Five Minutes with Daron Rahlves
Catching up with Daron Rahlves in the summer at Mt. Hood requires getting up at 5am to leave Portland. I roll into the parking lot at Timberline around 7am and find Daron ready to head up the lift to the glacier. It's a good three hours before the Windell's campers will begin to trickle onto the lifts and everywhere you look it's skin-tight race suits. In my baggy pants, plaid shirt, and twin-tip, I'm definitely the odd man out. With snow still frozen from the night, I skid turn like a maniac in an effort to keep up with Daron. It only takes a few seconds to realize it's a lost cause. Fortunately, the little racers gawk and yell at Daron in the liftline and slow him down enough for me to catch up. After a few thigh-burning runs, we sit down at the top. How's it to be back at Mt. Hood in the summer?
It's my first time at Mt. Hood in I'd say about 8 years. I used to come up for US Ski Team and summer camps way before that. It's good to get a lot of mileage in, do some gate training on snow, but it's a place that's hard. There's not a lot of variety for racing and the runs are pretty short. That's why I decided to stay away from Hood for a while, but now it's refreshing to get back up here. It's July 24th and we're on snow. Not a bad life. I wish I'd been up here in June this year. I heard there was so much snow they were skiing down to Govy (Government Camp), which is insane. That'd be some vertical to ski. The guys I grew up racing with are running the camps now. Lot's of kids up here too, lots from Tahoe. I know a bunch of the kids, or the coaches at least, and it's inspiring to see them up here flying down the mountain with big smiles on their face.
Tell us about your season this past year. It went pretty well for you, eh?
It was good. I made the transition from World Cup two seasons ago and figured I'd want to stick around home and do something on skis still while I was healthy and not just burn out on the racing stuff. So, I transitioned over into skicross and it was good off the bat. The first year we had this Honda ski tour and X Games. I had some great heats, made every final, but crashed in every final. It was a disaster. I finally got hurt and I was out the last few races of the year. That was 2007, so this last season in 2008 I figured it out a little more. I had more patience on the hill and in the finals I had some podiums this year and then won X Games, which was cool. That was highlight last year. I got more recognition at home in Truckee going through the post office or gas station or whatever random spots from the locals for winning X Games than I ever did for anything World Cup. World Cup downhill is all in Europe. You have one race in Beaver Creek, Colorado in early December and that's the only time we're in the US. Unfortunately, it's a sport that's not really seen or exposed to the American public. X Games is whole different world. It's fun, man. I had a lot of good times out in Aspen, because there's so much going on. It's like a circus. It's endless: meeting different athletes, seeing different sports. I was definitely the highlight for skicross, but then next year I'm doing three Jeep Tour events, and two World Cup skicross events--one in Lake Placid and one just outside of Vancouver at the site for the skicross, in the 2010 Olympics. It's the first skicross in the Winter Olypmics. So, that's kind of what's got me back up here to Hood. I'm working with my ski sponsor Atomic a bunch, getting some new boots dialed in, new skis too. Besides ski cross I'm trying to get into filming and just working on some R&D with Atomic, working on their freeride side. We're actually going down to Chile in the middle of August to do some photo shoots with all the 2009 gear. We got a really sweet lineup of boards coming out. Atomic's always made really great high-performance race skis, but they are really making the push into the freeride world.
How stoked are you for the Olympics?
Well, even in downhill racing it wasn't all about the Olympics, it was more about each season. Really, more than anything, I just want to show up and have good skicross courses to run. I'm hoping next year they step it up a level. I want to see some more rowdy terrain, so more technical stuff, bigger jumps, and one minute long at least. They need to test the skills of all us out there and that's the way to do it. The competition is definitely getting more challenging. Next year it's going to be fun, just hitting those seven events including the World Championships in Japan.
Tell us more about what you want to do on the freeski side of things.
Skiing in deep pow is my other love. It's what got me started in skiing. Racing just got a hold of me, because I like competition. I started doing well in it and I just wanted to see how far I could take it. Then every year you just get a little more involved and you just have to commit. So pretty much that was my life for 13 years on the US Ski Team. But a big goal of mine is to transition a little bit into the freeski world. Get some time up in Alaska, get time in Tahoe. Do some other fun Red Bull trips. Atomic's making a push and doing new things. I did an Atomic trip up in Valdez last year. We did a little bit of stuff. Conditions weren't great, but it's a step towards pulling the team together. I went to Haines too with Rage Films. I was there for nine days and got shut down. It was challenging trip to Alaska with conditions, but hopefully we paid our dues and we'll get lucky next season.
What's life like for you off the snow?
Off the snow I spend a lot of time at home, now more than ever. I have twins, they're a year old now. Being a dad is really cool. I'm just waiting for them to grow up a little more so they can start tagging along. Otherwise, I ride moto one or two times a week. I get out on the water early mornings for dawn patrol waterski sessions. We have a house in Encinitas as well, so we head down there and do a little surfing. I just got a new 6' 3" fish. It's the way to go in the summertime. More float and fun in the little waves.
Cool D, thanks for your time.
Thank you!
Check out the gallery of Daron at Mt. Hood here!
It was good. I made the transition from World Cup two seasons ago and figured I'd want to stick around home and do something on skis still while I was healthy and not just burn out on the racing stuff. So, I transitioned over into skicross and it was good off the bat. The first year we had this Honda ski tour and X Games. I had some great heats, made every final, but crashed in every final. It was a disaster. I finally got hurt and I was out the last few races of the year. That was 2007, so this last season in 2008 I figured it out a little more. I had more patience on the hill and in the finals I had some podiums this year and then won X Games, which was cool. That was highlight last year. I got more recognition at home in Truckee going through the post office or gas station or whatever random spots from the locals for winning X Games than I ever did for anything World Cup. World Cup downhill is all in Europe. You have one race in Beaver Creek, Colorado in early December and that's the only time we're in the US. Unfortunately, it's a sport that's not really seen or exposed to the American public. X Games is whole different world. It's fun, man. I had a lot of good times out in Aspen, because there's so much going on. It's like a circus. It's endless: meeting different athletes, seeing different sports. I was definitely the highlight for skicross, but then next year I'm doing three Jeep Tour events, and two World Cup skicross events--one in Lake Placid and one just outside of Vancouver at the site for the skicross, in the 2010 Olympics. It's the first skicross in the Winter Olypmics. So, that's kind of what's got me back up here to Hood. I'm working with my ski sponsor Atomic a bunch, getting some new boots dialed in, new skis too. Besides ski cross I'm trying to get into filming and just working on some R&D with Atomic, working on their freeride side. We're actually going down to Chile in the middle of August to do some photo shoots with all the 2009 gear. We got a really sweet lineup of boards coming out. Atomic's always made really great high-performance race skis, but they are really making the push into the freeride world.
How stoked are you for the Olympics?Well, even in downhill racing it wasn't all about the Olympics, it was more about each season. Really, more than anything, I just want to show up and have good skicross courses to run. I'm hoping next year they step it up a level. I want to see some more rowdy terrain, so more technical stuff, bigger jumps, and one minute long at least. They need to test the skills of all us out there and that's the way to do it. The competition is definitely getting more challenging. Next year it's going to be fun, just hitting those seven events including the World Championships in Japan.
Tell us more about what you want to do on the freeski side of things.
Skiing in deep pow is my other love. It's what got me started in skiing. Racing just got a hold of me, because I like competition. I started doing well in it and I just wanted to see how far I could take it. Then every year you just get a little more involved and you just have to commit. So pretty much that was my life for 13 years on the US Ski Team. But a big goal of mine is to transition a little bit into the freeski world. Get some time up in Alaska, get time in Tahoe. Do some other fun Red Bull trips. Atomic's making a push and doing new things. I did an Atomic trip up in Valdez last year. We did a little bit of stuff. Conditions weren't great, but it's a step towards pulling the team together. I went to Haines too with Rage Films. I was there for nine days and got shut down. It was challenging trip to Alaska with conditions, but hopefully we paid our dues and we'll get lucky next season.
What's life like for you off the snow?
Off the snow I spend a lot of time at home, now more than ever. I have twins, they're a year old now. Being a dad is really cool. I'm just waiting for them to grow up a little more so they can start tagging along. Otherwise, I ride moto one or two times a week. I get out on the water early mornings for dawn patrol waterski sessions. We have a house in Encinitas as well, so we head down there and do a little surfing. I just got a new 6' 3" fish. It's the way to go in the summertime. More float and fun in the little waves.
Cool D, thanks for your time.
Thank you!
Check out the gallery of Daron at Mt. Hood here!
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