J.P. Walker
Perennial Player
By Evan LeFebvre
03.30.09
That J.P. Walker is a living legend in the world of snowboarding is indisputable. Over the last decade, his trick selection, riding style, attire, and even vocabulary have influenced and inspired a generation of shredders. In an ever-changing game, Walker is still progressing, still producing, and still as relevant as ever—if not more so. Antics and “The Don” recently teamed up to talk shop about snow, surf and sounds.
After working on separate projects for a while, how was it working with Mack Dawg Productions again on the recent film, Double Decade?
It was a welcome change. Between my good friends on the crew and everyone on the production end, Mack Dawg is such a tight ship; I jumped right in there like I’d never left. It was awesome to film with Jeremy [Jones] and Seth [Huot] again ’cause it had been so long. I got to focus more on riding and getting tricks rather than stressing about the whole production and the bigger picture. I got to forget about all that and just do my thing.
What was it like going out with Benji Weatherly and Tosh Townend for Benji’s video—Life as a Movie?
That was one of the most fun things I did. We went to Indonesia, to the Mentawais, and Japan. It was a crazy experience. I’d never traveled with surfers before. It was cool for me because it was really mellow. It’s basically a surf movie so I wasn’t really a top shred; I was more the token snowboarder, so I didn’t feel the pressure to perform—it was almost like a vacation.
Next year you’ll be working on a Stepchild/ThirtyTwo collabo movie. We’ve heard that it will focus more on a select group of riders rather than everyone on both teams. Who’s going to be involved?
The main roster is gonna be me, Joe Sexton, Simon Chamberlain, Stian Solberg, and Markku Koski—we’re all on both Stepchild and ThirtyTwo. We definitely need more than five guys to make a video, so there are there are gonna be more. I’m sure Scotty Vine will have an appearance, and the other Finnish guys who ride for Stepchild—Fredu [Sirvio] and Risto [Ruokola]. We’re also gonna hook up with a couple ThirtyTwo ams like Tyler Flanagan and Stale Sandbech. We’re lookin’ at having a friends section as well—it’s gonna be a heavy team video, but we’re not limiting ourselves to Stepchild and ThirtyTwo guys only.
Music has always been a big part of snowboarding. What’s in your rotation these days?
I’ve had the Sirius Satellite Radio goin’ for quite a while now, and I’ve been lockin’ into this Rasta station a lot lately; I don’t know what happened [laughs]. During the season, I listen to pretty hardcore hip hop; it just puts me in the mood to snowboard and stay out late hitting handrails and avoiding security. I just feel like it fits that situation. But when summertime starts rollin’ around, I start listening to mellower stuff. Lately, I’ve been feelin’ the reggae—I’ve been banging Collie Budz, Steel Pulse, and all the Marleys—Damien, Bob, Steven … I don’t know, man, that’s kind of been my scene lately: 84 reggae riddims [laughs]!
