If you are a push bike head or a rocker you'll probably be wondering who the fuck Olly Brunton is. Well for starters he is a good friend of mine from Wellington.

Olly is also a real good snowboarder. He was NZ half pipe pro champ 3 times in the mid '90's. If you check out a Kiwi snowboard mag from that era you're sure to see Olly starring it up all over the place. Olly was super good at promoting himself and had a high profile in the mass media as well.

I met Olly a few years ago at a snow industry trade show. I was there representing some bike and clothing co.'s whose names do not need mentioned.

I had never really been snowboarding (1 disastrous day on ice) at that point and I guess it was one of those things I thought I'd never get into.

We had a display that included my bike & that transmission ride video from that era. This 'real slick' dude was really checking out the video and he sussed out it was me riding the bike he was sitting on.

He said something like 'nice riding bro, I'm into mountain biking too' and pulled out a bike mag. He introduced himself and I went like 'oh yeah I know you.' I had seen Olly on some TV show and read about him whilst taking a dump at my snowboard crazy mates house.

We just sort of instantly clicked and soon figured out we were doing completely different things that were very similar in many ways!

You see Olly owns a snowboard company called UNIT snowboards with his buddy Quentin Robbins who is still at the very top of the sport in NZ today. Q is probably riding some amazing powder in Japan right now as I write this up here in New Zealand's semi sunny summer.

The UNIT boys are slack mothers though so if you want a UNIT snowboard e.mail me and we'll see if we can make it happen. Kiwi made to kick ass and last. They are kind of like the Rockstar of NZ snowboarding but different.

Anyhow I did this interview last winter and sold a slightly edited version to New Zealand Snowboarder magazine. A big thanks to Olly for hooking me up with primo snow shit and pretty much dragging me onto a snowboard. In fact a mega thank you to you chief and I hope y'all enjoy this out there.

Ox : Cough. Cough. Cough. Right I guess maybe some people may be wondering what you've been doing these last couple of years since you dropped off snowboarding's little hype planet. What have you been up to since, since I guess your knee operation?

Olly : Bits & pieces of everything I guess. Doing study lately …surfing. I actually had a surf today. It was raining and it was freezing but it was sweet as. (coughs)

Ox : Tell me about this course you're doing man.

Olly : I'm doing some acupuncture and Chinese medicine … it covers everything … philosophy, history and medicine.

Ox : You & Eve have been cruising out in Porirua here for a while now.

Olly : Porirua beach … laughs … the golden sands of the northern beaches. Ahhhh. Yeah maybe we've been here 18 months.

Ox : Have you been riding your bike much? You were getting right into it for a while there.

Olly : A little bit. I've been standing up on it. Laughs. I've got to get a seatpost! I've just been doing short rides.

Ox : Have you got your coasters down?

Olly : It's an on and off thing aye? If I get into the frequency of riding then they're always almost there but never dope how you want it.

Ox : Doing some different shit huh? You did pretty much spend the whole of your twenties snowboarding I suppose.

Olly : That's right. All I did was snowboard. Going from winter to winter. The most else I could get in was maybe a surf on the way somewhere. The skating was off really, cause ya always had to skate indoors.

Ox : That's a long time to be 100% focused on one thing even though snowboarding is evil fun.

Olly : It's worth it. … It's worth it. It's great fun man and I think I got everything that I wanted out of it but maybe you know there's still the business side to explore … but I got everything out of snowboarding that I wanted. I got lots of air and scored loads of … pow. Ha! But more importantly Ox I traveled the world and met lots of people. I did a lot of partying. Yeah. I had a good time and I guess that's what you are when your twenty. You do the things twenty year olds do.

But now its different, I'm still really into snowboarding but I really need to do other things you know? Just so I can spice it up a little. Variety really does make it more interesting. I really miss being proficient at skateboarding. I can still bust out my smith grinds and whatever. Stoked. But it takes me a good week before I get shit going. It takes a certain level of dedication and I find to maintain everything it means that the whole lot is moving a lot slower than you'd like. (coughs)

Some things need adjusting. I haven't studied formally for 10 years so that's taking a lot of my focus as I work out my strategy and then build around it and prioritise things. Because I've just finished 12 years of snowboarding in a straight line it's a lesser priority for me now.

Don't get me wrong I'm not ungrateful and by no means because I haven't carried on with the sales of what we've built. We got the empire to raise a flag and decided that was enough. 12 years of snowboarding. It wasn't about those other things it was about the actual days of snowboarding. The rest of it was just the crap that made it happen you know?

Ox : What other things? Cough. Cough.

Olly : The hype you know. The rest of it is just fashion.

Ox : What was the best thing then? … looking back.

Olly : It was being part of something where you could meet the greatest athletes in your sport … and you could compete alongside them. All these guys are legends in their own countries but they're so accessible to you. (coughs)

And to learn you know. You're meeting these guys from other environments and you've somehow just come together to compete and do your thing and whatever but there is sort of a grander thing going on. You get to learn what it took this guy to get here and you realise you're pretty lucky when you get to meet your heroes. I can check that off the list as a great thing I did snowboarding … Not heroes but you know great athletes. Like Terje Harkonsen. To hang out with him you know and relax and chill and realise how humble he is.

Ox : Have you been keeping up with the snowboarding world?

Olly : Yeah a few mags show up here and there. I check out a few websites to see whats going on.

Ox : What would you like to see happen to snowboarding in New Zealand?

Olly : Bigger everything. Laughs. Better quality jumps … but its good as it is. Other than that you can't make it snow! The cycles are changing though.

When I first went to Wanaka the locals said we were coming to the end of a seven year weather cycle and then it would be a big snow year.(coughs)

This was back at the end of the '93 season when I first decided to go there. They had two good years in '94 and '95 and then it declined. This year is the seventh year since and I've been waiting to see, so maybe it will be a good year but I don't believe anything anyone says till I see it with my own eyes and hear it with my own ears and experience it for myself. But I will listen to other people and take it into account. (coughs)

It's been a seven year note tab but it's an important one for me to see how the snow comes in that area you know. The locals'll tell you how often you get good snows. The farmers will tell you when they lost the most sheep.

Ox : They froze to the ground in the winter of '42. My old man told me!

Olly : Laughs.

Ox : What about riding this winter? You're gonna come down to Castle Hill with us for a week of club field action in September. Anything else on the agenda?

Olly : I was thinking about the North Island champs. Going up and checking those out.

Ox : Competing? (coughs)

Olly : Yeah totally!! Maybe I'll stealth it mate. You know change my name the whole deal. I'm not Olly Brunton that snowboarder cat. I'm just gonna go in with my ability not my name and just go hard.

Ox : Use your porn name.

Olly : Laughs. I don't have one.

Ox : Everybody has a porn name.

Olly : I'm keen to enter. I want to ride a pipe.

Ox : How longs it been?

Olly : Oh just last year. I got some Heli days in. Quality time.

Ox : What about next year? I spose you've still just got your holidays aye? Ha welcome to the real world.

Olly : It's good though. I'm calling a few years of not pushing it heavily. Just to maintain an equilibrium. I've got to go back to Japan. There's people I want to see. If I'm going back I may as well go in the winter time! Get those powder days up if I can pull it off. I wanna go down to southern Japan and go for a surf there. I've heard it's tropical. I'd love to experience that but I'll get these years of study done. Build up a yearning and then BOOM power back out there only better than before.

Ox : Is your knee sweet as?

Olly : Oh yeah dude.

Ox : Can I kick it.

Olly : (laughs) You can try.

Ox : Thanks Olly and by the way it's not true what they are saying about you down the pub.

Olly : What are they saying about me down the pub?

Ox : Laughs. (cough,cough)

The End.