PowderPeople | Hoji

LH:  Gear development is a big part of your career these days, right? 

EH: Yeah it's the best! That is what I want to do.

Seems like you and Fritz are working more on boots than bindings at the moment? Will there be another set of Hoji-apporved bindings eventually or are you done with bindings after the Beast?

Yes, currently it's more about boots but we need to readdress the bindings eventually. It would be super cool to do something with Fritz. We're good friends. He loves teaching and mentoring me. He loves teaching anyone who will listen to what he says! He has a lot of great ideas, for example with old patents that have expired that are free to use now. I personally don't have the engineering skills or expertise to really build a binding. My contribution would be more on the user interface and performance testing. Fritz says it's time for young people to do something good but I think utilizing his experience would be the key to pushing the boot-binding interface forwards, which is what needs to be done. 

Any thoughts on the new hybrid binding systems that have been hitting the market?

Like the tech and the alpine systems, they have pros and cons. They are getting closer to something good but the hybrid bindings aren't really progressing things much conceptually and the mechanics are complicated. There is a big push on the hybrid systems now because there are a lot of boots that have inserts and are decent for walking and skiing. The boots are driving this evolution.

A lot of people buy the hybrid bindings because the boots are comfortable and it's kind of like having an SUV. You buy into the idea that one day you could go ski touring. In this way the hybrid bindings are replacing frame bindings. Lots of people bought those and never even had skins, but they liked the idea that maybe one day they would go ski touring. 

And what's next for you in terms of boot development?

Fritz and I have really gotten into the boot topic in the last 6 years and we've gained a lot of valuable experience. I think the Hoji boot is a good product but looking at it now, I see many ways how it could be better. The more I work on this, the more I'm seeing how it could be improved.

How would you improve it, given unlimeted time and resources?

I wish we could do a full restart and not be handcuffed to existing molds. That would allow a bigger focus on the engineering concepts and structural components, while prioritizing weight, flex, and overall performance.

Did snowboarding influence mostly the mindset, or was it also about ski design and new shapes?

Snowboarding brought twin tips and wider ski shapes. The rocker and taper stuff came from within skiing, I think. I personally wasn't looking at snowboard shapes and going form there. For me it was about trying a few things and learning what worked. Of course the floatation of wider skis and having twin tips was a huge change already. Without snowboarding we'd all still be doing jump turns and spread eagles!

Are you saying you don't like to do jump turns and spread eagles?

Well, I still can! That's the thing, our age demographic is lucky because we learned on traditional skis and had to hone our skills. Now you can take advantage of the new equipment and younger people never really learn to ski in the same way. Skis are so easy and so good that people can go wherever they want without having to be super good skiers. It's made the sport a lot more fun and accessible for a lot of people. It's good and bad.

What's bad about it?

I'm a biased and crusty old man and I like to see people who know how to angulate and have more of a classic skiing style, which isn't actually necessary anymore. If you've been exposed to it growing up you think it's the right way, but I don't know if it actually is the right way. It's amazing to watch the up and coming athletes and see what's possible. I think of that all the time. Even if I could transport my younger self from the early 2000s to the present day, I wouldn't be close to the top level of where people are now. 

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Do you follow the FWT?

Yeah, Jen and I watch it all the time because she coaches the freeride team here in Whistler. And I'm good friends with Markus Eder so I always cheer for him. I have a lot of respect for the competitors. They're really pushing it in less than ideal conditions. There's no faking it there. 

If you were 25 now, do you think you'd be on the tour?

Hopefully not! I'm not a very competitive person. I did a few competitions but never really got into it. I always liked the idea of being free and finding the mountains and the terrain. It's like creating a vision. It's a different process than going to a competition venue where you have a set day and time and someone says “Go!” and then you have ten seconds to go. The skill set is very similar - I would say the competition stuff is probably even harder - but the experience is different. 

Is it possible for someone starting out now to avoid the competition scene? If you're 20 and want to be a pro skier, how do you go about that these days?

I think it's both harder and easier than it ever has been. It's so easy with the tech - POV cameras and drones, even just cell phones have become so good and so accessible. If you're really a phenomenal skier with lots of talent, you can make great edits on your own, you don't need the big film companies anymore. The reason it's harder is that everyone can do it. The amount of good content is so high, it's easy to get lost in the mix. 

If you were starting out again yourself, would you do anything differently?

That's a tough one. I've been very fortunate and lucky. I've really done alright. Learning a bit more about business, contracts and the marketing side of it would have probably been helpful, looking back. A lot of my peers in a similar category and age group had sports marketing agents and were a bit more organized overall. Having a professional to promote you and communicate the value you bring to companies in terms of exposure can be very helpful. I never really wanted to think about that stuff much, because when things are working out and everything is good, you just want to go skiing.

So you were always your own manager?

Yes, totally. 

Would you say you've made it in the industry? Have you succeeded with what you set out to do as a teenager?

I think so. I've been extremely fortunate. I remember quitting ski racing and seeing all the cool new stuff, twin tips and the amazing ski movies – that was just my dream. I wanted to make it as an action athlete in ski films. And here we are 20 years later and I'm still doing that. I didn't kill myself, I'm not too badly broken. So yeah, I guess I made it. 

You travel all the time for work. More and more pro athletes seem to be advocating for climate change awareness and flying less – is that something you think about? 

Yes and no. I've had the greatest life as a professional athlete in a sport that doesn't really need to happen. It's an incredibly privileged, first world, white person life. I have a hard time telling people not to travel, while at the same time I tell them to buy all this plastic stuff that my sponsors make. I have a lot of respect for organizations like POW and industry folks who put their neck out there. But I'm kind of not there yet myself, I don't know how to reconcile my life with that message. As an individual I try to do what I can, but I have the career I have. I have to do my job. I'm not sure what the answer is. The world is going to need some major changes. Maybe the pandemic will be an eye opener of sorts, for everyone to take a big step back.

Thanks for taking so much time to talk. Is there anything else you want to say, to finish this off?

We should be more positive!

More positive about life in general?

Yep.