Born and raised in Michigan, Mike Hornbeck was like many kids.
He clicked into his first pair of skis in Kindergarten.
The nearest hill, Bittersweet, was about 15 minutes from my house.
Theyre just little hills, pretty far from actual ski towns.
When youre driving to the ski resort its just countryside, no sign of the ski industry.
Its pretty much just a ski area out of nowhere 250-300 vertical feet, super small.
All those dudes in Strike Three were just insane to me.
They all hit handrails and it was just like Dang!
I really likeAfter Dark,that was a fun one too.
Mike Hornbecks a pretty unassuming guy, he just happens to be a pretty incredible street skier.
Throughout our chat, his excitement and gratitude, for the opportunities hes got from skiing was pretty clear.
We madeWreckallectionsthenOil and Water.At the startOil and Waterwasnt really a team movie.
After that, it got really hard.
“I went with him when he was in Real Ski.
I filmed with him and he paid for all the hotels and everything.
So I definitely want to give him a shout out there!
Hes obviously really young but he loved it!
Does having a family affect how an athlete approaches such a high-risk sport as urban skiing?
I dont really think about the risk of street-skiing.
Its more the years of experience and everything.
Its a pretty small window, so if you get hurt then youre kind of screwed.
I filmed my whole Real Street in like ten days I think.
Then skied the last week, it was like oh my god!
I need to make a video!
and just write it off.
So I kind of did some easier tricks, just so I could have a video.
It was a bummer but Im still proud of the video.
More film stuff would be cool, just because youd get so much content out of it.
With a FIS contest, youllmaybesee it on Newschoolers, if Twig does a write up about it.
But thats about it.
In 2012, Hornbeck gave an interview, with Ahmet Dadali, to X Games website.
The interview was about the skiers moving from Colorado to Utah.
But even then, it was on the rise and it was the cool thing to do.
Once I lived there for three or four years, it just got flooded.
It kind of lost its worth to me.
So thats what I meant by that.
Hopefully what I do will inspire them, if everybodys going their own way, thats awesome for skiing.
Theres so much crazy sh*t going on, its wild.
People jump on new trends and then it gets played out.
I feel like the punch in of street skiing that I do is almost Old School now.
Hopefully people still respect all of it though and see the good in all the different styles.
Going into 2019, Mike just hopes to film with Level 1 and keep filming stuff with Armada.
Trick:Switch 7 probably.
Its just fun and you could do a lot of different things with it.
Track:Ive been listening to some new Eminem lately.
Any Eminem really, I like it all.
I think hes a big influence for everyone in Michigan.
