Chris Klug Interview

Jack Michaud
3/29/02

Chris Klug is one of the few people in the world who actually makes his living racing snowboards. He's been racing for over 15 years, and has been a household name to those who follow snowboarding's world cup for ages. But at the 2002 Olympics at Park City, he became a household name to every winter sports fan by capturing the bronze medal in the men's parallel giant slalom. In between an autograph signing session and preparing for US Nationals on the following day, Chris was nice enough to give us a glimpse of his life as a racer, and what it's like to bask in Olympic glory.

BomberOnline: When and how did you get started snowboarding?

Chris Klug: I started snowboarding 20 years ago when I was 10 years old. I was into skateboarding at the time, and then I saw some of the first wooden Burton Backhills and Performers, and it just seemed like a natural transition from skateboarding to skateboarding on snow. I was doing a little bit of competitive ski racing at the time, as competitive as you can be when you're ten years old, but it just seemed like a natural transition, so I tried it and I was hooked. I put my skis away and haven't stopped since.

BOL:What was your first board?

CK: Well the first board I tried was a Backhill that I rented from my buddy Mark Bauerman at Center Cycles in Bend Oregon, and I used moon boots. That was in November, and then that Christmas I got a new Burton Performer, and that was my first board.

BOL:Who were your snowboarding influences/heroes?

CK: When I was starting out, my influences were John Caulkins, Todd Van Belkum, Chris Jameson, Craig Kelley, Mike Ranquet, Rob Morrow, kind of all the northwest crew. And then Chris Karol, he came out and joined our team, and then our coach Rob Roy, my first coach who I was with for 10 years. Then we had a bunch of guys join the program, Kevin Delaney was one. I was really young at the time, and all these guys were a bit older than I was so I was in a pretty good position to learn from them. I learned a lot from all those guys, they were rippers. It's pretty amazing to think of all the snowboarding history and talent that came out of Bend Oregon and central Oregon at that time. The world pro team and Rob's program really produced a lot of talent. We also had guys like Peter Foley on the team who's now the head coach of the US team. It was pretty funny at the Olympics because you had Peter Foley there as the coach, me picking up the bronze, Chris Jameson doing the announcing, so it was just nice to have all of us there, and to have made it this far.

BOL:What made you decide to concentrate on alpine snowboarding and racing?

CK: You know, I still really enjoy the freestyle stuff, I love going in the pipe and doing slopestyle and the railslides and all that, I love it, I just don't compete in it anymore. I just always loved the racing more. I love the sensation of carving the board, putting it up on edge and really hammering it. And I love to compete too. I never liked the subjectiveness of the halfpipe and freestyle judging, you know the clock doesn't lie. Still to this day that's why I do it, I just love the sensation of railing my snowboard. But that's what I think is so great about this sport, there's so many different things to do, you have the backcountry, freestyle, terrain parks, the racing, carving, everything, and I just love to enjoy every aspect of the sport, even though I get a lot of laughs when I'm in the pipe. (laughter)

BOL:How long have you been racing?

CK: About 16 or 17 years. At first I was racing on my Sims board, after that Burton Performer I got a Sims 1400 FE and I raced on that quite a bit with Sorel boots. Then I eventually got to, what was it called, the Blade, Sims Blade and that was my mainstay for quite a few years. Did quite a few races on the Blade, Sorels and Duct Tape.

BOL:What was your first big moment in snowboard competition?

CK: I got a 2nd in the Halfpipe at the North American Championships in Banff at Sunshine Village and I think that was about '85, '86 maybe, at the Junior Nationals. Then I went out to the US Open in '86 and won the overall title. That was a pretty sick group we had there, the class of '86, it was Brushie, JJ Collier, Joe Curtis, and a bunch of future rippers. I was actually a bit more successful in the freestyle venues than the racing, I remember Brushie just schooled me in the slalom there on Suntanner at Stratton. Thank god I got faster!

BOL:On July 28th, 2000, you had a liver transplant for Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis. Did you think perhaps that was going to be the end of your professional snowboarding career?

CK: I thought that was going to be the end of my life, I wasn't really thinking too much about snowboarding at all that last month leading up to my transplant. It was a pretty scary time, you know 16 people a day die waiting on transplant lists and I thought I was going to be one of them. So I wasn't really thinking of my dream to be able to return and go to the Olympics, I was just praying and hoping that I would be able to return to life as I knew it, being able to hang out with my friends and family. It definitely put things into perspective. It really made me realize the important things in life, and how lucky we are to be out there, riding every day. I don't take a single day on the slopes for granted any more. Another thing was in '98 I suffered a pretty bad knee injury. I blew my knee out and had to sit out the rest of the '98-'99 season. That really sucked, but I knew I was going to be able to come back from that, but when you're facing a life and death situation... it definitely puts things into perspective.

BOL:How long had you been living with that condition before the transplant?

CK: About 8 years.

BOL:Has being in the Olympics been a long time dream of yours?

CK: It has, and I fulfilled that in '98 in Nagano where I finished 6th place. It was so great being there, being part of the first ever Olympic snowboard team and experiencing the Olympics for the first time. But you know, I was within striking distance but missed a great opportunity there, so at the same time I was a little frustrated finishing 6th when I was going into the second run in 2nd place with a good chance for a medal. So it was pretty sweet for me to come back four years later and fulfill that goal of winning a medal. Those were the best two weeks of my life at Salt Lake, it was so much fun.

BOL:Did you ever think that snowboarding would be an Olympic sport?

CK: You know, I did just because of the excitement and the popularity surrounding our sport, it was the fastest growing winter sport ever. In the mid '90's there we realized that snowboarding wasn't just the Generation-X teen crew enjoying the sport, it was young and old and good and bad and everybody. It really became a mass participation sport, so it only made sense.

BOL:In snowboarding's Olympic debut at Nagano, snowboarding was somewhat tainted by the scandal with Ross Rebagliati, do you think we repaired that damage at SLC?

CK: Oh without a doubt, snowboarding was one of the Olympics shining moments, probably the most exciting event in the Olympics. In '98 it was unfortunate because it was snowboarding's debut, and it was certainly exciting for all of us. I think there were some great performances despite the bad weather and other obstacles. But then the focus shifted from the excitement of snowboarding and snowboarding's first Olympics to Ross's, uh, marijuana smoking. You know, I don't really mind that he's smoking the stuff, but he should have known. But it's not my business to really comment on that. It just bummed me out that that became the primary focus of snowboarding's first Olympics, which shifted it to kind of a negative thing. But we came back in 2002 and brought home five medals in the best snowboarding show ever, and on our home turf

BOL:Of course we knew the half pipe was going to be a popular and well hyped event, but I was pleasantly surprised to see such a large turnout for the PGS, do you think spectators were impressed with our sport, and do you think that the Olympics boosted interest in alpine snowboarding?

CK: Oh definitely, I think it was the greatest thing for our sport to date. Especially here in North America the freestyle events are more popular, but Alpine's still growing here so I think it was very important that we did have a good show, and I think it was also important that North American riders had a good showing. I think something people don't realize on the Alpine side is that it requires a little more infrastructure, and it's still a very young sport. With the halfpipe you just go out and ride the halfpipe and that's that, but with a racing event, people have to be good at setting the gates, there's a whole training program and more infrastructure around you. It's nice, you see some of the legends of the sport now turning to coaching and helping develop the sport from a grassroots level, and that's what it's all about. We're getting some top quality coaches out there, guys like Chris Karol in Aspen, Scott Palmer out at SMS in Stratton, Mike Malin in Steamboat, and these guys are developing the future pros and Olympic gold medalists. So like I said I think the sport is growing and it was important we have a good showing at Salt Lake and that's what we did.

BOL:Respond to what Ross Powers had to say about the Olympics in a recent interview: "The Olympics are huge for snowboarding. Some people try to play it off as no big deal, but the Olympics are huge and they're lying if they say anything else."

CK: I agree. I think if you asked Danny Kass and JJ Thomas and some other individuals who may not have been as enthusiastic about the Olympics before the event, I think they were after, I think their experiences were nothing but great as well. I can't really speak for them, but like I said it was the best two weeks of my life and without a doubt the Olympics are the ultimate in winter sports competition.

BOL:What do you think of the move to PGS?

CK: It's definitely more spectator friendly. It's a more dramatic event. It makes my job a little bit harder, but I think it was one of the more spectacular events in the Olympics, especially because it's the only head to head parallel event that pits one rider against another. It's not only the clock, but your performance against the guy next to you. It's great for the fans, but also for me too, I think it gives an advantage to more experienced riders. I love it, it's fun, you get to ride a lot more and that's why I do this.

BOL:I read an Olympic preview in a ski magazine that was unfortunately written by someone without much respect for snowboard racing. They complained that it's hard to root for a favorite because everybody falls, and randomly, so it's just a crapshoot as to who wins. Can you respond to that?

CK: Well you know, it was a challenging hill at Park City without a doubt. Those first couple of rounds you saw a lot of wipeouts. But I thought it was a pretty spectacular event, and we saw the best guys riding for the top positions at the end. There were some pretty amazing performances. I think if you look at the quality of riding in '02 versus '98, it's only getting better. I think you have to consider that snowboarding is only a little more than two decades old, and we've gone from wooden boards with no metal edges to state of the art equipment and two Olympics under our belt. I think there are a lot of amazing riders out there pushing the edge of the envelope. It's impressive and it's definitely going in the right direction. So if that fellow was at the Olympics and saw the event I'm not sure he'd say the same things. 25,000 people got so see some pretty sick riding for sure.

BOL:Do you think it would be possible to set a snowboard GS course that was as long and steep as a ski GS course?

CK: Oh yeah, of course, we did that a lot in the early years. We were still inventing the discipline and figuring out what is the best route to go. We've run full length Super Gs, full length giant slaloms, and full length slaloms. Tomorrow for example we have the US Nationals, and we're running a 65 gate slalom. So you're going to see who's been maintaining their conditioning throughout the winter and who hasn't. I like those longer races, I kind of consider myself as one of the stronger athletes on tour. I love it, the longer and more physical the better, I think. (Chris went on to win that race the next day.) It's often hard to judge steepness of a hill in photographs, and I haven't really seen any pictures that give a good impression of the steepness of the Olympic course.

BOL: Can you describe that course and how would you rate its steepness and difficulty?

CK:That's a good question, I think something a lot of people don't realize is that the television always flattens out things. Those first 6 gates at Park City are as steep and challenging as they get. That's why you saw a lot of guys falling up there, because they were getting so much edge angle that they were booting out if they had any overhang whatsoever. It was tough, you had to try to keep the board underneath you and stay as balanced as possible, while at the same time getting enough edge angle to get a good bite on that surface. It was really hard snow. The other thing was that was key on that Park City course was that you had such a steep upper section and then a transition to a pretty flat section so it's important to really carry your speed onto the flats, and nail those two gates in the transition. That's all the speed you get for the rest of the hill.

BOL:Did you think you had a shot at the podium coming into the event?

CK: I realized in 2001 at the world cup event in Park City when I was leading in the quarter finals against Alex Maier who eventually won the whole thing. I was kicking his butt pretty good, and then right at the bottom I just clipped a stubby a little too tight on heelside and went down and ended up 7th place. So I was a little bit frustrated that I didn't win, but I remember just sitting there in the finish area just thinking gosh darn, next year I could win this whole thing. And even this fall when I got off to a little slower start than I wanted to, I was struggling with my equipment, but I still knew it was all going to work out. I think of my liver transplant, how getting a transplant is worse odds than winning at the Olympics, so I just knew it was all going to work out after that.

BOL:Tell me what's going through your head when you're in the starting hut, about to make a run that will decide an Olympic medal.

CK: I said this a year ago, so it's ironic that I ended up in that position, but the bronze medal/4th place small final I think is the hardest race of the day. Because with the gold/silver final, if you loose that match you end up with a silver medal, which sure as heck isn't a bad thing. But if you loose the bronze/4th place final, you end up in 4th place which is a pretty tough pill to swallow. When you're that close to an Olympic medal and you end up 4th, it has to be tough. So I think it's the toughest race of the day when you consider that. But actually what happened was I broke a boot buckle right before the start, so I was so caught up with trying to fix that and not get DQ'd that I think that took some of the weight of the match off my shoulders. I was able to focus on just getting that darn boot fixed and getting in the start gate on time. Before I knew it I was on the course! So it was probably a good distraction in the end. But I was thinking about it on that chairlift ride after loosing the run to advance to the gold medal match. I sure didn't want to end up fourth, I'd come too far and I was right on the edge of missing the boat, so I just told myself that I was going to get the job done.

BOL:You did have a crash in the round to advance to the gold, what goes through your mind when you crash, and what do you have to tell yourself so that you'll get back up, regain focus and keep trying?

CK: I was really pushing the limit because I had a bit of a deficit to make up against Philip Schoch, and I ended up flying out of the course and hitting the fence. I was just sort of sitting there thinking about it, I was pretty pissed. But you just have say to yourself okay, you lost that one, you have to gather yourself, come back and win the next one, and come away with a bronze. It's tough when you've just lost the round you wanted to win, and you've got to face a new competitor, so you just have to put it behind yourself and get ready for another race.

BOL:How do you feel about your performance in the PGS? Do you think that you could have had gold on a different course or a different day, or was Philip Schoch simply that much better?

CK: I think Philip was riding great that day. I think he deserved it that day, I'm happy for him. I've raced him many times and I was beating up on him pretty good just prior to the Olympics in Italy, but he's a fast guy, great rider. Anything's possible, maybe a different day I could have got him. But I think that was his day, so hats off to him

BOL:Can you describe the feeling of looking up at the clock at the end of your run to see that you've just won Olympic bronze in front of such a large home crowd?

CK: It was unbelievable, I had all my family and friends there from Aspen, 20,000 other people from the home crowd cheering me on, it was awesome, I was so stoked I jumped into the crowd

BOL:Any thoughts of September 11th go through your head at that moment?

CK: Not at that moment, but definitely when I got to carry the World Trade Center flag in the opening ceremony, it was one of the coolest things I've ever been able to do, definitely a tremendous honor. It was pretty powerful too, holding that flag and the wind was blowing through it and it's all tattered and scorched and burned, it was very moving, I felt my knees wobbling a few times, I thought I was going to pass out. It was powerful.

BOL:Would you call this Olympic medal your biggest racing achievement to date?

CK: I think so. I've won some great races in the past, I've won five world cup races, the '97 US Open, a Grand Prix title, quite a few individual Grand Prixs, but I think this is the best one so far. This bronze medal feels like it's the gold to me.

BOL:Describe your equipment setup that you used in the Olympics.

CK: I ride a Burton Factory Prime 185, 15.5 meter radius, with a custom 21cm waist width. I ride angles of 54/51, Burton Race Plates, and actually some older Burton hardboots, the Furnace.

BOL:Are those just stock Race Plates or...

CK: Yeah, they're totally stock and actually three years old so they're a little softer. I ride a pretty soft setup generally.

BOL:Does that help with the chatter on hard courses?

CK: I think it does, yeah. That was one of the things in '98, my setup was a bit stiff. I had stiffer bindings, my boots were riveted, and it worked perfect for that first run. The snow was real ego snow, you could just rail the heck out of the board. But then the clouds rolled in and the snow came down, and the course just turned into an ice skating rink. That stiffer setup just wasn't ideal on the icier conditions. So I used a little softer setup for the hard conditions on the course at Park City, and I think it was ideal.

BOL:Burton has been sending mixed signals about their attitude towards alpine snowboarding. On one hand, they pulled alpine events from the US Open, omitted alpine equipment from the print catalog, and scaled back their selection of alpine equipment. But on the other hand, they've always supported world-class racers such as you, and then last year they brought Mark Fawcett to the team. What do you think of the future of alpine snowboarding at Burton?

CK: Right now we're making some decisions that will determine the future, but we've got an amazing team of riders, Jasey Jay, Rosey Fletcher, Sigi Grabner, Steffi Von Segenthal, Mark Fawcett, basically some of the best riders in the world. And Burton's supported racing for the last 25 years. That was one of Jake's big goals in the early years was having a great racing team, and we've continued that tradition for a long time. There's so much work, testing and R&D that goes into the race boards, I think they've got a great product. I'd hate to see us walk away from that. I think we'll have a line that will be better than ever next year, and that will be more accessible for everyone to be able to purchase. That's my goal, I hope it happens.

BOL:Do you feel like the international racing scene is getting stronger or weaker?

CK: Without a doubt, it's getting stronger, there are a lot of up and comers that are pushing us veterans, the equipment is getting better and better, the training is getting more serious, and there's more athletes out there gunning for it.

BOL:Who among your current competition do you especially respect?

CK: Jasey Jay, he's a great guy and a great rider. I admire his versatility and his attitude. Also Ross Powers, I like him a lot he's a cool dude.

BOL:What do you like to do when you've got time to go freeriding?

CK: I bust out my long Canyon and go out into the backcountry around Aspen, Burnt Mountain, backside of Aspen Mountain, looking for freshies.

BOL:Do you do much freecarving?

CK: Heck yeah, I love busting out my Giant Slalom board. Snowmass and Buttermilk have some of the best corduroy in the world. I love going there early in the morning when it's totally buff and railing some high speed GS carves.

BOL:What kind of a board do you ride for freecarving?

CK: Same board, the 185. It's a really good board both for racing and freeriding because it's a bit wider, a little more versatile. I'm not set up so aggressively that I can only ride groomers. I ride that thing everywhere, I take it in the backcountry, in powder, I think that's a good measuring stick for if you're on the right setup or not if you can go out and freeride and ride powder I think that's a pretty good setup for you. If you're out of balance and you're sinking the nose, then you may be on too narrow a board or have too aggressive angles.

BOL:How do you support your racing career financially?

CK: Burton Snowboards, I've been with them for 10 years. Bolle sunglasses, I've been with most of my sponsors for 10 years or longer, Aspen/Snowmass. Then recently I signed with Saturn vehicles, and Fujisawa pharmaceuticals who make my anti-rejection drugs.

BOL:Tell me about your camp at Aspen.

CK: This will be my second annual, it's growing, we're getting a lot of sign-ups. I'm excited about doing it, we've got a great coaching crew this year. I've added the whole freestyle, slopestyle, big air side of things, and of course continued the slalom and giant slalom and freeriding which we started last year. Chris Karol, a legend in the sport is going to help me coach the alpine side of things, as is Ian Price. And then Zack Horrowitz and Gretchen Blyler and some other local coaches are going to help with the freestyle. We've got an awesome team, Travis McClain is coming back, he's a junior world champion in alpine and a great freestyler as well. We've moved the whole thing over to Buttermilk, we're going to utilize the whole X-games boarder cross course and the halfpipe and also some of the greatest corduroy there is. (For more info on the Klug-Burton camp, call 1-877-282-7736 or swing by www.chrisklug.com)

BOL:Do you have a funny story that sticks out from your world cup travels?

CK: Yeah, I've got a good story, one time I was walking into the basement of the place where we were staying in a hotel in Ischgl Austria a long time ago when I was on Rob Roy's team with Kevin Delaney and Victoria Jealouse. I was walking in the door with her and I had my snowboard boots on and a couple slalom boards in my hand. I was walking into the tuning room and there was this slick tile and I had a little snow on the bottom of my boots, and I just slipped. One leg went up in the air, then the other, but I was still fighting it, I was doing like a Scooby Doo cartoon, my limbs going every which way. And I reach over to try and save myself on the wall and I knock one of the boards over. That started a domino effect all around the room, there was like 50 boards. Finally I just lost it and launched right on to my back and here comes 50 boards, they just piled right on top of me! That was pretty funny, I'd never laughed so hard in my life. That's what the snowboard tour is all about, of course it's about winning and doing the best you can, but it's also about fun. That's why I do it, my best friends are on the team, like Anton Pogue and Pete Macomber, Ian Price, Eric Warner, all these guys are great guys and we have a lot of fun.

BOL:How much longer do you see yourself competing professionally?

CK: I'd like to keep going, I feel like I'm still getting better and having a lot of fun. I'm just going to take it a year at a time, but I can see myself coming back in four years and upgrading to a gold medal.

BOL:Who gets your gratitude?

CK: Augh.... everybody! So many people have helped me get to this point, especially the liver donor family, I wouldn't be here without their support of course. My friends, my family, mom and dad, you know they're my original sponsor, team mom and dad! And of course all my sponsors. And my buddies, they've been with me all along through the ups and downs and while I was on that transplant waiting list, they were out there walking or playing golf with me when that's all I could do, fly fishing or playing scrabble when my knee was blown out. I wouldn't be here today without all my friends and family, that's for sure.