YoBeat: Making Fun of Snowboarding Since 1997

The snowboard world was flipped on its head this year when Mack Dawg dropped out of the market. Companies were lost wondering who to give tens of thousands of dollars to, riders were dropped in the shuffle, and in the end hundreds of young up-and-comers were left wondering where they fit into the equation. While all that madness took place a group of friends created what can only be described as a snowboard cult. Skeleton Crew has taken a weird journey, and they have multiple teasers to prove it, but in the end one thing is certain, they are having fun and they hope you dig their video. An anything-goes approach is the founding principle of Skeleton Crew, and as Ashbury Co-founder and Go-listed human Lance Hakker said, “The only politics involved in Skeleton Crew is friendship.� Yobeat sat down with Skeleton Crew Co-creator Evan Lefebvre to figure out what the hell is going on with Skeleton Crew.

Yobeat: What is Skeleton Crew?

Evan: When I first started working with Snowboarder a little over a year ago we we’re talking about making a video. It was coming along, and I thought it was going to happen, I was working towards it like it was going to happen, but in the end it didn’t happen. Bridges had come up with the name Skeleton Crew for that video and when the idea got canned I still wanted to do something. So I decided to make a video anyhow, just on a way smaller scale—originally it was Lance [Hakker] and myself, but now it’s pretty much me and Java [Fernandez] getting it all together. Anyway we just wanted to make something fun and low pressure that all of our friends could get down with regardless of sponsors. So Skeleton Crew is something we put together to make our homey video. I guess we just wanted to make a video that was different from what else is out there. We’re not trying to have the most progressive stunts or anything, we just want to make something we’re psyched on and have fun with it. At the end of the day nobody is making money off it, it’s just something we wanted to put together.

Yobeat: Everyone is trying to be “different� these days. How will this project be authentically different?

Evan: Well our goal was never to be different for the sake of being different. And yeah I made it into an LLC to keep things organized, but I’d hardly call it a “production company” you know? It’s not like I’ve hired filmers or anything, I barely even know how to work the camera I just bought. It’ll be different because there aren’t really any politics involved. If you’re in you’re in, if you’re out you’re out. It’s kind of like a real community project. We’re getting stuff from all our friends, putting it together with what we have, and we’re gonna see what happens.

Evan Lefebvre plotting against you.

Yobeat: Who are the faces in this project? Does it have a name yet?

Evan: I think we’re gonna call it Group Effect. There’s gonna be a lot of people in it. I guess that’s how it’s really different. There’s Jarad Hadi, Tyler Verigin, Nick Dirks, Harrison Gordon, Cody Rosenthal, Nick Russell, Littlest, Carlino, Justin Meyer if he got any shots, Mills, Knut, the Hakkers, Ricky Tucker, Jeff Kramer, Mac Spedale, Chris Bradshaw, Grenier, Laurent, Louif, Alex Cantin, Darrell Mathes, Jonas Michilot, Johnny Miller, Jared Johnson, Keegan–mad fools maybe like a hundred or something, damn I don’t know. Way too many to list. Some people will have more shots than others, but it’s just gonna be a lot of people shredding. More like a sick ass house party than a snowboard video. Oh Chris Carr for sure too, gotta put Chris in there. Nate Farrell, Brandon Cochard, Scott Blum, I have some cool shots of Brandon, he rips.

Yobeat: So this could be a big break for a lot of younger unknown guys. Was there a stand out this year? A Skeleton Crew All-Star?

Evan: Yeah we wanted to make something everyone could be a part of, but also make something where some of the more unknown guys could put their stuff out there without having sponsors pay to get them in a video. The only rider I would really say was unknown would be Tyler. He’s the sickest ever, but kinda had a rough time with injuries so we didn’t get too much stuff. Other than that I feel like everyone knows who these guys are, some more than others of course. I’d want to make another movie just to give Tyler a shot at it again.

Yobeat: Mike Hakker said Tyler (Verigin) is his new favorite rider. What is it about his riding that has people so excited?

Evan: He’s just loose you know? He has a super narrow stance which I think freaks people out at first, like it’s really flamboyant or something. But he just has really good style, and a really good trick selection. He does things differently than everyone else. I don’t think he pays much attention to mainstream snowboarding and stuff, so he’s not really influenced by anyone outside of Jarad (Hadi) or Nick (Dirks).

Check the sticker people, Tyler Verigin has been Go-Listed.

Yobeat: What kind of footage can the people expect? B-roll? Bangers?

Evan: Probably a lot of C roll.

Yobeat: Explain the concept of “in” and “out”. Are you guys forming a gang?

Evan: I think Lance probably came up with the Go-list and the No-list when we were figuring out who we wanted to have in the video, and who we definitely didn’t want in there. Go-list is just our friends and people we’re down for, not based on skill level or anything like that, just based on not being a douche. If you’re a douche or a narc or something you’re No-listed.

Lance Hakker: One night last summer or fall or whatever. Evan LeFebvre, Nick Dirks, and I were staying at Joe Carlino’s house and stayed up for a while Go-listing and No-listing everyone we could think of. It was super funny.

Yobeat: The first teaser Skeleton Crew released was of Nick Dirks and Jarad Hadi dropping a really large water balloon on some guy. That culture seems to have been censored from snowboard media as of late. Can kids expect a good amount of antics and raw behavior in this flick?

Evan: Yeah it’s not really going to be mom approved or anything. Snowboarding culture seems to take itself really seriously these days. I hope people don’t take us very seriously, we’re definitely not trying to fill the void that MDP left behind, ya know?

Yobeat: What Skeleton Crew member is most likely to end up in jail?

Lance Hakker: Well that’s hard. There are so many people on the go-list. The first person that comes to mind is Dirks, but really, he’s not that stupid. So not him. You’re go listed, I could definitely see you making the right move to land in jail. Actually, no one on the go-list is shady, so if they did find themselves in jail, it is most likely unjustly.

Skeleton Crew night shoot, complete with alien head, massive FU, and police.

Yobeat: In many ways Skeleton Crew is similar to Videograss. Will Skeleton Crew be able to capture its own audience?

Evan: Yeah well those are all really good friends of mine, from the riders to the guys making it behind the scenes. When they decided to make a real video after the snowboarder thing got shut down, that’s really when I was totally cool with not making a serious video ’cause they are making exactly what I wanted, and it’ll be way better than anything I could have done. Hopefully everyone in that video and everyone that made that video will have shots in Skeleton, they’re all on the OG Go-list. I think they’ll compliment each other, theirs will be way better of course. Maybe we can sneak our video in before their premier though? I’m not too sure about the audience, or being able to capture anything. When I was a kid I was good at capturing lizards, but I think a whole audience might be too much. As long as our friends dig it we’re cool.

Yobeat: Are you trying to sell it? How will it be distributed?

Evan: I think we’ll put it up for free on the web, and then make a real limited run of hard copies to give out. I don’t think we’re gonna sell any but we’ll see. If someone we don’t know really wants a copy in hand, hopefully we can figure out a way to get it to ‘em. Maybe a trade for naked pictures of their sister? We just want to put it out there, and the plan was never to make money off it. And after Per Hampus made Actionhorse and put it out as a free video, I couldn’t really justify selling this one. That guy is really, really talented. I’m as rookie as it gets. I didn’t even get my camera till January.

Yobeat: Can you share any seasonal highlights? Amazing, sketchy, or dangerous moments?

Evan: Jarad ate shit a lot, a lot, a lot, and that was always a highlight in a way. Some really bad scorpions. The whole RV trip was the biggest highlight, that was really fun

Yobeat: Was it a Skeleton Crew RV trip? Where did you go? Who was involved?

Evan: Yeah a Skeleton Crew trip we did for Snowboarder. It was me Java, Jarad, Tyler, Cody, Harrison, and littlest, and our boy Dodds came to take photos. We went from SLC where me, Tyler, and Jarad lived, down to Brianhead in southern Utah, Las Vegas ski resort, Snowbowl in AZ, Taos, New Mexico, Wolf Creek, Colorado and up through a bit of Moab on the way back home. That shit was so much fun. The snow sucked pretty bad almost everywhere, and it was really mini bike, but we had a blast. Time of our lives.

Scott Blum in the middle of a satanic sacrifice of a baby? Go-listed.

Yobeat: What were Jarad’s top three falls of the year?

Evan: Ok for sure. When he tried to cab 5 this really big cliff to flat at Brighton and got sketch on the takeoff and did a 450 straight to his face. Maybe when he tried to backflip into moguls in Arizona. He was showing off trying to impress two Red Bull girls, he did that twice in a row to his face. The worst definitely was in Big Bear when he knocked his teeth out on that rail.

Yobeat: How did he knock his teeth out?

Evan: We were at the super session at Big Bear for a Snowboarder feature. It was real late season and I think Jarad was pretty tired of snowboarding, or snowboarding seriously at all. So was Nick. So him and Nick started drinking early that morning, they just wanted to party. Jarad went to hit the rail, first go to be funny and do a switch zeach slide. The feeble you know? So Jarad did that kind of drunk and then caught his toe edge and hit the rail right on his damn teeth, like a curbie, and knocked out four or five. It was crazy as hell. I couldn’t look at him really. I started laughing which is pretty messed up, but quietly, Nick and Larry were too. I’m not the only asshole.

Yobeat: Was any of this caught on camera? Will we see it in the video?

Evan: Yes that will for sure be in there, I need to get the shot from Beef though, he has the gnarly one. There will be lots of slams in the video, I think we have to bring back the slam section. What happened to the slam section? We have more slams than anything, less lands and more slams than any video. We’re pretty rookie.

Yobeat: What’s up with Skeleton Crew this summer? Any plans? Anyway for kids to feel involved?

Evan: We’re going up for session five at Windells. We’re gonna build some fun park stuff up there and hang tough for that whole session. That should be really fun, it’s in the middle of July so we’ll probably be pretty stoked to ride by then. Sign up for session 5, and meet Tyler Verigin! I want to go back up to Whistler for a bit too, that place is so fun all the Quebec guys work there, and there are a lot of really cool french girls hanging out by the lake.

Nick Dirks with his ladies.

Yobeat: When can we expect to see the video?

Evan: Shit! Hopefully we are done with it by the end of July but we’ll see. I’m still rounding up everyone’s footy. I’m moving up to Oregon next week to work on it with Java who’s way more talented than I am. Hopefully we can bang it out pretty quick. So you’ll probably see it around then. I think we’ll put it on the web in Septemberish.

Yobeat: In 20 words or less why should kids put this on their list of must see videos?

Evan: Because it’s gonna have Austin Smith’s only part of the year, and he’s won all kinds of awards and accolades. Or, because it’s free and you can see a guys teeth get knocked out.