David Djité is in a good place. High vibes, high motivation and good health have him hyped for another winter full of deep snow and creative projects. We caught up at the premiere of, “Every Island Has A Name” for a chat about travel, diversity and a big black ball.
Hey David, what’re you up to these days?
I just got back from Baldface, Canada. I was there for the Avalanche Risk Maturity Class with the TDI crew. I think it’s always good and important to freshen up your skills and knowledge before spending most of the season in the backcountry.
Other than that, I finished my studies in psychology this year and have been spending a lot of time behind the dj decks and in the gym this summer/fall.
You mentioned that you’ve been on a health kick. What’ve you been doing to prepare for the season?
Haha, I wouldn’t call it a health kick, but after spending the last 5 years studying in the off-season, I decided that I wanted to be prepared the best I possibly can for the upcoming season. Finally, no more writing papers or studying on trips. I’m also not getting younger, and I want to snowboard for as long as I can. To do that, you and your body need to be healthy. So, I teamed up with an athletic trainer last august to be at my best when the season starts. It almost feels like I’m back in my sport school days, haha.
The last time I ran into you we talked about the session that we had on that big black ball. Do you know where that thing came from and why it’s even there?
That was a good year! We filmed for the Laax movie “Wet Hair” and in the end of the season we had an extra week or two on the mountain where we could do whatever we wanted, basically. I’ve passed that black ball a million times and I always wanted to hit it. According to Wikipedia it’s been standing there since 1991. But you need a lot of snow because the ball is four meters tall. I think it’s part of the campaign, “Crap ART” and was built by an artist called Peter Trachsel who sadly passed away, but I think he would have been hyped to see us hitting his black ball.
Yeah, I feel the same way! But I remember that our friend Aaron Schwartz was a little shocked… He came up to me afterwards and was like, “You know that’s somebody’s piece of art, right?” But I think that anyone who puts a sculpture on a mountain is asking for interactions. Anyway, it’s not like you were grinding it. You just gave it a little pet…
How about last season? Got any good stories to share?
Last march, I was on my way to Salt Lake City to meet up with the K2 Team to film at Brighton. The day before I was supposed to fly out, my flight got cancelled and I got a new flight with a layover in New York. So, I arrive in New York, make it through customs and get to my gate for my connection to Salt Lake City. It was already 10:00 in the evening and the flight was delayed for 45mins, so I would have arrived at 3:00 in the morning in Salt Lake City, which kind of would have sucked. While I’m waiting, I hear the lady at the desk through the speakers saying: “Ladies and Gentlemen, due to an overbooked flight we are offering 1’700.- Dollars to passengers who are willing to give up their seats and take the next flight at 05:40 in the morning.” I’m stunned and thought that was a joke. So I went straight to the desk and said yes to the offer. Time went by and they needed more passengers to give up their seats, because actually it was a cargo problem. The plane was too heavy. So, the lady kept repeating herself but the money they offered went up and up. 2’200.-, 2’300.-, 2’400.- and then at 2’500.- they had enough passengers that took the offer.
Long story short, I went to the airport bar with one of the guys who also took the offer, got hammered, slept for 1 hour at the gate and then through my whole flight from New York to Salt Lake City, arrived there with an extra 2’500.- dollars at 10:00 in the morning. From there I went straight to pow boarding at Brighton.
That might actually be the best flight delay story ever.
What’s your plan for this winter?
I will be filming with TDI for our first snowboard movie. I’m really hyped on that one. I’ll also be joining K2 Europe on one or two trips, since they’re planning to do a team movie (watch out for Moritz Thönen in this one). I also have a project with my good friend Dennis Ranalter in mind for The North Face. Hopefully we’ll get the GO for that one. And of course I will spend some time with the Beyond Medals boys.
I watched Denis’ story on your recommendation. I guess a lot of snowboarders missed that movie, but it’s pretty powerful. I’m curious to hear more about your experiences and how that relates to this new project with TDI.
Sure… TDI stands for Technically Doing It. We are an all black/brown professional snowboard crew. We started with events/show ups about two years ago to make the mountain more colorful. We want to bring diversity to the mountain and show kids from minorities that they also belong in the mountains, regardless of where they come from, or how they look. That’s something that I never had, and it resulted in countless racist encounters in the outdoors. For the first time in my 20+ years of snowboarding, I’m surrounded by people that look like me. It’s pretty amazing and I hope that we can be role models for the next generations, so that they don’t have to experience what we did.
Cheers to that! Thanks for your time David… anything else that you want to add?
Thanks everyone for the support and have a great winter!
(Interview and Photos by Ahriel Povich)
