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I have fully done things around the home that I think look good and then a bang in the night and I wake up to a shelf collapsing, a painting falling off the wall. Like it, I've seen it all go south. I own a home and I can tell you, I know how much work it can take. Whether it's everyday maintenance and repairs or making dream projects a reality, it can be hard just to know where to start. But now all you need to do is Angie that and find a skilled local pro who will deliver the quality and expertise you need.

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But, like, kick her out there and we're like, oh, yeah, none of us can ride it, but it's sweet. To an airbag? It would be nice. The airbag is sweet. That'd be a waste of $30,000, though. For sure. It comes with a snowmobile. Oh, really? The snowmobile would never be going in the airbag. It'd be everything else you guys own. The snowmobile would never get off the ground. All right. Well, anyway, we're going to get this rolling. We're already rolling an hour late, which our guest today is all too familiar with.

It's got to catch a flight in like two hours, so we're going to get this rolling. But thank you guys for watching, viewing, commenting, liking. Everything on the podcast lately has been crazy. It's been great. I don't know when this podcast is going live, but hopefully we're going to hit 100K pretty soon here. That'd be pretty sweet. Hit 100K in a month.

It's not bad. That's not bad. So keep running up the subscribe and showing us love. We appreciate it. Between all of us, we read all the comments too. Let me jump right into it. Let me introduce today's guest. Many of you guys may recognize him from a couple legendary C-Boys videos and trips that we've taken over the years. But our relationship with him goes much deeper and started out oddly corporate.

So we're going to take this time to interrogate the shit out of him, tell some stories from snowmobiling and dirt biking trips that probably should never see the light of day, and quite possibly get him fired from his big boy job. Okay. Anyway, give a warm welcome to the one and only David McSkinney McKinney. I feel like I need to compose myself after that intro. Yeah, no, honestly, it took me a little bit of time to...

I'm a man, I'm a man

at 509, your big boy job. And then after that, we'll get into kind of how we got to meet. But I want the viewers and listeners to kind of understand who you are and what you do. So as you guys know, as you chat with me more and more, I'm obsessed with snowmobiling. Like I still ride dirt bikes, do all that stuff, but snowmobiling is what I live for. Grew up in northern Minnesota, so instantly kind of had that Midwest connection meeting you guys. And

Same kind of thing. You guys growing up, riding everything, trying to turn it into a profession. And I just continuously chased that dream. And there's a lot of information between how we got there. But day job, to answer your question, is creative marketing manager at 509. So a lot of athlete sponsorships, a lot of the media side did five of the films. So volume 11 through 15. And then recently we jumped in and started a YouTube series called

Managing all the athletes' locations for those shoots, a lot of the marketing content, the social media side of it. I'm kind of in a lot of different locations and running around constantly, but I wouldn't change it for anything. Absolutely love every second of it. So for those that don't know what 509 is, what is it?

What kind of company is it? Snowmobile, helmets, goggles, outerwear, snow pants, jackets, boots, socks, gloves, everything you need to get out and ride, whether you're a trail rider, whether you're a mountain rider, and then also off-road side dirt biking. If you're a track guy, if you're a single track mountain rider, we kind of covered everything in two wheels and a track. And when it first started, it was just goggles, correct? Yeah, it was just goggles. The founder, Tom, I think he dropped out of college.

and he started, he sold a software of some sort. I want to say like an antivirus software and took that as a startup money and was passionate about snowmobiling and ran with it and was like, we need a goggle that works. Everything's like super small. You can't see anything. The foam's all crap. You know, this was in 2003. And at that time it was. Yeah, there was nothing out there. There was no other options. And he designed this goggle and just kind of ran with it and hit it hard on the marketing side.

And the turning point was they went to Winter X Games one year and did a booth. And something there just clicked. Like it went from like 10,000 followers on Facebook to like 80,000 in that weekend. From there, he said, hey, you know, we need to get out just goggles. There's more we can produce. And the helmets came and then the outerwear came. And then now it's head to toe and everything you could possibly need. And, you know, Midwest, East Coast, mountain riders, whatever, there's something for you. So how did you go from...

Small town, Minnesota, filming snowmobile races to ultimately landing your dream job across the country. Obsession. You guys know, small town, Minnesota. I'm from Cloquet, Minnesota. For those of you who don't know, I always just say Duluth, right? It's 15 miles west of Duluth.

And my dad got me a sled when I was three years old. He brought it in the back of his Jeep Grand Cherokee and didn't tell my mom. My mom was like pissed. She's like, he's going to kill himself on this thing. He can barely walk. Like he's just learned how to walk and now you want to stick him on a snowmobile. And I didn't ride it. Looking back at who I am now, I didn't ride it for the first year. I was terrified of it. And now you can't keep me off them, which is ironic. Yeah.

And I rode it every day. And like people say, I've been riding, you know, I've been riding 23 years and they dabble in here and there. I've literally like every day when there was snow riding laps around the house, it tells out of gas. My dad would drive home and I'd be sitting there like freezing, not going, could go inside and wait for him. Right. But I wanted to be on the slide and he'd top it off a field. He'd go again.

And that just escalated into, you know, buying sleds as I got older and riding them and going more places, meeting more people. But then skateboarding, snowboarding, all of that came into my life. And watching skateboard, snowboard films, I kind of found I love photography and I love filming. And we thought we were really good skateboarders. We were terrible. We're like, yeah, we're going to get a sponsorship to a local skate shop, you know. You and Evan? Yeah, dude, Evan, bro. Dude, Evan, bro. Yeah. I have so much footage of Evan from, like, 2005 to, like,

10 ish of us like hitting the middle school the iconic spots everybody has in their town you know yeah like the five star at the middle school like we're gonna get that sponsorship man and we're terrible right so then i'm like i like snowmobiling more than this started to figure out the photography thing more but it was always one of those things where like people are like what do you really want to do when you get older it's like i want to film snowmobiles but they're like yeah let's that's all in the west like what do you really want to do

That's what I really want to do. And just kind of stuck with, even my mom got a little concerned for a minute. She's like, David, we support you fully, but how do you actually want to make a living? Because what, you were just filming Flatland, like hitting drifts? Yeah, anything. Just playing with the camera, learning things. And this was like pre-YouTube, so either you had to know somebody older who'd been doing it to learn like settings, aperture, shutter speed, all that. You don't need to know that.

I know you guys don't. We still don't know that. We've been YouTube for five years. We'll talk about your full auto settings later. Hey, they get the job done. Fuck, that gets me going. Anyway, carry on. There's no way to learn it. You just had to either meet somebody who was in the industry or figure it out on your own.

Yeah, eventually YouTube came out, but I did end up going to college for cinematography and production. So I learned a lot there, but that was more like narrative film-based. Like, let's go make an actual movie. Nobody there I'd meshed with. They were all kind of hipster filmmaker vibe, and I'm just motorhead trying to get the degree. But yeah, I just kept following it and started working at the National Snowcross Circuit.

Going to all the races, you know, Duluth National, everything, Lake Geneva, Canterbury, all that. And so Snowcross was like in my blood and started doing a lot of marketing with them on the social media side. I had an opportunity to go out west in like 2013 or 14. When was the first time you snowmobiled out west? Like how old were you? Dude, it wasn't that long ago. It was like eight years ago only. Dang. Yeah. And so it was foreign to me.

and had an opportunity to go west with uh sledhead 24-7 got invited out there and did my internship out there at the time i met a guy who was working for 509 and hindsight i don't know how it played out because i met him when i was hammered at the buffalo bar in west yellowstone yeah like that was the first impression of somebody from 519 i was like here's this 20 year old i don't even think i was of age maybe 21 yeah and i'm just tossed and i'm talking with them and i

vaguely remember the conversation, but I must have left like a decent impression because I get a call like a week later. It's like, you want to come out to the 509 heli shoot? Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Yes, please. And which we need to do again. We used to do a shoot end of the year up in Canada. We'd rent a helicopter for a day and take the best guys out there and build jumps and everybody would just send huge flips. So that was like the top tier thing in the industry to be a part of. Can we come?

Let's just spark it up again. Ryan will absolutely yeet himself off of a jump for a good heli shot. So do you think that's changed a little bit now that drones came out? Like heli shoots now are like the cream of the crop. Like if you do that, there's something cool, badass about them.

I feel like they fizzled out for a bit, but now they're coming back. Like the drone thing got a little stale. Yep. And you can't beat the helicopter shadow on the snow. Yeah. It's pleasing to have shots of a guy hitting something. There's a chopper buzzing right under him. I never even did a job interview. That was the wild part. You sure you got hired? Well, the guy that I met left like in November of like 2014 or something. And he was supposed to shoot the film.

And it's, you can, he was the, he was the filmer or one of the filmers. Yeah. He was producing it, editing it and shooting everything. So you literally replaced him. Well, to leave in November in this industry is like full panic mode for my boss. Cause you can find a million camera guys better than me. I have zero, you know, issue admitting that there's a million guys better, but it's hard to find somebody that can use a camera and then ride a snowmobile in the back country that dwindles down to like

0.01%. Tom calls me up, founder of 509, and goes, shit, this guy just left. Can you shoot this film? It was like November. Canceled everything I had planned, moved west to one of our athletes' basements, shot the film, and that was like my resume. Handed that in and then offered me the job, and it's been history since.

He hasn't asked me about my diploma either ever. Or my college. Why did I even get this? Today's episode is brought to you by Angie. Angie has made it easier than ever to connect with skilled professionals to get all your jobs and projects done well. Let me tell you, there's the version of it where you try to do something at home and then there's a version of it where you have someone help you, you watch them do it the right way and you go, thank God I didn't try to do that myself.

I have fully done things around the home that I think look good and then a bang in the night and I wake up to a shelf collapsing, a painting falling off the wall. Like it, I've seen it all go south. I own a home and I can tell you, I know how much work it can take. Whether it's everyday maintenance and repairs or making dream projects a reality, it can be hard just to know where to start. But now all you need to do is Angie that and find a skilled local pro who will deliver the quality and expertise you need.

Whatever your home project, big or small, indoor or outdoor, you can Angie that and connect with skilled professionals to get the project done well. Right now, one of my wish lists is I want a bike for my condo in Milwaukee and I would love to rig it up on a pulley in the ceiling because I have one of those like lofted ceilings.

but I'm so scared to try that on my own. Angie has 20 years of home experience and they've combined it with new tools to simplify the whole process. Bring them your project online or with the Angie app. Answer a few questions and Angie can handle the rest from start to finish or help you compare quotes from multiple pros and connect instantly, which means you can take care of any home project in just a few taps.

Because when it comes to getting the most out of your home, you can do this when you Angie that. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's A-N-G-I dot com. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. And one thing I've learned is that you buy a house, but you make it a home. Because with every fix, update, and renovation, it becomes a little more your own. So you need all your jobs done well. For nearly 30 years, Angie has helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for the projects that matter. From

So was it like surreal for you? Because obviously you were watching the 509 movies. And for those of you watching right now, 509 makes a snow, well, I guess used to make a one big snowmobile movie after through the whole winter and then drop it and

And beginning of fall. Yeah, September-ish. Yeah, so it was like pretty big in the snowmobile industry. So to get that call, like, hey, we need you to come and produce this. Like, I'd imagine you were watching those films your entire life growing up, right? Same concept as what you guys are doing. You just have these moments where they're kind of pinch me moments, right? Yeah. Especially coming from a small rural area. Yeah.

That's when you realize the hard work and determination pays off when all of a sudden something that was a pipe dream comes to life. Then I was out there hanging next to guys I'd been watching for 10, 15 years. Still, to this day, I don't take it for granted. Every time with a Brett Turcotte or anything or end up at X Games or something, I watched every single minute of X Games for probably 15 years straight. It doesn't get old.

And I'm thankful it doesn't because then I need a real reality check and somebody might have to give me a kick in the nads or something to realize that you're becoming a prick. Yeah, no. I mean, we even go through the same shit where it's like you hate to get tainted or you hate to get used to it. Yeah. Because that's almost what got you there in the first place is like that passion and drive and ambition, you know, so it's like...

I don't want to lose what got me here in the first place. And I've watched you guys from early subscribers to now, and there are moments when, much as you hate to admit it, you can get desensitized to things. Yeah. But then, like, walking in here, it was my first time at your new shop, and that was one of those moments where I was like, guys, look what you've done. This is rad. Like, you were slinging shirts in your mom's attic. Yeah. Not that long ago. A lot of people don't understand...

our relationship and how we how we came to be friends and i i stated in your intro that it started out pretty corporate so we had like 140 000 subscribers at the time and maybe had like one winter worth of yeah i think it was our second winter going in and david reached out to actually cj which is funny i i don't remember what you said but i think you were just like hey do you guys want some 509 helmets

And we were like, yeah? I think I reached out to CJ because he didn't have a 509 helmet. He had that old Fox helmet. And I noticed you guys did. I'm like, I should help this guy out. And so that's how David came into our life. You were the first person to take a chance on us when we were smaller. You were the first brand to

to really see potential in a group of guys that are so stupid and they do the randomest shit, but they're entertaining. And you saw that from...

Yeah.

Do you remember that? How did you run across us? What did you think of us at first? You played into it well because the story I just told, like, that's what I saw. It was like watching myself all over again almost. I was just at the point where I was getting comfy at my job and had that pinch me moment, right? And I came across, it was your Sealy Lake video, like, it's too deep, that video. I remember that was the one and I was...

watching it and I was like, man, these guys kind of suck at riding, but like, I'm really, I'm really into the vibes about this front to back. And then I dug deeper into the channel. I'd seen some stuff prior to that, but it was all your summer stuff and dinking around with cars and drifting around Jake's dad's shop and all that stuff. But, uh, it was really just like,

Minnesota red guys doing the same thing I did growing up and consistently hustling. And I kind of saw, like, there was a glimmer of this could go somewhere. And I think right when I, like, refreshed, I want to say, like, a week later, I circled back. You guys had gained, like, 10,000 subs. Like, it was right in that bubble where you start taking off. Yeah. Like, other people are definitely seeing this also. Yeah.

And then we chatted at Hay Days, I think. It was the first time. But I remember you guys were like, you know, me a couple of years ago, kind of like schoolgirl fan, like fanboying out when we were chatting at the 519 booth. Definitely. I'd followed you on Instagram for like three years prior to that. And then I met you and I go...

That's what he looks like? I've never seen him. Some scrawny-looking Scandinavian kid. Yeah, I was not expecting that at all. Always sunburned, even when it's cloudy. Yeah. Yep. Hay Days was the first time we met. So, Hay Days is like this snowmobile event in Minnesota. Biggest in the world. Yeah, it's biggest in the world. It's crazy. How many people? Like 100,000 people? That's a lot. Nuts. And there's a part where there's booths set up for businesses, which is probably half of it, and then the other half of it is like campgrounds. Yeah.

And for our Seaboys booth at the time, we set it up in the middle of the campgrounds. And we were just like, this is what aisle we're in. If you guys are at Hay Days, come say what's up. Take pictures. I think we threw a flag up eventually. High T-shirts, yeah. And I was like, I'm going to roll the dice on these guys. Yeah. No, it's crazy, though, to look back at. And then Hay Days the year after was a little bit bigger. I think we got pushed to the edge of the –

of the business booth section. And then the year after that, obviously, we were in it and it was insane. We had like an eight-hour line. So when was that? Was it 17? Yeah, it must have been because three years ago or four years ago. Yeah, time flies. Time flies. That's crazy, dude. Yeah, I mean, I'm just so curious how you saw us as...

at low subscribers and we were like so reckless and we weren't brand friendly at all i'm not saying that we are still but like you didn't care about that you never did which was great that's why we love you guys so much is you've never tried to put us in a box and and try and you know tell us what we can and can't do i think it helped that we we were into the brand before we'd met you yeah i've met anyone so it's like we would never want to do anything that would

Like, even accidentally tainted or anything. We were just stoked. We were both stoked. That was the funny thing is because I was into what you guys were doing and you guys were into what we were doing. So it was just instantly like, this is perfect. A lot of people weren't stoked, though. A lot of people weren't stoked. A lot of people didn't think that, you know, a couple YouTube kids should be

Oh, we're going to talk about the hate comments. I've read plenty of those. There's not as many as you may think, but there was plenty. Yeah, because they're like, these guys suck at riding. We're like, we're the first people to admit we suck at riding. We're not snowmobilers. We're YouTubers. And you'd say that. Yeah. You would address everybody and just say, we're not professionals. Yeah. And people still got worked up about it.

Did you have people at 509 that thought that they're like, why are we dealing with these kids? No. So, so Tom, the founder president still working there maybe a year afterwards, he like pulled me aside. He's like, where'd you find these guys? I'm like, kind of told him the story. He goes, is there, is there more of them? Like, can we find another group like this? I understood where he's coming from, but I'm like, no, no, no. We're just keeping these. It's like, I don't want others. And these are perfect. And so he was like on board from like year one after he saw how it went and

But no, the hate comments for a while there were comical, but it phased out after you guys established yourself a bit more and people kind of figured out. I think it was guys that never watched your videos and only saw something we'd post with you, and they'd dive into your page and be like, why the heck do these guys get a deal? And I sent in 12 sponsor applications, and these dudes get it. And now I think people kind of figured out what you're about, and it's –

I don't ever want to label you guys like influencers. In a sense, I mean, that's part of your role for sure. But you're more of like...

Just action sports advocates is kind of what I look at. We're just personalities that fit. But that's why I always appreciate you will always go to bat for us. Obviously, you run a lot of the social media accounts for 509, but you'll always go, no, they're with us because they're stoked on the sport. They're stoked about everything that we're doing. How could we say no to that? I like the term advocate. Yeah.

I did see nice. It's probably the nicest term I've ever labeled you guys. Athletes don't prioritize social media as much as they should. And we almost caught the wave of, you know, we're only social media. We're only personalities. And at the end of the day, we're going to sell a lot more helmets than an athlete will. Yeah. No offense to the athletes listening, but like...

You know, they're only getting in front of so many people. It's a new generation. You guys are right in the middle of it, like the changing of the guard. And it's kind of a weird thing to watch because there's guys that have been doing this for 15, 20 years that are legends. But it's just the reality of where media is going. Yeah, I mean, there's no disrespect. Yeah, no disrespect to any of those guys. I mean, that's just what's in now and the direction everything is headed in. And you guys saw that right...

right before I think it kind of took off and a bunch of other people tried to kind of mimic it and started doing the same thing. And as far as what I saw, people reaching out to me saying, Hey, I got a channel here. I got a Tik TOK channel here. And there's a lot of like similarities in what you guys are doing. And I feel you guys kind of sparked that at least in the snow and moto industry, you kind of,

drove that for a while. Yeah. Moto is still a lot different because I think the moto industry is so much bigger. Yeah. So much bigger. Like, what do you think the percentage of snowmobiling is to motocross? Think about where you can ride a sled in the world.

Versus... It's limited, right? And then on top of being limited, it's only X amount of months out of a year. Yeah. And then all those places that you can ride a sled, you can also ride a bike during those other months. Yeah. So, I mean, you're probably talking, what, 20% of the whole world maybe gets snow? I don't know the stat on that. So, I mean, it's millions and millions and millions of motorcycles out there. So, snowmobiling's a sliver. It's definitely a niche market. Yeah, for sure. But it's really like...

Yeah, we run into that a lot with...

With our audience, obviously, I think we did hit a cap of... There's only so many people in the snowmobiling industry on YouTube, in our demographic, that are going to watch our videos. So when we go out and film a snowmobile video, especially on the mountain trips when we drive 12, 15 hours, get a cab and spend all this money for lodging and gas and food, and then you make a video that gets...

you know, 50% as many views as a video of us literally filming anything else like home. Like it's, that's hard to justify because the snowmobile industry is small and granted. But the tough parts, you guys love doing it too. That's the thing. That's what, that's the hardest part is actually like our favorite. Yeah. At the end of the day, if we do it completely for fun and we don't even film it,

That's almost harder than just... Because then it's like, oh, this is so sick. I just want to film this. There's no way I could take a snowmobiling trip and not film it. There's not a chance. It's just too fun. And I get there's a difference between I could definitely take a snowmobiling trip and just film the cool shit and be lazy about it. Because that's what you... Like when you actually have to go make a full feature vlog, basically, then it gets to be a lot. It's also hard. It's really hard to vlog...

on a snowmobiling trip because your batteries are dying, you've got to lug a camera around with you. There's no oxygen in your lungs. There's no oxygen. You're wet. You're cold. You're not wet. You must be not layering correctly. You want to talk about layering? Damn it. No, no, no. Not wet. No cotton talk. No cotton talk. No.

But, David, you know that better than anybody. Like, filming in the winter, especially in the backcountry, bringing all your gear, making sure it doesn't break or die. There's so many damn variables. Yeah. Everything. Weather, wind, snow depth, elevation. And for you guys to pull it off, I mean, you've come a long way in riding. First couple times, you guys were...

Kind of just, you know, goons. Yeah. Stuck everywhere all the time. And now you guys are rippers. And because of that, I think it's made filming a lot easier for you. But I remember the first couple trips, you guys were like on your deathbed. And it was a struggle to even make a video. Just because of all those variables. Yeah. Now you're a bit more conditioned. And Ben finally put on a couple pounds. Yeah.

Maybe too many. He's looking healthy. And not even necessarily got a hit back at you because that wasn't a hit at us, but you started out a good snowmobiler. No, I was bad in the mountains. Yeah, let's say bad. You should talk to some of our athletes. You're stuck chasing after professional snowmobilers. And now we're definitely the ones having to chase you because you just cruise now. Well...

I did not for a while. There's a couple riders that probably wanted to call Tom the first few times I was out with them. They're like, let's get rid of this kid. Send him back to Minnesota. Get him back on his trail sled. Because he's slow. It was bad. I went through. I had an XM that I had like 4,500 miles on and zero maintenance at all. Put zero maintenance into that snowmobile. And the suspension was blown out. It was down like 1,000 RPMs. I rode it for a whole season. Took it to Barantz at like 12,000 feet.

And that was a moment I think Chris Morant, like, was really skeptical in who we hired. So I understand that, but it's seat time with anything, you know? Like, you guys, I can't lift a front tire off a bike to save my life, and you guys are dragging hands doing wheelies everywhere. I mean, on pit bikes. Yeah, still, I'm never going to do that, but it's just anything, you know, seat time and practice and constantly being thrown into the fire. I remember you saying, I don't even like riding dirt bikes.

And you're like, yeah, maybe I do like it a little. But you're like, I literally just do it because I miss snowmobiling and it's the same crowd and it's the same type of adrenaline. But you're like, I really don't even like it that much. I don't like summer. Yeah. No, I live for winter. How many days do you spend on the snow?

70 it? I don't know. It depends on the season. Somewhere between 60 to 80. Dude, that's nuts. It's like 2,500 miles in the mountains probably, which mountain miles, that's a lot. You can do trail miles no problem, but 2,500 in a mountain is... Your sleds are...

It's absolutely hammered by the end of the season. I think my sled had like 200 miles on it at the end of the season. Yeah, and they still get hammered. Yeah. Yeah, the wear and tear is amplified big time. Like mountain riding, for those of you that have never done it, is quite honestly dangerous as fuck. Yeah.

Insanely dangerous. There's so much that you have to take in from snow conditions for avalanches to other riders. Where are other riders? Are they stuck? I've got to make sure that we don't lose them. There's so much going on. So you spend 70 days on the snow. I can't imagine how many sketchy things that you've gotten into and ravines that you've dropped into. And you're like, oh, shit, I'm not sure if I can get out of this.

Avalanches for sure is the number one thing. And last winter in particular was awful. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've seen a lot.

Cut off by guys landing, hitting jumps, and massive three-foot crown and a 500-foot wide avalanche that makes you never want to ride a snowmobile again. Dude, I hear about them, and I don't even want to ride a snowmobile again. Yeah, that's the number one terrifying thing. But losing your buddies out there, not having a radio, dead radio, and 99% of the time everybody's fine, but you have that panic moment. Because there's horror stories of guys being...

They're like, I'm going to go right over here for a second. And they're underneath their sled and they suffocate to death. And it's like, holy shit, that could happen to any of us. I mean, just with you guys, how many times have you done one maneuver where you're kind of stuck and you're in a situation that you're like, this isn't the best maneuver?

And that happens every single day. Every single season, somebody goes out that way. That seat time just keeps playing in. Nobody's invincible, but you understand how to get away from certain situations and assess the terrain and tackle it in the safest manner you can. But nobody's invincible. I've had a fair share of close calls.

And I've seen a lot of really close calls. I mean, if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. But the story of your buddy without the tether. Yeah. Like, that had to have fucking... Yeah. Like...

That one was the worst day I've ever had snowmobiling by far. Most snowmobiles come with a tether. For you guys that don't know, it's just a line attached from you to the snowmobile as a key. If you fall off, it pulls out, and the snowmobile dies. Motor shuts off. No power. And some sleds don't come with them from the factory, and I always installed them. Number one thing, tell every guy, have a tether, have a tether.

And yeah, we were out riding one day doing some R and D actually just doing some product stuff for five or nine testing some gear. I had a guy that was from the Midwest who worked for five or nine and he's learning how to mountain ride. He's learning how to set his ski on edge and do a side hill, just getting the fundamentals down.

And I remember looking back, there was kind of like a hill that rolled over the top here. And I remember glancing back and I saw him lose his edge. So he went from riding side hill and he went to like neutral position. So both skis are on the ground and he's fighting the thing. So it's going downhill. And I crest over the edge and I hear this shriek that is unhuman-like, like a pack of wolves is the best way to describe it. Something that no human should make in my experience.

My heart sank because I feel like I knew what was happening. There was no avalanche danger right there. There was no trees around. I saw where he was and I had a feeling I knew exactly what was happening. So I turned around and I bombed up there and he, the sled had rolled upside down. The throttle was stuck in the snow, completely pinned wide open. And when he rolled over, the track had started spinning and sucked him in between the back of the snowmobile and the track and

And it was wide open on his leg, like 8,000 RPMs. And so I bailed off and I just dig in for the kill switch to shut the thing off and smack the kill switch. And I looked at it and at this point I couldn't even see him because the belt blew. There was so much heat, the belt blew. And so the sled is building with smoke. My first thought is like, fuck, it's on fire. And he's stuck in this thing.

First thing I did was open up the side panel before anything and make sure the sled's not on fire. And the belt's like liquid. It was so hot, just dripping goo and everything steaming. And so I threw a handful of snow in there just to make sure while we're assessing this, he's not going to burst into flames on top of everything that's happening. And I look at him and I'm like, are you okay? Like, can you move your toes? Can you wiggle your knee? Make sure he's got feeling and everything. He's like, yeah. But I mean, he's in the sled completely. So when I got to him, like,

This arm is out in his head and the tunnels like right here. He's fully in the snowmobile. I was like, dude, I gotta, I gotta pull you out of here. We gotta get you out of this. There's two more guys down at the bottom of the hill, but they're not mountain riders. So they couldn't get up to us. I'm like, I gotta, I gotta get you out. And then I'm going to run down and get those guys. So put my arms under his armpits and just said, dude, this is going to fucking hurt. But like, we gotta get you out. Give him a pole and yank him out. And that's when I saw his leg and his,

It was bad. I don't know how descriptive you want me to get, but I'm looking at exposed bone at that point and realizing that this is really a bad situation. Like below his knee? Yeah. So like the calf muscles are gone. And I'm looking around the snow and realizing what's in the snow and it's pieces of leg. Yeah.

And I'm like, all right, just take a deep breath, take a deep breath. I dig in my bag what I have with me at a first aid kit and wrap them up as best I can and bomb down to get one of the other guys. I throw him on my sled, ride him up to comfort him. And he's like, how do you want to get out of here? Like, do you need a helicopter? And we kind of assessed he's not bleeding out. He's good. He's not losing a lot of blood.

So I kind of build a shelf so I don't have to side hill him because I didn't want to bump him. I didn't want to lose it and then roll the sled riding with him double. Like that's the last thing I want to do is make this even worse for him. So we get him down to the trail and he's like, I'm going to ride out. You're going to what? He's pale, so pale, like just white.

He's like, yeah, I just, there's no faster way to get out of here. Even if we want a helicopter, it couldn't have come in. It was so cloudy out. They wouldn't have been able to land. So that was on the back burner. How far over you? 14 miles from the truck long, an uncomfortable distance. Yeah. And I made the mistake that day of not having my sat phone on me. I always carry a GPS that I can call search and rescue on because we were just going to do a trail cruise, just something tame, uh,

So I bombed down to the parking lot where I knew there was service and called 911. So they got somebody there. By the time I was there, I met the guy, and I threw him on the sled. I threw the EMT on my sled, and they were about halfway back at this point. They had put him on a snowmobile, and...

There's three sleds in a row, like, taking up the whole trail. He was in the middle, and they were just barely moving. So if he passed out and went left or right, they could, like, block him in and make sure he wasn't going to— Oh, he was riding his snowmobile. Yeah, he rode out. He rode out, so— What was he doing with his leg? It was just wrapped up and not moving it. He was just sitting and looking straight ahead, concentrating on getting the hell out of there.

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And the guy's like, is everything good? He assesses it. He goes, he's not losing much blood. If he's comfortable right now, let's just keep doing what we're doing. He's like, there's nothing I can do out here on the snowmobile trail as far as getting you back faster. Yeah. Get him back. Get him in the ambulance. Carries on. I get an update that night. Like, how's he doing? I knew it was bad. I knew it was going to be a life-altering handicap, but I didn't realize it was going to get as bad as kind of what came of it.

And they go, yeah, they might have to amputate it. I'm like, what? Why? His whole leg or knee down? Knee down. Like, why? Well, they go, well, when you saw the bone exposed there, did you notice all the black marks on it? I was like, yeah. He's like, that was the rubber of the track that essentially did a burnout. So that friction, he actually went through the main artery in his leg, and there was so much friction, it cauterized it on the spot. Otherwise, he would have bled out and been gone right there. No way.

There was that much friction right there. Sealed it up. Done deal. So in a way that saved his life. It did. And there was like hardly any blood. That was the thing I was noticing. I'm like, how is there no blood? And like, it was pretty clean. Cauterized it right there on the spot.

Holy shit. But the concern was it got so hot that it might have killed the marrow in the bone. Six surgeries later, he's walking. You wouldn't even guess it. Obviously, if he's got shorts on, he's got a gnarly scar and one hell of a story. Yeah. But he's riding his motorcycle. He's riding snowmobiles. He's loving life. Wow. He doesn't have a handicapped parking spot. Like, he parks wherever. He can walk, you know, all day long. But moral of the story is...

always wear your tether and i see it on social media all the time guys let there's dangle in there and it can happen to anybody i never thought it would happen but dude eye-opening terrifying experience but having the right stuff in your pack making sure you got a first aid kit somebody that you trust that's going to stay calm and not panic like it was gnarly but there was a lot of things that happened that day that worked out for him and that's why he's here today

Damn. I know. That was a heavy story. I'm really sorry if anybody's down and out right now and terrified to go ride this winter, but it's preventable. I think it's preventable. It's preventable. It is, but it's just part of the game. Those are the things that you need to know. People don't talk about the accidents. People don't talk about it. It's pretty gnarly. People from Minnesota don't talk about the danger of avalanches and how fast you can just fucking disappear. Yeah. We've been riding mountains for like...

I don't know, six years at this point. And like just in the past couple of winters have like really had some eye opening, you know, conversations with people of like, oh, do you have this on you at all times? Is are you guys doing beacon checks? Are you guys charging your bags? Like there's so much that goes into it where you can just forget about it. And then that's the day that it goes wrong. Yeah. And you just got to have that checklist and make sure you go through it every single day.

No matter how excited you are, if it's the deepest day ever, it's so easy to overlook and just want to get in the snow. But it's not worth it. You guys want to talk about partying now? Yeah, no, that's heavy. That's heavy. Damn. So...

Yeah, I mean, to lighten the mood, bro. We've taken so many trips together at this point. Keep this emotional roller coaster going. We have so many memorable trips. Like, easily my most memorable trips are with you. And they're all filmed. That humbles me because I watch so many videos. I'm like, ah, man, I wish I was there for that. That looked like fun. We have a lot of fun when we're together. And they're all filmed, and we create amazing content. And so many of the trips are, like, absolute banger videos.

but it's what happens off camera that's almost more entertaining than what happens on. I mean, where do you want to start? I want to start with Revelstoke. Yeah, I was going to say, let's go Revelstoke. Let's just dive deep. Okay, so Revelstoke, British Columbia. It's like the snowmobiling capital of the world. Thank you.

It's absolutely incredible. Also just the greatest place in the world. And we just so happened to find out that it's quite possibly the best city ever to ever be inexistent, mostly because of the nightlife. And everyone's just...

Everyone's just stoked and everyone's just hammered. Everybody's just cross-threatened. Everyone's so drunk. They warned us about it going into it. They were like, no, Rebel Stoked, we do it different there. Holy shit, did we find out we do it different there? And it's like everywhere you look, you're seeing legit pro snowmobilers, but they're exceeding our level of...

We're like, oh yeah, we could party. Ben's introing this and my gears are turning. I'm like, man, there's a lot of different things that have happened there. I mean, we'll start this out. We find out about this drink. It's called a shaft shot. And it's basically coffee with alcohol in it, but it's just straight espresso. No, so it comes in a... Let me give you the science on this.

I've had a lot of them. So it comes in a glass about yay high, probably about eight, 10 ounce glass. You got to take it as a shot though, through a straw. It's a shot of Bailey's, Kahlua, vodka, and espresso. So it's three shots of alcohol and then a shot of caffeine straight to the, straight to the heart. Something you crack. Probably only have one of them, you know? Yeah. No, you should take one. You definitely should. Yeah, but we took like five. Yeah, you should. So it's like. And then you just rip it. Yeah.

Yeah, before you know it, it's 5 a.m. That's the thing about them. And you're wandering around Revelstoke. It goes from 10 o'clock, we rode all day, I'm tired, you know, and then you have like one shaft shot, you're like, I'm feeling it, and then you have two and you're like, let's watch the sun rise today. Then you like come back in and you're bowling, but with the weird little bowling balls at the bowling alley. Canadian viewers, what the hell's up with that? You guys...

do not have regulation size bowling at all. But it's fun. It's fun. Yeah. But it just caught me off guard the first time. Okay, so this story isn't really about you, but it's about Revelstoke, and I've always, I just want, I just want people to know this story, and I'm sorry, but it's not. Oh my gosh, yes. It's at the butt end of my. It is, but this all just depends on how you tell it. If Ben tells it and exaggerates and lies. No, no, no, no, no. It's going to be pretty damn embarrassing. No, no, no, no. It's pretty hard to exaggerate that one because that all really happened. It really did happen.

No, bro, we end up at a punk rock concert. It's actually a ska band, if you know what that is. We're at a punk rock concert in Revelstoke. This guy's got Liberty Spikes on, and he's playing the trumpet on the stage just to set the mood. It was so lit. He had on the clout goggles, and he was playing trumpet, jumping from table to table. And Ryan's dad's there with us. Playing pong. Playing pong with me.

With like 21-year-old girls. We were like, damn, Ryan. I think Randy's going to bring more chicks home than you. Amazing. It was a phenomenal night. So next thing we know, there's this dude there. And he's kind of just wandering around aimlessly. And next thing we know, him and Mike hit it off.

See, now you're already lying. What? We didn't hit it off. Yeah, you guys definitely hit it off, bro. You were talking for like 20 minutes. You didn't even speak real words to me. How do you hit it off with someone who can't speak? You weren't either. You guys were just holding each other and just staring into each other's eyes. No. Yes. No. This is what happened, yeah. This dude was...

Mike. Well, I should say Mike was holding him actually. Caressing him actually. Yeah. That did not happen. And this dude goes in for the kiss.

And he definitely did not try to kiss me. Yes, he did, bro. I'm just going to pull up the video. We can watch the video, but it's like I lived it. I lived it. Would you like to go on the record saying he did not try to kiss you? Yes. Okay. Here it is. We'll let the comments decide. I'll pull it in. This looks like they're hitting it off. It looks bad that I'm getting defensive, but it's like, bro. Oh, man. There's a lot of videos. Oh, yeah. There's a ton. Oh, no. Does this look like two people hitting it off? They're chopping it up. Look.

Look at him chopping up right there. Laughing. Look at him chopping it up. Oh, yeah. I'd chop it up with all you guys then. Yeah. And we're hitting it off, dude. We're friends. All right. Okay. And ear. Oh, this is the guy playing guitar. Who knows what's going to be in this? I think he's standing on the boat. No, he's just in the. There he is. He was on the bar later that night. I miss that guy. There's also a video of Jake standing there.

Talking to a couple people and we were with our buddy Kyle and Kyle goes, hey, film this. And he goes up and he pants Jake in front of this entire group of people. But he grabbed it all. Boxers and all, everything. Yeah, he grabbed it all. And somehow we didn't get kicked out. I thought it was the funniest thing, right? And I filmed it and I thought there was no shaft. Yeah, and then you put it in your story. I put it in my story. I wake up in the morning.

Lots of responses. Yeah, definitely. And a weird amount of screenshots. I definitely posted a video of Jake's dick on my story. Yeah. It took us a few hours to realize that actually happened. Okay. Oh, my gosh. That first frame. Oh, it was so good. All right, maybe I did exaggerate a little bit, but if you...

Hold up. It goes in for it. There's another one. I have one across. You got to go frame by frame to really get the full effect. Yeah, there it was. All right, so it starts out with just a good hug, just a good bro hug. And then right here. This is where I thought I was capturing gold. It goes in for it. Mike kind of pulls back there. The guy, you can see his hands go like, oh, what, bro? What? What?

You don't want to kiss? But didn't he ask you? I thought you said something like he brought the topic up. I don't think so.

All I know is that he was on drugs. Yeah, we later found out that the guy was high on PCP or something like that. He looked at some dude's dick in the bathroom and ended up getting punched in the face. Yeah, it was a whole night. And then we ended up getting kicked out because the bouncer was like... What are you guys doing? He was all cracked out. Remember that? No, that was the night I don't remember, to be honest. Yeah, David, you also got drugged that night. Crazy. Revelstone. Crazy. Crazy.

The riding's pretty fun, too. I was like, it was deep as balls. And Ben and I were on snow bikes, and David hates snow bikes. I don't hate them. No, he doesn't hate them. I thoroughly dislike them. I would choose a snowmobile any day, is what I would say. In that deep conditions, it did. It sucked ass.

It was, like, so hard to move. Revelstoke is only at, like, what, 5,500 feet? Yeah, you ride at 5,000 inches. Yeah, so you have tons of power and tons of snow, and it's just, like, you can't beat it. So, but combine that, drained, riding all day, deep snow, and then you just pull all night after night there. Somehow we kept going, except for that one day. Who ended up going? Was that you? I did. I went and I got McDonald's for everybody. We had the best sunset. You and Trent were so hungover, you switched helmets the entire day. Yeah, so...

We always make the noon crew joke, right? You go in at noon, noon crew. We make the noon crew joke. No, no, no, no, no. You hate us for it. No, because you stole it from me. And then you put it on a t-shirt and I got zero royalties out of that. I don't know if I'd go that far. So we went out at noon, which is fine in March because it's light out till 8 o'clock. But noon in December is like a three-hour window of light. And for some reason we committed to going riding after heavily, heavily drinking the night before. Yeah.

And all day long, I ride, take a bunch of photos. We're like, it's a good photo op day. We get back, and like a week later, I'm going through the photos, and I realize that whole day I was so hungover, I wore Trent's helmet, and Trent wore my helmet. And we didn't notice the whole day until I saw a photo. So that means we took the gear off, put it in the bags and everything, and it still didn't dawn on us. That's when you know you had a good time, though. Yeah, that was great. That's just a drop in the bucket, though. Another...

Party night that comes to mind. It wasn't on that trip, but it was when we were at Uncle Sane's and we had that Airbnb rented.

It was a nice house. It was too nice for us. But it was a two-story Airbnb, and it had this little stairway that went downstairs that just so happened to be the perfect spot to pour beer out from the top floor to the people below laying on our backs. I kind of want to backtrack a little and talk about Ryan's style of riding a snowmobile. Okay.

And kind of where the mindset is. Wide open until something stops me. You are the only person I know that can get countless GoPro clips of hitting the only tree on a hillside time and time again. You know you can...

not do that it's quality content is it let's let's be honest here is it for the content or are you genuinely just that out of control i sometimes suck and then sometimes i'm good normally if i turn a camera on or someone's filming me i tend to suck a lot and to be fair we do film the difficult parts where it's like hey you might end up in this tree so we should probably film this yeah you like look at a hill that we've torn up like 10 times like all right go hit it and i'm like well i gotta do something cool for the camera and then i

fall. He's just really good at executing on the you might part. You will for Ryan. At first we did the typical, oh, what do you go to tree magnet and you sled? But then we're like, dude, do you actually have a tree magnet in your sled? Maybe this year I'll keep this snowmobile out of the trees. Last year it was too far gone. I had a turbo, didn't know how to ride it.

That's still the insane part. I know we have talked about this on a video, but Ryan went from riding skidoos his entire life and also was on a finger throttle like on his later years of the skidoo and then put a turbo on an axis with a thumb throttle that a snowmobile you've never, ever, ever ridden and then just threw you into the fire. Yeah, it's no wonder I sucked. Zero miles, right? You did all that. Zero miles. Yeah. We put the turbo on Revelstoke. Yeah, Revelstoke. Nobody helped me, but we did.

Are you concerned? I watched. Did it in like an hour and a half at ULA. I think you did good. You were hammered. No, Trent was. I think we were, yeah. Can you briefly explain? I mean, you guys have seen Trent on the videos. Oh, man. And Trent's from Michigan. I'm not even sure how you know him. Just a piece of shit, Derek. God, I hate Trent. He's out feeding America every day, and then somehow he's roped himself into hanging out. Yeah, he'll come with you on the trips every day.

And he will take phenomenal photos for you. Sometimes not phenomenal. And then just feed them all to you. That's why I love actually taking trips with you and Trent. So we get all of our funny, messed-around content. We get all our own videos, too. And then you and Trent get cinematic, just beautiful, buttery shots. And then we get to sit down and produce the zombie films or whatever videos.

Yeah.

But, I don't know, we've got to think a little outside the box. I don't know how we can amplify it from what we've done, but there needs to be a little extra wow factor in there. Whether it's watching the sunrise in Revelstoke after 18 shaft shots, if we really want to dive into that, or Micah on a late-night adventure, we need something, something in there. Micah on a late-night adventure. Well, there was one night at... That chat video we just watched. That would not consist of my late-night adventures. I had to leave homie down the road, you know? Yeah.

But one night in Revelstoke, I was just like, I'm having too much fun. You guys just leave. And you're like, this is your first night here. Do you know what you're doing? And I'm like, nope. I'll find a way home. Dude, okay. Speaking of trips also, last time we went to Gold Creek, we got in a little bit of trouble. You want to talk about that? I mean, it's interesting. Yeah.

It was an honest mistake, though. It was a signage mistake. I don't think it's bad to explain because we weren't trying to be malicious in any way. Yeah, I think we talk about it just so people are aware, to be honest. Yeah, so we go to this place called Gold Creek, Idaho every year. It's a dirt biking place. Some of the best riding in the world, single track. We were riding down this trail, looking at this massive mountain next to us, and we're like, hey, we should go up that. Just like we do on Soulville. For the record, there was...

Oh, there was tracks of it. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. We were like, hey, let's go up that. That'd be a sick view. So we do that, and we film it. It was great content, phenomenal view. We drop the video. A year goes by. We get a call. Actually, no, we get an email. A pretty aggressive email. Pretty aggressive email. And it was from...

National Forest Service saying that they were going to fine us for riding off trail and not having a film permit. Yeah, and to contact us now. Yeah, otherwise we're going to jail. Yeah. We were like...

David, is this a thing? Well, but it only started with a few of you, and then they somehow continuously tracked all of us down. It took a week or so, but then we all got the email. Because at first, we're like, nah, it's probably just a joke. They're probably not that serious about it. It's like, who's going to call? Are you going to call? Who's going to call back? Do you want to do it? I'm like, I don't want to do it. It's a weird feeling having to call, almost like calling yourself in. Oh, by the way, it's me, Micah. I'm ready for that ticket now. Yeah.

So long story short, we had a conversation with the National Forest Service about what we did. And we were like, quite honestly, I didn't even know that that was a rule. So for those of you guys watching right now, yeah, it's a rule. Can't ride off trail. I mean, I knew, right? I didn't know. What was misleading was the amount of people that had ridden there.

And any of us can fall for that. Like, it looked like it was a trail. So many people had cut off there. And the signage in the first place is non-existent. So we made a mistake and we ended up paying $280 for it. I did get a sweet office decoration. I started framing my tickets for this one. $230, sorry. $230 bucks.

If you want some artwork for your walls, do that. Keep in mind, it was $230 each to David, Ryan, me, Ben, Evan. It was like $7. Honest mistake. Honest mistake. That'll happen, though. That's the cost of doing business sometimes. But when we went on our first go, so Gold Creek is in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. It's really the only intense single track that we've done, but it is intense.

And I remember we took Ryan, and Ryan's not really much of a dirt biker, and you did great. Not a dirt biker. My first trip, I had literally never ridden a dirt bike. For more than an hour. Yeah, other than around the driveway. And that was the first time that we met Evan. I know we mentioned that a little bit, but... So David texts us and goes, Hey, you know, I'm originally from Cloquet, and I have this buddy that I went to high school with, and he loves dirt biking. You guys know that. And...

We're like, sure, yeah, he can tag along with us. And he's a quiet kid before he knows you. And so we drive 20 hours out to Coeur d'Alene, and he probably says like 10 things the whole time. But he drinks 12 teas. Yeah, he drinks 12 teas and just gets ripped. And we, gosh, dude, little did we know that

He's probably one of our best friends now, as are you. Little did we know that we thought you were just going to be our coordinate guy at 509, but now you're legitimately one of my best friends. Likewise. But what are the odds that two guys from Cloquet, Minnesota, weasel into this group somehow? Very weird. And now it is where it is. Why do you think it went from a corporate relationship of just us working together from a brand standpoint to us being homies?

I think just so like-minded. Yeah. I mean, we're that way with all the riders, almost all the riders. We're really good at what we've learned on these trips.

Work and play. Combining the two and knowing when to draw the line and then going back home and kicking ass. There's not many people that do that. Either they fall off one end or they're strictly dedicated to work and they have no social life or they have way too much of a social life and they have no job. It's hard to balance those things. You've got to have fun, but you've also got to leave with mission accomplished.

And then also we're all absolutely hilarious. That's a huge bonus. We're pretty funny when we get to get like us and then you and Trent. I don't know if other people think we're that funny. No, we're the funniest guys we know for sure. But you want to kill us like 90% of the time that we're together. Just because of your time management. Holy shit, man. Like I think the last time I rode with you in Wyoming this last year,

You were like two hours late. The first day was brutal. You were like, you guys, I haven't been actually upset with you until right now. Like if there's any time I'm upset with you guys. I don't know what happened. Like,

The series of events for you to be that late, there wasn't much going on. It was just mundane things like get in the truck, drive there, stop at the gas station. But Ben was just slow motion. Things do take a while, though, for us, for everything we do. Ross Robinson's with us, and then Trent and myself. We're in the parking lot. I've been geared up for like an hour, fully geared up. And I got there 15 minutes late.

I called Ben. I'm like, what are you doing? Oh, we're coming playboy. Don't you worry. That just gets me going. And that just like teased me off even more. He goes five minutes away. So then Ryan years ago, don't undo this, shared his location with me. So I still have it. And I'm like watching them at this gas station. And he's like, be there in five minutes, 20 minutes passes. You guys haven't gone anywhere. Then you finally get there. And I'm like, just get your gear on. Let's go ride.

The video comes out, and I see this, like, montage of you guys just dicking off at the gas station. Ben had to mess with Uncle Buck a little bit. Yeah, it's funny. Meanwhile, I'm right in the parking lot, and you guys are literally doing nothing. We're being entertainers, man. I get that. We've got to keep the people entertained. I get that, but I'm just like, I want to ride, and you guys are, I don't know what you're doing. That's the issue is we're entertainers first.

and snowmobiling second. It's just part of the trips now. I'm aware it's going to happen, and you guys know. You are, but you still get so mad. I know, but you guys know that's going to happen also. And then Trent's always like the mediator of me going, Trent, what's going on here? And he's like, what do you mean, what's going on? You guys are two fucking hours late. Yeah.

Trent's already had his lunch in the parking lot because you haven't left yet. Yeah, you know, that's just part of it, though. And you've started to understand that. I still get irritated, but... For sure, yeah. It just kind of comes with the territory. I think we've started getting to the point where it's just...

Almost funnier. I know. You try. You try. You definitely push my buttons. As soon as we find out something that just irritates somebody a little bit, we're just like, this is it. I'm going to start enjoying it. What if I start enjoying it? Then will just the novelty wear off for you? No, we'll just get later and later. And then you'll pretty soon just go, I just don't even show up. Yeah. That would probably teach us.

Damn, we've really flourished our relationship. Yeah, it's gone a long way. What are you guys, 1.2-ish now?

1.2 million? And that was like blink of an eye. Every now and then I'll call you on monumental moments. Like 500k. So stoked for you guys. 750. This is wild. Million. Holy crap. David hooked it up with his helmet. This is the only million plaque that we got so far. YouTube. It's not bad that we didn't get one from YouTube. So he's like, well, you guys need something. It is sick, though. So this is probably cooler than a million plaque anyway. It means more. How much time we covered? You want to hit on that goggle? That was cool. We kind of...

Overlooked that. Yeah. That's the only collab you guys have really done. A real, I also, let's speak on how you say collab. Yeah, yeah. I've adopted it a little bit, but collab, collab, whatever. Collab. Yeah, that was our first real brand, like, collab. Should we say it real quick? Three, two, one. Collab. Oh, collab. We did that goggle last year over Black Friday? Mm-hmm. No, no, no, no.

Cybermon. Same weekend. Sorry. But then we were doing the same thing this year. We got another completely new goggle coming out, which is...

A dream come true for us. And you got more of them this year because they sold out really fast. Yes, we got much more. Still limited, but much more. Same time frame too, I think. I think we were originally shooting for Hay Days, but the classic COVID excuse, trying to get everything here. So probably Black Friday time frame. Yeah, we got some sick stuff coming on the pipeline. Hopefully a helmet maybe in the next year or two. Please, Uncle Tom. That'd be sick. And we got, for those of you listening that

are in the area or tri-state area we will be at heydays again this year they didn't have it last year because of covid and so we're like double double stoked for it everybody in the snowmobile industry will be there so if you are into snowmobiling come meet us and everyone else even if you aren't it's like worth seeing it's such a good event if you just want to like eat yourself to death and drink beer yeah we're bringing like a pile of people that have never been so yeah it'll be fun yeah it's gonna be probably one for the record books i think i agree you guys are gonna be slammed

Yeah, we got to figure that out because you can only take so many pictures. You know, you can only see so many people. So we got to figure out a little bit more of a... Saying that's my problem. I can't go anywhere now. No, it's just got to be efficient so you can see everyone. It is one of the toughest things about those events. Like the people that come to it. Like we want to literally, if we could talk to everybody for an hour, we wish we could.

But it's so tough. Like, people wait in line. You want to give them a good experience. People keep coming up. So if you come, like, we really appreciate everybody that shows up. Yeah, I kind of want to chat about that because I've never cared about the quote-unquote fame side of it. 90% of the people that run into me are stoked on what we've done for the brand or 509. And the satisfaction I get out of that is...

solidifying like somebody's passion for the sport. If they say, Hey, you know, I saw this video you did and I went out and bought a new sled or, you know, my dad and I are riding way more now. Like, that's what I want to hear. I don't care about, I mean, it's still cool. Like, don't get me wrong. I don't want to care about like, love what you do. I'm super stoked to see videos. But when I hear somebody's like, we're a hundred percent committed to the sport now, uh,

You guys really sold us on it, and we were spending time with my buddies, been getting out, taking trips, or you recommended this location or this gear set or whatever, and it changed their outlook on the sport. That is so satisfying. I know it's different for you guys. You've got a little different style of fan base, but I love those interactions, and I always tell people, like I'll get a message that says, I saw you, I just didn't want to say something. I'm like, dude, let's chat. I don't care if it's July. I'm at a gas station. I'll chat about snowmobiling, whatever it is.

And it's just, you know, it's rewarding to hear that from people. What's the one dude that came up to you the other day? Oh, gosh. At the grocery store? It's in Hermantown, Minnesota, of all places. I don't live in Minnesota anymore. I'm out in Spokane, Washington, and I was back for a wedding this weekend, and that's why I'm finally visiting you guys.

And I stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few items. And it's like, I'd say 55 to 60-year-old man, gray beard, bald, everything. I saw him kind of looking at me. And he finally says, he goes, hey, man, I recognize you. And my first thought is like, maybe from when I grew up here or you think you know my dad or something like that. He goes, yeah, like 509 and like Seaboy stuff. I'm like, really, this guy? But he never references like he has kids.

He just goes, huge fan. And his wife comes by and he goes, I told you, honey. She's like, I was telling him there's no way it's him. You can't go up and say that to that guy. Why would he be here? But that diversity in the crowd is just awesome. Like, never judge a book by its cover. You don't know who's watching you. Everybody. I don't think he had kids. I think he just genuinely liked what we were doing and

Was it kind of living vicariously through it? We definitely get stoked when old people, you know, older dudes or whatever come say that they watch. We're like, yes. Yeah. Especially when they don't have kids. That's an interesting demographic, huh? I wonder what the percentage is of that. I think a lot more people than you would think. As far as older and no children? Yeah. Really? I don't know about the no children aspect of it, but yeah. I mean, so many times people come up to us and say, hey, my son's such a big fan. Right.

Well, I am too. Can I get a picture too? Right, right. It's like, yeah, man, of course. That's awesome. You wonder if he just wants to rub it in his son's face a little bit or if he genuinely is that stoked. I found a video of the house in Africa.

Oh, pull that up. Oh, yeah. Oh, Mike, you got the full shot. That's a professional athlete, folks. Believe it or not. God, dude, that was so fun. That was my exact response, too. I was like, oh, no. Hyperventilating.

That's why we put the Airbnbs in David's name after this. Go to the one where Mike is getting the haircut. I'm getting a beard cut. Oh, beard cut. You do not look healthy. I don't look good, though.

Why did we do this? I forgot about this. Waking up and looking at you, I thought you were some random guy that spent the night there. And then the next day, so they basically shave handlebar mustache or whatever into me, and we're all so hungover. Then the next day, we go to Ken Block's and tour the headquarters. That was a regret. I have legitimate regrets.

He's bleeding. Never mind. Not handlebars. No, just a patch. So yeah, this is David's first time visiting us in Cormorant ever. I'm sorry. We visit you a million times. That's okay, though. More to come. We'd love to have you back. We'd love to have you, Evan, and Trent back at the same time. Oh, that would be fun. Quite legendary. Yeah, I think we should do like a trail bomb get-together this winter.

You know, bar hop, a little lake action. I'm down for it. That would be very fun. A little ride along action. I would say actually we're planning on having a ride out like we did last year. And please, God, more snow than we had last year too. All right, bro. Thanks for coming on. We appreciate you. We love you. Thanks for taking the chance on us early on. And look at us now. Likewise, boys. Best friends. Some of the best buddies I could ever ask for. So thank you for having me. Love it. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Make sure you subscribe if you haven't already. And...

Rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts. We appreciate that too. Or subscribe on Spotify if that's what you're listening to. But that being said, we'll see you guys next episode. Thanks, y'all. I don't know why I said it like that.

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