You saw the video, now hear from the minds behind it: Quin Ellul and Jesse Jarrett. We asked them about fits, their inspirations, and whether or not TikTokers matter to them.
Interview by: Matt Norris
Photography by: Paid Programming crew
How many Paid Programming videos have there been?
Jesse Jarrett: I think this is the sixth now.
Quin Ellul: This is the sixth Paid Programming video in total. And the fourth one with the crew that has been in them since Tuesday’s Child.
What kind of support do you guys have? Or are you fully independent?
Quin: Not fully independent. We've been getting support from brands, I think Tuesday's Child was the first one that we made a proposal for. There are certain brands that have been with us since the beginning, like K2 and Ride, that have supported every single video since then. Same with Sanction Skate & Snow as well.
Quin, you got on Public Snowboards last year right?
Quin: Yeah.
What's it like riding for Joe Sexton's brand?
Quin: It's pretty awesome. I've really appreciated it. For a few years there, I didn't feel like I could work any further in the brand I was on. No matter what, I would always be at the same point with them. So it was really nice to go somewhere different where it felt like things could go a little bit above where they could have before. But dealing with Joe, it's been awesome. He's been nothing but supportive and I really fuck with what he does over there.
Sick. There's a common aesthetic through all your videos. To me, it's a pretty grungy, hesh, emo kind of vibe, but it's still really dialed. How would you guys describe the aesthetic, and is it conscious?
Jesse: You want to start it off?
Quin: You want me to start it off? Honestly, I feel like the aesthetic kind of just comes from what we were directly inspired from in snowboarding—and outside of snowboarding too. Like in terms of polished videos, watching anything that Colton Feldman had his hands on. Obviously some of the camera work on our end is not up to that standard, but it's something that we'd like to work towards. The rest of it comes from watching skate videos.
Jesse: You try to make your shit look as much like a skate video as you can. It's going to be different regardless because it’s snowboarding and the spots are different, but kind of trying to make that shit fly by.
Quin: And filming the videos that we make, if I'm snowboarding, Jesse and Dan are probably going to be the ones filming. If Jesse’s snowboarding, me and Dan are filming him and then like anyone else in the crew is riding it's usually the three of us filming. So it's nice just between three people, it kind of gives it a look in the way the footage is filmed. And when we're editing, even like the vibe we're going for, it’s pretty much how we'd imagine watching things in other videos that we liked or, you know, just emulating some sort of a vibe from what one of our favorite filmers would have done.
Who are we talking about for favorite filmers?
Quin: Definitely Colton Feldman. Parrish [Isaacs], Colt Morgan, Hayden Rensch, Tanner Pendleton, Jon Stark, Bryden Bowley, Jake Durham, Colter Heard and Alex Biel are all goated filmers. Years ago when Dustbox was putting out full-length videos with the entire crew, like Dreamcastle and I Wanted Most, Colt was fucking killing it. We loved that look. It felt like finally snowboarding was creating this skate video look. In terms of skate filmers, Ben Chadourne, Daniel Dent, Kyle G… but that list is endless.
Let's talk about Marty’s epic intro section. How long did he film for that?
Jesse: He came on pretty much one trip with us. He came out to Stockholm for two and a half weeks, and got most of his footage there. And then he was able to come out for a couple of days when we went to Montreal later in the year. He got that nice C-Rail back lip there, which was dope. He was in Montreal for probably two days.
Quin: And the first day was spent with a deadly hangover after the event we went out there for. So yeah, he had like one day to get his stuff together. He definitely picked some good clips to get for the short time he had.
What's your favorite clip in the video?
Jesse: Mine’s probably that gap nose press into that down-flat-down that Marty did.
We went there later in the day, Hail Mary vibe. It was definitely a battle for him. And I was the one filming it from the top. So I had to make sure I was filming it good as the light progressed. It's probably like one of his last tries before we were going to cut it off for light. He did it all magical; it was crazy.
Quin: And the snow at that spot was fucking quite dog shit. I think mine is probably his back lip pretzel. That was pretty fucking awesome. He also handled that in maybe like 5-10 tries. I don't think there's anyone better than him at putting heels through any kink. So it's pretty inspiring to see in front of you. I mean, a lot of us get a little more timid when it comes to trying something like that, like we'll ease into it. But to just watch him go all out was crazy. And I'll be real with you.. He's done quite a few back lip pretzels in his life. That was by far the best one he has ever done. Hands down.
Jesse, when you did the back tail line and then ledge to fence, you ate fucking shit. That clip and the make were both awesome. Did you get hurt doing that?
Jesse: Yeah, I actually ate shit. We went to Calgary at the end of the season, in April. I went there on the first one thinking, fuck, this is my last chance to get this clip that I've been wanting and the snow is just so shit, it was like sticky, and kinda suctioned to your board. I barely made it up on the fence and caught my edge and that definitely ended that session pretty bad. Got lucky with the bail, I'd say. I caught the end of the fence with my edge and it slipped me in a way where I missed my head and everything, just like taco’d the edge of the ledge. Definitely got a little beat up there. Then we got more snow like a week later and was able to go back and lacquer it. I was lucky to be able to get that one.
Your song reminds me of an epic Christmas song that's like a rock opera or some shit. What is that?
Jesse: Quinn found it last year making Red Ribbon, but we weren't able to make it work for any of the parts. So, we came back to it and it did what we needed.
What about your ender Jesse? Where was that? How long did that take?
Jesse: That was Pittsburgh in February, while all the other crews were there. That was the first spot we drove to when we got there, I'd been eyeing that thing up on Google and it hadn't really been touched yet. And we were like, fuck, got to hop on it. So that was the first clip of the trip, which set the tone. Yeah, I definitely got pretty beat up on that one, which made the rest of the trip a little tougher for me, but pretty happy that I was able to get away with that one.
Alright, Quin. What's more important: the spot, the trick, or the fit?
Quin: I mean, it's fucking hard to pick one of the three, because if your fit sucks and the spot's amazing, you're going to fucking hate your clip. If the spot sucks and your fit's nice, I don't know. You're probably not going to age that well by the time the fall comes around.
And the trick, I guess, if the trick's good, the trick holds, but I would hope for all three. But in terms of tricks, I think you're asking the wrong guy. It might have to be my season to start actually throwing some of those down.
One of my favorite clips in your part was when you did the 5050, then jumped way the fuck over to that board slide in the striped sweater. I wouldn't look at that spot and think that was possible.
Quin: Neither did anyone else, which I kind of liked. I remember looking at it and being like, I think I can do this, but everyone else was like, nah, I don't think that's going to work. I think that was my first clip this year, right? Yeah, that was my first clip of the year. We were on a little trip just outside of Toronto. I was thinking of trying to hit it into the stairs, like Mike did, but I thought I'd give it a go. The faith was low at some points, for sure, but I ended up getting it before it got dark. It's always nice to prove your friends wrong. Not that they don’t believe in me, but, you know.
I always love a two-song ender where you have a song shift and then a slower, strictly hammer section at the end. What was the hardest trick for you to get in that ending section?
I think the hardest one, in terms of most time spent on something, would have been the second to last clip; the white rail board slide you guys are running in the next mag. Me and Dan did a Hail Mary trip up to Sudbury in late March. We drove from Toronto up to Sudbury through a crazy blizzard. We parked the car and then we woke up and the car was completely buried. It took us like half a day to dig out the driveway. It was funny up until we realized that every single rail in the entire city was underneath quite literally four feet of fresh snow. So, slowly me and Dan would go and shovel the rail out properly, which is extremely annoying. Maybe on two or three different nights, we'd spend like three hours push-shoveling four feet of snow down the stairs.
I just don't like when clips look like they're filmed in Japan with like 25,000 feet of snow around a handrail. It just doesn't look very visually appealing. So we battled just to get the rail hittable. And then I think I spent like a whole day. I came off the end four times, but it just wasn't really like the way I wanted it. And then we went back another day and I think it took me like an hour or two. And I think that was like the most middle of my board I've ever gone through a few kinks like that. So I was pretty happy. I'm normally a front foot board slider.
In an industry that's half-populated by weird cornballs and influencers and bullshit, what makes you guys want to stick to just making street-specific hammer videos the best you can?
Jesse: We grew up watching the street vids and it's like, that's why we snowboard and what we fuck with. I don't know. I don't think we would be doing what we're doing if it wasn't what we live for and love to do.
Quin: Pretty much, it’s the only aspect that we're, well, not the only aspect, obviously we enjoy snowboarding as a whole, but it’s like, without that we wouldn't have gotten into what we did because I think once I figured out what street snowboarding was, I was fully hooked. When you dedicate as much of your life as we have to this and being complete absolute nerds about it, it becomes the only thing we really care about. So with the other aspects, it's cool, but we don't really pay too much attention to them. But obviously you see the other things when you go on your phone and whatnot. Just thankful for all the other people that go out in the winter and film videos and do this shit and keep it going. It’s quite awesome to see. That's pretty much the only reason why we're still here. All of our inspirations for the most part are still out there doing it. So it gives you something to look forward to every year when people are dropping new footage.
Do influencers, TikTokers, and that side of snowboarding even occur to you guys at all?
Quin: I mean, you definitely see it, but we don't go out of our way to pay attention. Neither one of us have TikToks, so that's a blessing. There's so much other bullshit going on on Instagram these days. I don't think you open up me and Jesse's Insta and it’s filled with snowboarding. I'm sure there's some snowboarding of course, but there's so many other things that are happening. It's almost hard to keep up with. I don't think we're really too concerned about it. Sometimes it'll make me laugh. I don't know. I can enjoy a nice little triple triple switch up 270 out here and there. [Laughs]
What's next for you guys?
Jesse: I'm just going to try to keep this shit going.
Quin: I think if you asked us that question every year, we'd probably just be like, well, it's not like there's anything else we could be doing, but making another one. So yeah, just going to keep that, just keep it going. I mean, at this point it's a blessing to still be working with the same people every year. Maybe coming down the pipeline in a few years, people will be asked to do different things, but also probably not. So as long as we're just all getting together every year and doing our same thing. And yeah, it kind of makes it as special as it is just by working with the same people.