Backcountry
Sammy Carlson was the first skier to ever throw a switch triple rodeo 1260. He did it in 2010 at Mt. Hood, Oregon. The has been a big pro since he was a teenager. He’s only 24 right now.
I spent an afternoon at Woodward Tahoe with Sammy this Fall. He was throwing crazy doubles on Roller Blades with no helmet and kept almost hitting his head on the take off because he was snapping his tricks so hard (the jump wasn’t big enough for him). I didn’t know who he was and I eventually asked him:
“So, can you do these tricks on real jumps? Seems like they’d be really hard to land on Roller Blades.”
He replied “No, man. I’m a skier.”
“Oh, cool. That makes more sense,” I said
“I just ride these blades in here. My sponsors just told me not to let anyone film me and not to wear there logos. These things are goofy, huh?” – Sammy Carlson
Then, as he was dropping he yelled out “Blade in!”
I chatted with Sammy a bunch more that day and he’s definitely a cool, humble kid that can throw down. Watching him on skis is magic. Watching him on Roller Blades is funny.
Sammy just won ESPN’s Real Ski Backcountry Edit contest. He was up against the big boys like Sean Petit and Chris Benchetler. The kid has all the park tricks, we know that. This video shows us that he’s got what it takes to make deep powder pillow skiing look like a video game as well.
Sammy is training for the 2014 Olympics right now, so we know he’s not skiing pow that much. But after the Olympics, we hope he can get back into the deep and show us some more edits like this one.
Sammy is a cool cat. skied near him at Northstar one day