Todd Richards

Chasing the snowboard dream has led Todd Richards from his icy New England roots to Breckenridge to Southern California, and to the first U.S. Olympic Snowboarding team in Nagano Japan back in 1998, seven X Games medals, and a permanent gig as both the face and voice of snowboarding as a commentator for NBC Sports. Richards, also the proprietor of AWSM.com and San Diego’s Saint Archer Brewing — and a father of two –just might be the ultimate multitasker.

Tell us about your family.
I have a son, Cam, who just turned 14, and a daughter Reef, who is 10 and will turn 11 at end of the summer. They’re super fun kids, super creative. They both skate and surf. My son snowboards, and my daughter skis, though they don’t get to do that as much just because of the proximity issue. And I’ve got an amazing wife who’s really committed to the project of raising kids. That’s the secret to any of it: having that support, that net, and that understanding because, let’s be honest, it’s hard to juggle everything. It’s definitely taxing at times, but you learn to work it out.

How has fatherhood changed your life?
The biggest thing for me was that I lived the “me” lifestyle for so long with pro snowboarding. It really was the Todd Richard Show, and I realize now that it was a really selfish lifestyle, you know? Going wherever you want to go, whenever you want to go. Things took a big change when my son was born, and it was for the better: fatherhood forced me to become selfless. It made me grow up really fast. One of the biggest things I’ve learned, because I’m somebody who always wants to say yes to everything, is that you have to be able to say no to people. Maybe people won’t understand now, but they will in 10 years: family comes first.

How has snowboarding influenced the way you raise your kids?
I want to get them outside all the time, for one thing. Our kids are in a pretty cool school were media is really discouraged, and we try to keep screen time to a minimum. And they’ve always been around skating, surfing, and snowboarding. I could almost say that the surfboard, the skateboard, and the snowboard have raised my kids just as much as I have, and it was like that for me when I was a kid too. I think my own parents were just glad I wasn’t getting in trouble! They saw it as, “Look, he’s outside, he’s finally passionate about something other than candy. Let’s encourage him.” One of the important things that growing up on action sports will teach you is that nothing is instant gratification. You have to fight for it. Kids see everyone in the magazines and thing, “I should be able to do this, this instant,” when really it’s about having to earn it. Nothing is going to be handed to you in these sports, or in anything in life, really. You have to pay for it with blood, sweat, and tears. The flip side is that I would never force that lifestyle on my kids. I never want to create a scenario like I’ve seen in recent years, where parents are in the pipe shouting out tricks, yelling at their kids. I hate that. So I’m really thankful that they’ve arrived at it on their own, and I try to just let them go out and discover it and do their thing.

How did you go about introducing them to snowboarding?
My wife and I taught our son ourselves, in the beginning. We got him comfortable sliding around on the the bunny hill at Breck, and then later we’d do this thing where I’d go down ahead, my wife would parallel him, and she’d send him down to me, basically straightlining until I caught him. He had his big breakthrough at Northstar one year when I missed him — he flew by me and I couldn’t catch him — and he just turned, instead of flying into the woods. We were like, “Okay, he knows how to snowboard now!” I think it came from skating: he was skating at a really young age, so at some level he just knew what to do when he needed it. My daughter was a different story. We just wanted to get her on the hill so she could be part of everything, and tried to teach her to snowboard really early. But she’s the kind of girl who likes to do things her own way, and eventually she wanted to try skiing. She picked up instantly. She was fearless. Who could stop her? And it got the whole family on the hill, so I didn’t even care. Skiing? Snowboarding? We were all on the chairlift together, and that was the important thing. She surfs, she skates, so someday I’m sure she’ll probably snowboard too. When she wants it, it’s there.

What kinds of choices have you had to make between being a father & having a career in snowboarding?
I don’t linger anymore when I go on trips. That date to come home never slides later, it only slides earlier. It’s such a rewarding thing to come home to a couple kids who want to see you, so now I go and get my job done and come home. It put and end to me wanting to be at the bar, wanting to stay up late. Now, if I’m working away from home, I’m trying to go to bed while I have the chance!

[videocaption]Todd’s formative years paved the way for him to become one of the biggest personalities in action sports.[/videocaption]

Do you have some words of wisdom that you can pass on to families looking to raise their kids in the mountains?
First and foremost, the biggest piece of advice I can give any father-to-be is sleep now. Go to sleep, while you can. It gets better in about eight years, but even then. They’ll wear you out. As far as snowboarding? Get them a lesson and don’t try to teach them yourself. Get a professional to teach them, get them someone they’ll listen to, because they won’t listen to you. Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but I’m one of those people, the more I’d push the more they’d pull back.

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Page 3: Sammy Luebke
Page 4: Fredi Kalbermatten

Read also: Mountain moms: Five iconic matriarchs of snowboarding