Mike Yoshida surprised Mary Rand with her cover last week at the Arbor Headquarters in Venice, CA and then we had a sushi dinner that I did not cover his portion of the bill. Luckily, he still agreed to do the behind the cover interview to tell us a bit about his day photographing up at Mt. Baker when he luckily stumbled upon Mary and snapped this photo. Check out what he had to say below. – Mark Clavin

Settings/Gear: Canon R5, 50mm lens, f/8, 1/1000, ISO 400

I probably should have paid for your dinner to celebrate your cover. My bad.
Yeah, that was really messed up that you didn’t pay for my dinner…

How many covers is this for you over your career? 
Don’t know, maybe 13?  It’s my 4th cover with Snowboard Mag.

Dope. And this was during the filming of Mary’s upcoming project yeah? Know any details on that? 
About the project?

Lol yes. This is the interview about the cover. 
Jesus, everything is an interview with you. 

Hahahaha. I didn’t ask you any questions at dinner yesterday. 
Her project is based on the history of Mt Baker and the people who make the place what it is.  Also how the mountain can prepare you for riding in Alaska.

As a one time Baker local, is it your favorite place to ride and shoot in the states? 
One of my favorite places to ride. The only other place that rivals Baker is Whitefish Mountain Resort. I was blown away by the terrain there and the people. Baker is definitely one of my favorite places to shoot. It’s so scenic and they get so much snow. It can be a little bit of a rat race with so many crews in and out of there on a regular basis, but I understand everyone’s gotta get a piece.  In all honesty I’m part of the problem of why it’s gotten so popular, haha.

How so?? From your photos? Oh yeah, you were one of TIME Magazine’s “Snow” photographers to follow in like 2014 on Instagram hahaha. 
Lol. Yeah, probably a little bit. After the advent of Instagram it became easy for everyone to see how cool these hidden gems are. 

Tips on shooting at Baker or just a stormy day in general? 
Yes.  

– Always have lens wipes handy and a Rocket blower if the snow is dry, which it rarely is.  You can use a mini rocket blower to remove snow from your camera without smearing or melting it in into the camera body.

– Always leave the camera in the bag when going into the lodge so your lens doesn’t fog.

-A lot of times when it’s snowing real hard I’ll keep my camera in my jacket to make sure it doesn’t get too much snow on it.

How about any thoughts on the cover? 
I think there are a lot of different ways you can go about choosing a cover.  Back in the day, it was all about the gnar factor.  Bigger was better and there were a lot more nbd’s going down, so you could feature something like that on the cover.  Nowadays, relatability is important, so I think it’s really cool to feature something that others could go out and do.  Not that anyone can go out and make a powder slash look as good as Mary’s.  I know I can’t, especially backside, but it gives people something to aspire to while riding their home mountain.  And I love stormy photos that convey what a place is really like on the regular…

I will just rip the story of the day you took the photo from your gram. 
“@bigairmare featured on the cover of the November issue of @snowboardmag.The backstory on this photo is pretty hilarious. I was in a little honey hole zone at @themtbakerskiarea with @aspenrainweaver and @lexcreaper and we built and shot a nice poppy jump. After the session was over, we were packing up and heading out when we ran into Blair and Mary who were looking to film in the same zone. I opted to stay and shoot with the crew and Mary and I eyed up a slash on this untracked face. As she was talking me through her game plan she jokingly said “I’m thinking cover” and we both laughed it off.
Maybe somehow she was manifesting her own reality there, but it all turned out epic. The icing on the cake was that I got to surprise Mary with her cover this week at @arborsnowboards sales meeting and she had no idea that it was going down.

Be sure to check the video clip of this photo moment in Mary’s new film “All Right Here” dropping soon.”

And back to the interview? How’s the stolen camera equipment going? Any word back on your lens/computer?
Haha, no I haven’t gotten any word.  My guess is that stuff is long gone.  But I’m so grateful that I was able to get my camera body back and I’ve replaced virtually all the things that I lost in that theft.

Is that the body you shot this cover on? 😂😂
Yes. Are you going to put emojis in this interview too? 😈

Sure. I think we are done. How do you feel about a lot of snowboarding backing the Padres?
I’m down. I’m definitely a bandwagon fan, but what the heck, baseball is boring until playoffs, IMO.

Oh a real one to end on. You shoot all of arbors products too, how’s the inside scoop on ’23 models looking? 
I haven’t shot the new line yet, but everything I saw at the sales meeting is fuego. I really like Erik Leon’s pro model, the Single and the Ethos. All really good looking boards.