EP 132 Did Darian Draper land the first double-cork in snowboarding?

In this one, Cody talks to Darian Draper. He’s a snowboarder, a father and an all-around athlete. He grew up in Seward, Alaska, where he learned how to be an athlete and the importance of working out and preparing for competition. He wrestled in high school and won the Alaska small state championship of wrestling twice. He was a take-down artist, meaning he would rush his opponent and subdue them on the ground as quickly as possible. He says he probably could’ve gone to college for wrestling, but he was more interested in snowboarding. So, that’s what he did, he refocused all of his energy into getting good at snowboarding. He’d watch all the new videos and then practice those tricks on the trampoline with his brother. He and his friends would eventually hike around the mountains surrounding Seward and build jumps, they’d go to Turnagain Pass to build jumps there too, and at the end of the season they’d go to Boarderline Camp at Alyeska. Darian applied the same mentality to snowboarding as he did wrestling. He studied and trained because that’s how you get good.

 

His first board sponsor was Nitro Snowboards and his team manager considered him a jock. And not in a positive, this-guy’s-an-athlete-and-we-need-to-promote-him kind of way. Instead, it was in a way that made him hold Darian’s snowboard career back. When Darian landed what many consider to be the first double cork, or a precursor to a double cork, the team manager bought the rights to the photo sequence and suppressed it so that it would never come out. Then when Darian asked him why he never ran the sequence, he said he didn’t want him to be labeled as a hucker, someone who indiscriminately chucks their body into the air. This was in 2001, when no one was really doing tricks like that. These tricks would eventually become a staple in professional snowboarding. Darian still feels like he got ripped off on that one, but he’s got kids now and says that that’s helped him learn how to let things go and to not live in the past.