Carrabassett Valley’s own two-time Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Seth Wescott has pretty much done it all in his roughly 25-year career. From Sugarloaf to Torino to Vancouver and back again, Wescott has been around the world and is still chasing new opportunities and new tracks of powder for the sport to which he has dedicated his life.
This Friday the newest film from adventure cinematographer Warren Miller is debuting at Portland’s State Theater. In Miller’s film, “No Turning Back,” Wescott travels to Japan to get back to snowboarding’s early roots on backcountry powder trails.
“When I was a kid growing up in Farmington, Maine, we weren’t allowed to go snowboard at [the local] Titcomb mountain. The early prejudices that came along with snowboarding really forced people to go and be snowboarding in the backcountry or go in fresh snow conditions. So that’s a huge part of the draw for people from North America to want to go over to [Japan],” said Wescott.
Featured in Wescott’s segment of the film is the North Island of Japan, Hakkaido. While many in the West don’t immediately associate this Pacific Island nation with a booming ski and snowboarding culture, the region’s average snowfall of nearly 30 feet gives a home to 500 ski resorts and a passion among local boarders that Wescott likens to the winter culture of the U.S.
Though Wescott has traveled to the region previously for competitions and trade shows, filming for “No Turning Back” allowed him to have fun and highlight his skills as an athlete, without the pressure of competition, in a ski and snowboarding region not accessible to most Americans.
Filmmaker Warren Miller has been a staple in winter sports culture over the last half century. What started as way for Miller to document his passions for skiing and surfing in the late 1940s has exploded into the production company Warren Miller Entertainment — which has developed the tradition of releasing a new ski and snowboarding film at the start of each winter season. Miller’s films have served as a front-row seat to the evolution of both skiing and snowboarding as winter sports. “No Turning Back,” is Miller’s 65th winter season film.
“Growing up watching [Warren Miller films], and once you’ve really decided to dedicate your life to being a professional athlete in a winter sport, [these films] are kind of the pinnacle of that spirit of adventure — of, you know, going on a trip somewhere halfway around the world and being able to go out and document skiing or snowboarding in as perfect as conditions as you could hope for,” said Wescott. “For me, it’s just really a dream come true to be a part of them and it’s amazing to get to go on these adventures.”
“No Turning Back” also has other high-speed, snow-filled segments that include filming from trips to Greece, Switzerland, France, Norway, Montana, Alaska and Colorado. The film also features skiing and snowboarding gurus such as Seth Morrison, Ingrid Backstrom, Rob Kingwill, Mike Hattrup and Kaylin Richardson, to name just a few.
“I’ve always equated [Warren Miller films] with the start of winter. It’s kind of appropriate that it’s in Portland this Friday. It’s a tradition to go out and watch these things and get yourself excited for the year that’s coming,” said Wescott.
Wescott has appeared in four major segments in Miller films throughout his career, along with a few smaller cameo appearances. It was during filming for a Miller film last winter in Alaska that he injured his ACL, ultimately costing him his trip to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
Wescott, who pioneered the way for the sport of snowboard-cross in the Olympics, won gold in the sport in the 2006 winter games in Torino, Italy, and the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. Until the 2014 winter games, Wescott won the men’s gold medal for snowboard-cross in every Olympics since the sport’s inception as an Olympic winter event.
“[Not competing in Sochi] was definitely tough, to just not have the opportunity to defend your own title is pretty hard, but I’m planning on going to South Korea in 2018,” said Wescott. “It’s humbling to deal with injuries when you’re in your 30s and realize how much slower we actually heal as we get older. It was a learning experience and it was really tough to not be able to go and not be able to be a part of that.”
After getting on the mountain last weekend at Sugarloaf, Wescott is already noticing an improvement in how getting off the board feels for his knee compared with when he injured it last spring.
Though Wescott has his eyes set on the 2018 Winter Games, he’s focused on taking a relaxed approach to getting back into a competition schedule. In the next year he plans on selecting the competitions he holds close to his heart, such as the Mt. Baker Banked Slalom Thirtieth Anniversary in February 2015.
“I don’t feel a huge amount of pressure to prove myself in any way and it’s nice,” said Wescott. “I’ve done more than I ever dreamed of accomplishing, so its wonderful to be at a point in your career like that where this year one of my main focuses is going to be just taking more time for myself and having more fun and going on more of these powder trips and just enjoy the sport for the purity of it.”
Wescott started snowboarding in the Carrabassett Valley at age 10, and started competing three years later at Sugarloaf Mountain. After two Olympic gold medals, nine X Games placings and 81 World Cup starts — Sugarloaf is still home for Wescott.
“I really believe in how Maine has shaped me and it’s why I really never wanted to live anywhere else. But I really think there is something special here and it’s been fun to be able to help grow and create more of a scene for the sport that I love for the snowboard community here in Maine,” said Wescott.
Between time spent competing and traveling, Wescott is working on a few business endeavors within the state. While continuing a collaborative relationship with Sugarloaf, he is also working with L.L Bean on design work that seek to bring the brand into a modernized winter sports industry.
Wescott is also lending his design skills and boarding expertise to Winterstick Snowboards as its new head board designer. Wescott says that he and the company are working toward bringing a manufacturing facility to Maine.
“The opportunities on the business side of doing winter sports, I think as you get older, just sort of become more involved in your day-to-day reality, so that part of it, to me, is really fun,” said Wescott. “It’s fun to take on new challenges — and then on the weeks when I have nothing to do but go out and ride or go out and compete or focus on a film trip or something — those are really kind of the joyous times for me, and as a career continues there are more opportunities.”