TPM Episode 365: Colby West, Pro Skier
The Powell Movement
Mike Powell
4.9 • 860 Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2024
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Colby West is a big personality in skiing and has been for almost a decade...but didn't start skiing until he was a teenager. When most people were getting into the sport, Colby lived an isolated life where he spent his free time mimicking different voices and spending the rest of his time in the woods…And then, he found skiing through a school program. Colby went all in on the sport, working all year to pay for High North Ski Camp. When he got there, he found a mentor in Shane Szocs, who opened so many doors for him in the pro ski world. On the podcast, we talk about dropping out of college to live in his car to make the ski dream happen, medaling at X games and other events, his vocal talents, his "Ski Musical" and so much more. Jossi Wells asks the Inappropriate Questions.
Colby West Show Notes:
3:00: Voices, growing up in NH, the only rule growing up, finding skiing through school, and the High North fiasco.
20:00: Stanley: Get up 60% off at Stanley1913.com
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Elan Skis: Over 75 years of innovation that makes you better.
23:00: Mike Atkinson, Shane Szocs opening doors for him, back to New England skiing, death metal, and all black.
29:00: Poaching the Waterville Valley Team, dropping out of school, living in his car, couch stories, going from K2 to Volkl, and getting into X Games and being on a podium with Candide
42:00: Peter Glenn Ski and Sports: Over 60 years of getting you out there.
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44:00: The emotions of X Games were the money, the non-specialized generation, his surprising contest mentality, and going from straight edge to partying with his traveling boy band.
52:00: Ski town famous, being the funny guy filming, fear in the backcountry when the tricks get too insane for him, Olympics, Kastle, money and Hollywood
71:00: Inappropriate Questions with Jossi Wells
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Have a seat on your porcelain throne. |
| 0:02.3 | It's time to talk some shit on the Powell Movement. |
| 0:13.5 | Welcome to the Powell Movement. |
| 0:17.0 | I'm your host, Mike Powell, and it's been dumping here in the Pacific Northwest. |
| 0:21.9 | And guess what? I've missed it all so far. I'm a total idiot. I'm a host Mike Powell, and it's been dumping here in the Pacific Northwest, and guess what? I've missed it all so far. |
| 0:23.9 | I'm a total idiot, but you knew that. |
| 0:26.3 | While my goal was to head up last week, I got in our car, the one we recently bought to |
| 0:30.8 | replace the one that my wife totaled, and I was stoked to get on my way. |
| 0:34.7 | I get about 25 minutes out from the summit at Snow Kwame, and I realize I have problems. |
| 0:39.3 | You see, I've been kind of a jackass in the past few years, and I've relied on all-season tires to get me to the mountains. |
| 0:45.3 | And while they were sketchy at times, they worked okay. |
| 0:47.3 | But I didn't even think about the tires on the new car until I started drifting on the highway and snow that those all-season tires would have handled easily. |
| 0:55.2 | These new tires absolutely sucked. |
| 0:57.5 | And it was scary, and if I kept going, I was going to crash, get stuck, or cause a major delay. |
| 1:02.5 | So I made the call to turn it around and came home to watch the Seahawks win and not make the playoffs. |
| 1:07.8 | While I wanted to shred, I made the smart choice. |
| 1:10.7 | I mean, we've all seen |
| 1:12.1 | idiots in our social feed who don't think good tires matter. If you haven't, go follow |
| 1:16.4 | cooks of Stevens Pass and you'll see what I'm talking about. I will say, turning around |
| 1:20.7 | wasn't my only smart decision. Because I'm happy to say that this week I put some badass |
| 1:25.4 | snow tires on my car and I'm not going to miss shit anymore. |
| 1:29.1 | And I'll say that badass tires are what my guests this week built his pro ski career on. |
... |
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