Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
This is Later with Lee Matthews,The Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear
Weekday Afternoons on the Drive. Withtwo Olympic gold medals, one silver medal,
and six World Championship victories World Cupthirty one World Cup victories as well
in a staggering fifty nine career WorldCup podiums. Five time Olympic champion,
(00:25):
Lindsay jacob Ellis is joining us nowto talk about her newest memoir, Unforgiving,
an honest account of one life alteringmisstep. But let's start, Lindsay
with how snowboarding began with you.At what point in your life did you
say, Ah, these skis istwo of them is just too many?
I need to go to one.Well, it was actually a funny story
(00:50):
how it kind of came to be. My brother was a pioneer for the
family, and naturally anything that mybrother was doing, I need to do,
you know, being a younger sibling, desperately trying to keep up and
not wanting to be left behind.So my brother was showing this great passion
for this trendy, fun, funky, fun new sport, and we'd always
(01:10):
be the weekend Warriors up at StrattonMountain, and after we got really into
it, we suffered a tragedy andlost our house in a fire, and
that we talk about it and Italk about it in my book. But
thankfully no one was hurt in thefire. Nobody was there, so we
(01:32):
are very lucky in that aspect.But we did lose all of our ski
and snowboard equipment. And if youthink about that, you know, you
put together everything that you would physicallyput on, and if you have to
replace everything from long underwear, socks, boots, jacket pants, and then
on top of that all of yourequipment, the costs can become very expensive.
(01:55):
And this was in the middle ofthe season and before insurance was going
to kicking. You know, insurancealways takes a while to give you that
money back. So my dad kindof looked at us and was like,
what do you want to do becauseright now we can't afford to replace everything,
and what is it going to be? Skier snowboards? And my brother
and I were like, we're goingto go with snowboarding. And the local
(02:17):
community up at Stratton was so helpful. They gave us, you know,
fire sale deals, They helped outfitour entire family to get us back on
the mountain and it's it. Itwas such a memorable moment to see how
that community came up so fast tosupport us so we could finish out the
(02:38):
season and still have our winter experiencelike we've had so many years before.
Lindi jacob ellis Olympic snowboarder. Hermemoir is called Unforgiving Lessons from the Fall
About how old were you at thispoint? I was twenty years old in
two thousand and six. I wasgoing to say, you know, the
(02:59):
kids on the slopes with the snowboardsalways do better than the adults, So
were you relatively small when you're startingout? I was. I was pretty
young when I was skiing, andthen when I transitioned into snowboarding, I
probably picked up like eight or nineyears old. I had to make such
a huge time table to try toput all of this information down accurately,
(03:23):
and kept going back and forth tomy mom. Was I this old?
Was I this old wood board?With the easiest way to decide how old
I was to was to look upthe board that I got and remember what
year I got the board, andthen I'm like, ah, that's how
old I was. So it wasin the ninety four ninety five Burton Air
that was my board that, unfortunatelywe did lose in the fire. I've
(03:43):
never been able to replace that.So if there's anyone out there that has
one of those boards, I'd bewilling to chat with you. So do
you like the old school better thansome of the new innovations we've seen in
the last just in the last fiveyears, I've seen a lot. Well.
With my sport, we have avery specific style snowboard that we are
racing on. But when I'm freeriding, I definitely like those cruisers.
(04:06):
I like the traditional camber boards.I think that they give a lot of
stability, and I like flexing andworking the board and making the board have
to work under my feet. Butthen there's also when you're riding powder,
you want something that's nice and lightand floating keeps you up really high.
So it just really depends on theconditions that you're in what type of snowboard
(04:28):
that you will be choosing that day. And mind you, I'm not a
boarder. I am a skier,not an active skier. I ski maybe
twice a year up in Colorado,But I know what you mean. When
you're talking about equipment. I've takena lifetime to build up the equipment that
I like and I find comfortable.I can't imagine it all being wiped out
and having to start all over.Oh well, so have you thanked us
(04:50):
snowboarders for giving the nice side cutthat you skiers now have on your skis?
With nice you can't forget about that. But we brought to the snow
industry. I tried it. Iwent to it first before Lovely Wife did.
And when Lovely Wife went to it, it was about a season later
(05:10):
and she was like, where haveyou been all my life? Exactly?
It is a game changer. Yeah, unforgiven lessons from the fall and Olympian
snowboarder that Lindsey jacob ellis is withus. So let's talk about that event
that seems to have defined a lotof your career. Although I apologize for
wording the question that way. Ohit's okay. I'm pretty used to it
(05:34):
by now. Yeah. Back intwo thousand and six, I was twenty
years old, my first Olympic experienceand his first time snowboard cross is actually
in the Olympics. So I amAmerica's favorite destined to win. There was
definitely a lot of pressure being placedon my shoulders at that time, and
(05:55):
I was ahead, and I felldo a grab off the second to last
jump, and it was not somethingthat I planned. I had no idea
why decide to do it in thatmoment. It definitely came to me while
I was in that moment. Itwas I spent a lot of time trying
to understand what happened. But beforeI could even understand what happened, before
I even got down to the bottomof the hill, I already had a
(06:16):
new narrative from the media and howthey were really going to be labeling me
for better part of the next sixteenyears of my life. So this book
really looks into how I had togrow to get past that narrative and then
essentially how I owned my own narrativeand was given this opportunity to share my
(06:39):
experiences. But ultimately I wanted toshare how I was maturing and how it
was growing over those last sixteen years. That way, if I'm giving anyone
any help to get past those momentswhere they have struggled or had setbacks or
made mistakes, that would be awin for me. Just even right in
that moment. Oh, and weall have. And if you don't learn
anything from that, you don't grow. Absolutely, Unfortunately, failure can be
(07:03):
a better teacher. It is hardto see in the moment. I felt
like a little little Yoda right there. Well, you know when I always
say this, I've said this injob interviews when it comes to the point
where they ask, Okay, whatis your biggest pet peeve or what is
the thing that you have to beable to do to function? And I
(07:23):
said, I have to be giventhe latitude to fail because I don't learn
anything if I don't make a mistakealong the way. And sometimes that alarms
bosses and sometimes they understand, butI'm that type of person. I have
to get out there and see,all right, what does work? Hope
that didn't work, what did Ilearn from it? And don't do that
again. It's a constant juggling gameand an adapt and pivot and you can
(07:47):
grow. But I definitely appreciate thatyou see that within yourself, and that
that's huge because so many people areafraid of failure and making that mistake because
they are not given that chance tosee how they can move past or what
they can grow and learn from thatsituation, unforgiving lessons from the fall.
It's Olympian and World champion Lindsay JacobEllis who's with us and Lindsay When you're
(08:11):
in the heat of battle, goingdown the hill like you were, and
you have all of these competitors zoomingaround you, sometimes your ahead, sometimes
they are at the time, wereyou aware you were so far out in
front of everybody back in two thousandand six or in Beijing, Yeah,
no, two thousand and six.In two thousand and six, there was
a moment that I was able tolook back to see if there were girls
(08:35):
really close to me, because upat the top of the rung run you
could hear all the boards landing aroundyou, so you knew it was really
close, and you know, youdon't know who it is, and you
can't tell exactly how close they are, so coming down to the bottom,
I wasn't hearing them anymore, andI did have the moment to look back
and maybe see the lead that Ihad. And in that moment heading to
(09:03):
the jump, you know I hadn'tprepared for it. You can see my
body position isn't even right. Andthen I decided to just go for a
grab and you're like, what isgoing on? Why did I do that?
And it was so upsetting to meand is definitely not the type of
individual I am. So it wasvery hard to be branded as someone that
(09:24):
makes that kind of mistake and thatI was just up for grabs for anyone
to tear me down. Well,honestly, those of us who are not
trained in this sport and watch itfor the entertainment aspect probably would not have
noticed one way or another if thesportscasters hadn't been yelling about it at the
time. But Lindsey jacob Ellis iswith us and the book is unforgiving.
(09:48):
Lessons from the Fall available everywhere youget books, very inspirational, as is
your story and we look forward toseeing you on the mountain. Thank you
so much. Thanks for listening toLater with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast,
and remember to listen to The DriveLive weekday afternoons from five to seven
and iHeartMedia Presentation
This is Later with Lee Matthews,The Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear
Weekday Afternoons on the Drive. Withtwo Olympic gold medals, one silver medal,
and six World Championship victories World Cupthirty one World Cup victories as well
in a staggering fifty nine career WorldCup podiums. Five time Olympic champion,
(00:25):
Lindsay jacob Ellis is joining us nowto talk about her newest memoir, Unforgiving,
an honest account of one life alteringmisstep. But let's start, Lindsay
with how snowboarding began with you.At what point in your life did you
say, Ah, these skis istwo of them is just too many?
I need to go to one.Well, it was actually a funny story
(00:50):
how it kind of came to be. My brother was a pioneer for the
family, and naturally anything that mybrother was doing, I need to do,
you know, being a younger sibling, desperately trying to keep up and
not wanting to be left behind.So my brother was showing this great passion
for this trendy, fun, funky, fun new sport, and we'd always
(01:10):
be the weekend Warriors up at StrattonMountain, and after we got really into
it, we suffered a tragedy andlost our house in a fire, and
that we talk about it and Italk about it in my book. But
thankfully no one was hurt in thefire. Nobody was there, so we
(01:32):
are very lucky in that aspect.But we did lose all of our ski
and snowboard equipment. And if youthink about that, you know, you
put together everything that you would physicallyput on, and if you have to
replace everything from long underwear, socks, boots, jacket pants, and then
on top of that all of yourequipment, the costs can become very expensive.
(01:55):
And this was in the middle ofthe season and before insurance was going
to kicking. You know, insurancealways takes a while to give you that
money back. So my dad kindof looked at us and was like,
what do you want to do becauseright now we can't afford to replace everything,
and what is it going to be? Skier snowboards? And my brother
and I were like, we're goingto go with snowboarding. And the local
(02:17):
community up at Stratton was so helpful. They gave us, you know,
fire sale deals, They helped outfitour entire family to get us back on
the mountain and it's it. Itwas such a memorable moment to see how
that community came up so fast tosupport us so we could finish out the
(02:38):
season and still have our winter experiencelike we've had so many years before.
Lindi jacob ellis Olympic snowboarder. Hermemoir is called Unforgiving Lessons from the Fall
About how old were you at thispoint? I was twenty years old in
two thousand and six. I wasgoing to say, you know, the
(02:59):
kids on the slopes with the snowboardsalways do better than the adults, So
were you relatively small when you're startingout? I was. I was pretty
young when I was skiing, andthen when I transitioned into snowboarding, I
probably picked up like eight or nineyears old. I had to make such
a huge time table to try toput all of this information down accurately,
(03:23):
and kept going back and forth tomy mom. Was I this old?
Was I this old wood board?With the easiest way to decide how old
I was to was to look upthe board that I got and remember what
year I got the board, andthen I'm like, ah, that's how
old I was. So it wasin the ninety four ninety five Burton Air
that was my board that, unfortunatelywe did lose in the fire. I've
(03:43):
never been able to replace that.So if there's anyone out there that has
one of those boards, I'd bewilling to chat with you. So do
you like the old school better thansome of the new innovations we've seen in
the last just in the last fiveyears, I've seen a lot. Well.
With my sport, we have avery specific style snowboard that we are
racing on. But when I'm freeriding, I definitely like those cruisers.
(04:06):
I like the traditional camber boards.I think that they give a lot of
stability, and I like flexing andworking the board and making the board have
to work under my feet. Butthen there's also when you're riding powder,
you want something that's nice and lightand floating keeps you up really high.
So it just really depends on theconditions that you're in what type of snowboard
(04:28):
that you will be choosing that day. And mind you, I'm not a
boarder. I am a skier,not an active skier. I ski maybe
twice a year up in Colorado,But I know what you mean. When
you're talking about equipment. I've takena lifetime to build up the equipment that
I like and I find comfortable.I can't imagine it all being wiped out
and having to start all over.Oh well, so have you thanked us
(04:50):
snowboarders for giving the nice side cutthat you skiers now have on your skis?
With nice you can't forget about that. But we brought to the snow
industry. I tried it. Iwent to it first before Lovely Wife did.
And when Lovely Wife went to it, it was about a season later
(05:10):
and she was like, where haveyou been all my life? Exactly?
It is a game changer. Yeah, unforgiven lessons from the fall and Olympian
snowboarder that Lindsey jacob ellis is withus. So let's talk about that event
that seems to have defined a lotof your career. Although I apologize for
wording the question that way. Ohit's okay. I'm pretty used to it
(05:34):
by now. Yeah. Back intwo thousand and six, I was twenty
years old, my first Olympic experienceand his first time snowboard cross is actually
in the Olympics. So I amAmerica's favorite destined to win. There was
definitely a lot of pressure being placedon my shoulders at that time, and
(05:55):
I was ahead, and I felldo a grab off the second to last
jump, and it was not somethingthat I planned. I had no idea
why decide to do it in thatmoment. It definitely came to me while
I was in that moment. Itwas I spent a lot of time trying
to understand what happened. But beforeI could even understand what happened, before
I even got down to the bottomof the hill, I already had a
(06:16):
new narrative from the media and howthey were really going to be labeling me
for better part of the next sixteenyears of my life. So this book
really looks into how I had togrow to get past that narrative and then
essentially how I owned my own narrativeand was given this opportunity to share my
(06:39):
experiences. But ultimately I wanted toshare how I was maturing and how it
was growing over those last sixteen years. That way, if I'm giving anyone
any help to get past those momentswhere they have struggled or had setbacks or
made mistakes, that would be awin for me. Just even right in
that moment. Oh, and weall have. And if you don't learn
anything from that, you don't grow. Absolutely, Unfortunately, failure can be
(07:03):
a better teacher. It is hardto see in the moment. I felt
like a little little Yoda right there. Well, you know when I always
say this, I've said this injob interviews when it comes to the point
where they ask, Okay, whatis your biggest pet peeve or what is
the thing that you have to beable to do to function? And I
(07:23):
said, I have to be giventhe latitude to fail because I don't learn
anything if I don't make a mistakealong the way. And sometimes that alarms
bosses and sometimes they understand, butI'm that type of person. I have
to get out there and see,all right, what does work? Hope
that didn't work, what did Ilearn from it? And don't do that
again. It's a constant juggling gameand an adapt and pivot and you can
(07:47):
grow. But I definitely appreciate thatyou see that within yourself, and that
that's huge because so many people areafraid of failure and making that mistake because
they are not given that chance tosee how they can move past or what
they can grow and learn from thatsituation, unforgiving lessons from the fall.
It's Olympian and World champion Lindsay JacobEllis who's with us and Lindsay When you're
(08:11):
in the heat of battle, goingdown the hill like you were, and
you have all of these competitors zoomingaround you, sometimes your ahead, sometimes
they are at the time, wereyou aware you were so far out in
front of everybody back in two thousandand six or in Beijing, Yeah,
no, two thousand and six.In two thousand and six, there was
a moment that I was able tolook back to see if there were girls
(08:35):
really close to me, because upat the top of the rung run you
could hear all the boards landing aroundyou, so you knew it was really
close, and you know, youdon't know who it is, and you
can't tell exactly how close they are, so coming down to the bottom,
I wasn't hearing them anymore, andI did have the moment to look back
and maybe see the lead that Ihad. And in that moment heading to
(09:03):
the jump, you know I hadn'tprepared for it. You can see my
body position isn't even right. Andthen I decided to just go for a
grab and you're like, what isgoing on? Why did I do that?
And it was so upsetting to meand is definitely not the type of
individual I am. So it wasvery hard to be branded as someone that
(09:24):
makes that kind of mistake and thatI was just up for grabs for anyone
to tear me down. Well,honestly, those of us who are not
trained in this sport and watch itfor the entertainment aspect probably would not have
noticed one way or another if thesportscasters hadn't been yelling about it at the
time. But Lindsey jacob Ellis iswith us and the book is unforgiving.
(09:48):
Lessons from the Fall available everywhere youget books, very inspirational, as is
your story and we look forward toseeing you on the mountain. Thank you
so much. Thanks for listening toLater with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast,
and remember to listen to The DriveLive weekday afternoons from five to seven
and iHeartMedia Presentation
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