Wednesday, May 31

Scott Murray

By Derek Taylor

Scott Murray has a passion for play. Whether its kayaking down class V creeks, roosting around on his dirt bike, or skating for one of the local hockey teams, Murray charges hard. When the snow starts flying around Colorado, the Crested Butte local puts tele bindings on alpine skis and becomes one of the best skiers--alpine or telemark--in a town known for its share of world-class talent.

Rumor around Crested Butte is that he can throw up a mean roof, too. But dont let his skills with cedar shakes and a hammer throw you. Scott's tendency towards recreation definitely supercedes his urgency to put in a five-day work week, so much so that the 1999 Telemark Freeskiing Champion has been known to change out of his ski clothes and into Carhartts so his live-in girlfriend will think he was working all day. ("It's harder in the summer," he says, "because I come home smelling like two-stroke fuel.")

On this overcast spring day in Crested Butte, I found Scott kicking back in his condo adjacent to the ski area. Dr. Dre thumps in the background and a motocross video called Wrathchild provides visuals on the TV. It's Sunday, and he's stoked because he hasn't had to look at his Carharttss for two days.

So you're originally from Ohio, but you went to high school at a New England ski academy?
Yeah, I grew up in Cleveland, but actually I went to a private boarding school in Massachusetts via hockey. I was playing ice hockey in Cleveland, Philadelphia, St. Louis. . . and I heard about this boarding school while I was playing juniors in the Philadelphia Flyers system. Long story short, I ended up at this cool little ski school with a good hockey team. That's when I got my interest in skiing. We had one of the best ski racing teams, but I played hockey. That's definitely part of my influence; that's how I found out about Crested Butte. Right after High School I was at New England College, and I kept visiting friends out here. Eventually I started leaving stuff out here so I'd have to come back and get it.

How did you get into telemarking?
It was a gear change when I came out here. Hard boots were killing me so I tried to go leather. I ended up sticking to tele, following all the boys who I thought were the best skiers on the area, like Chad Club from Alaska, who was chasing Seth (Morrison) around, and a couple of guys from high school who were the top dogs on the ski team (Dave) Swanwick was from Berkshire Academy, James Lozeau, and few others. They were way better than me, so year after year I just started progressing to the point were shots started appearing in some magazines, films, a little bit of everything. I think it's best to ski above your league, ride with the best.

Hard boots helped chase you away from alpines, but now you're back teleing on hard boots.
I'm back into hard boots because that's where the performance is. It's still comfortable. I've got picky feet, and I still love teleing. It's the most comfortable boot. I also twisted my knee snowboarding, and every time I get onto alpine skis or a snowboard, I can feel that twang. And I've got a whole suspension theory about teles, but I don't want to get into that.

You don't really fit the mold of the stereotypical, tree-hugging, granola-munching tele guy.
I don't think you should be able to be stereotyped. When you're looking eye to eye--in the park with the snowboarders, or in the backcountry with the skiers--you feel like you're one and the same. But I think people have trouble relating to telemarking. I think there's another step that's happening right now. These kids are going off. A lot of people are making the transition from alpine to tele because they want to try something harder, something different.

As you just mentioned, you've been known to frequent the terrain parks. Do you have any of the new-school freestyle moves down?
I'm working on 'em. I'm a big fan of twin tips, and going switch. Any boring part of the area, just go backwards, and you start getting all your tricks down. I think hockey had a lot to do with that--skating, looking over your shoulder.

You've paddled in several kayaking movies [The Fix, Aphrodisia, Off The Deep End], and this year you got to shoot some skiing with Matchstick Productions
Yeah, I didn't do too much filming; I don't know what's going to come out with MSP. We were kind of on the same trip with them. We were on a photo trip for FREEZE, and they were on their own trip and we kind of ran into each other in Washington. I had a few clips show up in their last film Global Storming, and hopefully something will show up in this one. But that trip was really cool because I got to ski with all the boys from Squaw Valley, got to see the kids just rippingShane Anderson, Skogen Sprang, Evan Rapps, those guys just blew my mind. That was my big breakthrough. I got to see all the tricks on alpines, and visualized them on teles. I think next year is going to be a big breakthrough for me again, just working on those tricks. People spend a lot of money to hang out with those guys at camps and I got a week, two weeks with these guys just ripping.

Has your experience filming in kayaking helped you at shooting skiing?
Shooting, you have to do big hits, and you cant just have kodak courage. You have to be practicing these lines. When youre filming in any sport, when you rip a line you have to be on it. Whatever you do, its going to be recorded. In skiing, though, I think I shine in contests, not necessarily in the standings, but I just seem to go off. Ive always been kind of a hot dog when theres a crowd involved, so my runs have always been crowd pleasers. In an extreme comp, its not a jib comp, its an extreme comp, but every run Ill try to put a spin in, work a 360 into it. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I dont. Sometimes its just too big and too scary.

Youve done a few of these telemark extreme comps
Yeah, I got second at Telemark Freeskiing Championships at Arapahoe Basin this year [he won the event in 1999]. I was in first when I sprained my ankle, and finished second. I did about a half-dozen comps this year, and got four podiums, so my average is pretty good. I like to do the alpine comps because I have nothing really to lose because Im on teles. When I go to do a tele comp after skiing in an alpine competition, I feel confident, like Im on my sh*t. I like to ski the same lines as the alpiners, and a lot of the tele-ers dont see those lines. Though I probably shouldnt say that, because theyre finding them.

Tell us about the telemark movie you filmed for last winter.
This guy from Squaw, BonesJosh Murphyis shooting a 16 mm film, primarily telemarking and the next step of telemarking. We went over to Breckenridge to the terrain park, and I had a sprained ankle at the time, but I couldnt resist. The telemarkers just shined. There were like six of us, and we took over this one part of the park, and pretty soon, everyone just started gathering there. Once we were in the air, you couldnt tell who was on alpines or teles.

Except ones harder to land on.
Apparently. But the only time teles are really harder to land on is when you land switch. When you land backwards, you dont have the front seat, so to speak. You can pretty much stick anything alpine style, because you still have the back seat on teles. Then if I need the full suspension, Ill just drop all the way down, nordic style. Thats why I do it, because you have the option of doing both, alpine or tele.

Do you ever still alpine?
Only on my teles. And I have a snowboard still, but I didnt ride it at all this year. I usually try to get on it at least once a season. But to each his own, as far as what gear youre on. You know, the same old preach.