Jonathan Cheever
The Jonathan Cheever Interview
Powder Shot
Photo Credit: Jonathan Cracoft
The first time I met Jonathan was at a race up at Big White, near Kelowna BC. The event was supposed to be at Cypress Mt, right outside of Vancouver, where I was planning on staying at the Samesun Hostel right downtown (best hostel ever). Lack of snow rendered the event moved 5 hours into the interior of BC; closer to Alberta than Vancouver to be sure. My bro and I ended up catching a ride with the “Kokanee” (beer) dude, in the actual beer van.
Photo Credit: Jonathan Cracoft
Anyway, I ended up at a hostel in Kelowna where I met Jonathan at a game of Bingo. That’s right, Bingo. He had driven all the way from Salt Lake City, Utah to be at the event. I had flown in from back East. The next time I saw him was this year at the X Games. Jon still remembered my name, which tells you a lot about the kid. Since then, he has come a long way (maintaining top ten in stats). This is what he had to say.
SBX: How did you get into competing in Boardercross?
JC: I have been competing in snowboarding since my 13th day riding, which was sometime in December of 1997. I was always a very competitive person and thought SBX was one of the best events. First one down the hill wins. Everyone understands that and when its over there’s always stories being traded back and forth. It’s just not the same with other disciplines, although I do compete in the dude tube and slope-style as well.
SBX: What is one of your most ridiculous stories of being on the road?
JC: One of the funnier stories was last summer when I was in New Zealand with a couple of friends (Briana, Rich, Jason, Ed & Shannon). We drove to Queenstown from Wanaka for a night of partying in a 1984 Mitsubishi Sigma with a cracked windshield. We raged it for 10 hours before heading back at 7am. I was the only one sober, with one obnoxiously loud and drunken Englishman (Ed), an even more obnoxious, even louder Aussie (Jason), and this poor chick Shannon, just trying to hold it together in the middle, without puking on everyone. Rich Hookes (that’s right, Dick Hookes) is sitting shot gun with my girlfriend Briana, sitting on his lap just puking out the window the entire ride.
Somewhere up the Crown Range we pull over to take a leak, I’m messing with the music, the boys are outside laughing and making noise, Briana’s puking, Shannon’s holding on by a thread and all of a sudden I hear a loud thud on the hood accompanied by a whole bunch of laughing. I look up only to find a sheep carcass on the hood. This thing had been dead for awhile, like something else had gotten to it in the meantime. I’m like, screw it, I’ll just drive and it’ll fall off. Well, 40 minutes down the road, the sheep carcass is still riding the hood, all the way to the base of the Snowpark road, so we got out, placed the carcass on the Snowpark sign for all to enjoy, exchanged a bunch of high-fives, and off we went.
It was a wild night.
SBX: What was one of your worst times on the road?
JC: Actually, one of the worst trips was pretty recent. I was moving out to Park City for the winter with my buddy Gill just after Thanksgiving. Gill is a smart guy, nice dude, but also a little bit of a white trash jerk. He’s a mechanic and I’m a snowboarder / plumber. We both have a lot of stuff in the van. I’ve got my snowboard bags, computer, cameras, tools, an 84in by 52in by 52in wide tool box, a 1984 Honda 500CR dirtbike and enough food to do the journey 5 times over, because Gill’s mom is straight Italian and wanted to make sure we were fed.
From Boston to Park City, its roughly a 2,400 mile drive, you’d figure we would get a road worthy vehicle to get us there… Yeah, but you would figure that. Instead, Gill buys a $500 1984 Chevy G30 van he found on Craigslist, we dub it “The Man Van.” The only good thing about it was that you could take a leak while the other person was driving.
Four hours into the drive, we pull over at a rest stop in Utica where I spray paint “Manbulance” on the hood for everyone to see, in hopes that people will get out of our way while rallying across the country. I hop in the drivers seat, turn the key and… nothing happens. Turns out, we can only go in reverse. Sweet. Four hours into the trip and the Man Van backs down. What a joke. We had to spend the night in the van so no one would steal our stuff (no locks on the door, good call), no room to sleep in the back, the seats don’t recline and no sleeping bags. I froze my balls off. It was awful.
It took us 3 full days to finally get the part we needed, thanks to a dude named Phil Bukart Jr. who was actually a professional NHRA Funny Car Drag Racer, ranked 8th in the country and the owner of Bukart Automotive in Utica New York. Phil went above and beyond to help us out. He was the man! We finally got the thing fixed enough to make it cross country and rallied across 9 states, lightheaded from the carbon monoxide blowing into the van. Thank god there were holes in the body or we could have died from CO poisoning.
SBX: What are some plans for the upcoming season?
JC: Next season will be rad. I have some awesome sponsors backing me, I took most of the summer off from riding so I am in really good shape. I was injured for the better half of last season so I’m real anxious to get back on a stick.
SBX: Who are some folks who have helped you out along the way?
JC: This industry is so crazy, you could go halfway around the world and still run into the same people over and over again. It’s like one tight knit little community. But, I would have never gotten started if it weren’t for my parents. They’ve helped me out so much along the way. Then there’s the people from “Leedom Helmets;” those people are always so awesome, they put me up in Vegas and they can party pretty hard too. They’ve been helping me out for a few seasons now. The new LDM line is awesome.
Mike Caroll of Utopia Optics is also a good dude and they hook me up with the sickest goggles, sunglasses and street wear.
Justin Golliher of Reusch helped me jump on board with Reusch gloves a few seasons ago. They’re pushing a new line of gloves called “Progressive and they are the toughest, warmest, styliest gloves I’ve ever seen.
David Dreckenpohl from Test Pilot hooks me up with the dope wax and accessories, but David also helps me connect to other folks in the industry. He introduced me to some of the guys at Allyance clothing (out of NY) and now they’re hooking me up with the dope outerwear
SBX: Hooked up!
JC: …Yeah and I recently just hooked up with Bataleon Snowboards. No question, these are the best boards ever produced. You could pave the mountain and I’d still be ripping turns on these boards and they’ve got it all, pipe, park, rails and everything else. Then there’s Rick White rockin out with Swivler and Jason Dyer at Ogio is the man. He should hook it up with more bags though, because they’re sweet!
Mike Bell running the program in Park City has been awesome and he has helped me out a lot. The Park City team is full of a bunch of talented riders. Keep your ears to the tracks. There are certain guys I wish I could ride with more, like Nate Galpin, Grahm Watanabe (greatest one footed rider in the Universe) and then there’s Nick Baumgartner. He’s a funny guy and has a style similar to mine… except that mine’s better…
Also, gotta thank Nathan Park of the Vail Ski and Snowboard Club. That guy is not only the nicest guy you could ever meet, but has taught me everything I know about snowboarding, waxing and boardercross. Without him, I probably still wouldn’t know how to turn. Marlee Glather is my personal trainer and she is amazing. She’s opening up a gym in the greater SLC area so keep an eye out for it.
One last shout out to Corky Corcoran. He was my wax tech last year and what he can do for a snowboard is amazing. He went up fishing in Alaska last year and since then I haven’t been able to track him down, so Corky if you’re reading this, get in touch with me! Oh yeah and my favorite places to ride are the Canyons at Park City Resort, Solitude and Powder Mt.
SBX: What do you plan to do after Snowboarding?
JC: I’ll always snowboard.
Jonathan’s sponsors include:
Leedom Helmets www.leedomhelmets.com
Utopia Optics www.utopiaoptics.com
Swivler www.swivler.com
Allyance Clothing www.jointheallyance.com
Reusch Gloves www.reuschusa.com
Test Pilot Wax www.testpilotgear.com
Bataleon Snowboards www.bataleon.com
Mark Cheever Plumbing
US Snowboard Team www.ussnowboarding.com
Park City Snowboard Team www.pcsbt.org