YoBeat: Making Fun of Snowboarding Since 1997

“Summer snowboarding is a bonus.”-Will Bateman

An 18 year-old roaming the country with a mustache and snowboard. Sounds romantic? Sounds like Will Bateman. Will’s life is unfolding like a classic story book. Young kid leaves home to pursue his passion and along the way a series of dramatic events, great friendships, and amazing sights unfold around him.  A kid who’s childhood took him all over the world, and who’s first taste of adulthood has taken him all over the country. In reality, Will’s a good snowboarder, and if he can stay healthy for more than a month you just might get a chance to idolize him. 

Yobeat: Why are you on my couch? 

Will: Well, the other day snowboarding on Mt. Hood I was doing stupid shit and ollied  this rail. I tipped over onto my collar bone and snapped it in half, it was poking my skin out. I had to get surgery two days ago, and now I have a steel plate in my shoulder. It’s the second surgery I’ve had in a month, the first was on my knee. So I’m in recovery on your couch. 

Yobeat: How do you feel about the new screws and steel plate in your chest?  

Will: I wonder if when it heals fully if it will make my arm stronger? Will I be less likely to hurt that shoulder? This could be beneficial.

Yobeat: Are you at all glad you broke your collarbone? Maybe it will give the knee you had surgery on last month a chance to heal?

Will: Yeah that’s what I was thinking. Now there is no way I can fuck up my knee. I guess technically I shouldn’t have even been snowboarding when I broke my collarbone. I should have worn a helmet.

Here we have the inside of Will’s shoulder, complete with large metal slab. 

Yobeat: What was your favorite moment in the two days you spent at the hospital?

Will: Oh my god, just fucking with the doctors and nurses. They were all freaked out about my broken bone and I was so drugged up and just trying to say as much weird shit as I could to them. I tried to make it fun, because I was pretty bummed. You were there just hanging out too, so it was kinda just a fun time. Plus I was super fucked up on Morphine the whole time so it was OK. 

Yobeat: And the worst part?

Will: I guess the very first part. When I first got there this nurse was like, “There isn’t much we can do for you.” I was like, “Uh, my bone is about to pop out of my skin!” I was so scared my bone was just going to pop out of my neck. So that was the worst thought I had, but the worst part was knowing I was out of commission for a while. 

Yobeat: So now what?

Will: No plans. Can’t drive because my car is a stick. Sooner or later I’ll start feeling better and start hanging out with my friends and I dunno, no plans, just try to feel better. I don’t really want to try to skate or snowboard right now though because I know I’ll just be out for longer. But maybe I’ll be able to skate kinda soon? But, we’ll just see how it goes. I got to skate and snowboard a bit this summer, and summer snowboarding is kind of like a bonus, so whatever. 

Moments after the break, metal forever. 

Yobeat: You’re 18, on your own, and 3000 miles from home. Are you living the dream?

Will: It’s pretty sick. When I first moved out I just drove across country. I made a really long trip out of it. I saw the whole country and I felt good about it. It was exciting, it felt like my life was beginning and I was just free. It was scary though because you don’t really have any idea of what to do, but you have all the time to figure it out. Right now I don’t have any plans to go to college this fall so I am just trying to figure things out as I go. It’s scary, but it’s cool. 

Yobeat: What scares you about this lifestyle?

Will: Well, I don’t have a home right now really. The only home I have is on the east coast with my parents and I don’t have a way to get back there for a while. Just not knowing where you are going to be, right now I’m good because I’m at Mt. Hood with a lot of friends, but after that I don’t know what I’m going to do. It’s scary, but I’m sure it’ll work itself out. 

Yobeat: When you found out you needed surgery this weekend did that fear set in?

Will: Kind of, this is my first broken bone. My first surgery was only a month ago, and now I’ve just had my second one. So yeah, not having my parents around or anything is sorta scary. Luckily I’ve got good friends to help me out. 

Yobeat: Any stand out moments from your cross country drive? 

Will: So much cool shit. The second day I drove to Minnesota to see my friend Jonas. Driving there I spun out on the highway going 90 mph. I hit some ice, but somehow I didn’t hit any cars and I ended up surviving. I really thought I was going to die. I drove to Vegas with Jonas after that, and that was cool. But probably the coolest thing I’ve seen driving was in YellowStone National Park. Our car got surrounded by Buffalo, I probably could have touched one of their eyeballs. I saw things like bald eagles and I just got to really see the country, it was great. 

A healthy nosepress. 

Yobeat: Why did you make the move out west before graduating high-school?

Will: I came out for the first time for High Cascade Snowboard Camp. After that I went to Tahoe a few times. After a while it became a real bitch to go back and forth for contests and other dumb stuff while I was in Highschool. So I started doing online school, well first I’d just skip, but I decided it would just be way easier to just travel and do online school. That program made it easy to stay out west for a long time. Eventually I just decided to stay out here because I liked it. I sorta just drove out here, and I don’t have any definite plans, so I’ve just been doing whatever I wanna do. 

Yobeat: How did your mom deal with her son flying the coop so young?

Will: She was bummed, but at the same time she was OK. I was skipping so much school and my school wasn’t really psyched about it. So it was either do online school and move out west, or fail high-school. So she was happy that I wasn’t failing high-school I guess. 

Yobeat: Have you ever been outside of the country?

Will: Yeah, both my parents are in the military. I was born in Arizona and from there moved to Germany for four years. My brother was even born there. From Germany I moved to Virginia for three years, then to Italy for two, from there moved to Maryland, and from Maryland to New York. Then I moved again, but throughout all that time my family took a lot of trips out of the country. So um, yes. 

Yobeat: Did you grow up on military bases?

Will: Just overseas. In America I grew up in regular places.

Yobeat: What is that like? 

Will: Pretty cool. I actually lived on one in Maryland and I would see Air Force One like everyday. The baseball field I’d play Little League on was right next to the hanger so everyday Air Force One would just pull in and out. I would always wonder if the president was on there and stuff. That was back when Clinton was in the White House. There was all this weird shit you got to do too. You’d get military ID cards and a military discount on stuff. To this day I still get that discount because my parents are still in the military. Sometimes I forget about it, but I usually use it, it’s sick. 

Yobeat: Are your parents upset that you didn’t join the military?

Will: They always talk about it. Like, “Hey if you go to a military school they will pay for it.” They always try to slowly hint about military stuff, but I dunno I’m not really down. 

Rub on Cupid tattoo, dirty hair, and a smart mouth. Every nurses dream. 

Yobeat: Are you one of those east coast snowboard academy kids?

Will: Fuck no.

Yobeat: How many of those schools existed around your home town?

Will: There was about five within like an hour or two of me. 

Yobeat: Did you grow up riding the pipe?

Will: Nope, I grew up riding this mountain, it was called Willard Mountain, it was just a hill with one chairlift. It didn’t have a single rail or jump until my third year of snowboarding. Then they got a mailbox, it was like two feet long. That was the first thing I ever did, 50-50.

Yobeat: As a kid did you have a snowboard crew?

Will: Oh hell yeah, the Willard Mountain Chuckers! But we never chucked because our mountain had no jumps. So it was just us riding around.

Yobeat: How do you come up on the east coast?

Will: You don’t. You try to do what the kids going to the academies are doing, and you do contests. Generally you write Mom and Dad in the sponsor box.

Yobeat: Were you a contest kiddie?

Will: Growing up on the east I did tons of contests, all of it, even the stupid shit. I got so over contests though. That part sucks because it would probably be good for me to do them, but they just suck so badly. They are so boring and the most non-fun part of snowboarding. 

Those damn east coasters and their half-pipe skills. 

Yobeat: Did you film at all this winter? 

Will: I filmed for Airblaster a little bit this year and got some shots with the Videograss guys too. Other than that I’ve only filmed on the side with friends, and a lot of super 8 footage with my friend Jonas. 

Yobeat: So this was your first season filming for something with a large audience?

Will: Yeah. 

Yobeat: Think you’ll be filming more next year?

Will: Yeah, I’ll film a bit with Airblaster, and hopefully with Videograss. That’s probably it though.

Yobeat: Was it weird learning how to ride powder? 

Will: Oh man, hard as fuck. The first time I rode powder I was on a 148cm rail board, centered stance, with no idea how to ride in powder at all. I knew what do do, but I just didn’t know how to do it. Then I had my first day in the backcountry and I had really no idea what to do. I have so much respect for people who can do crazy lines out there. 

Follow the snow trail to locate the launch point. 

Yobeat: What bums you out about snowboarding?

Will: The kids who start snowboarding to get sponsored. I didn’t even know about sponsors when I started snowboarding. I hate it, well, I get all sad when I talk to kids about snowboarding and it’s obvious all they care about is sponsors and contests. In Tahoe I snowboard a lot at NorthStar and you can just tell that every single kid is wondering who you are sponsored by and if they are better than you. It’s just such a scene. I wish it was more like when I was younger, just more grassroots and you just did it with your friends. 

Yobeat: Have you ever fallen victim to a fashion trend? 

Will: I did the whole 30-inch stance thing, and I definitely dipped into the tall-T phase. I thought that I would wear tall-T’s until the day I died. I was determined to make it the new business suit, so embarrassing. I dunno, in a way the whole getting sponsored deal is sorta embarrassing. You kind of feel like you’ve sold out, like you’ve sold your soul to the devil. I try to not become too much of a dweeb though. That’s why I try to support good companies.

Yobeat: Were you a tall-T tight pants kid? Or a tall-T thug type? 

Will: No way was I the tall-T tight pants, I was thug dude. You know, straight out of Compton. 

Yobeat: You went from snow-ganster to a more fitted look. Did you have an identity crisis or did you just grow up a bit? 

Will: My first identity crisis was when I was 16. I got sponsored by Hayes Brothers and Lane Knack was riding for them too. I looked up to him for a while for my fashion choices, but then I pretty much decided that it really didn’t fucking matter how I looked and I really didn’t want to be wearing a tall-T acting like I’m from somewhere I’m not. I really didn’t want to end up being 30 and wearing tall-T’s. Like who the fuck wants to talk to a 30 year old guy wearing a tall-T? When I see dudes that are old wearing tall-T’s I just wonder what is your life going to be like? Do you think girls are going to take you seriously? Or trust you with financial decisions? So I dunno, I’m trying to keep my style or whatever pretty normal.

Yobeat: Did you have a favorite tall-T? 

Will: I still have it in my closet. I gave the rest away to my tall-T wearing friends, but I saved that one. It’s an all white tall-T, pretty sure XXL, and it had two faces on it. One of Malcolm X and the other of Martin Luther King Jr, it says, “Peace for all,” on the front and, “the struggle continues.” on the back. There were certain neighborhoods I wouldn’t wear it in, but I thought I was pretty cool for having it. 

Snapped in half with a little floater. Don’t do this at home kids. 

Yobeat: Sponsors?

Will: Academy Snowboards, Airblaster, Hoven Vision, Northwave, Drake, Bakoda, Kooter Brown clothing, that’s it.

Yobeat: Your surgeon said you had to wait 48 hours to shower, we just passed that mark, you need to borrow a towel?

Will: Yeah! I’m still covered in that gross orange stuff from surgery, I’m visibly dirty, my dick smells like sweat, I’m still bloody, and my hair feels like a ball of dirt.