Scotty on the big screen blowing up.

Interview by Tawnya Schultz Before I met Scotty I heard his name a lot around the snowboard industry. I never knew exactly what he did but I knew he was someone who made lasting impressions on people. When we were formerly introduced there was no question why he is so talked about. Scotty’s ecstatic persona and sensible goofiness are unavoidable. I knew he was someone I had to know more about. If you’re wondering who the hell “Scotty the Body”, allow this interview to enlighten your curiosity.

Tawnya Schultz: First of all what’s your nickname “the body” all about? I mean it’s not like your ripped or anything.

Scotty Conerly: [Laughs] That’s not nice. When I was about fourteen I was in freshman German class and this kid Bugs Green gave everyone nickname’s obviously because he had a nickname that his grandpa gave him. I just walked into class and he said “Scotty the body” and it caught on. It faded away a year later and I was snowboarding with Dave England, Matt Donahue and a bunch of people on Mount Hood. This kid from high school rolled up to the lift line and saw me and was like ‘what’s up Scotty the body.’ All the guys were like ‘Oh my God is that really your nickname?’ It just stuck from there.

T.S.: Everyone keeps telling me I need a nickname but I have no idea what it would be.

S.C.: Yeah I have a nickname for you its Tawnya Schultz country superstar.

T.S.: Oh God. So tell me a little bit about your background in the shred world.

S.C.: Well actually people don’t really know that I have been in snowboarding since I was a very young lad. My dad who was the public relations director at Timberline helped Craig Kelly along with the Northwest Snowboard Series and started The Timberline classic, which was a part of that. He worked with Tim Windell, Craig Kelly, Chris Brunkhart, Mike Estes and all the old school guys from Mount Hood. So I was exposed to it at an early age. I got sick of ski racing and tried snowboarding and met all those guys. I met Jamie (Lynn) and Dave Lee when I was pretty young and started snowboarding from there on.

T.S.: That’s pretty crazy to be so close with those people at a young age.

S.C.: It was crazy. I would come home from snowboarding about this time of year when I was seventeen Johan Olofsson and Terje and all those guys would be hanging out. I would be star struck. Donahue, Brunkhart, and Estes would tell me to stop freaking out and just chill.

Scotty announcing and getting stoked on Josh Sherman at Windell’s this summer.

T.S.: What does snowboarding mean in your life?

S.C.: Snowboarding changed my life. It’s the reason I’m alive and try to be successful everyday. There are four kids I went to high school with that grew up in the same neighborhood who are dead. Two of them were meth addicts and one was a drug dealer. If it wasn’t for snowboarding who knows where I’d be. I tried other avenues and went to college for a little while. Things just never fit like snowboarding. So it’s just such a huge part of my life and it hopefully always will be.

T.S.: What do you have planned for next season?

S.C.: That’s wide open. I’d like to do a lot of contest announcing and some more TV work. I’m interested in taking over a possible team manager position somewhere which would be fun. Just being on the road and having a good time.

T.S.: I know you had dreams of being pro for a little while. What made you decide to not continue that?

S.C.: Umm, I pretty much sucked. I was all right but I had a bigger mouth than I did snowboard game. I worked at High Cascade and I saw Scotty Arnold and all these people just crushing it. I just wasn’t at that level. It was when J.P. Tomich was coming up and I was seeing these kids do switch backside nine’s and I was trying backside five’s. I said screw this. I left snowboarding went to college for a year and didn’t really snowboard. Then the next summer I moved to Alaska to try and figure my life out. I knew I had to go back and get involved.

T.S.: That seems like what a lot of people do. They get out of it and decide they want back in.

S.C.: Yeah. Well I had a close relationship with Travis Parker and Jesse Grandkoski from Airblaster. We hung out all the time and I wanted to be involved in some way. We created Board Games One and I announced it. I was shooting photos that year with Nick Dirks and the boys from SNOWBOARD Mag were like ‘you have to do more of this.’

T.S.: So that’s how it took off?

S.C.: That’s how it kinda started. It was pretty random. I didn’t really plan on it. I was really into snowboard photography at the time.

T.S.: What importance do you think we have as people behind the scenes to endorse companies?

S.C.: Well I do endorse products and I have to give credit to Dingo because he paved the way for personalities in snowboarding to endorse companies. I’m fortunate enough to endorse companies like DC, Electric, and Bonfire. It’s just another avenue of promotion. We’re out with the snowboarders and around the scene. It’s just another benefit of being involved in snowboarding. If you’re influential to kids you can push products that you believe in.

T.S.: How did you get involved at Windells?

S.C.: I’ve been around Windells since I was a little kid watching the buses go by. I grew up two miles from here. I always wanted to get in. I became friends with Sandy and Tim and hung around. I’ve probably been fired three or four times at least but I still seem to come back. It’s such a great place to be. It’s paradise for a lot of people. Just seeing people come here for three months a year. I get to see a lot of great people around here High Cascade, and the ski camps at Timberline.

T.S.: I know you’re injured but I didn’t know if it was snowboard related.

S.C.: Yeah, it was very snowboard related. I flew back from Idaho from the Grand Prix. I went snowboarding with Ahmon Stamps. I thought I was doctor cool guy and ollied one footed onto the parking lot and landed on my knee wrong. It slipped out and I had a dislocated knee cap and destroyed cartilage, surgeries, and hooray.

T.S.: Trying to be the cool guy doesn’t always work.

S.C.: I could have been the cool guy doing something else but I chose to do snowboarding that day and it didn’t work out too good.

T.S.: When will you be ok to shred?

S.C.: I’m not sure when it will be one hundred percent but I’ve been rehabbing super hard trying to get in good shape. You know trying to get back to “the body” status. [Laughs] Probably this winter I’ll snowboard again.

T.S.: What do you think it takes to be a true pro snowboarder these days? I’m talking Terje, Peter Line, Devun Walsh.

S.C.: You have to have that Rick James aura. You have to see it in someone. I see it when I see an Austin Hironaka or a Nick Dirks. They’re just built to snowboard. They have an image, the skills, and are able to take pressure, and they want it. Bottom line if you want something bad enough you can do it. It doesn’t matter where you’re from. Look at Mark Frank Montoya. You’re from the streets of Denver and it’s against all odds you can still make it, you just have to believe in it and do it. Sometimes people are just born to do it like Terje or Devun Walsh or Tawnya Schultz.

T.S.: Yeah. You and I were both born to be doing this. Any parting words or shot outs?

S.C.: I want to thank everyone who’s helped me out along the way. Mark Sullivan especially, Tim Snail, The Dingo, all the guys at SNOWBOARD Magazine, the Grenade army, Thomas at Kicker audio, Kreepy at Electric, Zack at DC, Jesse at Airblaster, Travis Parker, Pancho, Stamps, Nate at Northern Alliance, everyone at Bonfire, Tim Windell, Kevin Casillo, Clint graham, my Dad, and my sister.