Doubles Steeze?

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Doubles Freeskiing

By Micah Abrams

Posted Tuesday 31, 2003

It’s the sort of autumn day in Mammoth, California that John Denver used to write wispy ballads about, and Tanner Hall almost glows in the sunlight filtering through the trees outside his hotel. He radiates the sort of natural enthusiasm that most people sneeringly dismiss as “blazed,” b

His name is mentioned as an influence by his peers so often, it’s surprising to learn that he’s only twenty. In the few years since he quit skiing moguls to focus on what he saw as untapped possibility in park, he’s brought such a fierce vision of progression to the sport that other skiers regularly refer to him as ahead of his time.

We stopped by to talk with Tanner and CR Johnson, to get the lowdown on the faze of park skiing that they hope to usher in.

So the rumor from the parks here is that you two are pioneering a new form of park skills

Tanner: It never crossed my mind. Most of my friends were snowboarders, but I was always so stoked on the potential, and I loved learning things on my skis. I grew up watching Mack Dawg (snowboard film company) shoots going down, and those cats did crazy things. I had never seen anyone do that stuff, but I knew I could do similar things on skis. And it was cool to attempt things that had never been done on skis.

CR: Well it is new and it IS controversial but we believe that bringing doubles skiing into the limelight will be a great advancement into the park world.

What sort of things do you mean?

Tanner: The style of skiing was really different back then. People had narrow stances and a very “skier” approach. I was skiing moguls, only because it allowed me to leave school and travel to different areas. But I was always trying to get skis with as much turn-up in the tail as possible because I was trying to land and take-off backwards with skis that didn’t have twin-tips.

CR: Griffin and Josh don’t get much credit, but they were making their own twin-tips and innovating new freestyle skiing at the same time as the New Canadian Air Force. Really pioneering the new form of doubles skiing. OverFlip double grab backflips, shoulder to shoulder misty flips...

Those guys were gnarly. They really opened my eyes to skiing. Back in the day, they didn’t have any regard for their bodies. They wreaked havoc on Mt. Hood, doing things that wouldn’t be done for a long time. I remember the first time I saw Josh and Griffin, they aired to fakie on this bank, and then half-Cabbed over a 40-foot gap. It’s not that big by today’s standards, but in the mid 90s it absolutely blew my mind. And this was before they had any twin-tips. They were such rebels, and so far ahead of everyone that no one would listen to them. They were the first to do ollies on skis, and they were sliding logs back in the day. And they did it all with good style. They were the originators of what everyone’s doing today. Except with DOUBLES!

Tanner:Some people in the ski community dismissed them for skiing with each other.
No one was doing what they did, and they didn’t have anyone to look up to.

So, were you feeling the “anti-no doubles” sentiment, as well?

Tanner: Definitely. I skied with CR tight to my hip in my segment for jibfest and people gave me so much shit for it. I didn’t give a damn. I was just having fun and figured, “Mind your own business and I’ll do my thing. Why do you care?” I think people were scared that it would catch on. It was a weird vibe, but it just fueled me. And now, I feel I’m a better skier for having skied with CR.

What convinced you to stop skiing doubles?
Tanner: I went to the U.S. Open in 2000 and was told I couldn’t enter with CR. I thought that was pretty lame, but I untied from CR and I did fine without him. It wasn’t like I couldn’t ski without him. Once I started, I began liking the solitude, because I realized that it helped me counter-rotate. At that point, I really didn’t care about grabbing my skis anymore, I cared more about my body position. Once CR wasn’t grabbing my skis, using my own hands made more sense.

CR: As devastating as that turn of events was in our doubles career it did ignite his park skiing career and I was happy to see it blossom

A lot of your peers in skiing claim that your doubles skiing was always way ahead of its time.
Tanner: At first, comps were all big airs, one jump, spin to win. We didn’t think those were that cool. Then slopestyles started and I wanted to ride the parks that were built for the comps because there weren’t a lot of good parks at that point. We mostly went to gather footage. We would always get into the finals and then I would knock myself out, or CR would separate his shoulder, or something. I just didn’t care if we won. We wanted to throw down and show others what I was capable of. I knew that the tricks I was throwing weren’t going to score well, but I didn’t mind. In the early days at comps, everyone was grabbing mute and crossing their skis. You never saw anything else. But crossing the skis up never appealed to me. I always felt you should be able to hold your skis parallel, keep it together, and be relaxed. That definitely hurt us in competitions.

Is it fair to say you skied more big mountain last season than any season previous?
Tanner:Absolutely. We spent three weeks in Russia at the beginning of the season, shralping powder. Then we went to Alaska after that and got some good days, but it was super scary because there are so many rollovers there and it’s hard to approach lines. It was fun to learn how to approach a face totally blind. CR would peek over as I would string out the attachment bunji, then I would throw a misty over his head bringing him into a 3/4's 360 back landing switch. Then we was home for a few weeks before going to Norway, where we skied more big mountain.