for first year, we are sopleased.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
And the amount of response that we got from the
people who were involved and thepeople who sponsored it and
other people who, like, came tothe event, I think was enough
testament to us.
I was like, cool, we didsomething that we should have.
We did something we should havedone.
Cool, yeah, 24 entries.
We wanted to do a women'sdivision, you know, of course,
(33:08):
but you know there had been anycontest around here in so long.
Anyway, I think any contestwould have been welcome.
But I was like, man, I want toknow what ladies are out here
ripping the slopes that I don'tknow about, right, you know.
And then also the youngergenerations, like I want to know
who these people are.
People made incredible videos.
They edited the music.
You know, it was fun.
(33:28):
I mean, we just got a widevariety of different, different
takes on people riding themountain, but people
participated and it was cool.
So then we set up the premiereand called Salty Dogs Backyard
Bar in Maggie Valley so youcould go ski the mountain, come
off the mountain, come eat somebarbecue and, like, watch a
video of you and your friendsand cheer and just try to make
(33:48):
it as fun as we could.
We had a traumatic experiencewith one of the cooks actually
choked.
Cpr had to be done in mouth tomouth and I think it was a real
traumatic and scary experiencefor a lot of us.
You know, you never expect orhope for anything like that to
happen.
The good news is, I mean hesurvived, but it was.
(34:09):
I mean it's happened right inthe middle of the event that a
man choked.
I told you early, one of themost incredible parts of the
story was two kids who hadentered from Asheville, not that
familiar with their parents,brought them to the event.
They had skied Cattilucci thatday, come down there for the
event.
This gentleman choked andthey're the ones who did CPR and
mouth to mouth and save savethis guy's life.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Wow, it's amazing.
Yeah, Still gives me chills.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
That man left in an ambulance and you know it was
traumatic for everybody and sowe.
You know that's a tough one tobring the vibe back from, but
you know I knew people stillwanted to see the videos and the
entries and I just toldeverybody, you know, just think
about that, this could have beenany one of us.
Keep this man in your prayersand your thoughts and let's send
(34:56):
him all the good energy.
But I know that this man hehelped me organize this thing he
wants this to happen.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Oh, I didn't know that we did, oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah, he was one of the you know employees of the
restaurant, like technically oneof the owners, and so when we
were first planning of it, hewas the guy I would sit down
with at the restaurant and weworked through like, all right,
this is what we think it's goingto be.
All right, you're going to dothis food.
All right, we'll start at thistime.
So he was very excited.
He wanted this to happen.
He's like I like this idea, youknow, and it was just
(35:26):
unfortunate what happened.
But once you know he left, Ijust told me I was like I know
this.
He wants us to party.
Like for us to hang it up rightnow would bum him out.
He would want us to party.
So we did the best we could andbrought the vibes back.
We had live music from dudeswho work at Kataluchi, which was
(35:48):
so cool.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Cool, cool.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, to be able to be like oh you guys work at Kat,
but you have a band, let's go.
Of course you guys can get onthe stage.
So we did music we made.
We made like big cardboardchecks but we made them out like
nice wood and everything andpainted them Cool.
And I remember going to skatecontest as a kid and getting a
few of those big checks andstill to this day they hang up
(36:11):
in the ski shop and I love itand people are always like
that's so cool.
All it is a fake check.
Yeah, it's big, but it invokessomething like this is special
and like unique, and I was likeI just wanted to pass that on to
kids to get them stoked.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
And that's what you've done.
I mean, I feel like you'vespent a lifetime doing that.
You started out as a 13, 14year old youth, got stoked, got
into it, and then you just keptwanting to bring other people
along and you haven't let upLike I don't know, you don't
know how to let up on that, doyou?
No, no, but.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
I'm blessed, you know , and I know you know life can
change at any point.
But the friends that I'm makingfrom it and the connections
within my community andeverything he's like, why would
I want to give that and just tohave the opportunity to try
stuff now you know to be like,all right, let's try this.
Are some people going to beoffended by this contest?
Maybe or not.
Yeah maybe, but I think ourintentions are good and I think
(37:10):
we want to invoke Good change.
So I think the good faroutweighs the bad is the way I
viewed it.
And if nobody else is, nobodyelse is doing it for the youth,
you know.
So they does, they deserve it.
I think.
What I think the talent withinthe skate world and the
snowboard world around here isCool and is good, and it takes
(37:30):
very little to make gas kids upand make them happy.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Yeah, well, so what?
There's many things to loveabout this, but one of the
things in particular I thinkthat I love is that there can be
you going back to your mom, youCops calling your mom saying
this kid, there's this, there'sthis mindset that these kids are
gonna come and tear up anddestroy and thrash, and you know
all the things and theirsubcultures within scale.
(37:55):
There's all these things youhave to kind of overcome, but at
the end of the day, there'svery, very positive things.
They're out, they're active,they, you know, if it's that
they're chosen way to expresstheir own creativity.
You can have a mountain bikerdoes the same thing, a kayaker
it's really no differentwhatsoever and there are kids
who now have outlets, and italso makes a huge economic
(38:16):
impact as well.
And so the towns, people, themayors, they're traveling,
they're seeing the impact thatthese events are making.
You see them popping up allover now.
I mean just down the road inMills River we have I don't know
if it's gonna be a skate park,but they're completely
Revitalizing that pump tracks, awhole nine yard.
I mean it's really cool to seewhat's happening and those that
didn't exist before.
(38:37):
I mean I'm preaching to thechoir with you and I don't skate
, but I just remember, you knowI what I do remember is back in
the 80s in high school, goingfor the school newspaper to do a
Story on the local skaters whohad just built.
There was nothing for themanywhere and it was just
literally a half-pike in thebackyard that there wasn't place
for people to do that kind ofstuff.
And there is now and you seethat, and I've kind of have just
(38:58):
watched, even though I'm not askater myself, I have, I have a
longboard, you know, with, with,with a stick, it's great on
flat ground.
I start to get on the theinclines and going downhill I
really realized real quickly I'mout of my element here, I
better hang on.
But I understand the stoke andyou can see it in the kids and
you see that they have an outlet.
And one word that you usedearlier I keep I was calling you
a change agent or, you know,community activator, and you
(39:20):
just said you know it's, it'spositive change.
I'm gonna create positivechange and you've said that over
and over and you've said it acouple times here today and and
that's what's happening in bothyou and I think it's also
happening in these, facilitiesare being built for kids too.
We have a skate park just nottoo far away in in
Hendersonville too.
That's a pretty widely popularskate park.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
I'm in Hendersonville .
I'm going there after our leafhere.
There you go See all the wayout here I'm gonna, you're gonna
skate birds with one stone.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
I love it.
Oh, that's great, that'sawesome.
Well, listen, man, you're thetype of person that every time
we've talked, we always kind ofjoke and say we should have hit
record Because we could have hadanother episode that came out
of that.
Even standing in the dininghall at cat one night, you know,
I applaud and really kind ofcelebrate what you do, man, what
you do for people.
And you know, again, stephenReinhold, we got to give him,
(40:06):
you know, a shout out forEncouraging me to have this.
He knew that you'd be somebodythat people would love to hear
their story.
And then there's more to thatstory too, I know, and there's
more to be told in this storywith you, I think, with future
events.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, we're gonna keep doing and I feel like
what's cool about this is, youknow, you find people within the
same energies and the samepassions as you and you grow it.
I mean, that's how I hear withyou today.
You know I had come across yourpodcast through being involved
with BOC and made by mountains.
Yeah and I, you know, startedlistening to you while while I
worked.
I was like this is somebody whois self, that same ick as I
(40:40):
feel like, as I am, you knowcool and To broaden that and to
make a new friend.
You know it's like supervaluable and cool, you know.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
We are today.
Here we are today.
I know I love it.
I really do celebrate you andall the work that you're doing
before I let you go, though, andgo skate, because I know that's
what you really want to get to.
You want to talk about, youwant to do it.
I would love for people to knowhow can they find out more
about where you work, number one, and then also about the Wayne
Town throwdown a little bit moreabout how people can find out
about that and get involved.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
You know my social media is just underscored.
Jared Lee, if you don't livearound Haywood County, we're
going to be posting up signs atthe skate park to have QR codes
so people can pre-register andfind out any info on the event.
We'll post those same QR codes,you know, through our social
medias and spread them throughthe skate world as well as we
can through shops and whatnot,so that you can find out about
that.
(41:30):
Come out.
If you don't skate it that day,come out Watch Support.
We're going to have some foodtrucks.
We're going to block off thewhole parking lot and let some
people, let us set up some rampsin the parking lot so while the
younger kids are skating intheir part of the contest, you
can still go skate the parkinglot and just hopefully have an
atmosphere where people justhang out all day.
So we're going to be spreadingthat.
You know, in the winter months Iwork at Ski's and T's in Maggie
(41:51):
Valley.
We go in there and we serve thevisitors of Maggie and try to
help them have a good time whenthey go to Kataluchi, get ready
to phase out of there and go domy summer work, which is I just
have a lawn care business.
It pays the bills.
I get to be outside, I get tolisten to podcasts like yours
and others, and so that's great.
And then you know, I've run athing called Big Brother Boards,
(42:14):
which is like a skate camp.
Well, we did, we've done camps.
Right now We've just been doinglessons, but there's a lot of
cool things, hopefully in thefuture, that are coming together
with that.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Well, keep spreading the stoke dude.
Every time I'm with you, man,your smile is infectious, your
vibe is infectious.
Yeah, you, just you're a funguy to be around, man, and I
just appreciate you making thedrive down here and sharing just
a tiny bit of your story.
I know there's a lot more therethat I can't wait to unpack and
learn as the days go on.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Well, I'm grateful and thankful for having me.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
As we reflect on Jared's journey, we're reminded
of the power of perseverance andcommunity support.
From advocating for a skatepark to spreading the stoke for
snowboarding, jared's impactresonates far beyond the
confines of his town.
I hope you've been inspired byJared's story and the broader
implications of outdooractivities and community
engagement.
Let's continue to celebrate thecollaborative spirit and shape
(43:02):
thriving environments for all topursue their dreams.
Be sure to subscribe toExploration Local so you'll be
one of the first to know aboutmore heartfelt discussions and
stories of transformation.
Join me on Instagram andFacebook and drop me a note at
Mike at ExplorationLocalcom ifyou ever have a suggestion for a
future episode or if you justwant to say hello.
Until next time, keep embracingyour passions and fostering
(43:25):
connections within yourcommunity and, by all means,
keep wandering far but exploringlocal.
And by all means, keepwandering far but exploring
(43:58):
local.
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