If you’re new to the game, or suffering from short term memory loss, allow us to introduce you to David Lambert. He’s an iconic rider from Vevey who had a long career before slowly transitioning onto the business side of snowboarding. As a rider, he was known for his smooth style and big balls on all terrains, and today he’s channeling his values and passion for snowboarding into his new brand, WEST. He’s just started building his team so we thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with him…

Hey David, congrats on the new team! Your crew is coming together quite nicely. Can you present the three riders that you signed and tell us why you wanted them representing WEST?
Fred Couderc is a snowboarder with the same roots as WEST. He’s a great friend to everyone here in the French speaking region and he’s been part of the local crew for a long time. So for WEST it was really “natural” to get him on board… no questions…. no doubts. He’s also, in our opinion, one of the most stylish snowboarders on the scene and he keeps impressing me with his great level in different terrains.

Christian Weber is also one of the local “Kids”. I feel even closer to him as he’s only 6 years younger than I am, and that gave me the chance to already share some good times with him back in the good old days ;-). Sure, he was still the new kid on the block when I was already getting too old to be crazy, but we have some good memories to share. Weber is more of a discreet guy, not really the type who’s focusing on his image by posting an instagram pic after each single session. But in so many sessions which end up being really sketchy, he will be the man who gives the most of himself to get the best shot!!!! I love that attitude. He’s a real snowboarder and he’s got that spirit of doing things for personal satisfaction and not just for the public, RESPECT!

Leandro is the one I know the least for sure, but you know about the 7th sense ??? ahahaha, just kidding… I met Leandro for the first time because he’s a good friend of Max Buri. Knowing that this kid was shredding often with Max, who’s in my opinion, the best rider of the moment, already gave me a clue on his style and motivation. Then I saw some really great footage and l loved his style. I met him again and this time we decided to make things happen between him and WEST, finalizing the discussion by the fact that he chose to quit the national snowboard team, even if he’s losing some massive money. Can you believe that? This chap telling me,”fuck that shit”, I lose quite a lot of money but I don’t mind, I’ll work a bit more in the summer and do whatever I want to do in the winter, without having to follow this national team and doing FIS contests! He just plans to spend his winter in Laax and shot more with my buddies. HELL YEAH! THAT WAS IT FOR ME! We signed the contract few days later.

After all of their video parts over the years, Couderc and Weber are already legends here on the west side, and still easily some of the best all around riders in Switzerland. Is that important to you, that the team can ride everything and is into filming?
Yes, it is really important that the team can ride everything. In my opinion that makes you a great snowboarder, when you can ride almost any terrain. Otherwise, you really have to be the best in your discipline to impress me ;-) Also, I believe more in filming and photo shooting than competition, but I do understand that riders have to take part of big contests if they really want to be in front of the international scene.

True, so Leandro’s background is more in that direction. Why did you want to bring him in as your first Swiss German team rider?
Like I said, the fact that he was willing to quit that comfort, organization and money from the national team made really respect him! Also, he’s got style, and this is really important for us. I might be a little closed minded in terms of style, but, depending of the generation of rider, I don’t see so many new riders who really get the style that I’m talking about. Many riders now focus on their attitude and clothes but not the…. STYLE. 

Leandro Eigensatz © Ahriel

Any plans for pro models for those guys down the road?
We want to have the riders totally involved in the brand, so Yes, we will do at least signature model and certainly pro-models eventually. We’ll see exactly how things go within this season and the following one but for sure one of them is gonna have something done for 17-18.

Nice… are you still looking for more Swiss riders?
Potentially, yes… especially in the German side. But I don’t want to take somebody unless he’s the right fit. I’d rather focus on and push the crew we have now.

What’s the process of getting on the team? Will you take anyone who is willing to sign and take shots with you ;-)
1st and even if it’s totally unprofessional and quite stupid or selfish (as you want to call it) ; I must have a good feeling with the rider / 2nd I ask the co-founders their opinion. If one of them tells me something like “never”, I don’t think that it’s gonna go further / 3rd I will also ask every other rider in the team to make sure that the day they are all out together they won’t kill each other ;-)

I’ve been working as a rep for Nixon over the last 9 years and I’ve learned quite a lot from this company in terms of team and image. For example, in the Nixon team, the new team rider always has to be welcomed by the whole team. I believe that it is a good way to make it work on a long term. 

Makes sense…. I guess you were a pretty big part of the Paradigme project this season. Do you have more plans to sponsor films?
Well, “big part of Paradigme” is maybe overstating it… We did our best to support our friends with this amazing project. But to be 100% honest, time and money was missing to support them exactly as much as we would’ve liked. We want to support some similar projects and we want to help our riders with some of their great ideas and help them to spend the greatest winter, in search of the best conditions. That is for sure! Unfortunately, sometimes reality is slapping our face back…. we are constantly trying to figure out how to help them.

Yeah, anyone in the snowboard biz will tell you that the market is pretty tricky right now…. So do you have any plans for building up an international team?
Plans? … or Luck??? Let’s say that I am constantly looking around and contacting people to make things happen. So yeah, there will be a little focus on Canada and Scandinavia I must say.

Who has the best team in snowboarding right now?
May I say us?? (I’m so proud) Heehehehe….

But really, no idea man. Brands like Burton or Nitro are doing really good by always having some killer newcomers-kids but also keeping the legends which are still performing. Arbor is coming from nowhere with a massive propaganda supported by a great team too. Capita is more about always having the best guys in a certain domain, but most of them are not lasting long. Lib Tech seems to have a really good team too but seem to communicate too much on the same guy all the time….. fuck this question is tough…. I’m now thinking of my good old friends at YES who have done a great job as well.

So really, no idea who got the best team at the moment, but if I have to answer to the question who’s selling the most boards thanks to their team, then I would say Capita. Joni’s doing a really good job there. 

Fred Couderc © Ahriel

Haha, maybe this one will be easier. If you could sign any two riders to your team, who would it be?
Terje Hakonsen, is the legendary Michael Jordan of snowboarding. No doubt about that. And since I spent all my budget to get the Legend I can’t have a second one! So, then I’d just be happy to get a crazy jackass good old friend who’ll make our video parts way more funny ;-)

But I’d like to add that for me, personally, Terje, RDM and Jussi have been the most influential riders in the history of snowboarding. They inspired me the most in my snowboarding, anyway. Terje for being the 1st and the most stylish. Romain for going the biggest ever. And Jussi for being the most creative with amazing style.

Yeah, those guys are such legends! So are there any other exciting things in the pipeline for WEST that you can share?
Oh man, so much!!! As we are currently focusing mostly on products, we’ve come up with some insane new collaborations in our 16-17 collection. All of our swiss buddies are gonna be amazed about them. And we’ll keep doing some more and even bigger collabs for 17-18! Some projects that have never been done before!!!

Nice! Can’t wait to see it. So for now, congrats on building up the beginning of an amazing team and thanks for your time. Long live WEST! Keep fighting the good fight for independent snowboarding…. Any last words before we wrap this up?
I believe my last words has just been stolen in your last question ;-)  PEACE BRO!