Full disclosure: I found out some pretty big news from Brock after we did this interview. We were checking in after our original phone call to make sure some locations were right when I casually asked at what age he’d started riding for Burton. After answering “I don’t know—a long-ass time ago,” he asked his mom, and she said he was 6 years old. And we aren’t talking flow team. Brock was part of the famed Burton Smalls team and even had some clips in a Warren Miller project, in one of which he properly holds up six fingers for his age but mistakenly says 7 years old on camera (probably copying his teammate at the time, Gabe Ferguson). While that was gold, the big news we discovered with some simple math is that this is his 20th winter with Burton. There are not many riders who have been paid by one team for two decades, and even fewer (if any) who have hit the 20-year mark by the age of 26.
With an already impressive career under his belt that puts him in veteran status in just about every aspect, Brock isn’t slowing down. This past winter, he filmed for the Burton/Red Bull project Paved and competed on the slopestyle scene in hopes of garnering enough points for a 2026 Olympics bid in Italy. We caught up during the summer as he was winding down from a busy season and reflected on everything he has been going through: dealing with the loss of friends from an avalanche last March; his own avalanche experience a few years ago, which left him with a broken back and lacerated pancreas; and 20 years of guinea-pigging jumps that most people would never think of hitting. Adding it all up, it is wild that this is his first print interview with us, but we couldn’t have been happier to sit down and have a chat. Enjoy the edited-down version below, and tell him congrats on his first cover if you see him out on the hill! – Clavin
Mark Clavin: How you been?
Brock Crouch: I’ve been on the run trying to finish up this whole movie. It was a really heavy winter after the news with Pash [Alex Pashley], Jeff [Keenan] and Jay [Jason Remple] passing. I’ve kind of just been going. I guess it’s a part of what we do, but it’s just so awful.
You’re talking about the news of the avalanche in B.C. in March.
Yeah. When I heard, I didn’t even believe it was real. I was getting ready to go to Alaska the next morning with Ben Ferguson, Danny Davis, [photographer Aaron] Blatt and our crew. I just was looking at my board bag, going through the motions—airbag, check. Harness, check. Snowboard, check. Gloves, check. Boots, helmet, check.
Can’t be easy to get ready to go for a trip immediately after hearing about a tragedy in the community.
Yeah. Pash was Danny[’s] and [my] team manager for a while at Dragon, so we traveled with him a lot. Worked with Jeff the year of Ark and just filming around Whistler. We always clicked, just talking surfing and shit. And Jay ran a ton of shit up here and would have us over for dinner and has just done so much for the snowboard community. We all were so heavyhearted, traveling up to Haines. I was throwing up on the airplane all the way up there. Just woke up sweating and panicked, thinking about all my old shit and always hearing Haines is the craziest, steepest place. I was so nervous. Ruined a brand-new hoodie.
Didn’t think to take a step back?
I was asking myself that going up to Alaska this year. And I think all of our girlfriends were asking us that too. Honestly, I think just making memories—I look at my five fingers and there’s, like, that times, like, a hundred of memories I have from out there in the mountains. Haines was supposed to be six days of high pressure. Insanely good. I know those guys would be making fun of us if we bailed on a weeklong window in AK below 30 degrees every day up in the mountains. It is one of those things [where] you kind of just have to go because it finally lines up, and that’s what we do. You make it to that point of your career where you get these calls from a crew that you trust, and you’re just trying to work as safe as possible in the mountains.
How did the trip end up?
We had three days that you just absolutely dream of in Alaska. Everyone settled when we landed and got to be around friends. We took a ferry at 6 a.m. the next morning, and three whales were cruising with us as we were getting out there. The guide tells us it’s blue skies, 2 feet of fresh snow, and green all the way to the top. No other film crews around. The whole range was wide open for us. And when we lifted off the first morning, there’s just, like, three eagles cruising with us on the way to the mountains. It was pretty crazy—just felt that those guys were there with us.
That is pretty incredible.
Yeah. We didn’t tiptoe into anything, really. Started ticking off Birthday Bowl at 8 a.m. Every turn, you would just drop in and it was glowing champagne powder. We got to ride, like, the most fucked-up lines I’ve ever stood on top of.
What’s the reason behind the name, Paved, for this movie?
We’ve been saying it all year. Every time we go somewhere, the French Canadian filmer from Whistler, Pascal Gallant, says, “We just fucking paved this place.” It’ll be a pretty heavy lineup, with Ben Ferg, Danny Davis, Mark McMorris, Mikkel Bang, Mikey Rencz, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, Anna Gasser, Mikey Ciccarelli, and Zeb [Powell], I think.
Did you ever think you would be there after your own heavy avalanche accident a few years ago?
Not sure. It’s all I have done since I was, like, 3. It definitely runs through my head at certain times, but I love being in the mountains and learning. It’s where my heart is. After my accident, I had to get help. I went to a ton of people…and it definitely works. When I first got home, I was having gnarly dreams, full PTSD style. But it’s almost been eight years, and since then I have just been trying to learn as much as I can and go into the mountains with an open mind, because every day you go out, something new happens. Start every year off with an avy course, get out in the mountains and go from there.
Do you have any coping mechanisms to deal with nerves when you’re at the top?
Just finding a little spot to strap in. You feel more comfortable once you just have your two feet strapped in instead of walking on a little knife-top ridge. I guess Ben will bark or yell; Sparky always shits. But once I’m on the board, the adrenaline in your body just flows like no other, and you focus on going from point A to point Z and getting down to the bottom with the helicopter.
Point A to point Z? You skipping a few steps?
Maybe it’s an A, B, C, D thing, picking out a few spots in the line, but I don’t know, you just ride as fast as you can, stay light on your feet and throw up some duff.
What happens if you lose where you are on the mountain?
If I’m ever in a sticky situation or nervous about any cornice or being lost, I just radio Rafe [Robinson] and ask him to toss up his mini drone so we can get some waypoints and enter some spooky lines. As a snowboarder, you need to study and be on it so that you can keep pushing and do gnarlier stuff, but being with the right crew at the right time is really what gets you far in the mountains.
And you are still riding competitively, yeah? They announced the U.S. team roster earlier today, and I did not see your name.
Yeah. I’m 26 now, and I’ve tried three times to make the Olympics. This will probably be my last go. It was pretty heartbreaking when they told me I wasn’t going to be on it, but I’ll be fine without the U.S. team. This last year, I was doing, like, the smaller contests, like the Rev tours and the NorAms all around Canada, to try to make a push for the Olympics this year and get some points. I don’t post about it much, but I had, like, five or six podiums in a row. Thought it was gonna be easy, but these kids were doing, like, 14s and all sorts of shit now in the lower-level circuit, so you still have to push it. I’ve done a few 1800s, so I think I will be in the mix.
So what do you need to do to make the Olympic team this winter without being on the U.S. team?
Be a top-four American after the next few events. Haven’t paid too much attention, but the last I looked, I was in the top 30 for the world, which can hold a spot. Red [Gerard] has his, but there’s, like, nine Americans this year that are all probably gonna be going for it, so it’s gonna be a bloodbath out there.
We will all be rooting for you to get a spot, for sure.
Yeah, I would be psyched, dude. I’m lucky to have support from sponsors so I can still have a little travel budget to go for it.
Do you find more joy filming or when you’re competing on a slopestyle course?
Ever since my accident, I’m just so thankful to wake up every day and get to go strap in. That’s what I kind of remind myself every morning, you know? So, whatever I’m doing, I just try to be a positive influence and a positive force to the squad and give it 110% wherever we’re at.
And you get to combine the two, like filming in Mammoth for the movie to close out the season.
Yeah, and that was one of the first times I stepped into a leadership role on a shoot, which was pretty sick. I wanted to have a Superpark flashback kind of feel, so Charles [Beckinsale] and I built, like, a 90-footer and a hip for all of us to session. We had, like, two of the most beautiful sunsets you could ever wish for in Mammoth on the back side of Chair 14 with no wind.
Heard you guinea-pigged them as well. What is it like calculating in that first attempt of going 100-plus feet in the air?
There isn’t that much math involved. [Laughs.] I guess there is, but it’s a bunch of stuff, but as long as you have enough speed… You just never want to knuckle a hundred-foot jump. Having a good relationship with the builders is key. When a takeoff is over 60 feet, you are going to start losing speed as you approach. You just have a good speed gauge, you know? I love to just fly through the air, but we were going pretty uncontrollably fast on the Mammoth ones. I was just asking my friends what they thought on a few test runs, but it’s gained knowledge over the years that gives you the confidence to actually leave the lip. And then you have no idea what is going to happen once you actually go.
What are you looking forward to next?
Like we’ve been talking about, hopefully try to go for the Olympics this year, and then maybe try to do my own sort of project, an ATV kind of thing. I really want to push this backcountry thing to the max. And these next years are kind of my prime, but it’d be sick to go and hit some wall rides and metal and stuff, too.
And maybe some guiding in your future?
Yeah, would love to. Took the Wilderness First Responder course in Tahoe last year—just trying to start taking some steps towards that eventually. It was, like, 60 or 80 hours about the human body and how to take care of it in a trauma situation or when it’s shutting down. At, like, the end of my career, I would love to have all the certifications and work with an operation and be, like, a tail guide or have a seat in the bird. I just love being in the mountains.
