WEBVTT
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[SPEAKER_04]: This is without compromise.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Show that explores what happens when you won't settle for anything less than your crazy ideas.
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[SPEAKER_04]: We'll talk to athletes, founders, adventures, and entrepreneurs of all kinds about living without compromise.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I'm your host, Mason Gravely.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome to the show.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We're programs for survival, so our instinct is to give up on these situations to move away from them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I thought if I didn't sign up for that race, that I was just going to disappear.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Doesn't have to be these big, huge things that everyone thinks you need to do to make a difference.
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[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I love a good comeback story.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I love a story where somebody either is counted out or decides to give up the fight or let the goal go and then upon further reflection, you know, jump back in the game, maybe in a new way.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I'm absolutely crushes it and Nick Geper's story is one of those.
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[SPEAKER_04]: He is a legendary and a very accomplished freestyle skier and retired from the sport after winning all sorts of medals, including
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[SPEAKER_04]: The biggest stage in skiing that there is, big game that starts with an O that he calls the O show, and after all that, he decides to retire, comes back out of retirement to ski the halfpipe, and qualifies for these major games that we're not allowed to actually say by name, legally, but you know what I'm talking about.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And he shares the grit, the sacrifices, the pathways that are super unlikely in shaping his career, including where he grew up in a small town in Indiana.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So I hope you follow Nick's journey.
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[SPEAKER_04]: He's getting ready for some pretty serious competition coming up in the next week, and he's an absolute hoot to follow on social media.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So definitely worth the follow.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And there's a great example of what it means to live without compromise.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So let's go ahead and dive in.
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[SPEAKER_04]: All right, Nick.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome to a welcome to without compromise.
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[SPEAKER_04]: How you doing?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing great.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I went for a ski tour this morning.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Just up the street for my house.
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[SPEAKER_01]: There's a mountain pass called Guardsman Pass and it's about an hour and hour up and about half hour down.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I'd like to do that early morning sometimes.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And where is that?
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[SPEAKER_04]: Where are you based?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Salt Lake City.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Oh my gosh, okay.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So talk to us about how's 2021 going for you?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, 2026 has been a roller coaster so far.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It started off with, well, just barely the end of 2025 was a bit of a rocky road I had a pretty big crash at this competition in China and then what's trading to the holidays and then had a qualifying sort of,
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[SPEAKER_01]: looming on the horizon.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then I just had to put my head down and really focus coming in at 2026.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, started off with, uh, with a win at a World Cup in Canada and Calgary, Canada, which put me in like really, really good position to qualify for the 15.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and then sort of right right after that went into, uh, the, uh, the games and Aspen colorado just last week and, uh, got my eighth, the game is metal there and also, uh, got engaged the same week.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So keep in the momentum going.
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[SPEAKER_03]: that's awesome.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, just yeah, it was like the best week ever, you know, families were there and yeah, awesome.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Holy yeah, that is that is an epic start to the year, not to mention what you have coming up.
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[SPEAKER_04]: We'll do.
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[SPEAKER_04]: We'll talk to us a little bit about, you know, just, you know, I don't want to take it like crazy all the way back to, you know, the beginning of your life, but like where did
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[SPEAKER_04]: this idea of, you know, you grew up in Indiana, you were born in Indiana, and you grew up in Indiana, you have a number of siblings, but talk to us a little bit about the presence of this sport in your life and how you kind of shape it yourself, and then where it started taking you early on.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I am from a family of four.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I got three siblings.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We all grew up 20 minutes outside of Cincinnati, Ohio actually across the state line in Indiana, a small town called Lawrenceburg.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And we live 10 minutes away from a ski area called Perfect North Slopes, which is about 400 feet tall.
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[SPEAKER_01]: 100% man-made snow and how to chairlift in a dream is kind of how I put it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I learned to ski when I was five.
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[SPEAKER_01]: My mom is from Michigan, so she grew up skiing on small hills and Michigan.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, like small Midwest skiing wasn't like a surprise or anything new for her.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And when I was 10 or 11, I started to get this
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[SPEAKER_01]: bug for the terrain park the jumps the rails it was just a lot more fun and creative and like skiing around gates or skiing for time or anything like that and I could go to my own pace too.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so I was able to practice so much as a kid and the funny thing people don't realize about the Midwest is you actually get.
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[SPEAKER_01]: like way more skiing than anywhere else in the United States in my opinion.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And the reason is that the hills are so small, the chairlets are never crowded.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And they turn the lights on at night.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So you can ski a 12 hour day on a Tuesday from nine to nine.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And you could do that seven days a week for three months out of the year.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And if you add up all that time and all that elevation, you're just skiing over and over again, you can get pretty, you can really master it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: that was uh... you know Lindsey von the similar story if you ever heard of her but she grew up on a small hill called buck hill in Minnesota and uh... same kind of deal just over and over and over and over and over and over again so why is that like uh... is that still like a really niche approach or is that
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[SPEAKER_04]: kind of format getting out with kind of all the craziness around ski resorts out west and the the lines and the expense and the consistency of the snow is it more like I'm going to this small corner somewhere that turns the lights on at night and I'm just going to hammer out 12 hour days is that is that becoming like a thing?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah I think I think I think
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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, nothing can replace like five thousand vertical foot mountain, you know, but if you like like my my whole thing is it's you know, if I'm going to like talk about advocating for skiing or for people getting into it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's it's far better to.
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[SPEAKER_01]: at least do it on any level rather than like wait for the perfect moment or wait for that trip, you know, that you might never take, you know, out west.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so with the crowded slopes and, you know, sort of the craziness you see out west with the expense and stuff, I think the Midwest is a super amazing option and there's a lot of ways to enjoy it, you know, you could go, I mean, look at the train parks.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Like every little Midwest Hill has got a couple of rails in a jump, like ski forward, ski backwards.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, learn how to snowboard, like there's a lot of ways you can have fun on 400 vertical feet.
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[SPEAKER_01]: how quickly did you start separating from the pack is a kid was it was a pretty immediate or did it take some time to say oh my gosh I'm not just Nick I'm Nick this skier yeah I think there was a I did my first back flip when I was 11 and I remember that day being like one of the best days of my younger adult life and and uh
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[SPEAKER_01]: sort of a pivotal moment in my confidence.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, okay, I just crossed a threshold of like, you know, amateur to like semi-pro or something.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Because there was only like one or two dudes at the mountain doing, you're going upside down in any way.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And as soon as I joined that, yeah, exactly.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And as soon as I joined that group, you know, the momentum just started kind of picking up and I was like, okay, like, if I can do a back flip, I can do a rodeo five.
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[SPEAKER_01]: If I can do a rodeo five, then I could do a rodeo seven.
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[SPEAKER_01]: If I could do a rodeo seven, then I could do a corks seven.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then as we saw all these little tiny steps, you know, that start, you know, on the trampoline, and then go to like the diving board at the pool, and then go to the slopes, you know, it's all kind of like process.
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[SPEAKER_04]: That's why, I mean, and also, you know, doing a back flip at 11, it's just absolutely nuts and cool, you know, at the very least, so I'm sure you felt, you know, pretty bad ass at the very least, doing that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, actually, I have a little caveat to that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So there was a, there was a, um, a kid that I skewed with at my local hill, his name was Chris, and he was a year older than me, and he was,
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[SPEAKER_01]: he was always a little bit ahead of me like a little bit better uh...
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[SPEAKER_01]: the tricks was always going on like one extra trip had one extra sponsor like this kid was was always one step ahead of me and I think that more than anything like kind of drove me to be you know as determined as like was as a kid.
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[SPEAKER_01]: If I was the the biggest fish in my small pond I don't think I would have turned out.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think we'd be talking right now.
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[SPEAKER_04]: It may be not about this, that's wild.
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[SPEAKER_04]: We'll talk us through some of those other highlights of where things really elevated.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So obviously, that back flip was a pivotal moment.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And can an event, if you will, what were some of, as you reflect on, maybe you thought they were at the time, but now with some perspective, you're like, it was really these moments that led me to say, I can do this, like I can really make career out of this.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, when I was 15, I had, I had made that call consciously.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I am going to do this.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, one, I never really, I didn't really love high school.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And like, I don't know, I just felt like I was on this different trajectory, at least that's how I imagined it in my head.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And when I talked to my parents about this, I was like,
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[SPEAKER_01]: for me to take this to the next level and chase a dream because it's not gonna happen in Indiana.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Like I gotta get out east, I gotta get out west, I gotta get where there's better training, more exposure, more competitions.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm a believer in manifesting sort of your reality and the universe returns whatever energy you put out there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I kind of thing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And we just went on a hunt for opportunities.
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[SPEAKER_01]: My parents weren't extremely wealthy, so we couldn't afford to just post up in Vermont or Colorado for six months out of the years.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And we were looking at
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, these, these ski academies as options and we found one in Oregon that was just starting up that, um, saw something in me and gave me a full scholarship to go there at age 15 back in 2009.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so, um, I sort of packed my bags and left home, my parents stayed in Indiana with my family, and I moved to Oregon to live at the school and see what that is like.
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[SPEAKER_04]: That's not like a summer camp.
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[SPEAKER_04]: This is like a no boarding school type thing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, boarding school.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And, uh, yeah, and I think that was like a really big moment for me of like,
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm burned in the boats and I'm not going back.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So it made it definitely gave me a, you know, a grit to like learn those tricks and be successful and always chase the next opportunity because I wanted to succeed more than I wanted to go home wasn't about not going home, but it was like man like all right, this is the for real like my my parents back me like the school backs me.
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[SPEAKER_04]: That's interesting, you know, sometimes when we, because I'm always trying to think of the angle that, you know, ties this into the greater audience that might not be as familiar as it came like me.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_04]: You know, there's always when you dive into something, you're like, this is what I want to do.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And you jump head first like that into something that's all encompassing, like literally living somewhere that's because of this.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Away from your family, too, at that age, you can kind of start changing the relationship with that love and passion, the sport, you know, whether it's gosh, this isn't everything to me.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Like I thought it was, or like, I've definitely made the red decision.
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[SPEAKER_04]: What was that like?
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[SPEAKER_04]: And I'm sure,
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[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I don't know, I know this was a while ago, and so maybe you've at that age, you can kind of totally devote it without thinking about a whole lot else, but it'd be different if you did it 25 for instance or 30.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Talk to us about that.
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[SPEAKER_04]: How did it change your relationship with skiing?
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[SPEAKER_04]: Was it like, yes, this is confirmed it or all man, there's more competition than I realized.
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[SPEAKER_04]: What was that realization?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's different than when you're 25 or 30, honestly.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, maybe if you have a wife or kids or something, but I think up to that point, I had done years of due diligence without even thinking about it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, okay, this is something I want to do.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I love this.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I know I can be successful.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I've gaged my talent versus the rest of the field, like via the internet and
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and other kids my age and so when I, you know, when I got to like 15, 16, 17 and got went like fully immersed myself and like this dream, um, there were absolutely moments when I hated it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't like it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was frustrated like one of the quit thought I wasn't progressing, you know,
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[SPEAKER_01]: in that kind of thing, um, but I think believing, like really, really believing in yourself,
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[SPEAKER_01]: is really what made the difference for me.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And also just knowing that like you did make the right choice.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Like a few years ago when I went all in on this, I made, I made the right call.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I believed, I believed that, you know, it's almost like a choice.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I believe in that too.
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[SPEAKER_01]: you know, people have jobs, they have passions and they have callings, right?
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think those are just automatic.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I think you choose, you know, those three things.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think even today, like 20 years later, or 15 years later, I still make that,
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[SPEAKER_01]: choice quite often to love this and figure out how to love it because I'm really good at it and you know it's been with me since I was a kid so it's a
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's like, it's like luck, but it's also work at the same time.
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[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I know you won some big medals, which I probably can't talk about, you know, the names of those, uh, protected trademarks and whatnot on here, but some pretty advisable and important and like really validating, you know, performances and, and, uh, medals pretty early in your career and young, um,
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[SPEAKER_04]: And I know, you know, you have recently and last couple years come out of your first retirement.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So I want to talk to you a little bit about like what led to the idea of retirement?
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[SPEAKER_04]: And we talked to a lot of athletes on this podcast.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And we've talked about this concept of retirement.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Like people just think pro-athlete retirement, you know, you're sitting on this, you know, giant.
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[SPEAKER_04]: a vault of money, you know, like your, like everybody's Tom Brady, what does it mean to retire from skiing and what kind of what led to that decision?
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[SPEAKER_04]: And then we're skipping a lot.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's all right.
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[SPEAKER_01]: No, and now I think it's in the same in the same realm.
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[SPEAKER_01]: After the 2022 Olympics and Beijing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I had grown pretty tired and frankly, I'm inspired to continue to progress and learn new tricks and I, you know, the Olympics weren't February and I waited all the way till November of that year.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, eight, nine, 10 months later, and by November, I was like, dude, I don't, I don't, I don't want to go skiing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even want to look at my skis.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And at that point, I was, I kind of thought it would like naturally come back, you know, like that inspiration to that drive and it did it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And, um,
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so I made a call to just, you know, really just retire.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I wasn't planning on taking this season off.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, you know what, I've had an amazing career to this point.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm proud of everything I've done.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to just,
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[SPEAKER_01]: hang out and see where the wind takes me, I didn't exactly have a plan of like what I wanted to do, I just knew what I didn't want to do, which was like get back on that grind.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so I called all my sponsors and like family loved ones, people I trust, and I told them that it is actually a thing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then yeah, like took like eight or ten months off,
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[SPEAKER_01]: But there was kind of a turning point because I was sitting at a home and I just like my body just like physically I just felt so good like I just, you know, I mean that helps from not skiing like you're not hurt or anything or sore, but I just felt like gosh, I just feel so out of shape, you know, I mean not getting back to school.
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[SPEAKER_01]: No, not at all.
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[SPEAKER_01]: it was a it was a complete opposite i just felt like man i just feel so good like um i want to i want to do something with this body you know and i and i do love skiing i don't like i don't want to do it in the way that i was doing it but i do love something about this you know i just it just took me some
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's some downtime and frankly some boredom to get to that realization and so, you know, that's where my creative brains sort of spinning and the seed got planted for half-pipe.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So that's wild.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So what causes you to.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, like truly pursue that because that that sounds like it in and again, I'm not terribly adapted like skiing.
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[SPEAKER_04]: You know, culture and language and but I've talked to enough on this show and just know enough about it generally the
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[SPEAKER_04]: understand, you know, that's that's not an easy thing to jump into out of nowhere, um, not that you didn't have any experience, but like, what made you want to pursue that individually, and then I know you've taken some like an orthodox steps to get there, like buying this ranch that has this like the roller blade half-five that I thought was pretty cool.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I was going to ask you about, but why that?
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[SPEAKER_04]: And then why focus and what were the reactions?
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[SPEAKER_01]: So you talked about the stories before the podcast, like you love a good story, so do I.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And before this decision to like, unretire from competition and go into a different skiing discipline, I just wrote the story in my head.
21:00.385 --> 21:05.592
[SPEAKER_01]: And I watched it play out and I thought it was epic.
21:06.196 --> 21:21.796
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, dude, that would be so sick if somebody did that and somebody that's somebody can't be me and so from there like, you know, because there can be alternative endings.
21:21.937 --> 21:26.022
[SPEAKER_04]: Did you play out different things and say, okay, what's worst case scenario?
21:26.062 --> 21:27.123
[SPEAKER_04]: What's best case scenario?
21:27.143 --> 21:29.166
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just like, here's the ending I'm shooting for.
21:30.395 --> 21:50.547
[SPEAKER_01]: no like I'm there's one ending or I'm within like a five percentile of that ending of the one that I want and you know I prove proven that to myself you know plenty of times for my life to know like no I could get there but uh
21:51.320 --> 22:20.567
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, and then like, so I had the story in my head of like, you know, and your kid does like has a well of your career in this wins all this stuff, takes a year off, unretires, goes into a whole other field, does this stuff, and the next step was to figure out if that's actually something I would enjoy doing
22:21.222 --> 22:22.544
[SPEAKER_01]: really make it happen.
22:22.684 --> 22:36.923
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the next few months after that, um, we're kind of like a series of experiments to figure out if, if this, you know, story was, uh, was one that I want to be the main character of us.
22:37.965 --> 22:38.205
[SPEAKER_04]: Wow.
22:40.008 --> 22:40.688
[SPEAKER_04]: That's so cool.
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[SPEAKER_04]: What were the reactions when you made your announcement
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think from the general public and like my fans, they were really stoked and kind of like, oh my god, like very surprised.
22:57.995 --> 23:01.506
[SPEAKER_01]: I think within the skin community, it was like
23:02.617 --> 23:09.146
[SPEAKER_01]: amusement at first, um, not really like, oh, this is a serious thing.
23:09.226 --> 23:10.968
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like, oh, ha ha, that's fun.
23:11.248 --> 23:17.617
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's a fun little recess, you know, anyone, um, this is, this is a desperate actor.
23:17.697 --> 23:20.300
[SPEAKER_03]: This is just attention behind closed doors.
23:20.841 --> 23:22.784
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, not to meet, not to meet.
23:23.745 --> 23:31.375
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, not not to me like, no one's in my face, but I know that chatter was happening.
23:31.675 --> 23:58.155
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, which kind of gave me motivation to really work hard and win and prove that I was meant to be here and this is, this is a real thing so it was sort of like a, this perfect combination of like laid back relaxed fun vibes from me because I didn't have any expectations on myself and then sort of like some talk to motivate me to like make a happen.
23:58.574 --> 23:59.115
[SPEAKER_04]: Here we are.
23:59.495 --> 24:00.857
[SPEAKER_04]: We're a couple of weeks out.
24:00.997 --> 24:01.698
[SPEAKER_04]: We're not not even.
24:01.899 --> 24:03.881
[SPEAKER_04]: What's what's like next steps for you.
24:03.982 --> 24:07.386
[SPEAKER_04]: And also being your fourth theo show.
24:07.426 --> 24:09.249
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm just going to, I'm just going to say we can say that.
24:10.351 --> 24:19.003
[SPEAKER_04]: Your fourth game's, you know, what, what do you do in at this point in this part that this pretty planning?
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[SPEAKER_04]: I know there's probably a lot to think about and prepare and to monitor and manage what's different this time or what's the same.
24:29.303 --> 24:29.683
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Good question.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So, I mean, logistically, I'm here for another week or so, and then I go to Italy to do opening ceremonies for the games, and then I'll take a week of training and Switzerland after that, and I'll go back to Italy to do my event at the games, because we're at the end.
24:50.926 --> 24:55.731
[SPEAKER_01]: So, let me be good practice and preparation.
24:55.771 --> 24:58.534
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm taking some time off at home right now.
24:59.459 --> 25:08.492
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the difference, I'd say there's a big, pretty big difference between this one and the other ones.
25:09.733 --> 25:11.536
[SPEAKER_01]: One, there's no pandemic too.
25:11.596 --> 25:13.258
[SPEAKER_01]: It's in the Western hemisphere.
25:13.298 --> 25:25.315
[SPEAKER_01]: And three, it's, I've just had more experience and I think I can sit back and relax a little bit better than I ever have before.
25:26.830 --> 25:37.351
[SPEAKER_01]: when I was a teenager and when you go to the Olympics as a teenager, like, the whole, you know, you just feel like you're in a beat, like a hornet's nest, like the whole time.
25:37.511 --> 25:45.988
[SPEAKER_01]: You're just like, oh my god, oh my god, you know, they're just stuff going on everywhere and like you don't know what to think about or, no, you don't have to make of it.
25:46.108 --> 25:49.294
[SPEAKER_01]: But when you're in your 30s, it's like,
25:50.337 --> 25:53.922
[SPEAKER_01]: You sort of know how it's going to go in a way.
25:54.342 --> 25:58.347
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just think you're way better at compartmentalizing.
25:58.407 --> 26:00.811
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I need to be this focused athlete.
26:01.471 --> 26:04.716
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I can be this like poorest in this foreign country.
26:04.736 --> 26:07.659
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I can be this like family.
26:07.679 --> 26:12.005
[SPEAKER_01]: I can be a son, a brother and a fiancee.
26:12.025 --> 26:16.010
[SPEAKER_01]: You just know how to switch those levers on and off.
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[SPEAKER_01]: A lot better.
26:18.029 --> 26:18.850
[SPEAKER_04]: That's really cool.
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[SPEAKER_04]: No, it's that's really interesting.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Just the experience and kind of know in what's what's worth paying attention to and what's not because like you said, there's there's a lot going on.
26:30.891 --> 26:33.355
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it really is like the biggest.
26:33.335 --> 26:51.360
[SPEAKER_04]: TV show in the world for this time and so and that's the purpose like trying to get eyeballs to see these games and see these competitions this this excellence on display and so it's hard not to get wrapped up in that I'm sure being young in first time and in
26:51.340 --> 26:52.341
[SPEAKER_04]: with some experience.
26:52.361 --> 26:53.703
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, use a tier advantage.
26:53.803 --> 26:55.005
[SPEAKER_04]: That's that's really cool.
26:55.766 --> 26:58.510
[SPEAKER_04]: And also let's talk about, you know, what what you've done differently.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I want to ask a little bit about this ranch.
27:00.433 --> 27:03.958
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, what led you to 40 acres out in the desert, the train for half by like that.
27:03.978 --> 27:10.126
[SPEAKER_04]: That seems even further down that path of the unexpected and path of of unorthodox approach.
27:11.989 --> 27:13.551
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my.
27:15.168 --> 27:18.954
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I love on Orthodox.
27:20.055 --> 27:24.202
[SPEAKER_01]: It's my biggest, I don't like trends.
27:24.602 --> 27:26.064
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't like trends.
27:26.245 --> 27:29.189
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't like going with the crowd.
27:29.429 --> 27:34.597
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I think it's uninspiring and uncreative and innovative.
27:34.978 --> 27:39.825
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love a cool story like we talked about earlier.
27:41.459 --> 27:44.062
[SPEAKER_01]: My dad taught me how to build stuff when I was a kid.
27:44.102 --> 27:49.427
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a little bit of a carpenter for fun.
27:49.507 --> 27:52.290
[SPEAKER_01]: He taught me how to bang a hammer and drive a screw.
27:53.491 --> 27:55.914
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're building rails and ramps and stuff like that.
27:55.954 --> 27:58.156
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I have a little bit of experience doing that.
27:58.196 --> 28:09.087
[SPEAKER_01]: So when I started skiing, half pipe, I wanted to sort of have my own private training facility
28:09.607 --> 28:15.841
[SPEAKER_01]: and just make it, you know, sort of fauna ridiculous, but also productive.
28:16.583 --> 28:25.202
[SPEAKER_01]: And so my spent, you know, this summer, last summer, or yeah, last summer, just
28:25.182 --> 28:43.123
[SPEAKER_01]: walking around in the dirt with work boots on some land that I purchased for super cheap two hours away from here in Nevada and yeah built this big ramp had this airbag from Canada like shipped down and so I could practice tricks off this ramp and land on this airbag and
28:43.643 --> 28:51.770
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I mean, it was extremely fun, it's a lot of hard work and it really built my confidence.
28:52.271 --> 28:55.774
[SPEAKER_01]: And I had the most fun ever that summer.
28:55.874 --> 29:01.098
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'd love to have talked to somebody who saw you out there.
29:01.118 --> 29:04.702
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know what it's like if there's a lot of wandering around in the desert.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I miss the desert.
29:05.743 --> 29:13.009
[SPEAKER_04]: And the back ground and like, hey man, what are you doing?
29:13.883 --> 29:15.785
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
29:15.805 --> 29:15.905
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
29:15.925 --> 29:16.826
[SPEAKER_04]: That's hilarious.
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[SPEAKER_04]: No, I love it.
29:17.868 --> 29:20.491
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, so, all right, got about a week out.
29:20.871 --> 29:23.634
[SPEAKER_04]: I know you're feeling good when you, when you made this decision to return.
29:23.914 --> 29:24.996
[SPEAKER_04]: How's the body feeling now?
29:25.096 --> 29:31.924
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, for preparing really hard for this and maybe with a different approach, but is that sense of like feeling great still with you?
29:33.085 --> 29:33.786
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it is.
29:34.406 --> 29:34.727
[SPEAKER_01]: It is.
29:34.747 --> 29:37.951
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, yo, yo is here.
29:37.971 --> 29:43.637
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to
29:44.866 --> 29:46.909
[SPEAKER_01]: I literally feel that right now.
29:47.490 --> 29:49.212
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's going to be a good couple of weeks.
29:50.093 --> 29:58.486
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I feel in the context of the last six months with last year, it literally feels like that.
29:59.587 --> 30:00.949
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, personally, I'm professionally.
30:01.770 --> 30:03.252
[SPEAKER_01]: I was a batman, no, I'm kidding.
30:04.114 --> 30:05.716
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's going to be good.
30:05.736 --> 30:06.537
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be good.
30:07.192 --> 30:08.533
[SPEAKER_04]: It's awesome.
30:09.374 --> 30:18.202
[SPEAKER_04]: What it asks, too, doing research on you, you really seem to dive fully into making them most fun out of social media.
30:18.482 --> 30:20.364
[SPEAKER_04]: Is that part of being a pro athlete?
30:20.384 --> 30:27.191
[SPEAKER_04]: Because we talked to so many folks here that it's like a necessary evil in their mind or a necessary part of the game.
30:27.931 --> 30:32.455
[SPEAKER_04]: And others are like, no, this is fun, this is like what I'm good at.
30:33.456 --> 30:35.258
[SPEAKER_04]: How does it fall into your
30:35.727 --> 30:38.869
[SPEAKER_04]: Responsibilities, if you will, as a pro athlete, social media.
30:40.975 --> 30:41.877
[SPEAKER_01]: love the question.
30:42.858 --> 30:47.827
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm from the generation where earlier my career, like we didn't have to do this.
30:48.568 --> 30:52.795
[SPEAKER_01]: It was mostly like traditional media and like TV.
30:52.835 --> 30:53.917
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where you got exposure.
30:54.118 --> 31:03.834
[SPEAKER_01]: And then social media became relevant and now the sudden were like our own marketing production company.
31:04.816 --> 31:05.657
[SPEAKER_01]: Engine, exactly.
31:06.038 --> 31:06.679
[SPEAKER_01]: And
31:07.672 --> 31:36.902
[SPEAKER_01]: it's both like it's a necessary evil and it's fun it's like for me it's kind of like a choice like I can choose to have fun with this or I can choose to just turn my brain off and like make this like a rolling ad campaign and um you know not work on it for now that the thing you have to kind of decide as a professional athlete is like what are you what are you are you
31:36.882 --> 31:47.173
[SPEAKER_01]: and a entertainer, internet person or are you going to be an internet person and do the athlete thing on the side?
31:47.774 --> 31:53.920
[SPEAKER_01]: And I fully believe that like you success depends on what you focus on.
31:55.182 --> 32:05.893
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there's times when like I'm like not as busy or more relaxed and have like kind of
32:07.122 --> 32:20.727
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, content that shows that personality, and then there's other times that I'm like super locked in and I don't care about that and I just want to focus on like what I really love doing, which is in an athlete so.
32:22.630 --> 32:34.483
[SPEAKER_04]: you do a great job, you know, even the ads, I like I want to watch those because I know it's going to be fun and creative in, and, you know, make something entertaining out of it.
32:34.683 --> 32:47.997
[SPEAKER_04]: And so, always appreciate when creators and athletes do that is part of, you know, because I know this is part of how you, you make this a possible way to live your life and to pursue these things that you do.
32:47.977 --> 32:50.680
[SPEAKER_04]: So I don't know, that's cool.
32:50.800 --> 32:51.381
[SPEAKER_04]: That's really cool.
32:51.401 --> 32:52.422
[SPEAKER_04]: You've been able to do that.
32:53.363 --> 32:57.487
[SPEAKER_04]: But it's not, I'm sure always the easiest thing to kind of balance between the two.
32:57.587 --> 33:03.934
[SPEAKER_04]: So really neat and love, love you with emo hair too.
33:04.214 --> 33:10.380
[SPEAKER_04]: I saw that earlier last year and I'm like, oh, that looks like me back in the day.
33:11.502 --> 33:13.203
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
33:13.243 --> 33:16.667
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, anything else you want to share for a jumping or rapid fire questions?
33:18.790 --> 33:36.968
[SPEAKER_01]: No, um, no, I like the, I like the model you shared with me earlier about no compromises, and I think that's, uh, I think that's a great way to,
33:38.264 --> 34:00.930
[SPEAKER_01]: live your life and that's kind of how I go about my career and just my impact on the generation behind me is kind of showing it all and letting people know that I'm not perfect and at the same time like showing them that if you believe in yourself you can accomplish some great things.
34:01.214 --> 34:02.396
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, it's great.
34:02.636 --> 34:08.003
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, one of our rapid fire questions is going to ask you specifically about that motto.
34:08.283 --> 34:10.966
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I'm interested to hear your more your thoughts.
34:11.027 --> 34:11.667
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe that was it.
34:11.687 --> 34:12.609
[SPEAKER_04]: And you can just share that again.
34:12.689 --> 34:23.863
[SPEAKER_04]: But these don't have to be one word answers, but really just a chance to learn a little bit more about you and how you operate and if there's a story, always dive into the story, that's fine.
34:23.843 --> 34:30.393
[SPEAKER_04]: It's might be hard just because the the ocean is so close and it probably is starting to consume more of your brain.
34:31.294 --> 34:32.376
[SPEAKER_04]: Pie, you know what I mean?
34:32.416 --> 34:37.504
[SPEAKER_04]: More of the percentage as we get closer, but what are you most curious about right now?
34:37.524 --> 34:40.388
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm just going to say outside of your skiing career.
34:42.131 --> 34:42.932
[SPEAKER_04]: And ranches.
34:43.317 --> 34:51.093
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, you know what, like, okay, so I love, uh, I love, I love the world.
34:51.173 --> 34:51.955
[SPEAKER_01]: I love traveling.
34:52.776 --> 34:58.608
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and being an American wall traveling, um, is always an experience.
34:58.628 --> 35:00.111
[SPEAKER_01]: And I am,
35:00.091 --> 35:28.731
[SPEAKER_01]: very curious about what the experience is going to be like at these these games as a TMS said yeah I think it's going to be awesome and I'm curious about the whole thing so I can't wait So what do you I'm going to say what what's what do you say right now is a proudest achievement in your career could be a metal could be something small could be an impact you've had is there's something that comes
35:31.850 --> 35:43.571
[SPEAKER_01]: I think my proudest achievement is being a, I think my proudest achievement is being a good brother and son up to this point.
35:44.052 --> 35:48.340
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that will turn into a husband soon.
35:48.421 --> 35:58.219
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I just think my family has been really important to me and they've really backed me for everything and through everything.
35:58.259 --> 35:59.100
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all my siblings.
35:59.140 --> 36:09.619
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a incredibly close relationship now or still, you know, after these years and and that's pretty cool to have.
36:09.751 --> 36:20.350
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, done what I've done and and still like feel like nothing's changed since we were, you know, since like Christmas morning when we were like 10 years old.
36:20.550 --> 36:21.452
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's cool.
36:21.512 --> 36:21.933
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that.
36:21.993 --> 36:24.678
[SPEAKER_04]: What's in this might be obvious.
36:24.778 --> 36:27.363
[SPEAKER_04]: This might also be, you know, more nuanced.
36:27.383 --> 36:29.947
[SPEAKER_04]: But what's one of your biggest goals you have in yet achieved?
36:30.568 --> 36:33.193
[SPEAKER_00]: My biggest, one of my biggest goals
36:34.034 --> 36:36.337
[SPEAKER_01]: is to be the world's best father.
36:37.158 --> 36:39.101
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have one of those things yet, but yeah.
36:39.721 --> 36:41.223
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, you got to practice first.
36:41.704 --> 36:44.247
[SPEAKER_04]: I make them.
36:44.427 --> 36:50.495
[SPEAKER_04]: So, all right, so in pursuit of that goal, goal or any of your goals, what's a daily habit you stick to?
36:52.438 --> 36:53.399
[SPEAKER_01]: Good question.
36:53.980 --> 37:02.691
[SPEAKER_01]: One daily habit I stick to is, I like to make my bed.
37:03.346 --> 37:06.852
[SPEAKER_01]: or make any bed, that's a good one.
37:07.794 --> 37:23.180
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's really simple, but if I get up first and my fiance makes a bed, but if I'm in a hotel or Airbnb or something or traveling or anything like that, like, it's like a pain in the ass and sometimes can be so annoying.
37:24.802 --> 37:29.370
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you just do it and accomplish it,
37:30.042 --> 37:37.550
[SPEAKER_01]: It makes you feel good and it feels like you, you know, check, check the thing out the list for that day and just gives you confidence to start the day.
37:37.570 --> 37:43.856
[SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, I'm the same way I make the bet every day and I know when I have it, it affects me.
37:45.878 --> 37:55.628
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, we're on athletic brewing spotcast without compromise and so I saw you post and talk about, you know, upside down.
37:55.608 --> 38:00.836
[SPEAKER_04]: Golden bin maybe your favorite is that would you say that's your favorite athletic brew or is there another one?
38:01.417 --> 38:03.059
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, that's it.
38:03.940 --> 38:04.942
[SPEAKER_00]: I said I had one last night.
38:05.162 --> 38:06.664
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, that's awesome.
38:06.684 --> 38:20.164
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I need to can it used to say and and we really kind of made this of motto is like brew without compromise, but you know, we we realize as we pursue this crazy idea non alcoholic beer especially early on it was like
38:20.887 --> 38:21.868
[SPEAKER_04]: people thought it was nuts.
38:22.649 --> 38:25.172
[SPEAKER_04]: We took our, it's not just brewing without compromise.
38:25.192 --> 38:27.014
[SPEAKER_04]: It's really living without compromise.
38:27.054 --> 38:30.697
[SPEAKER_04]: It kind of was a lifestyle, not just what we did at work, but what we did it with our lives.
38:31.478 --> 38:38.806
[SPEAKER_04]: And so we talked to people on the show who were also living without compromise, but in their own way, what does it mean to you to live without compromise?
38:40.148 --> 38:41.809
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, living without compromise.
38:41.829 --> 38:42.670
[SPEAKER_01]: What does that mean to me?
38:42.750 --> 38:49.898
[SPEAKER_01]: It means that if you
38:50.097 --> 38:53.203
[SPEAKER_01]: to it's really a perspective thing.
38:53.424 --> 39:06.469
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an attitude like if you have to make any changes that could be viewed as compromise,
39:07.343 --> 39:22.006
[SPEAKER_01]: their, in fact, not, there are changes that are going to be benefits and extreme, like a boost forward for you in kind of however you're trying to live your life.
39:22.988 --> 39:29.318
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how, that's what I think, because I think it's impossible not to compromise on anything.
39:29.382 --> 39:50.023
[SPEAKER_01]: That's impossible, but to like, you know, I think about life is like a chess game, like you have to like move some players here and then pull some players back and move some right and and inevitably to like win the game, you've got to make certain move certain places and you might.
39:50.003 --> 40:01.060
[SPEAKER_01]: have to make like small little compromises, but in fact those are not compromises, those are advantages that are going to help you win the game of life.
40:04.398 --> 40:07.544
[SPEAKER_04]: Well there you have it folks, that is a little bit about Nick Geper.
40:07.764 --> 40:11.531
[SPEAKER_04]: You can follow along on his social medias, he's a great follow, very funny.
40:11.792 --> 40:17.342
[SPEAKER_04]: If you'd like to try his favorite brew or anything else by athletic brewing, go to athleticbruing.com.
40:17.362 --> 40:21.951
[SPEAKER_04]: You can order us right from the website or find us on store shelves near you.
00:03.018 --> 00:04.440
[SPEAKER_04]: This is without compromise.
00:04.700 --> 00:09.345
[SPEAKER_04]: Show that explores what happens when you won't settle for anything less than your crazy ideas.
00:09.685 --> 00:15.872
[SPEAKER_04]: We'll talk to athletes, founders, adventures, and entrepreneurs of all kinds about living without compromise.
00:16.413 --> 00:17.494
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm your host, Mason Gravely.
00:17.835 --> 00:18.515
[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome to the show.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We're programs for survival, so our instinct is to give up on these situations to move away from them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I thought if I didn't sign up for that race, that I was just going to disappear.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Doesn't have to be these big, huge things that everyone thinks you need to do to make a difference.
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[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I love a good comeback story.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I love a story where somebody either is counted out or decides to give up the fight or let the goal go and then upon further reflection, you know, jump back in the game, maybe in a new way.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I'm absolutely crushes it and Nick Geper's story is one of those.
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[SPEAKER_04]: He is a legendary and a very accomplished freestyle skier and retired from the sport after winning all sorts of medals, including
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[SPEAKER_04]: The biggest stage in skiing that there is, big game that starts with an O that he calls the O show, and after all that, he decides to retire, comes back out of retirement to ski the halfpipe, and qualifies for these major games that we're not allowed to actually say by name, legally, but you know what I'm talking about.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And he shares the grit, the sacrifices, the pathways that are super unlikely in shaping his career, including where he grew up in a small town in Indiana.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So I hope you follow Nick's journey.
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[SPEAKER_04]: He's getting ready for some pretty serious competition coming up in the next week, and he's an absolute hoot to follow on social media.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So definitely worth the follow.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And there's a great example of what it means to live without compromise.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So let's go ahead and dive in.
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[SPEAKER_04]: All right, Nick.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome to a welcome to without compromise.
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[SPEAKER_04]: How you doing?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing great.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I went for a ski tour this morning.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Just up the street for my house.
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[SPEAKER_01]: There's a mountain pass called Guardsman Pass and it's about an hour and hour up and about half hour down.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I'd like to do that early morning sometimes.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And where is that?
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[SPEAKER_04]: Where are you based?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Salt Lake City.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Oh my gosh, okay.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So talk to us about how's 2021 going for you?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, 2026 has been a roller coaster so far.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It started off with, well, just barely the end of 2025 was a bit of a rocky road I had a pretty big crash at this competition in China and then what's trading to the holidays and then had a qualifying sort of,
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[SPEAKER_01]: looming on the horizon.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then I just had to put my head down and really focus coming in at 2026.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, started off with, uh, with a win at a World Cup in Canada and Calgary, Canada, which put me in like really, really good position to qualify for the 15.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and then sort of right right after that went into, uh, the, uh, the games and Aspen colorado just last week and, uh, got my eighth, the game is metal there and also, uh, got engaged the same week.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So keep in the momentum going.
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[SPEAKER_03]: that's awesome.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, just yeah, it was like the best week ever, you know, families were there and yeah, awesome.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Holy yeah, that is that is an epic start to the year, not to mention what you have coming up.
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[SPEAKER_04]: We'll do.
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[SPEAKER_04]: We'll talk to us a little bit about, you know, just, you know, I don't want to take it like crazy all the way back to, you know, the beginning of your life, but like where did
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[SPEAKER_04]: this idea of, you know, you grew up in Indiana, you were born in Indiana, and you grew up in Indiana, you have a number of siblings, but talk to us a little bit about the presence of this sport in your life and how you kind of shape it yourself, and then where it started taking you early on.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I am from a family of four.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I got three siblings.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We all grew up 20 minutes outside of Cincinnati, Ohio actually across the state line in Indiana, a small town called Lawrenceburg.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And we live 10 minutes away from a ski area called Perfect North Slopes, which is about 400 feet tall.
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[SPEAKER_01]: 100% man-made snow and how to chairlift in a dream is kind of how I put it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I learned to ski when I was five.
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[SPEAKER_01]: My mom is from Michigan, so she grew up skiing on small hills and Michigan.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, like small Midwest skiing wasn't like a surprise or anything new for her.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And when I was 10 or 11, I started to get this
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[SPEAKER_01]: bug for the terrain park the jumps the rails it was just a lot more fun and creative and like skiing around gates or skiing for time or anything like that and I could go to my own pace too.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so I was able to practice so much as a kid and the funny thing people don't realize about the Midwest is you actually get.
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[SPEAKER_01]: like way more skiing than anywhere else in the United States in my opinion.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And the reason is that the hills are so small, the chairlets are never crowded.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And they turn the lights on at night.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So you can ski a 12 hour day on a Tuesday from nine to nine.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And you could do that seven days a week for three months out of the year.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And if you add up all that time and all that elevation, you're just skiing over and over again, you can get pretty, you can really master it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: that was uh... you know Lindsey von the similar story if you ever heard of her but she grew up on a small hill called buck hill in Minnesota and uh... same kind of deal just over and over and over and over and over and over again so why is that like uh... is that still like a really niche approach or is that
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[SPEAKER_04]: kind of format getting out with kind of all the craziness around ski resorts out west and the the lines and the expense and the consistency of the snow is it more like I'm going to this small corner somewhere that turns the lights on at night and I'm just going to hammer out 12 hour days is that is that becoming like a thing?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah I think I think I think
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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, nothing can replace like five thousand vertical foot mountain, you know, but if you like like my my whole thing is it's you know, if I'm going to like talk about advocating for skiing or for people getting into it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's it's far better to.
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[SPEAKER_01]: at least do it on any level rather than like wait for the perfect moment or wait for that trip, you know, that you might never take, you know, out west.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so with the crowded slopes and, you know, sort of the craziness you see out west with the expense and stuff, I think the Midwest is a super amazing option and there's a lot of ways to enjoy it, you know, you could go, I mean, look at the train parks.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Like every little Midwest Hill has got a couple of rails in a jump, like ski forward, ski backwards.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, learn how to snowboard, like there's a lot of ways you can have fun on 400 vertical feet.
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[SPEAKER_01]: how quickly did you start separating from the pack is a kid was it was a pretty immediate or did it take some time to say oh my gosh I'm not just Nick I'm Nick this skier yeah I think there was a I did my first back flip when I was 11 and I remember that day being like one of the best days of my younger adult life and and uh
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[SPEAKER_01]: sort of a pivotal moment in my confidence.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, okay, I just crossed a threshold of like, you know, amateur to like semi-pro or something.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Because there was only like one or two dudes at the mountain doing, you're going upside down in any way.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And as soon as I joined that, yeah, exactly.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And as soon as I joined that group, you know, the momentum just started kind of picking up and I was like, okay, like, if I can do a back flip, I can do a rodeo five.
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[SPEAKER_01]: If I can do a rodeo five, then I could do a rodeo seven.
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[SPEAKER_01]: If I could do a rodeo seven, then I could do a corks seven.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then as we saw all these little tiny steps, you know, that start, you know, on the trampoline, and then go to like the diving board at the pool, and then go to the slopes, you know, it's all kind of like process.
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[SPEAKER_04]: That's why, I mean, and also, you know, doing a back flip at 11, it's just absolutely nuts and cool, you know, at the very least, so I'm sure you felt, you know, pretty bad ass at the very least, doing that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, actually, I have a little caveat to that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So there was a, there was a, um, a kid that I skewed with at my local hill, his name was Chris, and he was a year older than me, and he was,
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[SPEAKER_01]: he was always a little bit ahead of me like a little bit better uh...
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[SPEAKER_01]: the tricks was always going on like one extra trip had one extra sponsor like this kid was was always one step ahead of me and I think that more than anything like kind of drove me to be you know as determined as like was as a kid.
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[SPEAKER_01]: If I was the the biggest fish in my small pond I don't think I would have turned out.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think we'd be talking right now.
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[SPEAKER_04]: It may be not about this, that's wild.
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[SPEAKER_04]: We'll talk us through some of those other highlights of where things really elevated.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So obviously, that back flip was a pivotal moment.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And can an event, if you will, what were some of, as you reflect on, maybe you thought they were at the time, but now with some perspective, you're like, it was really these moments that led me to say, I can do this, like I can really make career out of this.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, when I was 15, I had, I had made that call consciously.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I am going to do this.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, one, I never really, I didn't really love high school.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And like, I don't know, I just felt like I was on this different trajectory, at least that's how I imagined it in my head.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And when I talked to my parents about this, I was like,
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[SPEAKER_01]: for me to take this to the next level and chase a dream because it's not gonna happen in Indiana.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Like I gotta get out east, I gotta get out west, I gotta get where there's better training, more exposure, more competitions.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm a believer in manifesting sort of your reality and the universe returns whatever energy you put out there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I kind of thing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And we just went on a hunt for opportunities.
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[SPEAKER_01]: My parents weren't extremely wealthy, so we couldn't afford to just post up in Vermont or Colorado for six months out of the years.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And we were looking at
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, these, these ski academies as options and we found one in Oregon that was just starting up that, um, saw something in me and gave me a full scholarship to go there at age 15 back in 2009.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so, um, I sort of packed my bags and left home, my parents stayed in Indiana with my family, and I moved to Oregon to live at the school and see what that is like.
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[SPEAKER_04]: That's not like a summer camp.
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[SPEAKER_04]: This is like a no boarding school type thing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, boarding school.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And, uh, yeah, and I think that was like a really big moment for me of like,
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm burned in the boats and I'm not going back.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So it made it definitely gave me a, you know, a grit to like learn those tricks and be successful and always chase the next opportunity because I wanted to succeed more than I wanted to go home wasn't about not going home, but it was like man like all right, this is the for real like my my parents back me like the school backs me.
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[SPEAKER_04]: That's interesting, you know, sometimes when we, because I'm always trying to think of the angle that, you know, ties this into the greater audience that might not be as familiar as it came like me.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_04]: You know, there's always when you dive into something, you're like, this is what I want to do.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And you jump head first like that into something that's all encompassing, like literally living somewhere that's because of this.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Away from your family, too, at that age, you can kind of start changing the relationship with that love and passion, the sport, you know, whether it's gosh, this isn't everything to me.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Like I thought it was, or like, I've definitely made the red decision.
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[SPEAKER_04]: What was that like?
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[SPEAKER_04]: And I'm sure,
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[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I don't know, I know this was a while ago, and so maybe you've at that age, you can kind of totally devote it without thinking about a whole lot else, but it'd be different if you did it 25 for instance or 30.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Talk to us about that.
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[SPEAKER_04]: How did it change your relationship with skiing?
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[SPEAKER_04]: Was it like, yes, this is confirmed it or all man, there's more competition than I realized.
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[SPEAKER_04]: What was that realization?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's different than when you're 25 or 30, honestly.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, maybe if you have a wife or kids or something, but I think up to that point, I had done years of due diligence without even thinking about it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, okay, this is something I want to do.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I love this.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I know I can be successful.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I've gaged my talent versus the rest of the field, like via the internet and
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and other kids my age and so when I, you know, when I got to like 15, 16, 17 and got went like fully immersed myself and like this dream, um, there were absolutely moments when I hated it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't like it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was frustrated like one of the quit thought I wasn't progressing, you know,
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[SPEAKER_01]: in that kind of thing, um, but I think believing, like really, really believing in yourself,
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[SPEAKER_01]: is really what made the difference for me.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And also just knowing that like you did make the right choice.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Like a few years ago when I went all in on this, I made, I made the right call.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I believed, I believed that, you know, it's almost like a choice.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I believe in that too.
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[SPEAKER_01]: you know, people have jobs, they have passions and they have callings, right?
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think those are just automatic.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I think you choose, you know, those three things.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think even today, like 20 years later, or 15 years later, I still make that,
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[SPEAKER_01]: choice quite often to love this and figure out how to love it because I'm really good at it and you know it's been with me since I was a kid so it's a
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's like, it's like luck, but it's also work at the same time.
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[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I know you won some big medals, which I probably can't talk about, you know, the names of those, uh, protected trademarks and whatnot on here, but some pretty advisable and important and like really validating, you know, performances and, and, uh, medals pretty early in your career and young, um,
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[SPEAKER_04]: And I know, you know, you have recently and last couple years come out of your first retirement.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So I want to talk to you a little bit about like what led to the idea of retirement?
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[SPEAKER_04]: And we talked to a lot of athletes on this podcast.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And we've talked about this concept of retirement.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Like people just think pro-athlete retirement, you know, you're sitting on this, you know, giant.
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[SPEAKER_04]: a vault of money, you know, like your, like everybody's Tom Brady, what does it mean to retire from skiing and what kind of what led to that decision?
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[SPEAKER_04]: And then we're skipping a lot.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's all right.
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[SPEAKER_01]: No, and now I think it's in the same in the same realm.
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[SPEAKER_01]: After the 2022 Olympics and Beijing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I had grown pretty tired and frankly, I'm inspired to continue to progress and learn new tricks and I, you know, the Olympics weren't February and I waited all the way till November of that year.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, eight, nine, 10 months later, and by November, I was like, dude, I don't, I don't, I don't want to go skiing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even want to look at my skis.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And at that point, I was, I kind of thought it would like naturally come back, you know, like that inspiration to that drive and it did it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And, um,
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so I made a call to just, you know, really just retire.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I wasn't planning on taking this season off.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, you know what, I've had an amazing career to this point.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm proud of everything I've done.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to just,
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[SPEAKER_01]: hang out and see where the wind takes me, I didn't exactly have a plan of like what I wanted to do, I just knew what I didn't want to do, which was like get back on that grind.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so I called all my sponsors and like family loved ones, people I trust, and I told them that it is actually a thing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then yeah, like took like eight or ten months off,
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[SPEAKER_01]: But there was kind of a turning point because I was sitting at a home and I just like my body just like physically I just felt so good like I just, you know, I mean that helps from not skiing like you're not hurt or anything or sore, but I just felt like gosh, I just feel so out of shape, you know, I mean not getting back to school.
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[SPEAKER_01]: No, not at all.
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[SPEAKER_01]: it was a it was a complete opposite i just felt like man i just feel so good like um i want to i want to do something with this body you know and i and i do love skiing i don't like i don't want to do it in the way that i was doing it but i do love something about this you know i just it just took me some
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's some downtime and frankly some boredom to get to that realization and so, you know, that's where my creative brains sort of spinning and the seed got planted for half-pipe.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So that's wild.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So what causes you to.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, like truly pursue that because that that sounds like it in and again, I'm not terribly adapted like skiing.
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[SPEAKER_04]: You know, culture and language and but I've talked to enough on this show and just know enough about it generally the
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[SPEAKER_04]: understand, you know, that's that's not an easy thing to jump into out of nowhere, um, not that you didn't have any experience, but like, what made you want to pursue that individually, and then I know you've taken some like an orthodox steps to get there, like buying this ranch that has this like the roller blade half-five that I thought was pretty cool.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I was going to ask you about, but why that?
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[SPEAKER_04]: And then why focus and what were the reactions?
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[SPEAKER_01]: So you talked about the stories before the podcast, like you love a good story, so do I.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And before this decision to like, unretire from competition and go into a different skiing discipline, I just wrote the story in my head.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I watched it play out and I thought it was epic.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, dude, that would be so sick if somebody did that and somebody that's somebody can't be me and so from there like, you know, because there can be alternative endings.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Did you play out different things and say, okay, what's worst case scenario?
21:26.062 --> 21:27.123
[SPEAKER_04]: What's best case scenario?
21:27.143 --> 21:29.166
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just like, here's the ending I'm shooting for.
21:30.395 --> 21:50.547
[SPEAKER_01]: no like I'm there's one ending or I'm within like a five percentile of that ending of the one that I want and you know I prove proven that to myself you know plenty of times for my life to know like no I could get there but uh
21:51.320 --> 22:20.567
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, and then like, so I had the story in my head of like, you know, and your kid does like has a well of your career in this wins all this stuff, takes a year off, unretires, goes into a whole other field, does this stuff, and the next step was to figure out if that's actually something I would enjoy doing
22:21.222 --> 22:22.544
[SPEAKER_01]: really make it happen.
22:22.684 --> 22:36.923
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the next few months after that, um, we're kind of like a series of experiments to figure out if, if this, you know, story was, uh, was one that I want to be the main character of us.
22:37.965 --> 22:38.205
[SPEAKER_04]: Wow.
22:40.008 --> 22:40.688
[SPEAKER_04]: That's so cool.
22:41.870 --> 22:46.977
[SPEAKER_04]: What were the reactions when you made your announcement
22:47.902 --> 22:57.894
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think from the general public and like my fans, they were really stoked and kind of like, oh my god, like very surprised.
22:57.995 --> 23:01.506
[SPEAKER_01]: I think within the skin community, it was like
23:02.617 --> 23:09.146
[SPEAKER_01]: amusement at first, um, not really like, oh, this is a serious thing.
23:09.226 --> 23:10.968
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like, oh, ha ha, that's fun.
23:11.248 --> 23:17.617
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's a fun little recess, you know, anyone, um, this is, this is a desperate actor.
23:17.697 --> 23:20.300
[SPEAKER_03]: This is just attention behind closed doors.
23:20.841 --> 23:22.784
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, not to meet, not to meet.
23:23.745 --> 23:31.375
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, not not to me like, no one's in my face, but I know that chatter was happening.
23:31.675 --> 23:58.155
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, which kind of gave me motivation to really work hard and win and prove that I was meant to be here and this is, this is a real thing so it was sort of like a, this perfect combination of like laid back relaxed fun vibes from me because I didn't have any expectations on myself and then sort of like some talk to motivate me to like make a happen.
23:58.574 --> 23:59.115
[SPEAKER_04]: Here we are.
23:59.495 --> 24:00.857
[SPEAKER_04]: We're a couple of weeks out.
24:00.997 --> 24:01.698
[SPEAKER_04]: We're not not even.
24:01.899 --> 24:03.881
[SPEAKER_04]: What's what's like next steps for you.
24:03.982 --> 24:07.386
[SPEAKER_04]: And also being your fourth theo show.
24:07.426 --> 24:09.249
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm just going to, I'm just going to say we can say that.
24:10.351 --> 24:19.003
[SPEAKER_04]: Your fourth game's, you know, what, what do you do in at this point in this part that this pretty planning?
24:19.043 --> 24:27.855
[SPEAKER_04]: I know there's probably a lot to think about and prepare and to monitor and manage what's different this time or what's the same.
24:29.303 --> 24:29.683
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
24:30.444 --> 24:31.065
[SPEAKER_01]: Good question.
24:31.846 --> 24:50.906
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I mean, logistically, I'm here for another week or so, and then I go to Italy to do opening ceremonies for the games, and then I'll take a week of training and Switzerland after that, and I'll go back to Italy to do my event at the games, because we're at the end.
24:50.926 --> 24:55.731
[SPEAKER_01]: So, let me be good practice and preparation.
24:55.771 --> 24:58.534
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm taking some time off at home right now.
24:59.459 --> 25:08.492
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the difference, I'd say there's a big, pretty big difference between this one and the other ones.
25:09.733 --> 25:11.536
[SPEAKER_01]: One, there's no pandemic too.
25:11.596 --> 25:13.258
[SPEAKER_01]: It's in the Western hemisphere.
25:13.298 --> 25:25.315
[SPEAKER_01]: And three, it's, I've just had more experience and I think I can sit back and relax a little bit better than I ever have before.
25:26.830 --> 25:37.351
[SPEAKER_01]: when I was a teenager and when you go to the Olympics as a teenager, like, the whole, you know, you just feel like you're in a beat, like a hornet's nest, like the whole time.
25:37.511 --> 25:45.988
[SPEAKER_01]: You're just like, oh my god, oh my god, you know, they're just stuff going on everywhere and like you don't know what to think about or, no, you don't have to make of it.
25:46.108 --> 25:49.294
[SPEAKER_01]: But when you're in your 30s, it's like,
25:50.337 --> 25:53.922
[SPEAKER_01]: You sort of know how it's going to go in a way.
25:54.342 --> 25:58.347
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just think you're way better at compartmentalizing.
25:58.407 --> 26:00.811
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I need to be this focused athlete.
26:01.471 --> 26:04.716
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I can be this like poorest in this foreign country.
26:04.736 --> 26:07.659
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I can be this like family.
26:07.679 --> 26:12.005
[SPEAKER_01]: I can be a son, a brother and a fiancee.
26:12.025 --> 26:16.010
[SPEAKER_01]: You just know how to switch those levers on and off.
26:16.871 --> 26:17.492
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot better.
26:18.029 --> 26:18.850
[SPEAKER_04]: That's really cool.
26:19.331 --> 26:21.254
[SPEAKER_04]: No, it's that's really interesting.
26:21.295 --> 26:30.831
[SPEAKER_04]: Just the experience and kind of know in what's what's worth paying attention to and what's not because like you said, there's there's a lot going on.
26:30.891 --> 26:33.355
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it really is like the biggest.
26:33.335 --> 26:51.360
[SPEAKER_04]: TV show in the world for this time and so and that's the purpose like trying to get eyeballs to see these games and see these competitions this this excellence on display and so it's hard not to get wrapped up in that I'm sure being young in first time and in
26:51.340 --> 26:52.341
[SPEAKER_04]: with some experience.
26:52.361 --> 26:53.703
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, use a tier advantage.
26:53.803 --> 26:55.005
[SPEAKER_04]: That's that's really cool.
26:55.766 --> 26:58.510
[SPEAKER_04]: And also let's talk about, you know, what what you've done differently.
26:58.550 --> 27:00.413
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to ask a little bit about this ranch.
27:00.433 --> 27:03.958
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, what led you to 40 acres out in the desert, the train for half by like that.
27:03.978 --> 27:10.126
[SPEAKER_04]: That seems even further down that path of the unexpected and path of of unorthodox approach.
27:11.989 --> 27:13.551
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my.
27:15.168 --> 27:18.954
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I love on Orthodox.
27:20.055 --> 27:24.202
[SPEAKER_01]: It's my biggest, I don't like trends.
27:24.602 --> 27:26.064
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't like trends.
27:26.245 --> 27:29.189
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't like going with the crowd.
27:29.429 --> 27:34.597
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I think it's uninspiring and uncreative and innovative.
27:34.978 --> 27:39.825
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love a cool story like we talked about earlier.
27:41.459 --> 27:44.062
[SPEAKER_01]: My dad taught me how to build stuff when I was a kid.
27:44.102 --> 27:49.427
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a little bit of a carpenter for fun.
27:49.507 --> 27:52.290
[SPEAKER_01]: He taught me how to bang a hammer and drive a screw.
27:53.491 --> 27:55.914
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're building rails and ramps and stuff like that.
27:55.954 --> 27:58.156
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I have a little bit of experience doing that.
27:58.196 --> 28:09.087
[SPEAKER_01]: So when I started skiing, half pipe, I wanted to sort of have my own private training facility
28:09.607 --> 28:15.841
[SPEAKER_01]: and just make it, you know, sort of fauna ridiculous, but also productive.
28:16.583 --> 28:25.202
[SPEAKER_01]: And so my spent, you know, this summer, last summer, or yeah, last summer, just
28:25.182 --> 28:43.123
[SPEAKER_01]: walking around in the dirt with work boots on some land that I purchased for super cheap two hours away from here in Nevada and yeah built this big ramp had this airbag from Canada like shipped down and so I could practice tricks off this ramp and land on this airbag and
28:43.643 --> 28:51.770
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I mean, it was extremely fun, it's a lot of hard work and it really built my confidence.
28:52.271 --> 28:55.774
[SPEAKER_01]: And I had the most fun ever that summer.
28:55.874 --> 29:01.098
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'd love to have talked to somebody who saw you out there.
29:01.118 --> 29:04.702
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know what it's like if there's a lot of wandering around in the desert.
29:04.722 --> 29:05.602
[SPEAKER_04]: I miss the desert.
29:05.743 --> 29:13.009
[SPEAKER_04]: And the back ground and like, hey man, what are you doing?
29:13.883 --> 29:15.785
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
29:15.805 --> 29:15.905
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
29:15.925 --> 29:16.826
[SPEAKER_04]: That's hilarious.
29:16.846 --> 29:17.707
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I love it.
29:17.868 --> 29:20.491
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, so, all right, got about a week out.
29:20.871 --> 29:23.634
[SPEAKER_04]: I know you're feeling good when you, when you made this decision to return.
29:23.914 --> 29:24.996
[SPEAKER_04]: How's the body feeling now?
29:25.096 --> 29:31.924
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, for preparing really hard for this and maybe with a different approach, but is that sense of like feeling great still with you?
29:33.085 --> 29:33.786
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it is.
29:34.406 --> 29:34.727
[SPEAKER_01]: It is.
29:34.747 --> 29:37.951
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, yo, yo is here.
29:37.971 --> 29:43.637
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to
29:44.866 --> 29:46.909
[SPEAKER_01]: I literally feel that right now.
29:47.490 --> 29:49.212
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's going to be a good couple of weeks.
29:50.093 --> 29:58.486
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I feel in the context of the last six months with last year, it literally feels like that.
29:59.587 --> 30:00.949
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, personally, I'm professionally.
30:01.770 --> 30:03.252
[SPEAKER_01]: I was a batman, no, I'm kidding.
30:04.114 --> 30:05.716
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's going to be good.
30:05.736 --> 30:06.537
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be good.
30:07.192 --> 30:08.533
[SPEAKER_04]: It's awesome.
30:09.374 --> 30:18.202
[SPEAKER_04]: What it asks, too, doing research on you, you really seem to dive fully into making them most fun out of social media.
30:18.482 --> 30:20.364
[SPEAKER_04]: Is that part of being a pro athlete?
30:20.384 --> 30:27.191
[SPEAKER_04]: Because we talked to so many folks here that it's like a necessary evil in their mind or a necessary part of the game.
30:27.931 --> 30:32.455
[SPEAKER_04]: And others are like, no, this is fun, this is like what I'm good at.
30:33.456 --> 30:35.258
[SPEAKER_04]: How does it fall into your
30:35.727 --> 30:38.869
[SPEAKER_04]: Responsibilities, if you will, as a pro athlete, social media.
30:40.975 --> 30:41.877
[SPEAKER_01]: love the question.
30:42.858 --> 30:47.827
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm from the generation where earlier my career, like we didn't have to do this.
30:48.568 --> 30:52.795
[SPEAKER_01]: It was mostly like traditional media and like TV.
30:52.835 --> 30:53.917
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where you got exposure.
30:54.118 --> 31:03.834
[SPEAKER_01]: And then social media became relevant and now the sudden were like our own marketing production company.
31:04.816 --> 31:05.657
[SPEAKER_01]: Engine, exactly.
31:06.038 --> 31:06.679
[SPEAKER_01]: And
31:07.672 --> 31:36.902
[SPEAKER_01]: it's both like it's a necessary evil and it's fun it's like for me it's kind of like a choice like I can choose to have fun with this or I can choose to just turn my brain off and like make this like a rolling ad campaign and um you know not work on it for now that the thing you have to kind of decide as a professional athlete is like what are you what are you are you
31:36.882 --> 31:47.173
[SPEAKER_01]: and a entertainer, internet person or are you going to be an internet person and do the athlete thing on the side?
31:47.774 --> 31:53.920
[SPEAKER_01]: And I fully believe that like you success depends on what you focus on.
31:55.182 --> 32:05.893
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there's times when like I'm like not as busy or more relaxed and have like kind of
32:07.122 --> 32:20.727
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, content that shows that personality, and then there's other times that I'm like super locked in and I don't care about that and I just want to focus on like what I really love doing, which is in an athlete so.
32:22.630 --> 32:34.483
[SPEAKER_04]: you do a great job, you know, even the ads, I like I want to watch those because I know it's going to be fun and creative in, and, you know, make something entertaining out of it.
32:34.683 --> 32:47.997
[SPEAKER_04]: And so, always appreciate when creators and athletes do that is part of, you know, because I know this is part of how you, you make this a possible way to live your life and to pursue these things that you do.
32:47.977 --> 32:50.680
[SPEAKER_04]: So I don't know, that's cool.
32:50.800 --> 32:51.381
[SPEAKER_04]: That's really cool.
32:51.401 --> 32:52.422
[SPEAKER_04]: You've been able to do that.
32:53.363 --> 32:57.487
[SPEAKER_04]: But it's not, I'm sure always the easiest thing to kind of balance between the two.
32:57.587 --> 33:03.934
[SPEAKER_04]: So really neat and love, love you with emo hair too.
33:04.214 --> 33:10.380
[SPEAKER_04]: I saw that earlier last year and I'm like, oh, that looks like me back in the day.
33:11.502 --> 33:13.203
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
33:13.243 --> 33:16.667
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, anything else you want to share for a jumping or rapid fire questions?
33:18.790 --> 33:36.968
[SPEAKER_01]: No, um, no, I like the, I like the model you shared with me earlier about no compromises, and I think that's, uh, I think that's a great way to,
33:38.264 --> 34:00.930
[SPEAKER_01]: live your life and that's kind of how I go about my career and just my impact on the generation behind me is kind of showing it all and letting people know that I'm not perfect and at the same time like showing them that if you believe in yourself you can accomplish some great things.
34:01.214 --> 34:02.396
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, it's great.
34:02.636 --> 34:08.003
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, one of our rapid fire questions is going to ask you specifically about that motto.
34:08.283 --> 34:10.966
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I'm interested to hear your more your thoughts.
34:11.027 --> 34:11.667
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe that was it.
34:11.687 --> 34:12.609
[SPEAKER_04]: And you can just share that again.
34:12.689 --> 34:23.863
[SPEAKER_04]: But these don't have to be one word answers, but really just a chance to learn a little bit more about you and how you operate and if there's a story, always dive into the story, that's fine.
34:23.843 --> 34:30.393
[SPEAKER_04]: It's might be hard just because the the ocean is so close and it probably is starting to consume more of your brain.
34:31.294 --> 34:32.376
[SPEAKER_04]: Pie, you know what I mean?
34:32.416 --> 34:37.504
[SPEAKER_04]: More of the percentage as we get closer, but what are you most curious about right now?
34:37.524 --> 34:40.388
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm just going to say outside of your skiing career.
34:42.131 --> 34:42.932
[SPEAKER_04]: And ranches.
34:43.317 --> 34:51.093
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, you know what, like, okay, so I love, uh, I love, I love the world.
34:51.173 --> 34:51.955
[SPEAKER_01]: I love traveling.
34:52.776 --> 34:58.608
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and being an American wall traveling, um, is always an experience.
34:58.628 --> 35:00.111
[SPEAKER_01]: And I am,
35:00.091 --> 35:28.731
[SPEAKER_01]: very curious about what the experience is going to be like at these these games as a TMS said yeah I think it's going to be awesome and I'm curious about the whole thing so I can't wait So what do you I'm going to say what what's what do you say right now is a proudest achievement in your career could be a metal could be something small could be an impact you've had is there's something that comes
35:31.850 --> 35:43.571
[SPEAKER_01]: I think my proudest achievement is being a, I think my proudest achievement is being a good brother and son up to this point.
35:44.052 --> 35:48.340
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that will turn into a husband soon.
35:48.421 --> 35:58.219
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I just think my family has been really important to me and they've really backed me for everything and through everything.
35:58.259 --> 35:59.100
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all my siblings.
35:59.140 --> 36:09.619
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a incredibly close relationship now or still, you know, after these years and and that's pretty cool to have.
36:09.751 --> 36:20.350
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, done what I've done and and still like feel like nothing's changed since we were, you know, since like Christmas morning when we were like 10 years old.
36:20.550 --> 36:21.452
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's cool.
36:21.512 --> 36:21.933
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that.
36:21.993 --> 36:24.678
[SPEAKER_04]: What's in this might be obvious.
36:24.778 --> 36:27.363
[SPEAKER_04]: This might also be, you know, more nuanced.
36:27.383 --> 36:29.947
[SPEAKER_04]: But what's one of your biggest goals you have in yet achieved?
36:30.568 --> 36:33.193
[SPEAKER_00]: My biggest, one of my biggest goals
36:34.034 --> 36:36.337
[SPEAKER_01]: is to be the world's best father.
36:37.158 --> 36:39.101
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have one of those things yet, but yeah.
36:39.721 --> 36:41.223
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, you got to practice first.
36:41.704 --> 36:44.247
[SPEAKER_04]: I make them.
36:44.427 --> 36:50.495
[SPEAKER_04]: So, all right, so in pursuit of that goal, goal or any of your goals, what's a daily habit you stick to?
36:52.438 --> 36:53.399
[SPEAKER_01]: Good question.
36:53.980 --> 37:02.691
[SPEAKER_01]: One daily habit I stick to is, I like to make my bed.
37:03.346 --> 37:06.852
[SPEAKER_01]: or make any bed, that's a good one.
37:07.794 --> 37:23.180
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's really simple, but if I get up first and my fiance makes a bed, but if I'm in a hotel or Airbnb or something or traveling or anything like that, like, it's like a pain in the ass and sometimes can be so annoying.
37:24.802 --> 37:29.370
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you just do it and accomplish it,
37:30.042 --> 37:37.550
[SPEAKER_01]: It makes you feel good and it feels like you, you know, check, check the thing out the list for that day and just gives you confidence to start the day.
37:37.570 --> 37:43.856
[SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, I'm the same way I make the bet every day and I know when I have it, it affects me.
37:45.878 --> 37:55.628
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, we're on athletic brewing spotcast without compromise and so I saw you post and talk about, you know, upside down.
37:55.608 --> 38:00.836
[SPEAKER_04]: Golden bin maybe your favorite is that would you say that's your favorite athletic brew or is there another one?
38:01.417 --> 38:03.059
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, that's it.
38:03.940 --> 38:04.942
[SPEAKER_00]: I said I had one last night.
38:05.162 --> 38:06.664
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, that's awesome.
38:06.684 --> 38:20.164
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I need to can it used to say and and we really kind of made this of motto is like brew without compromise, but you know, we we realize as we pursue this crazy idea non alcoholic beer especially early on it was like
38:20.887 --> 38:21.868
[SPEAKER_04]: people thought it was nuts.
38:22.649 --> 38:25.172
[SPEAKER_04]: We took our, it's not just brewing without compromise.
38:25.192 --> 38:27.014
[SPEAKER_04]: It's really living without compromise.
38:27.054 --> 38:30.697
[SPEAKER_04]: It kind of was a lifestyle, not just what we did at work, but what we did it with our lives.
38:31.478 --> 38:38.806
[SPEAKER_04]: And so we talked to people on the show who were also living without compromise, but in their own way, what does it mean to you to live without compromise?
38:40.148 --> 38:41.809
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, living without compromise.
38:41.829 --> 38:42.670
[SPEAKER_01]: What does that mean to me?
38:42.750 --> 38:49.898
[SPEAKER_01]: It means that if you
38:50.097 --> 38:53.203
[SPEAKER_01]: to it's really a perspective thing.
38:53.424 --> 39:06.469
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an attitude like if you have to make any changes that could be viewed as compromise,
39:07.343 --> 39:22.006
[SPEAKER_01]: their, in fact, not, there are changes that are going to be benefits and extreme, like a boost forward for you in kind of however you're trying to live your life.
39:22.988 --> 39:29.318
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how, that's what I think, because I think it's impossible not to compromise on anything.
39:29.382 --> 39:50.023
[SPEAKER_01]: That's impossible, but to like, you know, I think about life is like a chess game, like you have to like move some players here and then pull some players back and move some right and and inevitably to like win the game, you've got to make certain move certain places and you might.
39:50.003 --> 40:01.060
[SPEAKER_01]: have to make like small little compromises, but in fact those are not compromises, those are advantages that are going to help you win the game of life.
40:04.398 --> 40:07.544
[SPEAKER_04]: Well there you have it folks, that is a little bit about Nick Geper.
40:07.764 --> 40:11.531
[SPEAKER_04]: You can follow along on his social medias, he's a great follow, very funny.
40:11.792 --> 40:17.342
[SPEAKER_04]: If you'd like to try his favorite brew or anything else by athletic brewing, go to athleticbruing.com.
40:17.362 --> 40:21.951
[SPEAKER_04]: You can order us right from the website or find us on store shelves near you.
