Issue 22.2 is out! Check your local shops or back here soon to grab it!

To get paid to snowboard for 20 years is a pretty big achievement. To get paid to snowboard for 20 years at just 26 years old is a feat that we might never see again. Yes, that means the snowboarder on our cover went “pro” at just six years old. Continuing a career through plenty of challenges and injuries, Brock Crouch has really come into his own. Competing and filming at the highest level for the past few years, he now helms a major movie project alongside close friends set to release this fall. In all honesty, it is pretty crazy he has had to wait this long for a cover. But we are glad Blatt sent this photo over from a late-season Mammoth shoot to wrap up Paved for us to feature up front (as well as a ton of photos in his interview a bit farther into this issue). It’s been a long time coming and we couldn’t be more stoked to get this one off the printer. – Clavin

My first memory of shooting with Brock Crouch was at a Superpark Session in Mammoth. The light was just about perfect when I looked over my shoulder to see this little kid taking the front binding off my board. “Yo, can I borrow this?” Brock took my heel strap for his own and put on a demo… I rode the rest of the day with a shoelace holding my front foot in.

Since then, we’ve chased storms around the world. We’ve stacked a lot of photos, but my favorite memories are just riding with Brock—free laps in Haines, the deepest days in Hokkaido, and headlamp-lit slashes in the dead of night come to mind. Brock always makes sure the lens-folk, and everyone else around, get theirs. True to our first meeting though, he’s been cannibalizing parts off my board for most of my career, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Whether he’s guinea-pigging the biggest jump in the park or teeing off in the backcountry, Brock gives 100% to his snowboarding. More than that, he pours heart and soul into his craft and his crew. He is relentlessly committed to both his riding and the people around him. The cover of this magazine shows a kid who truly loves snowboarding, lofting a method at his home mountain. Pure, simple, and hard-earned. Congrats on this cover, Brock. Keep doing what you’re doing. – Aaron Blatt

Camera: Canon R5
Lens: Canon RF 100-300 f/2.8 (at 300mm)
Aperture: f9.0
Shutter: 1,1250
ISO: 250