Words by Ian Clark

Liam and I met about six years ago in Montana. He was finishing up school in Missoula while I was just getting started. The group of friends that I became a part of was pretty tight knit- and still is from afar. The snowboarding was a constant- building wedges in the backcountry between classes, hitting them the next day; rail missions at night- fun times.

In the years following, Liam spent his time in Big Sky digging with the park crew- often having a camera in hand more than his shovel. Liam’s images were an enormous help in bringing exposure to our region and in promoting the people whose snowboarding marked creativity and progression. Now, that’s what his images and words are continuing to do as the Associate Editor of Transworld Snowboarding. It’s pretty inspiring to have see his success and to be able to call him one of my best friends. Nice work Liam.

-Ian Clark

Ian: Sorry man, I was setting up my video camera- to record all the audio happenings, in case there are any moments that are just too good.

Liam: (Laughing) Exactly dude, let’s hope so right?

Ian: Oh, they’ll be money.

Liam: Money in the bank.

Ian: So, how’d that Lone Peak (Big Sky, MT) story go that you were just working on?

Liam: It went really well man. The first two days were really icy and pretty gnarly- it wasn’t looking so good. But the second night it started snowing, so we went over to the Yellowstone Club on Friday and shredded, like, 8″ of powder- just enough to make some good photos that day, then we had a swanky-ass meal, and uhhh, yeah- it was good. Then we went back there on Saturday and did something, then over to Big Sky for a couple of days- up at the park shack zone, did some jibbing, you know? Everyone was super-stoked and the group was really cool. Just a good group of dudes you know, all just homies snowboarding.

Ian: Yeah, nice. And, who was with you again?

Liam: It was Pat McCarthy, Lucas DeBari, and Matt Edgars- so, three baker heads.

Rolling up.

Ian: Yep, some Baker heads and o.g. Think Thank crew.

Jesse Burtner, Johnny Miller.

Liam: Kevin Zacher was shooting photos, and Gary Milton was there to shoot some video as well.

Ian: I sent Jesse an email one day because I thought Gary Milton was a fictitious video character-

Liam: Like an actual Gary?!?

Ian: Yeah, cause everyone likes to say ‘Gary’ you know? It was funny and I thought, “He (Jesse) probably would do that.”

Liam: Yeah- no, he’s actually Gary (laughs).

Ian: Hmmm. Alright- so what’s next?

Liam: Well, I’ve got the next week off so I’m going to head over to the east coast and visit some schools with Pete, my younger brother- you know Pete?

Ian: Oh, cool.

Liam: I’m going with my mom and Pete and Mike; cruising around New York and Boston- just check some shit out, with those guys. But, next for snowboarding is- well, I don’t know what I’m going to do that first week of April, but I’ve been talking to Pat about some spring jumps and hanging out up there for awhile. Then, the second week of April I’ve got the Good Wood board test, in Breckenridge, so I’ll go to Colorado for a week, and then figure it out from there.

Ian: Cool man. Hustling’- fucking hustling’.

gross excess/waste.

Liam: Yeah, ‘insert rap track’ (laughs). It’s been a good winter though man- super fun…

Ian: You’ve been so busy.

Liam: It’s been crazy, like, super hectic- but a fun kind of hectic you know? Just getting to meet so many cool people, and see so many cool places, and- getting some powder on my face.

Ian: Where else have you traveled this winter? Let’s get a run down or something…

Liam: Yeah-yeah. In December I went to Munich, Germany, for the Air and Style- and met up with some Nitro dudes there. Then, we headed over to Austria and went up to Arlberg and shredded there for a while. After that we went up to Bear for a little while and went shredding with all those kids. Next, we went to Colorado for the Extreme Games and then to Vegas for the extreme trade show. Right after that I went to Jackson Hole for the Natural Selection and got some powder there… Then, from Jackson we went up to Bellingham and Mt. Baker for the slalom, and then down to Seattle and Snoqualmie, and then stuck around Mt. Hood for about a week, and then recently, just out to Montana (laughs).

Ian: When you went there last did you get a chance to meet up with Shane and Jeremiah and those guys, or were you pretty much just ‘man-on-a-mission’ guy and sticking with your crew?

Liam: No. We ended up shredding with Shane a bunch and some of the other locs. Murph (Nathaniel Murphy) came out too, just fucking chucking- going bigger than some the other dudes, you know?

Ian: Nice.

Liam: Yeah, and then I just got to see a bunch of old homies. Did you hear that Shane split his head open, man?

Ian: What?!!

Liam: Yeah, he went off this cliff drop through these two, little, goal-post trees; and he landed but the run out was super tight and he caught something. He bounced headfirst into these trees and was conscious the whole time- didn’t get knocked out, but has this massive, fucking gash on his head.

Ian: Gnarly… on the front of his head?

Liam: No, on the back of his head, where the cowlick is. It was pretty deep too, and about an inch long. He went into the medical area at the Yellowstone Club and they were cleaning him up and that’s when he passed out. So, they had to take him down to Bozeman in an ambulance. So, it was a fucking ordeal.

Ian: Holy shit! That’ll probably be a pretty spendy hospital bill, with the ambulance ride.

Liam: Yeah, I think he’s got insurance though. He’s not sure if they’re going to cover the ambulance ride or not, it’s something like two-grand. But he’s okay, it’s cool, he actually came out and went shredding with us yesterday, on our last day. We went off of the back of the mountain and into Lost Lake, and we got some pretty good powder but it’s a little peppery back there. I don’t know. It’s not really deep enough to jump into. Plus, all of the Baker guys were kind of geeked out by all the fences- so that was pretty cool to see. It was funny.

Ian: That’s cool. So, when you’re cruising around on all of these photo assignments- do you get much time to shred for yourself? Say, if you had to break it down into a percentage, how much time do you spend shooting versus just riding and kicking and chilling?

Liam: I probably get 30% shred to 70% documenting. But uhhh, it’s a good 30%. This winter’s been rad and I’ve kind of gone back to weekend-warrior status, in terms of just getting a few real days of shredding in each week. Those days are getting more valuable than a couple of years ago- when I used to get to snowboard a bunch of days every winter back in Big Sky, you know?

Ian: Yeah.

Liam: I just snowboard a little bit harder. But, then also getting to make cool records of everything else that’s going on in the biz. So, there’s been plenty of powder on my face this winter.

Ian: I’ve only had a few good pow days this year- just hiking turns by myself off the Tollgate Hwy in Oregon.

Liam: Cool man.

Ian: Kind of…

Liam: When we were hiking out of Lost Lake yesterday, that was pretty much my first day hiking this winter. So quiet and peaceful. It was nice just sitting on the back of that mountain and looking at all the wilderness- it was sweet. Montana’s still got me…

Ian: Can you think of anything else that I haven’t asked you, or that you want to cover? I mean, I didn’t write any questions down or anything…

Liam: Well, I guess that the one thing that was kind of crazy with this Montana story was that it was just a dramatically different change of circumstances for me. Like, a year ago I was working hard, manual labor- breaking my back and barely getting by in Big Sky. And now, like, a year later they’re putting us up in million-dollar mansions, wining and dining us- just all the expenses covered and super-swanky. It was just pretty crazy to come back and experience that place in a completely different context, you know? It was just really fucking sick to be a there a year later, doing what I want to do. Like, holy shit- I’m doing it. It’s just been really exciting, and super rad.

Airblaster’s Regular Guy

Ian: Fucking living. Living on planet earth. Okay, running through the basics, I guess- did you have a favorite stuffed-animal as a child?

Liam: Hmmmm. Yeah- it was a chipmunk, like one of those, the Rescue Rangers. Remember those? The one in the red, I think it was Chip.

Ian: Nice. Huh… I’m just trying to think of everything you know. I’ll probably just write down this whole conversation and see if it sounds good. I don’t know- I think there’s some diamonds in the rough.

Liam: Yeah. Coon man, thanks for interviewing me.

Ian: Yep, I guess you could call it that.

Salud. Thanks Mr. Liam Gallagher and Mr. Ian Clark! The next cold one is on AGR.