It's
no secret: times are tough. Company budgets are locked up tighter than the old
man's liquor cabinet, which is making it difficult for pro snowboarders to put
food on the table, let alone chase the shred around the world. 28-year-old Benji
Ritchie knows this all too well. Born and raised ten minutes from Mont
Tremblant in Quebec, Benji doesn't know, or want to know, anything besides a
life filled with snowboarding. He made the move to Whistler nine seasons ago,
but Quebec has always stayed near and dear to his heart. He hasn't missed a
summer back in the land of poutine and beautiful women since he made the move
out west (I prefer that the poutine and beautiful women are all mixed up in the
same bowl...just sayin'). He even spent the better part of two years building a
house, from "scratch", on a portion of his family's land with an old friend who
owns a construction company in Mont Tremblant. Benji has been without a board
sponsor for an entire season but still has a positive outlook and is not ready
to hang up his outerwear for good just yet.
How goes the struggle looking for a board
company?
Boards have
been a nightmare to find anything from anyone. It's pretty hard. I would love
to get something going with good boards, but fuck, it's hard. Nobody wants to
do anything with super tight budgets. I'm not even looking for much. Just a
little travel budget to get in a good season filming, you know?
How has that affected your filming crews?
Last year
was my first year filming with Alterna for Elektro.
I was in their movie about five years ago, I think. I was filming with Standard
back then and one year I was cut from the movie but they let Carlo [Wein, Alterna
Films] use all the footage for his movie back then. After that I was with
WhiteOut Films. Two years ago I shot for the Grenade movie and also Sugarshack.
Billabong got involved with Alterna so I got to shoot with them again full time
last year. It was super good. I also did a couple days with the Transworld crew
so I got a cameo in Get Real. Now I'm
trying to figure out what I am going to do for this winter.
Besides the sponsorship issues, are you
finding it more difficult to stay motivated in Whistler? The Quebecois support
crew has definitely dropped off a ton the last few years.
I had a lot
of friends that moved back to Quebec. Yeah, I was staying with a bunch of
French guys for a long time; Renault B [Belisle] and J.F. [Pelchat] and those
guys but for the last few years I've been with Mikey [Rencz] and Eero [Neimela]
and we just never stop. We didn't have a slowing down period. We are super on
it in the winter time and we have our own little film thing going on. Since
Mikey started 8 Mile, they hired a filmer, so we created our own crew and when
we were all in town and not shooting with anyone else we would go up with
Trout, our 8 Mile Filmer, and we were able to manage all our own footage
afterwards. We could use it for whatever we wanted. That worked out really
good...pretty sweet. I never got thrown out there with anyone I didn't really
know.
How about trying to stay motivated with all
the economic issues facing snowboard companies these days? Teams are
disappearing, budgets taken away...is it tough to keep your eye on the prize?
For
sure...it's really been a mental game when it comes to finding sponsors and
getting stuff going, especially after doing it for so many years with a good
budget [laughing]. Since the major cutbacks and not having a major board
sponsor for the last year now, yeah, it's hard a little bit on the mental, but,
when it comes to numbers or budget or whatever, when I'm out there filming I'm
just giving it 100% anyway. I'm just hoping that I can get up there just to do
it, you know? We have to tighten the belt a little [laughing]. Try to make the
most out of what I can get. It's motivating because I really want to prove
myself still. I have so many more goals I want to accomplish in snowboarding. I
want to ride a lot of different stuff. It's always been a dream to work as hard
as I can to get one perfect year when everything comes together. I still feel
like I haven't achieved every thing I can, so, I'm pretty motivated to get out
there and get something better year after year and hopefully in within the next
few years I will get that year. That year where everything comes together. When
that happens I might not mind retiring, but I haven't got there yet.
Benji proudly rides for Billabong, Von
Zipper, Grenade, Empire Boardshop and Airhole.
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Related:
8 Mile: A Life Worth Living
In The Editing Room with Alterna
Party Your Socks Off with Mikey Rencz