Mikey Rencz

Photos: Adam Moran in Whistler, British Columbia

We know Mikey Rencz as the smiling golden child that makes us want to go slay backcountry kickers, I mean, that’s the vibe he puts off anyway…

But if there were such a thing as a real snowboard school, Mikey might be the closest thing we have to a graduate. And I’m not talking about an “academy” or some structured rich kids school that they have these days, but rather an experiential learning facility of the highest order. Having moved to Whistler barely a teenager, Mikey came up under some of the gnarliest dudes snowboarding has ever seen, Devun Walsh, JF Pelchat, Martin Gallant…the list goes on. Versed in the proper way to shred both on and off his board, in my opinion, Mikey is what snowboarding is all about — pure fun, pure party, pure style.

Mikey Rencz

Mikey Rencz has earned his keep.

Whistler is kind of like the perfect balance of the snowboard lifestyle, it has the terrain to really make a really strong rider and then the nightlife to make to a really good partier. What’s it been like coming up in that environment?
First of all, moving to Whistler when I was fourteen just totally changed my riding. I was into contests before that but you get here and see this terrain and it’s like, halfpipe? Are you crazy?! Some of the dudes I learned from were just like, no kid, your not riding that thing. So it immediately shifted my riding to a lot more backcountry and freeriding. I went filming with Treetop Films a few days when I was really young and getting to see guys like Lukas Huffman and Shin Campos blew me away. From there on out I knew what I wanted to be doing on my snowboard. Then of course going to the bars like way underage and seeing every pro snowboarder you ever looked up to there was just insane as a little guy. I came from Alberta, a place you hardly see any pros to Whistler and it was like, oh man, everyone is here. Early season back in those days was the best time I’ve had snowboarding. All the shredders weren’t filming yet and would be on the hill just mobbing around in huge groups. Guys like Browner, Devun Walsh, Dufficy, Trevor Andrew. Cruising the hill with everyone back then was super eye opening for me.

MikeyRencz_WhistlerBC_Moran_2926

Big air, big style.

What I’m really curious about though is how does one survive the party scene in Whistler? How do you manage to not get swallowed up?
Well there was definitely one year were it was catching up with me. Though I was young and it didn’t phase me too much. But then the next year goes by and you can just feel it creeping. I remember one day in particular that changed my attitude towards it all. I was all hung over just throwing up next to my sled while we were out filming. The filmer dude who had kind of seen it all just looked at me in disgust and said, “What’s wrong with you man?” He said it in a way that let me know I was blowing it, ya know — “Figure it out man!” So there were just things like that where you learn along the way. There is a time and place for it and it’s certainly not the night before you are going out filming. So I think you might have to blow it a little bit to get the motivation to sort it all out, ya know.

But it would be kind of weird to say, “Yeah I want to go shred but hold up, let me just load up this YouTube clip right away and get psyched.”

These days things are so different as far as pro snowboarding and movies/edits and all that goes. Do you feel that things are a bit all over the place?
Maybe it’s just the way it’s gotta be right now because DVDs are just kind of phasing out. To me having a hard copy means a lot more but…yeah it is super disposable. It’s like everyone has their week and the next week there like five more edits that come out, full part remix or whatever. Then sometimes something new may come out but because it has the same front cover or loading page I won’t even watch it because I think I’ve seen it already. So it is confusing where as before there was like four or five movies that I had to have and would just watch hard every year.

Burton Presents: Mikey Rencz and Jussi Oksanen Full Part

Yeah, I wonder if people out there like bookmark their favorite webisode now and just do it that way?
Yeah, I don’t know if because I’m a little older now that I don’t care as much or if everyone feels this way. But it would be kind of weird to say, “Yeah I want to go shred but hold up, let me just load up this YouTube clip right away and get psyched.”

There was just something about putting a movie on and studying it. It was even like when I would go build jumps when I was younger, even if it was just like a little bump, I’d be like, “this is like that hip in Peter Line’s part.” So with that we would just try and recreate that trick or the style you loved so much. That was one of the biggest part of learning to snowboard for me.