Davey Baird
BIOGRAPHY - LETS START AT THE BEGINNING
My name is Davey Baird,
Born June 1993 in Homer, Alaska.
I was three, as far back as my first memory, my birthday parties were the best part of the summer. Costumes, piñatas, super soakers, tons of friends, and buttloads of candy. What could possibly be better. This day, my dad gave me my first two wheel bike, which of course came with training wheels at first. Ecstatic as I took my first pedals, the grin on my face was priceless, but soon sizzled down as I realized how the training wheels felt limiting. I asked him immediately to take them off, which he did with no hesitation.
I can only assume the moments that followed cemented something into my little kid brain, that would change how I interoperate life. I experienced my first 'white moment' as I left my Dad's fingertips, peddling down the gravel driveway, holding my breath in awe, and somehow at the same time rejoicing "I'm doing it! I'm doing it!" Friends chasing after me, high-fiving after I had crashed to a halt, spun back around, and got a running start to make it back down the driveway to the house. - This feeling I continue to pursue to this day.
Born June 1993 in Homer, Alaska.
I was three, as far back as my first memory, my birthday parties were the best part of the summer. Costumes, piñatas, super soakers, tons of friends, and buttloads of candy. What could possibly be better. This day, my dad gave me my first two wheel bike, which of course came with training wheels at first. Ecstatic as I took my first pedals, the grin on my face was priceless, but soon sizzled down as I realized how the training wheels felt limiting. I asked him immediately to take them off, which he did with no hesitation.
I can only assume the moments that followed cemented something into my little kid brain, that would change how I interoperate life. I experienced my first 'white moment' as I left my Dad's fingertips, peddling down the gravel driveway, holding my breath in awe, and somehow at the same time rejoicing "I'm doing it! I'm doing it!" Friends chasing after me, high-fiving after I had crashed to a halt, spun back around, and got a running start to make it back down the driveway to the house. - This feeling I continue to pursue to this day.
FINDING SNOWBOARDING
Homer is a small town on Alaska's southern coast. I now say growing up here was a blessing. But it was disguised in childhood as cold, extremely dark winters, tons of snow, and most of the time with a shovel frozen to my mittens. It wasn't always the brightest time as a kid, but learning to make the most of these shortfalls was the best lesson I have ever learned. In hindsight I wouldn't have it any other way.
Growing up I had two siblings, much older than me, my sister eight, and brother twelve years older. I looked up to them immensely, and when my brother would come down from his house in Anchorage, there was almost always a gathering of old friends, bonfires in the snow, and often sledding and snowboarding on the moonlit hill below our house. This was the inspiration. Always having a blast, building kickers, snowball fighting, and pulling pranks, laughs echoing through the tiny gulley we call home.
In dark months chopping firewood and digging tunnels and forts through the snowbanks in the driveway was the best distraction from the lack of light. My discovery of snowboarding was a revolution in my mind, the driveway full of tunnels and forts quickly turned into a snowboarding pump track loosely illuminated by the outside house lights. This was my getaway. Building jumps and making small features to experiment on, growing to bigger booters, searching for spots, steeper, higher hills, and getting towed all around the land by my Dad on snowmachine.
Every Sunday winter morning, pops and I would set off on a small tow-boarding expedition over five miles of ravines and gullies to the Ohlson Mountain Rope Tow for the day. This was the local shred spot encompassing a whopping two-hundred-fifty feet vertical with a few rollovers which were good jump spots, a ravine off to lookers left with a couple wind lips and drops. At the bottom, a rustic wood fired warming hut with a couple single pane windows looking back up at the hill.
The search continues, and always will, for inspiration, for the new friends, the exploration, and for the moments in which it all comes together.
MY FIRST COMPETITION SEASON - 2016 -
Fall 2015 I embarked on my second solo ALCAN expedition, leaving in late November, beelined from Homer to Bellingham. This would be home base for the start of my season. On the Mt. Baker shred mission to kick it off, opening day at the mountain was a riot, introduced to local legends Pat McCarthy, Nick Ennen, Lucas Dabari, Colin Langloise, Mikey Yoshida, and more, all through a good friend Tristan I know from commercial fishing in Alaska. In the weeks that followed I was able to knock off the iconic road gap from the bucket list, and learn a little bit about the surrounding backcountry area. Along the way I stumbled into Boardworks Tech Shop and met owner Johnny Lupo, the first to offer me a spot on the shops team, and rider support, an intro to the awesome spiderweb of WA boarding culture and riders.
Next, spent a week exploring Whislter, BC with two good friends. Failing at finding the epic sled zones Whistler is known for, and seemingly spending more time partying than actually riding, oops. Nonetheless, explored new zones, and great times were definitely had.
The next destination, Revelstoke, BC was where I would kick off my first competition ever! With a freshly broken nose, from a pillow line gone bad in Rogers Pass the previous day, adrenaline was the only thing that saved me. First of the Freeride wourld Qualifier series, a 'two star' in which I ended up having to drop first off for snowboarding mens. I stayed on my feet, but just barely, scraping up second place.
The two weeks that followed were spent exploring deeper into the Rogers Pass backcountry, and south to Nelson and its surrounding area before rolling into Rossland for the next competition.
Red Mountain, Rossland, BC - Car camping over the whole winter, this was where the coldest mornings of my winter were spent. Waking up at 6:30 frigid, forcing my boot liners back into their shells, followed quickly by my feet struggling with cold hands, breakfast porridge, and coffee in the thermos, ready to check in and hop on the early lift for inspection. Three days in the mix, meeting hilarious local Canadian rippers, and scoping lines. Day one, tried a backside 360 tucknee at the bottom of my run after a big method and another small drop, qualified third. Day two, same line in the top section, and then went for a big field goal method air and beefed it hard, tomohawked right out of the venue, but surprisingly still ended up in third place.
Caravan behind the Caesar Crew over the USA border down to the next venue at Grand Targhee, Wyoming. Lucking out with a recent storm the conditions yet again were all time. This time meeting up with a Salt Lake City conglomerate, great friends from the past and present. Lucking out, I got a place to crash on the floor with the Caesar Crew. Competition day one, had a really solid run, and qualified first. Finals day, had another great run, but narrowly missed first place.
Another caravan out to Bozeman, MT brought on a completely unsuspected local big mountain competition seperate from the FWQ events. I was able to scoop up a 4th place finish in the mens all encompassing ski, snowboard, and tele-ski category. The after party in Bozeman was a sight to remember, walking in from the street I could hear whoops and hollers coming from the backyard I was pointed for. Around the corner in the middle of the baddest backyard shred session of all time, a spiderweb of rails and jibs set up throughout the yard with drop ins off the handrails of the porch. Soon a bonfire came to life in the empty truck bed sitting the yard, six or seven shovels scraped a kicker together with the little snow left in the yard and a banshee bungee was strapped to the truck bed. The freestyle truckbed gap only lasted a good twenty minutes and two or three backflips before being shut down by the party pooper troopers, and the gathering dispersed.
Bozeman was followed by another caravan with the 'Ceasar Crew' to Grand Targhee Resort. I spent the first night in my car up at the mountain and the following day after scoping the venue was invited to stay with the UBC posse in town at the place they had rented. Thanks to them I had dry gear and a good nights sleep which resulted in two great days competing, another day exploring, and brought home second place overall.
A few stragglers left from UBC's 'Ceasar Crew' continued with me on to Jackson Hole for another day of exploratory shredding. Fortunately meeting up with local rippers Morgan and Sawyer Thomas, we scored some definite pow stash.
On the way to Crested Butte, the next FWQ stop, I was able to catch up with Libby Bushel in Cheyenne, WY, spending a few days exploring the surrounding area, a day of touring on some not so great conditions permitted staged mountaineering scenarios and self-arrest practice. Great times followed by utilizing my Epic Pass with day at Keystone and a half-day at Vail, not the most positive experience in the ritzy spots as there was no free parking! At least as an outsider I wasn't able to find it.
Crested Butte blew my mind. I could definitely spend a season here in the future, the quaint good feel mountain town is laid out in a small grid and has a free mountain shuttle running from town every half hour or so. Not to mention aggressive backcountry terrain and and a fairly extensive playful park. Although the snow conditions relatively 'sucked' during my visit, I had a blast staying with friends from Homer, and ripping hard pack conditions with the freeride posse. During the two days of competition I scraped up points enough to come away with third place.
Taos, NM, I seemed to be in a different country, in culture shock on arrival. The first night I rolled into town late and followed the mountain road all the way to the end and back, found a parking lot to crash in and slept off the five hour drive. The rest of the nights i spent at my good friends condo who were currently working at the mountain, thanks Ocea and Garrett!
For nearly being in Mexico, Taos ski area has an intense in bounds big-mountain scene. We again had pretty hardpack conditions to compete on, but it was still one of the highlight stops for me just being immersed in somewhat foreign culture and still snowboarding with friends that know the mountain, such a great time. Also I was able to stomp a backflip at the bottom of my finals run which was a real crowd pleaser, everyone was roaring when I rolled into the finish line. 3rd place and the goofiest looking trophy I have ever seen!
I had somewhat of a break after Taos enabling me to zig zag around and see friends in Flagstaff, Murrieta, Redlands, and South Lake Tahoe. Ripping a day at Big Bear and over-shooting almost all of the park jumps (they kind of terrify me) was really fun. Spent one afternoon at Kirkwood where we watched two trees crack, and tumble to the ground while on the lift, it was so stormy.
After a quick tune up at Boardworks Tech Shop in Bellingham, I was ready for the next event, the Silver King Freeride Comp at Crystal Mountain, WA. A recent low pressure system had just dropped feet upon feet of snow on the new venue making it the best competition so far. Fortunately finding a spot to stay for the first two nights on a skiers floor, I had dry gear and was well rested, lining me up for success in this competition (thanks Dre!). The qualifiers line I chose consisted of a double drop through the top and middle section, into a tweaked mute grab off a launch ramp out into the bottom. Qualifying first, I just had to keep it together through one more run, a method grab off of the top cornice, into a pow valley that had a medium mandatory drop out, did a 360 nose-butter in the pow-field and traversed toeside over to another little straight line through some trees at the bottom.
Kicking Horse, BC the last competition on the season I qualified 10th into the finals day. On my finals run I combined 5 small drops and grabs for the highest scoring run in my category and pushed me back up to fourth place, just missing the podium.
My last competition broke the tiebreaker running for the one spot to advance to the Freeride WORLD Tour 2017!
Next, spent a week exploring Whislter, BC with two good friends. Failing at finding the epic sled zones Whistler is known for, and seemingly spending more time partying than actually riding, oops. Nonetheless, explored new zones, and great times were definitely had.
The next destination, Revelstoke, BC was where I would kick off my first competition ever! With a freshly broken nose, from a pillow line gone bad in Rogers Pass the previous day, adrenaline was the only thing that saved me. First of the Freeride wourld Qualifier series, a 'two star' in which I ended up having to drop first off for snowboarding mens. I stayed on my feet, but just barely, scraping up second place.
The two weeks that followed were spent exploring deeper into the Rogers Pass backcountry, and south to Nelson and its surrounding area before rolling into Rossland for the next competition.
Red Mountain, Rossland, BC - Car camping over the whole winter, this was where the coldest mornings of my winter were spent. Waking up at 6:30 frigid, forcing my boot liners back into their shells, followed quickly by my feet struggling with cold hands, breakfast porridge, and coffee in the thermos, ready to check in and hop on the early lift for inspection. Three days in the mix, meeting hilarious local Canadian rippers, and scoping lines. Day one, tried a backside 360 tucknee at the bottom of my run after a big method and another small drop, qualified third. Day two, same line in the top section, and then went for a big field goal method air and beefed it hard, tomohawked right out of the venue, but surprisingly still ended up in third place.
Caravan behind the Caesar Crew over the USA border down to the next venue at Grand Targhee, Wyoming. Lucking out with a recent storm the conditions yet again were all time. This time meeting up with a Salt Lake City conglomerate, great friends from the past and present. Lucking out, I got a place to crash on the floor with the Caesar Crew. Competition day one, had a really solid run, and qualified first. Finals day, had another great run, but narrowly missed first place.
Another caravan out to Bozeman, MT brought on a completely unsuspected local big mountain competition seperate from the FWQ events. I was able to scoop up a 4th place finish in the mens all encompassing ski, snowboard, and tele-ski category. The after party in Bozeman was a sight to remember, walking in from the street I could hear whoops and hollers coming from the backyard I was pointed for. Around the corner in the middle of the baddest backyard shred session of all time, a spiderweb of rails and jibs set up throughout the yard with drop ins off the handrails of the porch. Soon a bonfire came to life in the empty truck bed sitting the yard, six or seven shovels scraped a kicker together with the little snow left in the yard and a banshee bungee was strapped to the truck bed. The freestyle truckbed gap only lasted a good twenty minutes and two or three backflips before being shut down by the party pooper troopers, and the gathering dispersed.
Bozeman was followed by another caravan with the 'Ceasar Crew' to Grand Targhee Resort. I spent the first night in my car up at the mountain and the following day after scoping the venue was invited to stay with the UBC posse in town at the place they had rented. Thanks to them I had dry gear and a good nights sleep which resulted in two great days competing, another day exploring, and brought home second place overall.
A few stragglers left from UBC's 'Ceasar Crew' continued with me on to Jackson Hole for another day of exploratory shredding. Fortunately meeting up with local rippers Morgan and Sawyer Thomas, we scored some definite pow stash.
On the way to Crested Butte, the next FWQ stop, I was able to catch up with Libby Bushel in Cheyenne, WY, spending a few days exploring the surrounding area, a day of touring on some not so great conditions permitted staged mountaineering scenarios and self-arrest practice. Great times followed by utilizing my Epic Pass with day at Keystone and a half-day at Vail, not the most positive experience in the ritzy spots as there was no free parking! At least as an outsider I wasn't able to find it.
Crested Butte blew my mind. I could definitely spend a season here in the future, the quaint good feel mountain town is laid out in a small grid and has a free mountain shuttle running from town every half hour or so. Not to mention aggressive backcountry terrain and and a fairly extensive playful park. Although the snow conditions relatively 'sucked' during my visit, I had a blast staying with friends from Homer, and ripping hard pack conditions with the freeride posse. During the two days of competition I scraped up points enough to come away with third place.
Taos, NM, I seemed to be in a different country, in culture shock on arrival. The first night I rolled into town late and followed the mountain road all the way to the end and back, found a parking lot to crash in and slept off the five hour drive. The rest of the nights i spent at my good friends condo who were currently working at the mountain, thanks Ocea and Garrett!
For nearly being in Mexico, Taos ski area has an intense in bounds big-mountain scene. We again had pretty hardpack conditions to compete on, but it was still one of the highlight stops for me just being immersed in somewhat foreign culture and still snowboarding with friends that know the mountain, such a great time. Also I was able to stomp a backflip at the bottom of my finals run which was a real crowd pleaser, everyone was roaring when I rolled into the finish line. 3rd place and the goofiest looking trophy I have ever seen!
I had somewhat of a break after Taos enabling me to zig zag around and see friends in Flagstaff, Murrieta, Redlands, and South Lake Tahoe. Ripping a day at Big Bear and over-shooting almost all of the park jumps (they kind of terrify me) was really fun. Spent one afternoon at Kirkwood where we watched two trees crack, and tumble to the ground while on the lift, it was so stormy.
After a quick tune up at Boardworks Tech Shop in Bellingham, I was ready for the next event, the Silver King Freeride Comp at Crystal Mountain, WA. A recent low pressure system had just dropped feet upon feet of snow on the new venue making it the best competition so far. Fortunately finding a spot to stay for the first two nights on a skiers floor, I had dry gear and was well rested, lining me up for success in this competition (thanks Dre!). The qualifiers line I chose consisted of a double drop through the top and middle section, into a tweaked mute grab off a launch ramp out into the bottom. Qualifying first, I just had to keep it together through one more run, a method grab off of the top cornice, into a pow valley that had a medium mandatory drop out, did a 360 nose-butter in the pow-field and traversed toeside over to another little straight line through some trees at the bottom.
Kicking Horse, BC the last competition on the season I qualified 10th into the finals day. On my finals run I combined 5 small drops and grabs for the highest scoring run in my category and pushed me back up to fourth place, just missing the podium.
My last competition broke the tiebreaker running for the one spot to advance to the Freeride WORLD Tour 2017!
'IN DEPTH' - POST HIGHSCHOOL
I graduated from Homer High in December of 2010 at seventeen, and immediately moved 150 miles up the road onto a couch in a slope side condo at Alyeska. Riding carefree for a few weeks and then eventually, when what little funds I had dwindled, found a full-time job at the Bake Shop to pay for rent and food.
In 2012 I attended Alaska Heliskiing's guide-school program, that opened my eyes to how dangerous the backcountry can be. With two prior Avy-one courses, watching a two-hundred foot crown break and rumble down the valley was still life changing. A new light shown the reality of stress and responsibility inflicted on a heli-skiing guide. It's a lot of pressure keeping up on changing conditions, clients, and safety of the group. There is a lot more to think about than I had originally conceived. I walked away alive, and with an incredible new respect for the mountains we strive to dig deeper and deeper into. Also picking up some new certifications - Crevasse Rescue, WAFA, Guide Training, as well as a week plus of heli-boarding experience and on slope avalanche training.
I came away knowing that I never wanted to be a heli-skiing guide, and spent the rest of the winter contemplating my future back home. continuing to build some rowdy snowmachine trails with my good friend, enabling us to reach further into the backcountry from home.
A pre-season trip to Chile for ten weeks kicked off the 2013 season, and on the way back was able to visit family in Bellingham, and rip around Mt. Baker for a week. The rest of the season was spent exploring the hills of Homer and the surrounding Kenai Range, through skinning and snowmachine endeavors.
Winter 2014 : My first ALCAN expedition, leaving Homer in my 98 4runner with 270,000 miles, Ready for whatever the world had to throw at me. Four ALCAN trips, months of winter living, and over 40,000 miles later my baby 4runner is still running like a dream. Arriving in Salt Lake City with no friends, no place to live other than my car, and no season pass, I felt completely out of my element. Until meeting my new roommates Thayne Rich, and Blake Lacroix who showed me the ropes of the city life, and also the local ripping grounds. Snowbird opened my eyes that winter, not because of the ridiculous amounts of champagne snow we recieved, but because of the social dynamic of the immense skiing and snowboarding community in Salt Lake City. Growing up in (not quite so) rural Alaska, the winter sports community in my eyes consisted mostly of just my four or five rad friends, and we would just do everything together.
Snowmaking in Alyeska started November first 2015, and I had just super-manned onto an ice ball with my shoulder during some pretty sketch late night jibbing. Gimping in for training day with a sling on and my tail between my legs, I don't think my new boss was all that impressed. But it all buffed out. By February we were still trying desperately to make any kind of snow/slush/ice to cover the lower mountain, but mother nature would not have it. Constantly shutting down due to warm temps, I had to get out. Joined two good friends again in Salt Lake City in late February. I wouldn't say it was 'firing' exactly, but living on my friends floor in SLC sure as hell beat sharing a cramped studio apartment in the slush and rain.