Dan Wakeham Interview, August 2006
where_ur_at : step-on magazine > interviews > dan wakeham

Page 1 // Page 2 // Page 3

(continued from prev page) What is your opinion of the Brits as a general British snowboard contest? Corporate sponsorship, Soulsports, the prize money…..? Soulsports are the backbone of British snowboarding and I have full respect for who they are and what they have done! The Brits is a really good event to have in the season. It brings a lot of mainstream media attention towards British snowboarding. Corporate sponsorship is also a good thing because an event like that would be impossible to run with out help from out side of the core industry. These things help the industry grow and improve, bringing more money to the core companies and then eventually to the riders. Plus the event is fun and it is a time where every one can get together and show off the tricks that they have learned throughout the season. Not to mention the night life that’s always a good crack. ...Yes but lately we seem to have the corporate sponsorship, yet the prize money is still very low and the riders are broke!

Over the years people have dissed the British team but if they think they can do any better then the Brits is their chance where they can step up and comp us and it always turns out the same. It’s the British team in the finals of the pipe event and the event has often been named the Dan and Dom show because it’s always a tight battle between myself and Dom Harrington.

I have to ask you about the British snowboard coach. Just like Sven Goran Erikson, a lot of people wonder whether he’s the right man for the job, as he has never been a pro pipe rider himself… but you guys always seem pretty happy with him. What ‘s your opinion of the set up?
He is a fat ginger Canadian tobacco chewing bastard and his appearance doesn’t really fit in with the whole Olympic image, I know.
But as snowboarding is new as an Olympic sport so the people that work in the sport are going to be different. I also think that you don’t always have to have been a pro snowboarder to be able to coach someone. You just need to be able to watch well and be able to pick out errors he also films so that we can do video analysis. Also it is good for progression just to have someone standing over you telling you to try stuff. Craig knows so much about competition from years of experience of coaching both the Canadian national team and the USA team. He has a lot of contacts which is good for things like finding private places to train. I think if you were to look in to some of the things he does off snow as well you would be surprised he writes up all sorts of performance plans and arranges all of our trips.

What did you get up to after the Olympics?
I went home for two weeks and got hammered.. lol
In the run up to the Olympics I had given up so much stuff because of my commitment to training and to competing so as soon as it was over I felt like I needed to have a good blow out and get it all out of my system.
But then it was all back on again, the Olympics isn’t the end of the season. I went to lake placid in New York for a world cup for four days, then to Switzerland for three days for the brits, then to Japan for four days for the world cup finals, then to italy for a week on a Nike ACG road trip then to France for the student championships which was a good party to finish my season off.


:: not something dan gets to do very often...take an easy cruise in some fresh!

How do you sponsors support you? Do you find the sponsorship is enough?
Yea it’s not to bad. I have all the equipment I could ever need, I could do with more money, but couldn’t we all! I need to find some more corporate sponsors now.

Where is home and what’s your home town/city like? Southampton isn’t it?
Na Plymouth!
Plymouth is a cool place to be in the summer, I still have a lot of good friends their and skateboarding sessions are good, it is really close to go to the beach which is nice. It just sucks a bit for coming and going as it is a £50, four hour train ride away from London.

What are your interests outside of snowboarding? I know you’re into skateboarding, have you done much skating yet this summer?
I have surfed and skateboarded for longer than I have snowboarded but now a days my surfing is getting neglected. I gave up skateboarding for the winter because all of my injuries come from skating and I tore a ligament in my knee in October skating vert with no pads, not a very clever move when the Olympics were only four months away. But now it is summer and I am well back in to it!…

What else do you do outside of the snow/skate world?
Not much as I don’t have much time but while I am on the road I have been turning in to a bit of a computer design, doing stuff with all my snowboard photo and footage and a bit of web stuff, check out my myspace.com/backflipper it's getting well tech...!

What about music, what’s most played in your ipod lately?
I ride to a lot of drum n bass and breakbeat. I like the quickness especially when I compete because it good for staying hyped, especially when I am in the training and you have to hike the halfpipe fast.
Other than that I like to chill out and listen to dub reggae, electro, hip hop, and quite varied variety of music that is left unnamed in my genre selection on my ipod.

Do you DJ at all?
At home my mates mix a lot of drum n bass, so I have learned the basics but wouldn’t consider myself to be a dj. Music Is a big part of my life, I spend a lot of time on the road with earphones on.

What do you think you’ll be up to, come snowfall again?
I am going to do a few world cups, but this coming season will be mostly competing in more of the American comps such as the chevy truck grand prixs and the triple crown events. They have such emphasis on snowboarding at the moment, especially after their recent Olympic success and it shows when you see their parks and pipes.

We'll look forward to hearing about the Brit showing the yanks up next season then! That should just about wrap things up, just a few one word answers to get from you…

Night out or chill out? Night out, I make up for lost time
Beer or Spirits? Beer mostly, spirits when I mean business.
Ride with music or not? Music always.
The Office or Peep Show? Peep show, actually I dunno...
It’s bad weather, stay in with playstation or brave the cold and ride? Stay in but not on playstation just geek out on the internet
Kebabs…donna or kofti? donna
Bush Administration – fighting terrorism or causing it? Don’t care.
Who cuts your hair, mum or barber? barber
World Cup – England to win or fuck it up? Don’t like football much but it's gotta be England win. England represent!

Dan was interviewed by Andrew Winter.

Page 1 // Page 2 // Page 3

ALL INTERVIEWS A-Z :: Axel Paurporte Bjorn Mortensen Dan Wakeham Douds Charlet Gus Van Sant Hamish Duncan James Bryant Jon Comber JP Solberg Jules Reymond Keir Dillon Logan Hall Mads Jonsson Magnus Sterner Peter Line Mike Austin Nico Droz Nicolas Muller Romain de Marchi Roman Fassler Skrein Steve Caprio TV Boy Tyler Chorlton Wolle Nyvelt