181: Pat Bridges/The Eye

Pat ‘the Eye’ Bridges, Jackson Hole, January 2022. Photo: Owen

Sound the geek klaxon!

Yep, this week’s conversation with legit US snowboarding legend Pat ‘the eYe’ bridges goes deep, deep down the snowboarding rabbit hole.

I go back a long way with Pat – around twenty years, in fact. I used to write for him back when he was editor of Snowboarder Magazine, which was around when we first met. Over the years, we stayed in touch and continued to bump into each other at various events around the world.

So you can imagine how chuffed I was to get the chance to work alongside Pat as part of the Natural Selection team: firstly, as part of the Selection Committee for the event; then, later, as part of the commentary team for the Jackson leg of this year’s tour.

Photo: Owen

I spent that trip with working with and hanging out with Pat, which was brilliant fun and a true privilege. Cut this man and he truly does bleed snowboarding. He also has the most encyclopaedic knowledge of snowboarding lore of anybody I’ve ever met. Which, considering the calibre of geek I’ve spent my life hanging out with, is really saying something.

These days Pat is as close to a definition of a snowboarding lifer as you’re going to get, as his work as publisher of Slush testifies. He continues to fight the good fight, and be outrageously entertaining company while he’s at it. Hope you enjoy our conversation.

Listen to our conversation here: