[by Jesse Fox]

"Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts and return your seats to their upright and locked position. Please, put away your tray table and turn off all electronics." The pilot sends out the landing gear, and the plane drops speed. Babies are still sleeping and elderly ladies continue to paint nails with manicurist accuracy. Those still nose deep in books don't skip a word when the aircraft touches down. A slow clapping cheer starts from the exit row before most have realized flight 068 has already landed. The five-star landing the pilot just graced cabin and crew with could be classified as a ‘Greaser'. It's true. Webster's Dictionary said so. Greaser - The smooth, gentle landing of an aircraft. It was easily my favorite definition (of the half- dozen or so) I found when searching for meaning in the highly informal term - ‘Greaser'.

Now, I know most of you in snowboard land are familiar with the ‘Greasers' as the web famous shred crew from Calgary. You know them from their videos; the ones that watch as if the Trailer Park Boys' offspring took a snowboarding vacation. Drinking, smoking, shredding, and always having a blast. Dwayne Wiebe, Ryan Hall, and Todd Williamson love snowboarding and that's easy to see. With the spotlight recently being pointed at snowboarding' double corks, and gold medals, The Greaser videos are solid proof that snowboarders should be more focused on having a good time.

I think it's funny to think of snowboarders like pilots. Both stoked on good take offs, decent airtime and ‘greaser' landings. So next time you exit a flight, make sure to let the pilot know how ‘greasy' his landing was. I caught up with one of my favorite snowboarders to hear Dwayne's definition of ‘Greaser' and find out what The Greasers have planned for the future.

Alright Dwayne, let's hear about the team from it's greasy start. How did the Greasers come to life?
The Greasers came to be quite a while ago. Well, the webisode crew started just this summer. But Ryan, Todd, and myself have been shreddin' and hangin' for the last six or seven years together. We've been filming together every year and never really had the same project to work on, besides Ryan and I doing Sandbox for the last few seasons. So we decided to do something we could have some fun with and have complete control over. Hence, The Greasers!

It's not just the three of you in the crew though?
Well us three are the OG three, but now there's all our Calgreasy homies and some out-of-towners. Greg Almond, Matt Butel, Dunny, Eric Lauzon, Kale Hill, Nic Brunette, Don Hore, Loosh, Mike Gilfix, Jason Broz... Pretty much anyone we're around at the time. We film everyone we shred with so anybody could be in an episode.

The Greasers, Episode 1

Are you familiar with the 'The Outsiders'? Is there a rival crew to the Greasers in snowboarding? Who would be the Socs?
(Laughs) Ya, we know about the book. This actually had nothing to do with that. Although we did steal the Outsiders font for our stickers ‘cause it looks dope! Anyone who has hung out with any of us knows how we talk, sayin' greasy all the time. We've been calling each other greasers for years! So when we decided to do this, "The Greasers" seemed like the most obvious name. As for rival crews, we have no rivals. We're all about good times and good hangs so there really is no "Socs". We have lots of affiliated crews through: Wildcats, 8 Mile, Party Snakes. Keep an eye out for our collab shirt with the ‘snakes. Karl Fuhre made it happen: "The Greasesnakes!"

Amazing! I better get one of those gems. What does it mean to be a 'Greaser'?
To be a greaser means to have nothing but love. Love shredding, love partying, just love it all!  No hate, it's all good. We don't like the "too cool" thing. We like to shred with anyone and get greasy with anyone at night! Greasers is just people.

It seems there's plenty of crew vids and 'webisodes' floating around the Internet.  What boarding videos do you watch online?
Ya, there's a ton of webisodes on the ‘net right now. I think it's super cool. I know it's hitting the video industry pretty hard, but you knew it was coming eventually. The internet is just so accessible to everyone and it's so much easier to stay updated now. I love to watch TJ [Schneider]'s Snowboard Realms. He's been doing it for years and he's always ahead of the game. I really respect TJ for everything he's done in the snowboard industry. I feel like he still doesn't get the credit he deserves for many of the things he's started in snowboarding. I also watch the Transworld updates every now and then. Anything the Party Snake's put up. 8 Mile's got some greasy shit too.

You know everything on the Internet is forever right?  Does that worry you at all?
(laughs) I'm not too worried about what goes up there. When we are editing we think about that. It's like ‘should we really be putting this up?' and then we're like ‘fuck it'.  We want people to see how we really are. ‘The Greasers' is so much more about having fun and showing what all goes down over the season. Not just snowboarding but everything else we do. We're more stoked on showing party footage than snowboarding. (Laughs) It's all about fun so if that's what we get pegged on, whatever.

The Greasers, Episode 2

Everyone loves the Louisville Chugger. What's the story with that bad boy?
The Louisville Chugger! This bad boy is a creation of Todd Williamson. Well, at least he's the first person I've ever heard of doing it. Pretty much the best party tool known to man. You can't pull this thing out without a line up of people wanting to get in on it. You want to start up a party?  Get a bat. We're gonna be posting "bat commander" vids soon too. (laughs) It's really making a huge push right now. Butel and company just went down to the DC Mountain Lab and showed all those boys how to bat! Todd brought ‘er through Quebec as well so I think we're really gonna start seeing some expansion teams trying to make a run at us. We're like the Yankees of beer bats these days. Todd and me have some pretty serious batting averages right now. Oh ya, and watch for the game we're gonna have against the ‘snakes in the spring. They're not ready for it! (Laughs)

Have you thought about making them for the masses? A 'Louisville Chugger' could be a retail homerun in college towns.
(Laughs) Ya I'm sure the American colleges would eat the Chugger up. The majority of bats go down drinkin' Old Milli's around here and I think it would be way more legit if a company like that got on board. Have an uprising through the Chugger, that'd be greasy! We'd have signature bats, (laughs) that'd be awesome!

Any chance we'll see a full-length video?
Ya we're gonna put out a full-length vid for sure! We've been saving some favorite shots and great party footy. But we're gonna play it like a skate vid and just put it out when it's ready. No deadline, just whenever we feel it's ready for release. No pressure that way. It's free anyways, so no one can bug us about making sure the vid comes out sooner ‘cause no one pays us to do this. So it'll come out when the grease is hot!

Wicked, can't wait. Any other words before we put this to bed?
Just want to say thanks to everyone who's been following us and watching The Greasers. Everyone who posts our vids knowing how ridiculous they are. And to all the greasers we haven't met yet, shred hard and keep ‘er greasy! Peace!

Some fresh grease: A Sunday Afternoon with The Greasers.

www.clydesnowboards.com
www.redbaronapparel.com

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Related:
Greasing Calgary with Dwayne Wiebe
First Grease in Calgary