COMUNE snowboarder Brendon Hayes stopped by the office today to say hello. I’m sitting down with COMUNE snowboarder and Ohio native Brendan Hayes to discuss snowboarding, life, seven and a half video parts, and moving back to Ohio to finish college. CS: Hey Brendan how are you? BH: I am well sir. CS: It’s hard to believe you moved from Ohio to Tahoe just four years ago to experience West Coast snowboarding. How has this move affected your life? BH: Totally different. In all actuality, it probably just delayed the beer gut that I would’ve gotten if I stayed in..
COMUNE snowboarder Brendon Hayes stopped by the office today to say hello.
I’m sitting down with COMUNE snowboarder and Ohio native Brendan Hayes to discuss snowboarding, life, seven and a half video parts, and moving back to Ohio to finish college.
CS: Hey Brendan how are you?
BH: I am well sir.
CS: It’s hard to believe you moved from Ohio to Tahoe just four years ago to experience West Coast snowboarding. How has this move affected your life?
BH: Totally different. In all actuality, it probably just delayed the beer gut that I would’ve gotten if I stayed in college. I got to do so many cool things out here that I never would’ve done back home, so it’s been real.
CS: Tahoe is known for being a notorious party town and I know you’re a pretty mellow guy that’s focused on snowboarding. Was it hard to adjust to being around the 24-hour frat party?
BH: I was pretty accustomed to doing the party thing when I came out because my friends and me used to sneak into frat houses at Kent and steal beer, so I knew what it was all about. But I fucking hate Tahoe house parties. I can’t stress that enough. Needless to say it was easy to skip em’.
CS: You’re moving back to Ohio to finish up college at Kent State, how much more school do you have to finish before you graduate? What will your degree be in?
BH: I have four semesters left before I graduate with a B.S. in BS, advertising.
CS: You were telling me about how Kent state is where the National Guard killed four student protestors. (Spawning the lyrics for the famous Neil Young song – Four Dead in Ohio) Sorry for this question, but satisfy my morbid curiosity. Is Kent State known for being a politically active school and is there ever an eerie feeling on Campus because of the killings?
BH: I don’t think it is that much anymore, but if you go up to the spot where the shootings happened there are plaques where the kids died and there’s a sculpture that I’ve been told has a few bullet holes in it. Not sure if it’s true or not but it’s weird to stand where someone died before, definitely.
CS: There are only a handful of snowboarders out there that are able to successfully balance snowboarding and graduating college. How do you do it? Especially considering you have seven and a half video parts under your belt?
(YouTube Brendan to see the goods)
BH: I did my first year at Kent before I moved west, and since then I’ve been knocking out the rest of my general ed requirements online here and there. I failed a lot of classes in the spring semesters because of snowboarding before I realized that I just needed to keep it in the fall. I’m really excited to make the move back though because I’ll have all winter to film in Ohio, I film rails there every year anyway in a couple weeks so it’ll be awesome to have a couple months. School is right there too, a ton of spots are actually on campus. Maybe I’ll grab a shot or two between classes.
CS: This year is the first snow season you’re taking a break from filming for a video. How does it feel and what are your plans?
BH: Really weird. I like filming, so I’m just going to do it anyway even though I’m not in a video. I want a lot of the footage to end up in Comune’s project and next fall I’ll edit it all together and put a free video part on line.
CS: You have a pretty amazing retrospective of footage to look back on. It’s pretty amazing what you’ve accomplished. Are you ready for more?
BH: Yeah man. I almost made last year my last season snowboarding but realized recently that that’s dumb. I’m not ready to be done, hopefully there’s more good stuff to come.
CS: Thanks Brendan, any shout outs or words to live by?
BH: Corey Smith, COMUNE. Damn, I knew this would get asked and on the way down I thought of something good but cant think if it now. Trust me, it was hilarious though.
Check out this edit of Brendan’s footage from this last year.
Brendan Hayes Extended Re-edit from MONTEVIDEO from brendan hayes on Vimeo.
-Corey
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