EP 590. An Adventurous Life of Snowboards, Steelheads and Sitka

“Welcome back to MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast where today’s guest hails from all the way out there on the west coast, Washington State, self-described mountain reader, “mountain reader” that turns duck hunter. Man, I’m talking about none other than my friend Eric Jackson who is in the extreme sports lifestyle, the outdoor lifestyle, but also a duck hunter that I got to share a little a week with up there in Alberta, we were hunting with Rob Reynolds.”

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast where today’s guest hails from all the way out there on the west coast, Washington State, self-described mountain reader, “mountain reader” that turns duck hunter. Man, I’m talking about none other than my friend Eric Jackson who is in the extreme sports lifestyle, the outdoor lifestyle, but also a duck hunter that I got to share a little a week with up there in Alberta, we were hunting with Rob Reynolds. Eric, last time I saw you, we had a good fun week up there, didn’t we?

Eric Jackson: Yeah, that’s right. That was a really good time. That was my first time traveling for duck hunting. I’ve always just kind of hunted around home and yeah, I’d never experienced anything like that. Thousands of birds coming in, that was something special.

Ramsey Russell: Plus, we got to share the week with some pretty fun and interesting people, that’s what defined it. There was a crowd full of good folks there in camp that, we had a good time cutting up and having a good time and of course seeing the sights and shooting the birds. Introduce yourself, Eric. Who are you? Where you from? What do you do?

“Yeah. My name is Eric Jackson, I’m originally from a small town in California called Mammoth Lakes and been up in Northwest Washington for the past 11 years. I do all kinds of stuff, but I’m mostly known for being a professional snowboarder and that’s really where I’ve spent the most time or just dedicated the most time to my life.”

Eric Jackson: Yeah. My name is Eric Jackson, I’m originally from a small town in California called Mammoth Lakes and been up in Northwest Washington for the past 11 years. I do all kinds of stuff, but I’m mostly known for being a professional snowboarder and that’s really where I’ve spent the most time or just dedicated the most time to my life. And yeah, I love it. I very much am into hunting. Duck hunting was how I was introduced to hunting in general. And yeah, that’ll always hold a special place in my heart and definitely got really into the archery elk hunting in the last 5 years. And that’s a whole another game to play. But, yeah, I love it, man. Fishing, snowboarding, hunting, playing music, just living life.

Ramsey Russell: You grew up in a small town in California, what were your earliest introductions to hunting? What are your earliest memories hunting? What were you doing and who took you?

Eric Jackson: Yeah. So it’s kind of a funny story. I never was taught hunting as a kid, and we’d shoot quail out with the red rider and cook up the quail as a kid. But, yeah, my father was from Louisiana, and he was in a hunting accident when he was 19. He actually got shot, he was rabbit hunting with his friend, and, yeah, his rabbit came out, and his friend swung, and he’s got buck peppered in his face. He actually still has some BBs in his forehead, and he has one behind his eye. If you get him going with, like, a couple glasses of wine, he’ll fish one out, you can feel it in his forehead, it’s kind of gross.

Ramsey Russell: That must have been a popular story. You all come look at my dad come over, and you had a bunch of little buddies over at the house.

Eric Jackson: No, for real. And yeah, so he never taught us kids how to hunt, and he taught us how to fish, and my mom taught us how to snowboard. And so really, those two avenue, I just ran with those two, and that was what I was into and what I wanted to do with my life. And yeah, hunting didn’t come until I moved up to Washington, actually. And a good friend of mine was like, hey, you want to go duck hunting? I was like, yeah. I had a shotgun, and I’ll never forget it, we shot a couple birds, I took a couple mallards home and cooked them up for lunch with my wife. And that was really my first introduction to harvesting meat in that way, and I was like, this is so cool, I’m definitely going to get into this.

Ramsey Russell: Now look, 19 years old, your dad’s out there rabbit hunting, somebody swings a shotgun, and he takes, apparently a pretty significant blast to the face. Did he just quit hunting altogether? I mean, was that the deal where he said, no, I ain’t doing this no more? Or did he just not do it as much and just not want to get his kids into it?

Eric Jackson: I asked him about that, and basically, my grandma, his mother, got rid of all the guns after that.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Eric Jackson: Yeah. And he did hunt a little bit after that, but not nearly as much and kind of slowed down and he just got really into fishing. But he was also not afraid of guns. Like, he took a shooting all the time as kids. He always said, like, I don’t want guns to be taboo. He taught us gun safety, and we would all, it was so fun, we’d always go out to this spot and target shooting. Yeah, it wasn’t this thing where it’s like, I got shot and guns are bad, but for whatever reason, he just wasn’t into it and never taught us. So, yeah, I was never introduced to hunting as a kid.

Ramsey Russell: For whatever reason, he moved from Louisiana out to California to raise a family, was it a circumstance that snow sports and fishing was just more available, there’s more accessible for him and his kids? I mean, were there a lot of duck hunting opportunities or hunting opportunities all where you all were growing up?

Eric Jackson: No, not really. A lot of deer. I think there was just opportunity, especially in this little town, it was starting to kind of boom. And he was in construction and he was building houses and I don’t know, he liked it. But the interesting thing is, he’s never snowboarded or skied. He wasn’t into that, but my mom was. And so, yeah, some of my earliest memories as a child are fishing and then, I got into snowboarding when I was like, 9, and it was an awesome place to grow up. Honestly, I wouldn’t change it for anything. It was an incredible childhood, going backpacking every summer, and we were all home schooled, so we had a lot of freedom, which was nice.

Ramsey Russell: Where was your mom from? She from Louisiana?

Eric Jackson: No, she’s from California. Southern California.

Ramsey Russell: She grew up doing a lot of outdoor sports then?

Eric Jackson: Yeah. She did surfed and skied and enjoyed the outdoors, hiking, stuff like that.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Well, what are your earliest memories fishing with your daddy? What would you all fish for? What would you all talk about? What would be a Jackson family fishing foray out in California?

Eric Jackson: We had a little tow behind trailer and we’d go out to this spot called Big Springs, and it’s a pretty decent spring that creates a river and the fish planter, the stalkers would come and we would kind of time it to, when they would go dump in all the fish. And yeah, we would just go down and throw power bait and catch these trout, and it was so much fun. Like, just the act of catching a fish when you’re that age is just so exhilarating. So, yeah, that was kind of the earliest memories. And then we had a little boat, and we’d go out on the lake and catch perch. And my dad would, he’s a chef, and so he had a bunch of restaurants, and he would do these huge perch fries. And so we just get all the community together and we do these giant cookouts. And that was just a part of our childhood, and it was all about community and eating good food and that was some of my earliest memories.

Ramsey Russell: That sounds like a great childhood. I mean, I’m a duck hunter, it’s important to me to take my kids hunting. But I really, truly can’t think of a better way to connect really young children, too young to really go out and shoot guns and stuff. I can’t think of a better way to connect children to nature than a piece of monofilament line and a fish, any kind of fish. Mine was a bluegill, my kids were bluegill, but any kind of fish on the other end of the line tugging a bobber underwater, that just makes an outdoorsman for life better than anything I can think of.

Eric Jackson: That’s right. There’s such a connection between fishing and hunting that, maybe I didn’t realize until I was older, but now I certainly do.

Ramsey Russell: Your mama was a skier, that’s really, like you said, that’s how you’re known in the world is snowboarding, extreme snowboarding champion. What was it like back in the early days? Well, I mean, as a child growing up there around Mammoth, I mean, that’s a heck of a backdrop for a kid on a snowboard. That’s probably where snowboarding was even invented, was out in that part of the world. What was it like in your earlier days? I’m sure you’re just a kid going along with the flow.

Eric Jackson: Yeah, it was a mecca, it really was. And I just have always said I’m just a product of my environment. I grew up in a time where snowboarding was booming, and I have an older brother who is also a professional snowboarder. And he’s my hero, and so I want to do everything that he’s doing. And he got his first sponsor, I’ll never forget it, he got a box in the mail of all this free gear. And he’s 4 years older than me and I’m like, oh, I wanted it so bad.

Ramsey Russell: How old was he at the time?

Eric Jackson: He was probably 13. Yeah, I strapped on a snowboard for the first time when I was 9 and I had my first sponsor when I was 11.

Ramsey Russell: So what was a 11 year old and a 13 year old kid doing differently than other 10, 11 year old kids out there snowboarding all of a sudden get sponsors? I mean, how does that work?

Eric Jackson: Well, we would do these contests, they were called the USASA circuit and there’d be 4 or 5 contests a year and then you would qualify, if you did well, you’d qualify for the USA, say nationals. And then, it was the national competition and yeah, just started doing those, winning those and you know that gets you some recognition and then, yeah, you get sponsors and you’re not getting paid at that age, but you’re getting free gear. And as a kid that’s like every time you get a box in the mail that is like Christmas.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, Santa Claus.

“I loved it. I still love it. But yeah, that was just what I wanted to do. And I was pretty dead set on being a professional snowboarder from an early age.”

Eric Jackson: Yeah, that’s right. So, yeah, I don’t know. I wouldn’t say like we were necessarily doing anything different, I think it was just the times that we were in where snowboarding was booming and we were motivated. I loved it. I still love it. But yeah, that was just what I wanted to do. And I was pretty dead set on being a professional snowboarder from an early age.

Ramsey Russell: Even back then, even back in those days, you were 9 and 10 years old, that was kind of a thing, Professional snowboarding?

Eric Jackson: Oh yeah. People were making money doing it.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, I’ve seen documentaries and stuff where out in that same California or different Hawaii where surfing’s a big thing, you talking about your mom being a surfer that a lot of brands collaborated around those extreme sports, wanting to get their product out in front of it.

Eric Jackson: Yeah. Surfing, skateboarding, all of it. I just happened to grow up in the mountains and had a really good influence and parents that supported me and that was what I put my life into.

“Do you think a lot of that early influence with the brands coming in and handing out free stuff, they wanted to get in front of all your friends and the eyeballs as consumers, they want to get this stuff out there to sell their product? Do you think that brand influence at that early age, did it drive your performance or your want to perform and do bigger, or was it the other way around?”

Ramsey Russell: There’s brand sponsorship throughout the world now. I mean, no matter what kind of outdoor activity you’re doing, duck hunting, turkey hunting, deer hunting, snowboarding, it doesn’t matter, it’s all the same. But I just had an interesting thought, you’re 9, 10, your brother’s 13, you all are out there having a good time and like, kids in the deep south playing baseball or football, just doing what was right there in your backyard. Do you think a lot of that early influence with the brands coming in and handing out free stuff, they wanted to get in front of all your friends and the eyeballs as consumers, they want to get this stuff out there to sell their product? Do you think that brand influence at that early age, did it drive your performance or your want to perform and do bigger, or was it the other way around? Was your performance drawing them in? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Eric Jackson: Oh, yeah, good question. Maybe a little bit of both. But I think having my brother, he was getting in videos, he’s 4 years older than me, right? So he was doing it. He was sponsored. He was getting paid. I think that that was really my motivation because like I said, he was my hero, and so I wanted to do anything that he was doing. So I don’t really think it was necessarily about the sponsors so much. I think it was just about following in my brother’s footsteps, and the sponsors and the product and the money just kind of came with it because I was just trying to be as good as my brother.

Ramsey Russell: Well, what were you all doing differently? I mean, I just see folks out there having a good time going down a mountain on a snowboard, family vacation, spring break or something. What were you all doing? What limits were you all pushing to climb that ladder, to be above everybody else, Eric?

Eric Jackson: Well, you’re doing contests, right? So there’s judges and other competitors, and you’re trying to win.

Ramsey Russell: Are they judging you based on how on not busting your ass flying down a mountain, or they busting you on what?

Eric Jackson: Yeah, the tricks that you’re doing –

Ramsey Russell: He came down there and he lived, there’s no broken bones or what it is. Was it like a performance, heading down there with style?

Eric Jackson: Yeah, it’s overall impression, how big you’re going, how fast you ride, tricks you’re doing, completing a run, without falling, that’s a big one. And that was the times. When I grew up, I mean, now I look at kids, trying to make it in snowboarding, and they got to work way harder, they got to spin, they’re doing crazy rotations and these just insane tricks that are way out of my league or I don’t even want to do that. And thankfully, I’ve kind of like just created a name for myself. And at this point in my life, I can kind of just go ride whatever I want and have fun, which is really nice.

Ramsey Russell: That’s what I was kind of getting at about, what comes first, chicken or egg? Are the brand sponsorships pushing the boundaries or are the athletes pushing the boundaries to get the brand sponsorships? And I’m just reminded because I’m the old guy in the room, I’m reminded back in the 70s, they were redneck from somewhere out west that drove a souped up Harley Davidson and jumped over cars and buses, name was Evil Knievel. And it’s so funny because when you watch these guys today out there on those amped up dirt bikes, I mean, this guy was out there on a Harley Davidson, just a big old man that was better suited for just going, putting down the road, real loudly at red lights and doing this stuff just all out there. He couldn’t hold account of what these kids are doing now. And I saw a documentary not too long ago, some young guy, and I mean, just based my palm sweat thinking about it was at Caesar’s Palace and I think Evil Knievel jumped over the Caesar Palace fountain without breaking too many bones back in the day, where this guy had a ramp going up the side of the hotel and drove a dirt bike up to the top, ramped up to the top of a hotel and then turned around and floored it and come back off the hotel, which has got to be, I don’t know, 10, 15, 20, 30 stories high, higher than I would want to look, I wouldn’t even get on the close and look down and jumped over and hit the ramp. I’m like, man, guys couldn’t have dreamed of that back in those days. But he said Evil Knievel was his hero growing up and inspired him to do that stuff.

Eric Jackson: That’s right. I know what you’re talking about. He actually, on the way down, he actually overshot it just a little bit and he broke his wrist. Well, let’s go back to Evil Knievel for a second. Like, was he really making, did he have sponsors? And was he really making a lot of money doing that stuff?

Ramsey Russell: I have no idea. I mean, I don’t know.

Eric Jackson: I think that it was the rush and the adrenaline junkie, and sometimes we just want to feel something, you know what I mean?

Ramsey Russell: It had to been ego. He had to been making something. Somebody had to been paying him, like, look, let’s pay him to jump over 15 vans, maybe he’ll die, we’ll make television history or something, maybe he’ll break his bones again. I think somebody told me one time, or I read somewhere, every single bone and Evil Knievel’s body was broken at least once during his lifetime.

Eric Jackson: Yeah, he was a pioneer. No doubt about it

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Or just plum crazy. But look at what he did, I mean, he inspired generations of kids like me on huffy bikes to go scrape their knees and break their bikes, jumping over stack boards and little ramps and stuff, whatever we could find a jump over, he pioneered the whole thing.

Eric Jackson: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: Now, were you a part of the snowboarding pioneer? Were you and your brother part of that pioneering and snowboarding?

Eric Jackson: No, that came in the early 80s.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Eric Jackson: But I mean, we were certainly pushing boundaries at that time and we’ve both won awards and whatnot. And so you could say pushing some boundaries, but definitely not the pioneers that came way before us.

Ramsey Russell: What was your trajectory into the industry? And you’ve done the snowboarding thing, you’ve done the film thing, you’ve done the backcountry thing. What is it about a just big, intimidating mountains that really got under your skin? Because it was all boundary pushing.

Eric Jackson: That’s right. And I think, it’s important to do hard things. Just in life, if you are stagnant, if you’re comfortable all the time, then you’re kind of stagnant in life and you’re not pushing yourself and I want to push myself. I want to get as good as I possibly can in all areas of life. And snowboarding just was that outlet for me, and I just happened to be blessed enough to make a living doing it. And in a sense, it’s your job, right? And so you take your job seriously and you want to just get better and keep doing it and keep doing it. And so I think my motivation now is to just kind of ride the biggest mountains in Alaska and ride them well. And you can certainly make your way down a mountain, and then you can make your way down a mountain well.

Ramsey Russell: Do you have a life list of mountains you want to come down?

Eric Jackson: Not really. You kind of ride what’s in front of you. The thing that most people don’t understand about backcountry snowboarding is it’s all conditions dependent. You can look at a mountain and the conditions aren’t right that day, and you can’t even make it down it, and it’s hard to get those conditions, so much has to line up. You got to have good snowpack, meaning that, there isn’t a high risk of avalanches. You have to have good snow. The wind has to be just right. Like, there’s so many factors that go into it. So, yeah, I don’t have, I have zero interest of climbing Everest or Denali or anything like that. At this point, I’m looking for mountains with good features on them that I can jump off and kind of do tricks and just kind of just have fun.

Ramsey Russell: Have you ever flown up some of those mountains and been dropped off at the top in a helicopter and one way down?

Eric Jackson: Oh, yeah. That’s all we do.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. How much of what is compelling you now, pushing those boundaries? I mean, are you addicted to dopamine? There’s got to be a point in there. And I asked that because I see it in what I do duck hunting.

Eric Jackson: Oh, for sure. I mean, I’ll put it to you this way. My wife really likes skydiving right?

Ramsey Russell: Your poor kids.

Eric Jackson: She’s like, let’s go skydiving, I’d never been. And I’m like, okay, let’s go. And so, we fly up in the plane, we jump out, and I’m like, cool, that was cool. But I have zero need to do that again. And the reason being is it just didn’t really, it wasn’t enough adrenaline. I mean, I’m flying around in helicopters, and I’m getting dropped off on these crazy peaks. And quite frankly, in some cases, there’s a lot of life or death and I’ve been close to death.

Ramsey Russell: The closer you get to those boundaries, the bigger the dopamine rush?

Eric Jackson: Oh, for sure. I mean, but it’s amazing how you can train your mind to be comfortable in these uncomfortable situations. And that just comes with time and I thrive off that too. I thrive off standing on a mountain peak where you have a very small window of area that you can safely move about. And you got to get ready in your head to ride down this crazy mountain. And it’s all a memory game too, right? Like when you look at a mountain from the bottom, you’re like, okay, yeah, turn there, air here, this is my exit. But when you get up top, you can’t see any of that. Everything’s different, right? And so you’re using your memory to remember these landmarks that you have when you’re riding down. And it’s fun, it’s hard, right? And you push yourself, you push your mind mentally, physically, you push yourself and I think that’s really what I love the most about it.

Ramsey Russell: Man, so much of this conversation that I love about it Eric, I can’t relate. It’s like we spent 5 days in a truck driving around, going to and from hunts and we talked a lot about this stuff. I mean, dopamine rush. I made a double on a flock or a triple or stepped on a water moccasin or flipped the boat over, I mean just adventures in the deep south, versus coming down some of these mountains. I’ve seen this stuff on TV and as I just can’t imagine. So, you talking about getting your mind right. You’re on the top of this big mountain, you’ve been dropped off, you got all this gnarly stuff in front of you and what is going through your mind right there? I mean how much of it is skill and how much of it is good lord, don’t let me down this, I mean, seriously? Because you were telling me this story one time at the truck, like, well, I look at it and I study it, I’m like, you can’t study it. I mean, you can look at it but I mean, you don’t know what’s what till you’re coming down and there ain’t no just putting on a brake, let me step off on the 3^rd floor and go back down, there’s no putting on brakes, you’re going down, man.

Eric Jackson: Well, it’s so foreign to you that it looks like that, it feels like that. But no, I know exactly where I’m at. I know where I’m at, I know where I’m going, and I’ve done it my whole life. I literally just look at mountains and I read them and I try to figure out the best way possible to ride down. And what in that process, you’re looking at your safe zones, right? Safe zones will be high zones on the mountains. So there’s always runnels or drainages and if like an avalanche breaks or something, you got to make it to a high zone where all the snow is going to go fall line. I mean, there’s so much to it, but it’s just like anything else. If you put your mind and you dedicate your life to anything and you spend years and years fully committed to that, you’re going to get good at it.

Ramsey Russell: Have you ever been flying, I’m going to guess 80 miles an hour, 60 miles an hour down the side of a mountain, come off a slope, you got a little air. Have you ever thought, oh, that’s higher than I thought it was going to be? That landing don’t look as smooth as I thought it was going to be?

Eric Jackson: Yeah, all the time. And that’s one of the most critical calculations you have to make is how much speed do I need to take off this to clear this rock or make this landing? And over time you get better at judging that. And that’s really a key factor in really injury prevention because you miscalculate an error, it can go wrong.

Ramsey Russell: How fast are you going peak speed?

Eric Jackson: Oh, I don’t know. You go pretty fast sometimes in those big mountains. Like, I couldn’t really say. I mean, you’re probably going 50, 60 at points.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. On a snowboard.

Eric Jackson: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And I mean, I’m just thinking the whole time, no matter how experienced you are, you’re talking about trying to control the events. I mean, there’s got to be times you’re just trying to keep your panic or keep that survival mode, just keep a lid on it. I’m flying down, it’s not quite what I imagined it to be. So let me keep that panic monster that’s going to make me do something stupid, keep the lid on him.

“Yeah, that’s right. And exactly what you just said, like, a lot of times you have to make split second decisions and something doesn’t look exactly right like how you thought it was going to look, but you’ve already accounted for that, you already have an exit plan.”

Eric Jackson: Yeah, that’s right. And exactly what you just said, like, a lot of times you have to make split second decisions and something doesn’t look exactly right like how you thought it was going to look, but you’ve already accounted for that, you already have an exit plan. You know that this cliff that I’m going to jump off if the takeoff isn’t as good as I thought and I don’t feel good about it, I already have an exit plan, I know exactly where I’m going to go. So it’s calculated. As much as when you watch this video, like your audience who is, maybe somebody who’s never seen snowboarding before, if they go watch a video of me riding down a mountain, as much as it just looks like absolute blind hope to make it down this mountain, it’s not, it’s very calculated, everything is calculated.

Ramsey Russell: Is that to say you’ve never been scared?

Eric Jackson: Oh, I’m scared every time. Oh yeah, but that’s good, I like that. You got to be scared, if you’re not scared, you’re not pushing yourself. You got to push yourself in life. And that’s the beautiful thing about snowboarding, it’s not only given me a job, essentially, but it’s pushed me to just understand, yeah, life in general, how it works, how to be dedicated to something and have discipline, be in the gym in the summertime, stay strong. I mean, that’s a huge thing, you got to be strong, so when you do slam, you fall, which you inevitably are going to, you’re strong enough to take that, and not get hurt. And yes, snowboarding has taught me so much in life and it’s translated to many other areas in my life, not just snowboarding.

Ramsey Russell: How long have you been doing this now, 20 years?

Eric Jackson: No, more. I mean, I got my first paycheck when I was 14, so I’m 37 now. So that’s 23 years.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What would be a time, a moment or a time in the backcountry that scared the absolute hell out of you such to the point it somehow changed something about you?

Eric Jackson: Yeah, there’s one, relatively recent in the last couple years where I got in a pretty serious avalanche that was, I mean, I actually, I got out of it, but barely.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me what happened.

Eric Jackson: Well, you can watch it. It’s actually in the Sitka film that we did called River and it’s in the intro. And yeah, that film kind of talks a lot about the process that I go through in order to get my mind right when I’m feeling overwhelmed or scared or the adrenaline’s, your heart’s pumping, I have a whole process that I go through that brings me to a place where I’m able to be fully together and present. But yeah, so I got dropped off on this peak, it’s got a name, it’s called Hotels, I’m in Alaska and it’s only been ridden a handful of times, it’s just a really gnarly face where the backside of it is just like a 1000ft drop. Like if you fall off the backside, instant death, there’s zero chance of living that. And there’s cornices. Cornices are basically the wind blows up the hill and it creates like an overhang of snow and if they fall it’s really bad. So there’s cornices all around me, I can’t fall off the backside, I have probably like a 10ft section of where I got dropped off in the helicopter. And the helicopter doesn’t land, it basically hovers and you have all your board and your backpack in the helicopter and you basically jump out of the helicopter on the mountain. And so I do that, the helicopter goes, the filmers put into place and I’m gripped on this one, this one’s super scary. And there’s two ways of riding it. One is for all the glory, the gnarliest way of riding it. And then one was still a pretty gnarly line but a safer option. And so when I was up there, you can’t see anything down, it’s all off of photos and memory. And so I got on the radio and I was like, I’m not feeling very good about the gnarly line, so I’m just going to ride the ridge down and make it down. And so that decision, whatever, I’m not going to say it saved my life, but who knows if I would have died or not, I would have got absolutely rocked. But that decision really saved me a lot of pain. So I ended up riding the ridgeline down, an avalanche breaks, the whole face breaks and I basically barely get out of it and I just have to like claw onto the slope.

Ramsey Russell: So, if the avalanche is coming, is it under you or behind you?

Eric Jackson: It’s everywhere. In front of me, behind me, under me and in this scenario, speed is your friend, right? If you lose your speed, the snow just takes you. But I had speed and so I was able to keep my speed, and I basically rode over the avalanche to my safe zone. Yeah, you should watch the film, it’s all in there.

Ramsey Russell: The link will be in the caption below, trust you me. But Eric talking about pushing those boundaries, talking about this balance between the sponsorships and boundary pushing and everything else. I mean, you got a TV camera on you, you’re making this, this epic film. Has there ever been a time, especially when you were younger that, that clouded your judgment?

Eric Jackson: Oh, yeah. Literally that specific event that I just told you about was completely clouded that, like, we shouldn’t have ridden that face.

Ramsey Russell: Did you feel this overwhelming need that you had to, because the film crew was there and all this stuff was set up and –

Eric Jackson: Yeah, there was pressure. I needed a specific, I wanted this specific shot for my film River, and I wanted it to be gnarly. And there’s a lot of backstory to this specific crew dynamic and whatnot in the field. But yeah, I got the okay from the guides to ride this face and I was pushing it because I wanted this really gnarly shot. And I got very fortunate that I’m still here, because it was a serious one, for sure. And also it messed me up that was the most dangerous scenario I’d ever been in snowboarding. And it definitely messed me up. I did get back out there, we called it –

Ramsey Russell: When you say it mess you up, it got in your head?

Eric Jackson: Oh, yeah. Like, I went to Alaska the next year, and I rode very conservatively. And I made that decision going to Alaska. I was like, last time I was here was pretty scary and yeah, I made a decision to kind of, to ride a little bit more conservative.

Ramsey Russell: How do you get over something like that? Is it just a function of time?

Eric Jackson: No, you just get right back out there. So we called it that day after the avalanche, and then next day, right back out there, straight back into it. But just choosing, it’s your choice what you ride, right? You can go look at the gnarliest mountain possible and be like, I want to ride that, or you can be like, man, I’m going to ride something a little bit more conservative that’s much safer.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, it is our choice Eric. But it doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about duck hunting or riding a bicycle or snowboarding or anything, I mean, life is a choice, what we do and how we live it. But you know how it is. I mean, a little bit of ego, a little bit of prosperity, a little bit of outside influence, how much risk are we willing to take? I mean, I can think of a lot of examples in the outdoor space, in the hunting space, where did it cloud some judgment and end some careers, you know what I’m saying? Well, to try to push that boundary and oh, no, you don’t do that, right? So, I mean, I think it’s a curious take on this extreme snowboarding, because it is technical, it is based on a lot of experience. But now I’ve all sudden got, number one, I’ve got this craving of dopamine and adrenaline I need to feed, and two, I’ve got the weight of all this expedition behind me with cameras, and all combined, it’s pushing me to exceed boundaries.

Eric Jackson: Yeah, that’s a part of it. There’s no getting around it. That is a part of it. You got these companies who are, spending a lot of money on these trips, and they expect a return. And so, yeah, there’s certainly some amount of pressure. But the avalanche I got in, that we just talked about, that definitely put some perspective on things for me. And really, it’s like, yeah, is it really worth it? Like, it didn’t mess me up to the point where I’m like, I’m done snowboarding, I’m not going to do this anymore. Like, no, not at all. It kind of just made me re-examine priorities, what’s worth it, what’s not. And at the end of the day, like, I’m trying to come home, but there’s risk, there always will be risk. Every time you step foot in the mountains, there’s risk. I mean, I lost one of my best friends 2 weeks ago in an avalanche.

Ramsey Russell: Really? Is that the greatest threat in the field of snowboarding is avalanche?

Eric Jackson: Absolutely. It’s the worst thing ever. Yeah. I mean, we don’t got to get too far down that road, it was a tragedy. We lost 3 people, 3 really good people, one really close friend. And it is part of it. And you go out there and you try to make the best decisions possible and you try to make calculated risks or it’s calculated risk, you try to make your choices with the acceptable risk that you’re willing to take. And it doesn’t always work out, so it’s part of it.

Ramsey Russell: Was that the most harrowing call when you were filming that Sitka film River, what was that the closest call you ever had?

Eric Jackson: Yeah, snowboarding for sure. Most risk, it was pretty much the worst scenario possible. And by me not choosing to ride the original line that I wanted to ride, that saved me. I was going on a major ride over rocks and exposure, I was going to be severely hurt, if not worse.

Ramsey Russell: Can you look at a situation like that? And I know based on experience you can make an educated guess, but I mean, can you look at the side of a mountain and go, that’s definitely going to avalanche if somebody moves some snow around?

Eric Jackson: Yeah, for sure. But it’s mainly the snowpack, right? So you’re studying the snow all year long, right? And if you go to an area that you haven’t been all season, you’re reading avalanche reports, you understand, you’re going out into the backcountry and you’re digging a pit. So you dig a pit in the snow and you isolate a column of snow and you basically do a test and you feel all the layers and you look at the layers because every time snow falls, it creates a layer, right? And then snow falls on top of that and it creates a layer. The wind, there’s a whole snow science to it. But you know what the snow conditions are doing before you even step foot in the mountains or at least have a, you have as good of a guess as you possibly can. So there will be many days that were out there where you’d be like, yeah, I want to go ride that mountain, but I’m not going to because there’s a good chance it’s going to avalanche. And so that’s what I’m talking about, these calculated risk decisions that you’re constantly making. And then when you’re reading a mountain, you have a pretty good idea if an avalanche does break, where it’s going to break. And then you either avoid those areas or you know your safe zone. So if it breaks here, I have to get to this high point in order for all the snow to flush below me and you’re safe. So there’s a lot that goes into it, but again, what I’ve been doing my whole life.

Ramsey Russell: What’s it like? How do you feel the day after –

Eric Jackson: After an avalanche?

Ramsey Russell: No, I mean after an avalanche, but just after an intense adventure down the mountain. I mean, because you got all this just dopamine – here’s one thing I compare it to, may not be kind of the same thing, but I’ll share a story, is way back in the day, way back in the day, I went through fire academy and on the last day they lit a bunch of pallets inside a 2 or 3 story building and smoke and fire and heat and we were full nomex leading to uncharged hose through the building up to the top. And they taught us all these knots we had to teach. So, till everybody’s tied it, you couldn’t come down, self-contained breathing apparatus and it was a rush, buddy. I’m going to tell you what, they put my skinny little ass on the front of the line and all them big firefighters walked me right into a dead end. And I like to never got out of there, but we did. We got up to the top, led them to the top, we did everything come out and it was so hot, it got a little too hot up in that building, like our equipment bubbled and deformed and everything else and it was a rush, man. Coming out of that suit, having done that was just pure adrenaline rush, the next day I could barely move. I mean, do you ever see something. Does that kind of how it is when you’re doing these extreme sports? It’s like, wow, man, that dopamine and that adrenaline is powering you down the mountain. But then on the next day, is it the same or do you just kind of have like this big depression?

Eric Jackson: No, I can’t say, you get clip, we call it clip high. So like when you get a shot, when you ride something good and you have the video clip of it, it’s like you get high. But the same goes to when you don’t get clips and you fall and you fall and you fall, that’s when I go down into the depression. But no, I don’t think I have this, you just get back out there and you look for the next dopamine hit. You know what I mean? But it’s also motivation. So, like, you go out and you have a good day, and you get a couple clips that you’re stoked on, the next day, you’re like, I want that feeling again, right? So you’re just out chasing that all winter long and you’re pushing yourself, right? That’s the beauty of it. You’re pushing yourself to be better than you were the day before, you know? And that’s what I love about it.

Ramsey Russell: You and your brother, John was a childhood hero, you told me that, you said that, mentioned that several times. But you all have since done some legendary trips and collaborated on some films together. What’s it like working with your brother?

Eric Jackson: Oh, it’s the best. You kidding me? To be able to go, spend time in the mountains with your brother and essentially work together is, I mean, there’s nothing better. We’ve done some cool ones. We had a, it’s on YouTube, it’s called Brothers on the Run, but it was a Red Bull project. And we started in Alaska, we had these F350s that we had custom made into basically, big Earth roamers, and they were so badass. And our plan was to drive all the way from Talkeetna, Alaska, to the southern tip of South America to Ushuaia. And we didn’t give ourselves enough time to do it because just border crossings, and it was chaos. But we ended up making it all the way to Nicaragua was the furthest we drove. So, yeah, Alaska to Nicaragua, which was so incredible, man. That was one of the best trips ever. And the whole goal was to snowboard in Alaska, which we did, and then to snowboard in Chile and a huge storm came to Chile, and we were supposed to be there already, but we were many thousands of miles away.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Eric Jackson: And so we ended up stashing the trucks in Managua and flew to Chile and with the plan of coming back and then finishing the trip, but unfortunately, my brother got hurt and that ended the trip. But regardless, that was a trip of a lifetime, are you kidding me? Like, that was when money was flowing, budgets didn’t matter.

Ramsey Russell: How many days on the road were you all between Alaska and Nicaragua?

Eric Jackson: I think it was something like 7 months or something.

Ramsey Russell: 7 months?

Eric Jackson: Yeah. Maybe 6, I don’t remember, it’s a long time ago.

Ramsey Russell: That’s a long time to spend together, even with your brother and your childhood hero.

Eric Jackson: Oh, there was turmoil.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. If anything ever went sideways.

Eric Jackson: Oh, yeah. I mean, we fight like brothers, the brothers do that.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. It’s reserved, and it’s a special reservation, brothers are allowed to do that.

Eric Jackson: And I look back at that trip, and I don’t want to say during it that we took it for granted, but I don’t think we enjoyed it and just understood how special of a trip that was in the moment. I mean, you can watch the series, it was awesome, people loved it. That was like, one of the most proud things I’ve ever done in snowboarding. And we still have people who’d be like, when are you guys going to do Brothers on the Run 2? Finish the trip.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Any plan for doing that?

Eric Jackson: I don’t think so. We’re both married, and he’s got 2 kids, and that’s the thing. There’s a time in your life for everything, and that was the time to do something like that. And, yeah, sure, we didn’t finish it, but we put out a great series and had a whole lot of fun doing it. And, yeah, that was a memorable one, for sure.

Ramsey Russell: Man, that’s awesome. Let’s talk about hunting and fishing. Is it a good balance for the adrenaline side of your professional life?

Eric Jackson: Yeah. So fishing was always that balance for me. I actually made a film called Alignment back in 2018, and I lived up in northern British Columbia in Terrace, and I just spent the whole winter there. And there’s great fishing and great snowboarding, and I just basically told a story of, a lot of what we’re talking about. Snowboarding is, it can be really intense at times. There’s a lot of ups and downs and a lot of adrenaline, and you just go stand in a river and cast a fly rod, I’m just at peace, it brings me to peace. So we made this film about this just beautiful balance between the 2, and that was one that I’m very proud of. And, yeah, we had a lot of fun making that film. So fishing has always kind of been that for me. And then duck hunting, I would say, is similar to that. But in the last 5 years, I’ve really got into archery elk hunting and that’s a whole nother level of adrenaline that is, it’s similar to snowboarding, honestly. There’s moments of peace and quiet and you’re just spending a lot of time just sitting and watching and observing and I really enjoy that. But when it’s came on and you’re getting face to face with that bugling elk, there is nothing like it. It is certainly on par with riding a big mountain in Alaska for me. And snowboarding isn’t going to last forever, I’m not going to, just inevitable, like my body will not allow me to do it. It is not kind to your body. So us hunting will absolutely be that adrenaline void for me in the future. I mean, it already is. And the beautiful thing about hunting is it, especially right now is, I mean, you can certainly hunt all winter long, but I don’t. I snowboard all winter long and then as soon as winter’s done, I just like flip that switch off in my brain and I just go full on into hunt mode. Like, I go to Alaska for a ptarmigan hunt here the 1^st of May, and then I get back from that, then I go on access deer hunt in Texas on the 21^st of May. So it’s just like I’ve been shooting my bow a bunch, it’s game on. So I’m really excited about that.

Ramsey Russell: What are the overlaps between lining up a shoot on the mountain, lining up a shot with archery, or casting into a run? I mean, what are the parallels between that?

Eric Jackson: Yeah, pretty much the same thing. A lot of mental focus. Yeah, I mean, a lot of it is your camera crew that you’re working with, you have to trust them and have a good working relationship. You got to have good communication and say, hey, like I’m going to ride down this mountain and I’m going to hit this, this and this and I will be like, do you understand? And they’re like, yeah, I understand. And so I don’t even think about the filming side of it, that’s their job, right? I’m just totally focused on snowboarding. Fishing is super easy to film. All you got to, you’re just sitting there casting. So the filming a hunt was definitely, it was something I’d never done before and it was a little bit harder. But really we had such a good crew that just followed me, and I got to just kind of do my thing, and they captured it. It’s really all about the film crew that you have, and if you got a good working relationship with them, then it’s all good.

Ramsey Russell: I would just think that having the background of trying to keep a lid on panic versus adrenaline on some of them scary moments, that you can focus and succeed in coming down some of those hard lines on the mountain, that maybe when a bugling bull elk stepped out at 9 yards broadside and the hair was on back of my neck, I started drawing back, that maybe I could apply some of the same discipline to try to keep a lid on it. Try to keep that focus on under the pressure.

Eric Jackson: Yeah. So I go through the exact same process that I do with snowboarding, and I’ve used it for years. I learned this technique from a sports psychologist many years ago. And you ever seen Happy Gilmore?

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah.

Eric Jackson: Okay, so you know his happy place, right?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Eric Jackson: That’s it. That’s literally it. You have to figure out something that brings you to your happy place. And for me, it’s a word, right? And I will. It’s like a mantra. I will say this word sometimes over and over and over again. Every single time that I’m dropping in on a very scary thing on my snowboard, I say River. And it brings me back to a very specific time in my life where I was sitting on a river, and I was just at total peace. I just caught an incredible steelhead, I was drinking a beer. I literally had this thought in my head where I’m like, if I died right now, I would be happy. Like, it was a very impactful moment in my life. And when I say that word, River, it literally brings me back to that place. I mean, you should watch the film, it’s called River. And it’s all about that. It’s all about the parallels from that, process I go through when riding a mountain and it was kind of a question. We’re like, well, will this translate when I’m face to face with my first elk? It was my first elk hunt I’d ever been on, and it certainly did. So, yeah, it’s very similar to, I would say, when you let an arrow go to dropping in on a big, scary mountain, there’s some similarities there, for sure.

Ramsey Russell: What’s a hunting or fishing trip that’s just stuck with you and why?

Eric Jackson: Well, I would say my most memorable hunt was probably 2 years ago in Colorado. I was just solo elk hunting and it was a grind. I ended up killing my elk on day 29, it was actually day 28, but it took me 2 days to get him out on my own.

Ramsey Russell: Up in the mountain by yourself?

Eric Jackson: Yeah. I mean, there were times in that, 29 days where I was with friends, but the majority of the time I was alone. And when I killed, I was alone. And people say this all the time, like, that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. And getting that elk out alone was by far one of the hardest things I’ve ever.

Ramsey Russell: I was just fixing to ask you, were you alone when you had to pack it out? How far did you have to pack them out? How many trips did it take?

Eric Jackson: Took me 6 trips. It’s kind of a long story, I’ll try to give you just the short version. I drove through the night to an area that I knew there was some elk. I slept in my truck, got up 04:00AM in the morning, hiked in, I dropped my camp where I knew I was going to camp, and I didn’t set anything up. And I was like, okay, I’m just going to go hunt in the morning and then I will come back to camp, set everything up, and then I’ll hunt the evening. I ended up finding some elk and it took me way further than I was expecting to go. And I ended up shooting my elk kind of like right at last light. And my first shot wasn’t great and he walked a little bit, and I guessed him at 55 yards and I greased him at 55. But I didn’t really know that because it was pretty low light. And so my thought was, I’m like, okay, it’s cold out, I’m just going to leave him overnight and I’ll find him in the morning. And I watched where he bedded down like he was hurt, but I just wasn’t super confident in my first shot. And I did end up getting one lung on the first shot, but I didn’t know at the time. And so I watched him until it was basically dark and then a bear came and just right to where I shot him, he was sniffing the blood and he was going, right, I mean, the elk’s 100 yards from me, the bear’s going right up to my elk. And I know he’s still alive because I just shot him. And so I didn’t want him to bump the elk and then I have to chase them. So I started throwing rocks and sticks at this bear –

Ramsey Russell: Apparently you didn’t have a bear tag too.

Eric Jackson: No, I did not have a bear tag. I did have a 10 millimeter on my hip, but that’s last resort. And so I kind of got this bear to go away. But I knew that if I left him, that that bear was probably going to find that elk, so I just stayed with him. So I sat for like 4 hours. I went and found the elk at midnight, he died in just a terrible place, it was just steep, nasty terrain. And I took him apart. And I mean, taking an elk apart on your own is tough.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah.

Eric Jackson: And that was my 4^th elk that I had taken apart. So I have some knowledge of how to do it. So by the time I got him in bags and all done, the sun’s rising. So at that point, I’d been up for like 28 hours, but there was nowhere to hang the meat. He died in this thick, like scrub oak, sagebrush area. So I had to shuttle all the meat down the valley up to the north facing slope and hang the meat. And then I took a load back to camp. And by the time I got back to camp, I hadn’t slept for 33 hours. It was insane. And so I slept for 2 hours, set my alarm, went back down, got another load, brought it to camp, and then the next day, got the rest of him out. And unfortunately, that freaking bear, man, he climbed that tree and he swiped one of my game bags and just the hindquarter fell out. He didn’t even eat it, he just, like, just messed the meat up. So I had to go and I lost about half a hindquarter, which was painful. Because all the work that I’d put in, not only just getting to the point of, shooting that elk, but just the physical and mental trials of getting them out was a kick to the nuts for sure. But we got him out, man. And I’m stronger because of that. I pushed my physical mind harder than I have in a long time and that feels good, right?

Ramsey Russell: And you did so without a camera.

Eric Jackson: Yeah. I’m solo.

Ramsey Russell: And I think that going out and just purely hunting like, anymore for me, the times I get to go out, I’m not going to say without a camera because I don’t chase around with film crews, but just to get to go out without outfitters or clients and it becomes just a lot a different adventure. I get to see it and experience it and live in the moment differently. And I really appreciate that. And I’ve always said, never been on the side of mountain elk hunting by myself, but I do like to be in a duck blind by myself, and it’s a totally different experience. It’s just you. And I think we are our most competitive against ourselves.

Eric Jackson: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: There’s times I get in my head, like, I should have killed that duck. It’s just a totally different experience. I push myself, sometimes at a point, though, I’ll get lost in my thoughts by myself, and I won’t see the duck till he’s already pitching in. You know what I’m saying? Or something like that, or Char dog kind of flinches.

Eric Jackson: Yeah, you end up talking to yourself, too, which I find funny.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, exactly.

Eric Jackson: If you’re in the mountains for many days and you haven’t seen anybody and you end up having, like, these funny conversations with yourself.

“But I think we are all our truest selves when we’re on the side of a mountain or in a duck blind or putting it all together by ourselves. And there’s a tremendous amount of satisfaction, which brings up a good point, that even though you may have cameras or witnesses or fans or whatever on the sidelines, when you’re on a snowboard, you’re by yourself.”

Ramsey Russell: But I think we are all our truest selves when we’re on the side of a mountain or in a duck blind or putting it all together by ourselves.

Eric Jackson: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: And there’s a tremendous amount of satisfaction, which brings up a good point, that even though you may have cameras or witnesses or fans or whatever on the sidelines, when you’re on a snowboard, you’re by yourself.

Eric Jackson: Yeah. And it’s your choice what you get to ride, right? You get to look at a mountain and decide how you’re going to ride down it. And somebody else could look at that exact same mountain and want to ride something completely different and that’s a beautiful thing about it. It’s like art. You go and you leave your mark.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Eric, what do you do when you’re not snowboarding and filming? I mean, what is your creative outlet? Is it playing music, cooking? Your dad was a chef. Invent new gear?

Eric Jackson: That I do enjoy, testing gear and helping, just making it as good as possible. I’ve been very fortunate to work with brands who have given me that opportunity. I’m working with Sitka on some really cool stuff right now. Before hunting, I had a lot of downtime, and I would just kind of fish and summer was time to chill. And then, you drink beer and get out of shape. And then, October would come around, you’d be like, oh, man, I should probably get in the gym and get ready for snowboard season. But that’s one of the most beautiful things that I’ve found with hunting is, well, for one, elk hunting, you got to be quite strong. And so I’m in the gym all summer long, and I’m strong, right? And then you go hunting, and you’re super strong after that, like into hunting season, you’re like, I’ll climb up any mountain, it doesn’t matter. And then, there’s a little bit of downtime before snowboarding starts and if you can kind of just maintain that strength by going to the gym, by the beginning of snowboard season, you already feel strong, and yeah, the cycle just repeats itself.

Ramsey Russell: Is the workout regiment the same for snowboarding as it different for elk hunting? You’re not on a Cam Haynes program, are you? Running 3 marathons a week, stuff like that?

Eric Jackson: No, but I have a lot of respect for Cam –

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, of course. Super athlete.

Eric Jackson: He’s brought me so much motivation and yeah, love or hate the guy, I love him, I got a lot of respect for him. But no, I would say it’s similar, sure. Snowboarding, there’s a lot of dynamic movement that you do and a lot of balance work and you’re focusing on these like smaller, stabilization muscles and whatnot. I feel like for elk hunting, a lot of deadlifts and just heavy packs and stuff like that. I’ve recently started working with Goruck and I’ll just go walk around with a weight vest. I take my dog for a walk every morning and you’re doing the walk anyway, just throw on some weight. So I’ve just been walking around with 40lbs and yeah, that helps. And then as elk season gets closer, last year I was like right before elk season, I was walking around with a 90lbs pack.

Ramsey Russell: Go to the grocery store with a 90lbs pack.

Eric Jackson: Yeah. It’s important to have weight on your joints and stuff and get your body used to that. Especially when you’re going to be packing out 100lbs plus of pack of elk. If you’re alone you got to condition your body to be able to do that with serious weight. So yeah, I would say like training is a little different but I mean strength is strength, right?

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. My youngest son went to Colorado last year and showed up with a buddy of his that he’d been in the Marines with and they just packed off and found out elk off the beaten trail and killed one. And he said they, gosh, something like 16 miles in one day to get the whole thing out in one trip. They got the whole thing out. And they said, but there’s one thing Dad, I go what? He says, I sure am glad it was him instead of you. We’d probably still be up there packing meat out if I’d been there. I mean, it was a 16 miles from a truck and just 2 guys and I mean to them it just made better sense if they could physically lift it and move it to do it. And he said, it was just part of that mentality, and I’m sure you could tell the same thing from a lot of your athletic career. It’s just the Marines taught you to push past boundaries. And they said, we knew if we stopped, we’d stop. So we just kept going, kept pushing each other, you know?

Eric Jackson: Yeah. I mean, that’s just it, man. It pushes you – Well, you can go a lot harder than your mind will tell you at times. Your mind will tell you to give up, but you got a lot more in the tank if it’s a mental state.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. That’s probably life in general. Just having a lot in a mental tank.

Eric Jackson: Yeah. And just applying that, what I’ve learned from snowboarding or hunting and applying that exactly to life in general. Yeah, it’s good, man.

Ramsey Russell: Eric, when you look back after 25 years, let’s say, of the intense, extreme snowboarding and the fishing and the hunting, what drives you now as an older guy? What keeps you up and keeps you moving forward, keeps pushing boundaries?

Eric Jackson: Oh, man, as an older guy, I know I am getting up there.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, that was your words, not mine. You were saying about it, whether he’s younger, guys today, they’re really doing things I couldn’t dream of doing, you know? So I’m just saying. You’ve passed so many milestones, you’ve pushed so many boundaries, and yet you’re still going to the gym, staying in shape. What is it that’s motivating you? Is it just a bigger set of antlers, a steeper slope, a better film, a bigger sponsor, or something deeper?

Eric Jackson: No, I don’t think it’s any of that. At this point, I think it’s exactly what you said on getting older, you see that your recovery time isn’t the same as it used to be. When you get injured, you don’t heal as quick. So I see that, and I know it’s inevitable we’re all going to get old and not be able to do the same things we used to do. But I guess I just want to prolong that as long as possible and this is how I see myself doing that. And by having purpose, right? I have purpose to go into the gym and push myself and work hard because I have a goal, right? I’m going elk hunting. I’m going elk hunting every fall for the rest of my life, pretty much, like I am. And so it’s hard, and you need to be strong and the only way that I can continue to do that on the level that I want to do it is to be strong and push yourself. And the reason why I, with, say, elk hunting, for example, I am wanting to push myself and get better is because I understand what it is to be pretty good at something, snowboarding has taught me that. And so I’m not a good elk hunter right now. I’ve learned quite quick, I’ve had a lot of help, I’ve had great mentors and so much opportunity. And I’ve really leaned into that, so that’s really helped me. But I just have a drive to be, if I’m going to commit to something, I’m going to be good at it. And so there will be one day where I will be a badass elk hunter, that day is not today. I mean, I’ve been so lucky –

Ramsey Russell: So is that what’s driving you now? That deeper connection that becoming better at hunting, better at nature, maturing, that stuff? And here’s the thing about getting older is when I was in my 20s, a friend and I rode bicycles across the United States of America, I was fit as a dang fiddle at that age, I don’t do that no more, nor do I want to. But it’s like as an older guy now, if I could go back in time and be an age the rest of my life, it sure wouldn’t be my teens, I wouldn’t wish high school on nobody, nor my 20s, or even my 30s, Eric, that’s the thing about it is it’s like by the time you’re in the 40s, my mid-40s, if I go back, I’d be 45 years old the rest of my life, because even though I wasn’t quite as strong or quite as athletic, I had more wins under my belt, I had more discipline under my belt, I could go to the gym, I could get strong, I could go get all my tasks done for the day, I could go back and work on a webpage and do this and do this, it’s just all these years of discipline and wins along the way that discipline you to think better and be better and but at the same time, a lot of the stuff that was important to me, and I’m just going to say duck hunting, how I duck hunted in my 20s and 30s and even my 40s was way different to my approach to duck hunting now than what I consider a win now versus at any time in the past, that makes sense? And what is pushing me is not the same thing. The boundaries I’m pushing now have nothing whatsoever to do with number of ducks bagged, you know what I’m saying? I don’t think I could put my finger on what it is, but it’s deeper than that. I’m looking for something better than a dopamine rush, you know what I’m saying? Better than that little bit of adrenaline you get when the ducks spill in, bam, you shoot, it’s adrenaline, but it doesn’t affect me the same way as it does. It’s something deeper than that now.

Eric Jackson: Yeah, that’s a beautiful thing, right? And that just comes with age and wisdom and I can certainly, I’ve seen my priorities change in snowboarding, specifically, right? And like, I used to be looking for the biggest jump, and do the craziest tricks, and I’m just, like, not really that interested in that anymore. It just doesn’t excite me the same way. My focus has changed on what I want to ride and that’s the beautiful thing about life. You get older, you evolve. I just think it’s important to always push yourself and whatever that is. It’s different for everybody, but it’s very important to have goals and attainable goals and push yourself in order to reach those goals and you set a new one, right? And you keep going because otherwise life’s going to get boring.

Ramsey Russell: One of my favorite meme type quotes of all time is that if your dreams don’t scare you, you’re not dreaming big enough.

Eric Jackson: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: Don’t settle for mediocrity. Don’t dream for mediocrity, dream beyond that. And one of the other little wisdoms I picked up along the way is, you start off young and thinking you want to get to the top of this mountain, there is no top. There is no top, unless you define a top. Once you get to the top of this peak, keep going there’s another one.

Eric Jackson: There’s always another one.

Ramsey Russell: There’s always another peak. And that to me, maybe it’s that, maybe it’s chasing those peaks, those milestones along the way that keep me going and keep me excited about waking up and doing this every morning. Let me ask you this, Eric, if you could go back to a younger version of yourself, what’s a piece of advice you would give yourself before dropping into this whole lifestyle? What would you tell a younger you?

Eric Jackson: Well, I would probably tell myself to take school a little bit more seriously.

Ramsey Russell: Me too.

Eric Jackson: Like, and I’m not talking college, high school, I dropped out of home school.

Ramsey Russell: Your mom was a tough teacher.

Eric Jackson: And she wasn’t, she was so supportive. I mean, like, look, we didn’t grow up with any money. And I think my parents saw these, they saw an opportunity and they saw money coming in at a young age and they supported it and I’m so thankful for that. But at the same time, I feel like school teaches you discipline. And I am very disciplined in certain aspects of my life, I’m extremely dedicated to snowboarding, hunting, fishing, music, like, I’m quite disciplined in that. But there are other aspects in my life that I’m not disciplined in and I procrastinate a lot. Like taxes, I file an extension and I wait until the last minute to file taxes every single year, I’m like, why? I don’t need to do that, it’s just what I’ve done, just stuff like that. Yeah, I think a little bit more discipline, if I would have, you’re going through school anyway, just do it.

Ramsey Russell: But you’ve got to do the time. I mean, for the average guy going to high school, you got to do it. And your parents don’t make you do it, they’re truancy law. So why not make the most of your time there? I’m that guy that, I hate to say this, but I was a terrible student in high school, so much crap going on. I mean, my teachers were elated as long as I was being quiet, they didn’t care what I was doing, I was flunking the class, they didn’t care as long as he wasn’t disturbing the class, you know what I’m saying? And talking about those term papers, I got through 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, 12^th grade without ever turning in a term paper. They just like, get this kid out of here, you know what I’m saying. And when I started in college, I had to go back to 9^th grade math, I mean, like remedial stuff, because Forestry & Wildlife was technical. It’s funny how just this little series of learning, this making an A on a test, passing the class began this series of wins and momentum. And isn’t it funny that I make my living essentially verbal and written communication now. I was a kid that never turned in a tape. Term paper, my first term paper ever turned in college was handwritten in blue ink. And my teacher called my professor Derek junior college called me to her office and said, honey, I can’t give you, I’m going to pass you, but that’s all I can do. I said, why? She goes, well, it’s a great story, it’s great, you did everything right. But it’s handwritten. Didn’t they teach you to type? I said, no. I mean, I never turned in a term paper. But that’s what I tell people is, make the most, do your best with what the good lord give you. Stir what you’ve got. You got to go through grades K through 12, get the most out of it. And if you go to college, get the most out of it.

Eric Jackson: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And then decide what you’re going to do with it later, because it gave me, so much of the stuff I learned in Forestry & Wildlife I don’t use on a daily basis, but it’s still rattling around in this toolbox I carry, that helped me get through life.

Eric Jackson: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, I think that I was so dead set on being a pro snowboarder, and you also have to understand, like, by 15, 16 years old, I was traveling the world. Japan, Finland, that’s what I was doing.

Ramsey Russell: What was it like being 15 years old, going around the world?

Eric Jackson: That was cool.

Ramsey Russell: I’d say so.

Eric Jackson: Yeah. I mean, my parents just, for the companies that you would be going on these trips with, you have a team manager and my parents had good relationships with them, and they trusted them, and I mean, it was crazy. Like, I’ll never forget my first trip to Japan, they have vending machines all over Japan with beer in them. And I never drank beer before, but I was like, yo, I’m going to go get a beer. Like, just a vending machine, like, you’re getting a Coke. Yeah, just stuff like that, it was cool. Snowboarding’s taught me so much about just life. Like, traveling around and learning different cultures and meeting people and eating different food. Like, it’s been so cool. But, yeah, school was the last thing I wanted to do. But I just feel like financial decisions that I could have done a lot better. I mean, my first investment I ever made, my brother and I bought a commercial piece of property when I was 18, and that was a terrible investment. My dad was like, do not do this. But I didn’t, I was just like, I’m doing it. I just signed with Nike, I got a big Nike signing bonus. And I was like, just stuff that. Maybe if I would have paid a little bit more attention in school and maybe I would have made some better decisions, but at the same time, that’s the path that I was on and I wouldn’t necessarily change that, I wouldn’t change it at all. I certainly, if I could go back, I would have made some better decisions, but I had to go through those bad decisions and learn from those in order to be where I’m at today and I’m thankful for all of those.

Ramsey Russell: Having seen so much world and accomplished so much achievement and brand sponsorships and dangerous curves and filming, but especially that traveling around the world, experiencing different cultures and foods, does it change or alter being just at home?

Eric Jackson: No, I don’t think so. Now, especially now, because I’ve just been doing this for so long. Like, I really like being home.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I get that and I understand that fully.

Eric Jackson: Yeah. You understand 100%. Don’t get me wrong, I love traveling, it’s awesome. I took my wife to Japan this year, we went on a snowboard trip, it was awesome. But it was actually my first snowboard trip I’ve ever been on in my entire life without a film crew. It was not a work trip at all, it was a vacation.

Ramsey Russell: Did you all do some crazy stuff or did you all just kind of stick to the easy slopes?

Eric Jackson: No, she rips. We were riding, we were getting after it, for sure.

Ramsey Russell: That’s good stuff.

Eric Jackson: Oh, yeah, it was great. So, I’m so thankful, I have been so blessed in my life, I don’t deserve this life at all.

Ramsey Russell: Who do you give the credit to for something like it?

Eric Jackson: God. All day.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Eric Jackson: And my parents, too. But no, I certainly believe in God and a creator and you’ve been put on this earth for a reason. And we’re all, none of us really deserve anything.

Ramsey Russell: I do believe in that divine purpose. I don’t see how in the world I could be where I’m at, from where I’ve been to here, and there are times the dots connected, you know what I’m saying? I came to a fork on the road, and I kept wanting to veer off to the right, but no, life pulled me over here, and it all culminated right here where I am today. And so I do believe there is this grand design of life.

Eric Jackson: I mean, the amount of times that I’ve spent on a mountain peak or just in this incredibly beautiful place and just thought to myself, like, how could this be an accident? I don’t know. I cannot believe that this is just all an accident and we’re just here for no reason at all. It’s the way that I was raised and that belief has always stuck with me.

Ramsey Russell: What next, Eric? More film projects? You got more time in the woods? More wild jerky recipes?

Eric Jackson: Man, I have actually never killed a turkey, I want to go on a turkey hunt. Actually, my wife and I tried to go, we did, we went on a hunt 2 springs ago, and there were turkeys all around, but we didn’t get one.

Ramsey Russell: Buddy, let me tell you what, I do not have that bug.

Eric Jackson: No.

Ramsey Russell: But if you get it, and if you get the bug that I see expressed in a lot of my friendships, woe be until you. That’s all I can say. I’m not mad at them. Good buddy, mine says you’re not mad at him because you ain’t hunted the right turkey yet. I’ve killed some this time of year, I’m just glad to be home and get my mind right between hunting adventures, you know what I’m saying. And I think that my dream wild turkey hunt would put me on the most wanted list of National Wild Turkey Federation. I really do. I hatched a plan down in New Zealand one time we drove by where something big had been, they dug a hole and buried it. And it looked to me kind of like they’re fixing to put a pole barn out there in the middle of this pasture, like it was just a pad. I said, what is that right up there? He said, well, they had a turkey kill and they buried. I said, a turkey kill? He said, well, we got all these wild turkeys, they imported and they get out of control and they eat the farmers out of house and home. I said, well, how many did they kill? He says, 450. Dug a hole and buried them.

Eric Jackson: Wow.

Ramsey Russell: And so between there and the time we got back to camp that night, he and I hatched a plan about man, he said, would you want to come over and hunt him I said, no, I don’t want to come over here and hunt them and call them and 100 gobblers come running at me, that don’t sound too appealing. I said, but now look, if we could some folks out there kind of pushing the woods, and I’m imagining like those driven guinea fowl where the Zulus are clicking the sticks, and I’m over here and they start flying over. Now I can see a driven wild turkey hunt, give me a couple of boxes of shell, 3, 4 box of shell, and I’ll try to shoot that many, on a big cull and just pass shooting them. And he passed before we ever got to execute that. But that would be my idea of a turkey hunt. Them flying, flying over, coming in at me like a driven feather hunt or something. But like, I say that that goes against everything a pure turkey hunting purist is. Again, but that’s just my wheelhouse, I like to shoot flying birds, you know.

Eric Jackson: Yeah, that’s totally fair. Yeah, man, I’ve never even eaten a wild turkey. And I was talking to my dad about it, and he’s like, it ain’t going to be like your Thanksgiving turkey that you get at the store.

Ramsey Russell: No, but it’s pretty. And I will say this, I’m not a white meat fan, but chicken fried wild turkey breast is about as good as it gets. And I even like the leg and thigh quarters cooked in a crock pot with duck fat. It’d be like saying that an elk or a deer is not the same as USDA beef.

Eric Jackson: Well, that’s very true. Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. But it’s still really good. Is there a dream trip, a bucket list trip still on your list?

Eric Jackson: Oh, many.

Ramsey Russell: Like what?

Eric Jackson: Well, I would say for snowboarding, I really want to go to Georgia.

Ramsey Russell: I know where Georgia is, it’s north of Azerbaijan. I didn’t know there was something like that over there. That’d be the Caucus Mountain range or -?

Eric Jackson: I don’t know the name of the mountain range, but I’ve seen footage from there, and it just looks incredible. It looks like Alaska, but not Alaska.

Ramsey Russell: And it’s going to be remote like Alaska.

Eric Jackson: Yeah. You need a helicopter, it would be an expensive logistical nightmare. But that’s definitely a dream trip. And then for hunting, man, I really want to go on a sheep hunt. I don’t know realistically if that’ll ever happen, because I won’t be able to afford it, but that’s certainly a dream. I’ve become friends with Adam Foss, he’s Canadian, just sheep hunter, bad boy. And he’s just going in these crazy places, like these mountains that I would be riding down if they were covered in snow. And it just looks so incredible. So, yeah, I’d love to go on a sheep hunt one day. And then I think my ultimate, really, this is true, and this is years and years away from actually happening, but my ultimate goal is I would like to mentor somebody in, on an elk hunt. Because I had a mentor, his name’s Johnny Burford, and he shared so much knowledge with me, he took me on my first elk hunt. Yeah, I mean, he’s in the film river, and it was special for him to see somebody who’s never done this before and to pass that knowledge on to the next generation. And we’ll make a film about that one day and that day is years away, I’m not even near the ability to do that yet. But one day I’ll find the right person and we’ll make a film about, I’ll be mentoring somebody. So, yeah, that’s my ultimate goal with hunting, at least.

Ramsey Russell: Good deal. Eric, tell everybody how they can connect with you.

Eric Jackson: Yeah, I mainly use Instagram. It’s Ejackshreds. Everybody calls me E Jack.

Ramsey Russell: E Jack Shreds.

Eric Jackson: Yeah, that’s right. And YouTube, there’s all kinds of stuff on YouTube. You could just Google my name or YouTube my name Eric Jackson and there’s all kinds of videos. But the 2 that I’m most proud of is probably Alignment and River.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. I’m going to post links to those down below.

Eric Jackson: Yeah, cool. Appreciate that.

Ramsey Russell: I appreciate you, Eric. Man, I enjoyed hunting with you this fall, and I really enjoyed hearing more of your story today. Thank you for sharing that.

Eric Jackson: Yeah, thanks for having me, man. It’s such an honor. And, yeah, like, I got to be honest, when I met you, I had no idea who you were and obviously you had no idea who I was. And I think that’s the beautiful thing about it is, I mean, we just connected as friends, and we were sharing these just incredible hunts together. And then as we connected more and talked, we found out about each other and it’s an honor, it really is.

Ramsey Russell: Likewise, Eric. Because who am I? I’m nobody. And I don’t like celebrity, I don’t like it. I don’t like celebrity, I don’t like, “fame”. I don’t like publicity. Yes, I’ve got to put myself out there and share stories, because that’s just kind of how you market. But I feel like at the end of the day, no matter what, I’m just a duck hunter like everybody else, you know what I’m saying? I hunt public land like everybody else, I sit in duck blind with crowds like everybody else, I’m a duck hunter man, first and foremost. And that’s something that that’s one of those epiphanies in life, as I did start to stretch my wings and see more of the world in my backyard is having hunted with a lot of these folks. Like I say, you could take a Pakistani feudal lord that inherited generational wealth from the British colonial empire and him and me and a snowboarder from Washington and a Firestone tire flipper from somewhere, you put us in a duck blind and in that moment, all we are duck hunters. And that is what I love so much about duck hunting.

Eric Jackson: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: You know what I’m saying. And that’s how run around in a lot of different circles. And if they’re duck hunter, to me, they’re all the same. I don’t like anything else, any other adjective or any other attributes about people other than just duck hunter. That’s my people, my tribe.

Eric Jackson: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: No, but thank you, Eric. I appreciate you and hope to join you in a duck blind soon. Don’t expect to see me on a ski slope, that ain’t going to happen. If you ever see me coming down a mountain on a snowboard, shoot the guy holding a gun to my head.

Eric Jackson: Fair enough. Well, maybe if you’re ever in the Northwest, we can plan a hunt together, we got this area pretty dialed.

Ramsey Russell: As soon as I get my schedule sorted, that’s kind of sort of the plan this year. My ultimate plan is to start in British Columbia and maybe start in Alberta to British Columbia and make my way down Washington, Oregon, California this year. Yeah, try to get that done before Thanksgiving. But anyway, thank you, Eric. And folks, thank you all – Go ahead.

Eric Jackson: Thank you. Enjoy.

Ramsey Russell: Yes, sir. And folks, thank you all for this episode of MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast, where we’ve been visiting today with my buddy Eric Jackson, mountain reader, duck hunter, trout fisherman. Check out those video link below. See you next time.

[End of Audio]

LetsTranscript transcription Services

www.LetsTranscript.com