Peter Bauer - Legend

Most of you will not know who Peter Bauer is. Even if you google him this is the result : Lord Bauer, The Economist, died in 2002. Well it might surprise you to learn that this is not the Mr Bauer to which I am referring.

The Peter Bauer to which I refer to worked for twenty years in the development of Burton snowboards, can tie his name to the design of the most successful retailing snowboards of all time, is a 4 times World Snowboard champion, owns the first ever joint ski and snowboard company and is partially responsible for the most planet friendly snow sports factory in the world. Is this enough reason to talk to someone? Did I mention that Peter also surfs and was taught to do so by Gerry Lopez and Darrick Doener? Did I mention that Peter 'shapes' all of his noboards by hand.

As when you are talking to a legend who has done so much with their lives, it's always hard to know the right questions to ask. This was not so with Peter, he sat in his home in Germany not far from Munich with a beer in his hand and a relaxed posture as if to say that I had all the time in the world. Having a very distant snowboard and ski background I was interested to see what had changed in the industry over my 10 absent years.

As it turns out, one of the only things that had not changed was the crazy 'snow stoke', talking to Peter reminded me of the 'not taking life to seriously', mischievous and snow prioritised way of living. I realised that I missed it a bit. Without getting too deep, there is a definite difference between water goers and mountain people in my opinion, even those who profess to enjoy both are of one ilk more than the other. The mindset is very different.

So it was actually like a blast from the past talking to Peter, tingled with a sip of 'deja vu'.

This is a surf mag and as I have said, while having the word 'board' in the name of the sport, snow and water are very different indeed. So why am I talking to Peter? The answer, as I am sure you can see below, is Peter's love for surfing waves, and it looks like he is more than proficient.

My idea was to quiz Peter on the  differences and similarities of the two sports and among other things, how the Olympics effected the snowboard industry and what he felt was in store for us surfers as we were being ushered into that very same Olympic arena. I was talking to the right person it turns out as Peter was on the board of the ISF (international Snowboard Federation) when the sport featured in the first Olympics as a ski discipline by the F.I.S, (International Ski Federation) which, strangely enough was in Japan 1998. Weird then that surfing is set to make it's debut in the same location twenty two years later. To sum up a long conversation, it sounded like there was quite a bit of trouble with the transition, and that possibly the Olympic committee did not fully understand 'snowboarding', what fans wanted to see and what the athletes deemed as 'snowboarding'. Peter said that the first Olympic snowboard event was so controversial that none of the top athletes even attended. It sounds like it took a long time before they got snowboarding correct, and some may have the opinion that it still does not represent the pinnacle of the sport and never will.

One of the things that had been mentioned a lot is how the industry will benefit from the extra exposure of being in the Olympics. I, however, remain skeptical on this point, so I decided to ask Peter what he thought the impact was when snowboarding first featured. Peter confirmed what I thought, in that there was really little or no impact as far as making the sport more readily available, or in the technology and investment, but instead greater opportunities for helping the athletes to gain greater exposure and $$. While the stage has been set for surfing at the 2020 Olympic event in Japan, the actual details of how's, why's and where's are still shrouded in mystery and rumours continue to circle the subject like vultures a carcass.

So the conversation got round to surfing and how that happened for Peter, he sounded very humble and said to me that he does not live by the sea so he will always be a 'tourist' in the line up, but Peter does keep up with our very own addiction in the shape of three weeks in Fuetuventura in the off season. There have been trips to the Maldives, boat charters and crazy times, but as I am aware, keeping everyone happy on a family holiday gets a little more complicated as time goes on.

When I asked how Peter got into surfing in the first place, I got an answer that I was not expecting. Apparently, Peters first experience on a surfboard was on the North Shore at a little known spot called 1ft Pipeline or 'Gums', as the break is known when it is small enough just to break on the sand. The story got better as it turns out he was being chaperoned by Gerry Lopez and Darrick Doerner! Peter, I sensed was looking to play down the encounter, and suggested that maybe I read a chapter in a book of short stories by Gerry himself called 'Surf is Where you find it'. What I read first gave me a different insight into the past and reminded me how young the professional sports of both surfing and snowboarding. I was taken back to a time when these 'athletes' who were at the pinnacle of their sport were having fun, being a little naughty and basically rebelling still, they were anti-system. For the second time that day I felt recharged with nostalgia and remembered posters on my wall and why I started surfing.  It was not to watch two turns and an air reverse win a competition and then a bland after heat interview channeled by sponsors.

I digress. The chapter in Gerry's book if you have it or want to read it is 'The Cold Comes Back Around' page 191, it's great and I recommend giving it a read. Here is a teaser from the chapter :

"I tried to speak calmly and told him again to get his board on and follow me. But Darrick was frozen in place. He kept looking over the sides and licking his lips. It was not a place to look down. I looked at the others and noticed that Peter and Jean where snickering. I also noticed that further down the ridge there was an wider area that was an easier landing zone. It dawned on me that they had set this up on purpose to scare the shit out of us."

It really is an amusing read and sheds a different light on times gone by, which as I have already said, reminds me of 'anti-establishment' good times. I would like to tell you more of this story but it has been told before and again, I strongly recommend you get hold of a copy of the book, you won't regret it.

So fast forward to now and what is Peter up to? Amplid is his company that researches, designs and builds all of it's own skis and snowboards, and was set up in 2005 by Peter and Anian Thrainer, it's mission: to make better snowboards and skis. Amplid was the very first brand to recognise the equal need for skis and snowboards under one roof, and remains at the cutting edge of the industry to this day, being involved in projects such as the Capita Mothership featured in the video below.

Peter also mentioned that he builds all his own noboards by hand. For those who don’t know a noboard is like a snowboard but without bindings and is ridden in powder. It is like a cross between skate surf and snow, and Peter said that he likes his noboards to built and shaped my himself. I knew that I had been out of the snowboarding world for a while but was staggered to learn that you could even do this or even what a noboard was. For me this was a game changer, my mind was already racing ahead, designing my perfect board. It also seems clear after long conversations about both surfboard and snowboard design and shapes that Peter was very invested in both.

I really wanted to speak to Peter about the possible parallels between our two sports, but the deepest remaining thought that remains burnt into my psyche is that while almost everything about our two worlds is different, what is undeniably the same is the 'stoke'. We might call it something different, but the light behind a person' s eyes when they talk about something they love is all too apparent. I had found my answer. Happiness.

Thanks so much to Peter, who is a true legend from the past, present and future, may the stoke continue to provide it's frothy nectar into tomorrow.