is not
an easy man to nail down for an interview.
Matt Kennedy started trying in November for Heckler #3. "Palm
wants to write his own interview," he said. About mid-December,
Matt said that Bob Klein was now going to do the interview.
I thought that would be interesting and insightful. I called
Bob, and he said he was having a hard time hooking up with
Palmer. (even though they're in a band
together) The deadline for #3 passed, and about a week later
Matt called and said "Palm wants to do his own interview.
He wants the front cover and 4 pages. He says Roach got ripped."
(sorry dude, 3 1/2's the best we could do)
Well, there was no way we could do 4 pages for that issue,
so we put it off till #4. A few days later, Matt was supposed
to do some slide scanning and he never showed up. We looked
and called all over frantically, as we were only a day or
two before press day, but he was no where to be found.
About 9pm, Matt calls "What's up? Dude, me and Palm went to
Kirkwood.
I got the cover shot and the interview done."
"Well there's no way it can run in this issue, we'll put it
in the next one. Is the interview transcribed?"
"Noooo....and Palm's gonna' write out a few more questions
and send them to us."
Fine no problem. I'm thinking, it's almost in the bag and
we should be able to finish it for the next issue. Wishful
thinking.
Matt leaves for Mt. Hood, so we get the tape from him so we
can transcribe it. The tapes the wrong speed for our recorder.
We finally get Matt's recorder, the only one it will play
back on, and transcribe the interview by road bike racer,
John Brady. Maria accidentally erases one of the answers.
("That's cool," Palmer later says about the partially deleted
answer, "It sounds good that way.")
I call Palmer and we agree that I'll Fed-X it to him for corrections
and additions since he doesn't have a FAX on Monday. I call
and leave a message on Wednesday "Shaun, this is John with
Heckler. Did you get the Fed-X package? We're past the deadline,
and Saturday's the last day we can do layout. Call me." No
response.
On Saturday, Carnel's back in town from a Snowboarder road
trip so I ask him to help. He gets a hold of Palmer, and Palmer
says he never got the package with the transcription.
I call Fed-X on Monday. Their automated cyber phone mail computer
says, "Package received on... Tuesday.... 12:33... p.m....
by... Brad... Holmes..."
Chris calls back, "It's in your house somewhere, Brad signed
for it on Tuesday. John put a mailer and pre-paid Fed-X form
in there too.
Just call Fed-X and they'll come pick it up."
"Uh, we lost it," Palmer replied. "I gotta' go, I've gotta'
go to Reno to get some work done on my car."
Chris lives in Reno, so it was arranged that they would meet
at Maaco at 5:30 pm. Chris got lost, and was 5 minutes late.
"Oh yeah, those guys left 15 minutes ago," the Maaco guy said.
Carnel tracks down Palmer that night, and he's flying out
of Reno for Europe the following day.
Yep, it finally happened, Chris met Palmer at the airport,
and here it is; The Shaun Palmer Story. The FAX machine is
still spewing forth comments from all over the country about
Palmer. The names have been changed/deleted to protect the
dubiously innocent.
JB: This is John Brady here with Shaun Palmer. I'm kinda new
to this snowboarding thing, I've only been snowboarding for
about 4 months, but one thing I've noticed is how everybody
either loves or hates Shaun Palmer. Why do people think you're
an asshole, Shaun Palmer?
SP: I don't know John Brady, why would anybody think I'm an
asshole?
JB: So what does Shaun Palmer do? Some of the biggest, ballsiest
moves I wouldn't even dream of doin' and there he is doin'
it. How the fuck do you do that shit?
SP: I don't know. I grew up doin it. At first I grew up BMX'ing,
then I moved on into selling drugs, and ... umm, went through
high school selling dope: coke, mushrooms. I was a high school
drop out. People thought I was gonna be a loser. Well sometimes
I still am a loser, but I would consider myself a loser with
money. And that part of my life is successful. Are you confused?
Am I talking into a big blurred circle of bullshit that you
don't understand, do you think, John Brady?
JB: I've been a ten-speed racer for 19 years. I've spent 7
years as a professional, and rode the world championship both
pro and amateur - 12 Irish National titles, and all kinds
of international races and, ya know, cycling is a very respectable
sport and I've done very well at it, wearing my spandex pants
around the world. Why the fuck are snowboarders such derelicts?
SP: I don't know, it's just a sport that people have gotten
into. It has turned into a big fuckin fashion role. Nobody
snowboards anymore cause it's fun, they snowboard cause it's
cool. They want to go to parties and talk shit about themselves,
tell people what they're doin.
I mean, how fuckin hard is it to learn a trick on a snowboard?
Not very hard if you're gonna do it. I don't learn that many
tricks cause I'm lazy. I already have the money, I don't have
to prove shit to anybody. I was doin tricks a long time ago
that people are fuckin learnin now. I'm a lazy man, very.
But his year I'm coming back. I quit drinkin for a purpose
and that's to go out and win - win a lot!
(1st place in Boarder Cross at the recent Squaw Pro Fest-ed.)
JB: So, Shaun Palmer, I hear a lot about girls and stuff like
that, and I thought you were talking shit but then I hung
out with you for the last few months and now I realize you're
not talking very much shit.
Why do you like girls so much?
SP: Because I am very attracted to women. I learned it from
a little friend of mine. I was a normal person at one time,
thinkin it was cool to just hold hands and kiss women. Then
I learned from this short little underrated snowboarder one
day that it's cool to go out and fuck the shit out of `em
and get drunk and abuse women like this man. So, I've been
doin that for a few years, but I'm learning to respect women
now and not be so brutal towards them.
JB: Well, Shaun, I know you well enough now to know what your
views on women are, and I really like them, but I have to
ask you some things about snowboarding. I know you don't like
to talk about it. You're the kind of guy who likes to just
go out and do it, but what do you think the future holds for
snowboarding, and what's going on with this new school/old
school thing? Tell me from the point of an ignorant snowboarder.
SP: Well, to tell you the truth, the new school/old school
is just a bunch of bullshit. Fuck, half the time I never even
went to school. I might as well be a goddamn bus driver. I'll
drive you all to school, motherfuckers!
I've been around for 12 years and I've been snowboarding very
seriously ever since I started. And I hope to god snowboarding
goes...
(Burp SFX)
JB: I'd like to know about the first time you got laid. I'm
sure it was a very special moment for you.
SP: (laughs) I was in 7th grade and was over at my friend's
house. We were all tryin to drink beer, we didn't really drink
back then, but we were acting like it. We were drinking and
we got together with this girl named Donna Evans and I was
kissing her and holding her and scared of her at the same
time as if she was gonna kill me, so ... we got naked and
I eventually stuck it in. I put my penis into her vagina and
didn't move it. I just laid it in there like a cookie in an
oven. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I didn't even
move it and then pulled it out. And I was very nervous about
it the next day at school, what she would say to everybody.
She told everybody I had a small dick. I was crushed, hurt
deep down inside. I was scared of women for 3 years. Didn't
sleep with another woman until I was in 11th grade. Then,
then I learned how to fuck!
JB: I've heard of this club called the "no rub club" - could
you tell me a little bit about it.
SP: I can't tell you too much about the no rub club. It's
kind of a tight organization, very underground, not too many
people know about it. It's a very intense club. I can't talk
about the no rub club anymore.
JB: Does the fact that Jeff Toland
keeps shouting "no" every time I see him have anything to
do with that organization?
SP: I have no idea why he screams "no." I have no idea. It
irritates me every time I see him, he screams "no!" And I
go, "what rub?"
And then someone out of the corner of the room yells "club."
I just don't understand it.
Interview part 2 Reno Airport 2-15-94
Has snowboarding
paid off after 12 years?
Well, I've watched it go from no ski lifts, to almost every
resort in the world open to boarding. It's definitely paid
off. I own my own house, 4 cars, a snowblower, dirtbikes,
pretty much anything I want I can have if I trade or save
money to get it. Boy isn't life just fucking grand. It's definitely
been a good career for me, but people think it's just so easy
but it's very hard sometimes flying all over the world, waking
up early, riding icy pipes, people talking shit down your
throat, or behind your back just because you have a name in
something. But you just put your mind into different things
and forget the bad shit.
Why
did you start snowboarding for a living?
Because that's where snowbaording took me. At first I was
in love with boarding just for fun. My friends told me to
go up to the summit one day and try it. At this time in my
life I was living in Carson City, NV and in 7th grade. Next
thing you know I'm flying to Vermont for a contest two years
later at age 15. From then on it's been my life and occupation.
What was it like growing up in South Lake Tahoe?
Lake Tahoe is a very weird place to grow up. A lot of drugs,
fighting and everybody is fucked up, at least in South Shore
anyways. When I was fifteen I used to sell coke and mushrooms
in high school and that was normal. Sneak out back of woodshop
class and smoke our and do lines, then go back in and make
a very nice pipe. Go to lunch, get too stoned to go back to
history class. I'd be smokin' in the trees with my friends,
we would walk back to the school, get to the
parking lot, start feeling real high, get really scared and
just say fuck that, I'm goin' skating. So I would hit hike
to North Shore to skate mile high ramp.
Then the next year started getting real bad, Cocaine that
is. My girlfriend's mom was a big dealer. I'd stay up drinking
tequilla and sniffing lines with her mom. Some crazy thoughts
went through my mind id you know what I'm saying. I would
wake up and go over to Vito and Joeys house, smoke a little
dope, watch some TV, wait till about five, start sniffin the
whitey again. Then that wasn't enough so we started cookin'
up the rock and Joey had some real police lights
off of a cop car with two batteries hooked up to them. So
we would count to 3 as we were hittin' off the glass pipe,
flick the switch, and BAM!, the lights would start flashing
and the siren was so fucking loud your ears would hurt. Let
me tell what a fucking rush that is, freebasing with sirens
and lights flashing. What a relaxing part of my life.
Photo
by Chris Carnel @ Squaw Valley
What
People Think Of Shaun Palmer:
"The Palm
will go big anywhere." -Noah Salasnek
"Palmer is the Andre Aggassi of snowboarding." - Joey Washburn
"Shaun Palmer skis like a man and he will never kiss your
ass. All props to the Palm!"- Jeff Galbraith, Senior Editor
Snowboarder Mag.
"He's a great rider, but he's a total chump!" -Arlie John
Carstens
"I can't wait till that dinosaur Shaun Palmer and his cronies
die off!"- Photographer overheard at a contest.
"He's one of the most unique characters in snowboarding history.
He's added more personality than anyone and probably the most
misunderstood person in snowboarding too. Shaun Palmer has
more nerve than anyone and the sport wouldn't be the same
without him."- Kevin Kinnear, TW Snowboarding Mag.
"Anything said about Palmer could be true, or has been in
the past. Everybody thinks he's out of control and he's not,
he's a very controlled person. Even if there is trouble, he
himself is never in trouble. Palmer's beyond unique; he is
talented and capable of doing anything in life he wanted."-
Bud Fawcett
"He rides good for a little guy, but I think he has a small
penis."-Tucker
Fransen
"Shaun has the special ability to be incredibly good at whatever
he does. As a young kid he learned how to snowboard so quickly
and with such a smooth aggressive style that I think everyone
knew he would dominate for a long long time."- Keith Kimmel
"The Sultan of Style, the Black Knight of the Round Table,
the Cadilac Kid. Shaun Palmer has represented the style of
snowboarding since the very begining. He is out-spoken, arrogant,
smooth, original, punk, and genuinely honest. The amount of
media he has received is mammoth, and it's all well deserving
because after all he is The Palm."-Matt Kennedy
"With the exception of Terry Kidwell he was the kid that nobody
could touch, his nickname was Mini-Shred. A relatively new
snowboarder influenced by the 80's vert skating heroes Cabalerro
and Hosoi, he was a ruler from South Lake Tahoe, California..I
used to skate with him at Eric's South Shore ramp back then
and he was a definite terror: Within a weeks time he had gone
from doing backside airs a foot above the coping to Judo airs
three feet out. It was his natural progression! Every trick
he tried he learned fast, smooth and pretty damn dialed. It
seemed any other sport he wanted to learn was right at his
fingertips also; B.M.X., Motorcycle racing,skiing and last
but not least snowboarding. By riding with Kidwell and borrowing
a little from skating he helped shape the way
freestyle is today. The practical inventor of the Rocket Air,
and famous for his Backside Airs, Palmers style today, even
among a new crowd of riders, is rock solid, flowing and easily
recognizable. Now with his own board model, his own house
and clothing shoots among celebs. [like Christy Turlington]
Shaun is finally getting out of the sport what he, early on,
put into it."
Why
did you start snowboarding for a living?