Interview: Mike Goodwin

You're in the hospital right now. Who’s on stronger drugs?

I wish I was. I couldn't sleep last night. They didn't take the IV out so I was like, might as well start complaining so they'll give me something. They did and I didn't feel anything. I told them again around midnight, "Well, that didn't help," and they gave me something else, but I didn't really feel that either. I am bumming out. I thought at least if I had to do this I would get some morphine or something, be tripping balls and seeing crazy things around the room (laughs).

Did you wake up with that weird, post-surgery boner? Ya know, with like, your family standing around?

That would have been so sick actually (laughs). No, I woke up by myself, just the 15-year-old kid who is also in the room with me watching TV. No awkward family boner. Are we just jumping into this interview or what?

Yeah. I figured we should jump into it since they might kick you out at any moment.

(Laughs) Oh, sick! All right, nice.

Kind of a shit situation, you being in there, but it's got to be better than waking up in a mental hospital?

When did I wake up in a mental hospital?

Could of sworn I heard a story about someone looking for their hotel room, banging on doors...

Oh! That was me, actually!

Well, now we've got to hear it.

Let me just scroll back in my brain memory here. We were in Reykjavik, Iceland, - Halldor, me, Jaeger Bailey and Johannes. We were at a bar and sent it super hard. I blacked out and puked on the bar. We were all supposed to stay with a homie. He gave me his address and sent me in a cab, telling the cab driver, "Please make sure he gets into my apartment." I am all fucked up and don’t remember anything and the driver drops me off at this guy's apartment. He doesn't check if I get in or anything, so I just walk around the apartment building and knock on every fucking door screaming, like, "Let me in! I am fucking cold!" Eventually, a janitor comes out, starts yelling at me and calls the cops, or something. So I am like, “Fuck this. I am out of here.” That's what must have happened, though I don't have anybody to verify it. Next, I run to this other hotel. They were super pissed off at me because I was super wasted and they eventually kicked me out as well. I was pissed off so I started showing my penis on the security camera...

Of course.

Classic, I know. I ended up walking into another building. It had sliding doors, and it was warm, so I walked in and fell asleep on a chair. At this point I am starting to remember things and a janitor comes out all pissed off. He didn't speak much English. He tried to kick me out and I am like, "You know what, fuck you. I am not going to freeze to death out there. I am going to stay in here and I am going to chill.” He calls the cops and they show up, look at me, and just start laughing so much, like, "You are so fucking stupid! You just walked into a mental hospital and tried to sleep there. There's a hotel over there." Of course, it's the same hotel where I got kicked out and showed them my penis. Needless to say, they didn't let me back in so I took a cab to another hotel and passed out there and that was the end of my ordeal. Although, the next day, Halldór woke up in a jail cell so drunk, Jaeger woke up at a bus stop 40 minutes away from Reykjavik at the airport without his bags, and Johannes woke up in a conference room in a hotel at like four o'clock in the afternoon. He got kicked out because they had to do a conference.

Well played! So what happened to ya, bud? What did you break? It was at Rock A Rail, right?

Yeah, it was at the rail jam. It was mid-finals and I was trying a trick that I had already landed, kind of. I tried to back 180 onto the double kink and went a little too far over the rail and just straight taco'd it. I realized right away that I couldn't feel my arm anymore. I couldn't feel it at all. I hit it like right on the funny bone and that is what broke off. It's nothing crazy, it's just right where the nerve is so it was kind of nasty. After what happened at Frontline, where I slammed on the stairs at the beginning of the finals as well, I was like, fuck, I can't stop now. With the arm you can still kind of ride, so I said, “fuck it, I will just keep on riding.” I didn't really notice it. We sent it all night and in the morning my elbow was huge.

What's the diagnosis?

Six weeks. I will be riding again in January, not that bad. So it all starts off there, and should be a good season.

Just a little road bump. Before we jump into this season, was the “Ethan Morgan Sponsor Me Tape” a joke or not?

It definitely wasn't a joke (laughs). I was definitely looking for something. Obviously the Nike thing is over, and I had some other sponsors drop me as well. I think it helped, so I am hyped. It was a fun idea and kind of panned out perfectly in that I didn't have to put any logos in there. Nike sponsored the whole tape but was just like, “Yeah, you don't need to put a logo in since we are no longer investing in snowboarding, marketing-wise. This is money to help you out at least for this year.” That was super cool of them.

Hear that, y’all? Nike helping a homie out.

Exactly, they are helping us out. I can't hate on Nike at all. They were definitely trying their best to make it happen for all of us, to make it work out well. It sucks what happened obviously, and the corporate bullshit that is going on up there, but I've heard some rumors that they already regret it.

Is the sponsor tape working for anyone anymore? Like, do you think there are team managers out there still watching sponsor tapes or do they just wait on the Internet until someone blows up.

Maybe I gave it a little bit of a push!

You're bringing the sponsor tape back.

I am bringing it back! Actually, Torgeir Bergrem sent me this link to a guy called Dan Winslow - The Dan Winslow Sponsor Me Tape. You have to check it out. I should have actually based mine more on that guy. He is taking it to the next level of sponsor me tapes. But yeah, I’m sure most team managers look around the Internet to see what’s coming up if they want to sign new riders, so it’s always worth a shot. I think it’s sick. I always like to watch season edits from riders. There are lots of edits these days so it’s hard to make it, but if you send it hard enough, go wild and have fun then anything can happen.

Keep trying kids. So you've got the sponsor tape, and the Nike deal is done, but you just landed a Monster deal, right?

Yes sir.

Does that mean that Monster now has to be worked into the RV juice recipe? Most of the major consumers of it are on Monster: Halldor, Eiki, you...

I guess so, but I guess there never was a rule on it. You could maybe switch out the Coke for Monster. A whole new level of RV Juice.

For your sponsor tape ender, where you ride down the hood of a car to front lip on a down bar, who gave you the car?

That was my little brother's car. The car cost 200 bucks, I think, and my dad was like, “You know, your brother Corey is in the U.S. right now and I don't think we really need that car anymore so you can use it for whatever you want.” We started coming up with ideas and that idea came up. It’s funny because I was just chilling at my parents’ house in Mittenwald. We hit the car from the roof of a hut by our house, had a big family dinner, and then Dani (filmer) and I went back out at night. My other brother, Sean, came to help and my sister Annika came with us to shovel. Sean was up all night driving the car and he had just got out of the hospital because of his knee. It took a bunch of tries and a beer to get the shot. But yeah, that spot is the legendary spot in my hometown. It was the first street rail Flo (Corzelius) and I ever hit. It took me three days to make it to the end (laughs).

Really blows a drop-in ramp or a bungee out of the water.

For sure. Oh, we've got some nurses coming in.

(Speaking German with nurses)

OK, we've got a couple minutes. It's been widely reported that you are the first person to do a 1260 in sweatpants. Is this true?

Yeah, they already wrote me into the Guinness World Records. So hyped!

What other records you looking to set in your sweatpants?

Maybe first guy to ever jump a pow jump in sweatpants. That's probably the next goal, but it will probably suck because the snow just sticks to your pants like a snowman. But, it's probably cool.

Or once you are hiking out and they are completely frozen and no longer bend.

Thanks for bringing that up. I didn't even think of that part.

It's irrelevant because you are going to land it first try.

Everything that happens after that doesn't matter.

I heard some people wear their sweatpants to the strip club, for obvious reasons. Are you one of these guys?

To the strip club? That makes a lot of sense. You know, just prove a point on what's going on down there.

You haven't really gotten your money's worth on a lap dance until you've done it in sweatpants or gym shorts.

True. Oh my god... Portland I am coming in hot with the sweatpants. Casa Diablo, what's good?!

I know things are still up in the air a bit with all the changes, but this surgery is not a season ender and you will be back before too long. What do you want to get done this year?

Well, I am now fully committed to the Method movie so that's up there.

That's right! Any idea who you will be ripping around with?

I am not exactly sure but I think it might be Nils Arvidsson and Ludde Lejkner. That's going to be fucking dope, actually. I am hyped. I think Sami Luhtanen as well. He's a beast.

With that crew you will probably be hitting some of everything, I'd imagine?

Probably. Now that it starts for me in January, I am thinking I want to jump straight into pow and then do street on the side. I've never tried to do it that way. Normally you start off with street and get caught up with street until it really snows and then you do pow stuff. I'm thinking I will do pow and bring a street board with me and on bad weather days just film in the street. Then you can also do late season, spring street riding up in higher regions or you never know, up in Sweden or somewhere further north. Maybe I will change it up a little bit this year but I will just see how the plan rolls out for the Method movie.

Just get that sweatpant order in and you're set.

Exactly. I'll just have to spray it with some Gore Tex spray or something like that. Something a little bit better. That's a secret, though. Can't say that, that's soft. I want my pants to freeze up!