Three Feet Off The Ground & Traveling

   "Chris, you wouldn't believe it, man, you wouldn't even believe it!" 
I.J. rambled off in a state of delusion as I answered his knock at 
the door and invited him in. 
   "When I was in Morocco, this guy.. this guy gets on this crowded 
bus with these geese! They were like flying around in this super 
crowded, stinky bus. It was a 5 hour bus ride through the desert.It 
was crazy!"  
   He was amped! On his back he carried a stuffed backpack with a 
Mamiya camera and 30 rolls of b/w film. He had just returned from
Africa stoked out of his mind. He was ambitious to borrow my darkroom,
print his negatives and make the trip come to life again. 
To gain experience and explore; to be stoked on foreign travel. It 
should be in the dictionary under "I" for Israel James Valenzuela. 
   It was I.J.'s first time abroad, eight months ago, when 
he went to Morocco travelling solo without a snowboard.  Matching 
his affection for untracked powder fields, he wants more.
   "I'm going to Italy in a few weeks, a trip I had to work 70 hours 
a week just to buy the tickets for." 
   By working a full time job at a North Tahoe restaurant and running 
his own window cleaning business, he's saved up the money to travel. 
I somehow caught up with him again, this time relaxing on a well 
deserved day off. He marvelled at the fact that nowadays 
snowboarders get paid quite well for what they do.
   "It's crazy for me to conceive, just from riding a snowboard, Noah      
drives around in a Grand Wagoneer, Palmer drives around a new 
Duelly and Rippey drives his new Stealth. I mean this is from snowboarding, 
It's crazy! When I very first moved to Tahoe five years ago, 
I look at the people who were my roommates; Merrill Milner, Rob Dafoe and
Ruben Sanchez. Now I look and Merrill is R&D  at Ride,
Rob is the main guy at S.M.A. Snowboards and
Ruben has got his thing going doing video and still photography. 
Five years ago, we were just kids who wanted to move to Tahoe to go 
snowboarding. Things have changed so much it blows my mind."  
   I.J. grew up in Southern California and remembers learning to ride.
   "I skied for five years before I tried snowboarding. Skiing seemed 
boring in comparison to snowboarding for me. That's back when 
Sims 1500 FE boards came out with the debut of the new highback 
bindings. I tried it and I was like `this sucks' but I was riding 
Mountain High at night in the icey shit. Then there was something 
about it I liked, especially when I moved up here, to Tahoe."
   On just about any given powder day I.J. ,who lives near Incline, can 
be seen hiking and riding Mt. Rose, or cruising Squaw. 
   "I made a promise to myself that I would hike 15 times before I 
would ride a chairlift, but that's about to change, due to the recent 
powder and early season storms." 
   He lacks the funds it takes to buy lift tickets, but foresees possibly 
barging lift lines. I.J. wants to get some turns in, and he doesn't think 
a company will pay for $40.00 lift tickets. 
   "I have yet to make a cent off the sport. I mean, I would like to get 
into the photography end of it, shooting photos. But it's hard to be a 
photographer when you want to be snowboarding, especially when 
it's 2 feet and untracked." 
   I asked him what he would do with a lot of money, if derived from 
snowboarding. 
   "I'd buy a 35mm camera. For sure I'd buy a camera! And probably a 
video camera and some video editing equipment too. If I had all the 
money that say like Farmer (see interview) had, I would probably 
be buying some property somewhere." 
   He suddenly popped back into his senses, "I trip out, about how Noah  
and Jim have all this shit. I'm not baggin' on `em. I think in essence, 
it's still the same stoke for everybody, they do it cause they dig it 
(snowboarding). And I think in that sense, that's where it's all 
relative. The feeling you get from doing it is where it's at, the fact 
that you get paid you're just lucky, Ha ha ha (laughs). No really, 
they're the luckiest people alive to be able to pull it off."
   I.J. can see the difference money and media have made on the the 
sport in the last few years, especially on his mountain of choice. 
   "What I really trip on is how hyped out Mt. Rose is now. It's so weird 
to think of how that place has become, that whole symbol thing. It's 
sort of like the Squaw Valley of Backcountry. You hear people 
talkin',`Were goin' up to Rose buildin' some kickers and goin off!'
I'm so sick of hearin' that!" 
   I.J. has his own idea of `Goin' off?' 
   "I Dressed up  in leather, feathered my hair all `Rocker' and went out 
to the see Quiet Riot in South Shore with Pata one night, it was 
hilarious.. Hhaahahaha." 
   With good friends around like Jason Pata who he sites for riding 
inspiration it's clear why Israel is a soul freeriding `junkie'
   "Pata has done the gnarliest lines I've ever seen. He is someone who 
walked away from the whole sponsorship thing to do it his own way. 
He totally shined getting sponsored and being paid to go 
snowboarding." 
   As far as Israel is concerned, It's living life, snowboarding, day by 
day. He's seen others and their sacrifice for fame and sponsorship, 
   "You get caught between your sponsors and yourself, in that dark 
abyss." 
   Recently back from his self earned trip to Italy, I asked I. J. for a 
run-down on how things went.
  "My flight back leaving Milan (Italy) was a nightmare.
We were heading down the runway for takeoff and, 3 feet off the ground,
all of the sudden, we were landing again, hitting the brakes. 
It was the burliest thing. I guess the engine blew a fuse. 
They put us back on the same  plane again, 4 hours later! Next, my 
U.S. flight leaving Washington D.C. to San Francisco was defective 
also, so my name was called to be put on another standby plane. By 
that time, after 14 hours in the air, I just started laughing out loud 
like a madman, everyone around me was stressing! It ended up 
being a 36 hour trip. Insanity!"

          
 
I.J. thanks:  Gary and Martha at Yang for being just who they are.. 
hahaha. Lisa Hudson at Swag, Jeff Pensiero, The Wanita 
Brotherhood and Paul Ferrell. Without corporate sponsors 
Burger King, Chevron, Colgate and 
Jack in the Box, this interview couldn't have happened.. Yeah, right.
  -Story & Photos By Chris Carnel