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100b: Nicolas Muller/Life, snowboarding and everything

Nicolas Muller, London, September 2019. Photo: Tozer

“The great thing about snowboarding, surfing and skating is that once you drop in, you don’t think anymore. It’s like a meditation. You’re thinking slows down because you have to react immediately to what’s in front of you”

It’s the second half of my episode 100 bonanza! To mark my ascension to triple figures, I wanted to stoke my loyal listeners out AND do something that sums up the spirit of the podcast. So I’m releasing two episodes at the same time and calling them BOTH episode 100.

Nicolas. Photo: Tozer

This, episode 100b, is the second instalment, and is my interview with the great Nicolas Muller. Where do you start with Nicolas? For over two decades, he’s epitomised a style of snowboarding that sums up everything great and creative about our unique sideways art form. He’s one of the true GOATs, a master of every type of terrain who has shaped snowboarding in their own image.

He’s also renowned for a freewheeling and freethinking approach to life, something brilliantly depicted in his Fruition biopic a couple of years ago.

Nicolas, Olivia and me. London, September 2019. Photo: Tozer

I’ve known Nicolas for a while now and have long had him pencilled in as one of my episode 100 guests. I wanted to get under the skin of this unique snowboarding legend and talk about it all – his career, his views on snowboarding, his inspirations, interests and unique worldview on life, snowboarding and everything.

I’m happy to say we did that, and much more. The result is a supremely relaxed and revealing chat with the greatest snowboarding stylist of our age. I’m thrilled to have Nicolas on the show for this special episode, and happy we were able to have such a great conversation. Listen to the episode here:

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Show Notes

  • Being a tourist in London.
  • Never surfed in the UK.
  • Recent travels.
  • Filming trip in Utah.
  • SuddenRush’s 5th event.
  • “It’s all about riding the same run”.
  • Events that remove barriers.
  • Trip to Alaska.
  • Staying at Hotel Alyeska.
  • The right state of mind.
  • “You can’t stress out of moments”.
  • The pace of his career.
  • “Less is more”.
  • What makes a professional snowboarder.
  • “I’m at my happiest when I get to look sideways”.
  • Protecting the joy of snowboarding.
  • His move to Laax aged 27.
  • “Getting too complacent is like you’re going to the centre of the wheel and life almost stands still”.
  • Ignorance is bliss.
  • Energy in water.
  • First patent of the jet turbine.
  • 1892 convention in Geneva.
  • Flying offsets carbon.
  • “The biggest change you can make is the way you spend money on your food”.
  • Plant-based diets.
  • Alpenpionier: “we make hemp food”.
  • Monocultures.
  • Hemp’s nutritional and sustainable properties.
  • Why soya needs to stop.
  • Manipulation vs education.
  • Hemp nuts.
  • “Eat what your body is made of – if an animal ate gummy bears it would be dead in a week”.
  • Muscle loss in aging and chronic inflammation.
  • Unpacking origins of wheat allergies.
  • Know your grains.
  • Diet and snowboard performance.
  • Still learning new tricks.
  • The art of cruising.
  • Early ambitions to turn snowboarding into a career.
  • Subjekt Haakonsen.
  • Being shown what’s possible.
  • Putting European spots on the map.
  • Working with Burton.
  • Last half-pipe in 2015.
  • His decision to leave Burton: “it wasn’t easy”.
  • The Nike offer and how it ended.
  • Salomon’s surf program.
  • “The bigger you get, the more complicated it gets”.
  • The making of ‘Fruition’.
  • Funding during financially tough times across the industry.
  • “There are so many ways to make a beautiful film just about snowboarding”.
  • Calling out the bullshit through art.
  • The personality behind tricks.
  • Response to ‘Fruition’.
  • ‘The Art of Flight’.
  • 20 years of snowboarding.
  • “I will never get bored of snowboarding”.

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