We love when pro’s palm off the summer vibes and travel across the globe to score their fix of the white stuff. One of our all-time favourite regular vistitors is Austen Sweetin…Cool, stylish, humble and incredible boarder. He recently spent some time in Australia – snowboarding, surfing, drinking, travelling.
Transfer: First time to Australia? Vibing it?
Austen: Third time to Australia and each time gets better.
Meat Pie or Parmy?
Eggplant Parmy is about as good as it gets!
Give me a rundown of the roadtrip you were on! Who was the crew? What spots did you hit? Surf, snow & skate?
We started up on the Goldie to meet up with Bryan Fox, Mikey Wright, and Joel Paxton. Had a quick flat white and an arvo surf at Snapper than Mikey gave us fresh decks for the road trip down, it was an unreal way to start off the trip. Thanks Mikey! We then headed down to Angourie to post up for a few days, surfed the point and back beach and managed to find a good peak, I may have saw Nat Young in the water which is really cool but still not sure if it was him. That was the best surf we had on our way down to the Snowy Mountains. From there we pinned it to Newy for a quick pub visit and bottomless beers thanks to Joel’s sis, picked up Matt Hoy in the morning and headed to the Snowy Mountains. Once we got to the Snowy Mountains it was game on at the Holy Bowly!
Australian Snow Resorts…Thoughts?
Thredbo is sick, fun runs, cool trees, a whole lot of terrain, an insane park, good vibe in the town, and an insane terrain park. It was an ideal spot for the Bowly! Good weather, you can stay at the mountain and you get to go skateboarding when your done snowboarding. Stoked.
Did you get involved in the local scene at all?
During our week we tapped into the scene for sure, met some cool locals at the skatepark that ripped, checked out a party with some crazy DJ’s and got to board with Jesse Parkinson and Andy James, those dudes are rad!
How was the Holy Bowly in Thredbo?
The biggest highlight was getting to ride a private Bowly park all week long, Krush and his crew nailed it with the bowl which offered endless flow and lines, I actually really like how compact everything was it opened up the different line potential. Another highlight was watching Joel board, he took off so fast and was doing back 3’s by the end of the week, not bad for a surfer who has only boarded a few times. Other highlights were Blake Paul’s Back 3 on the hip, Blair Habeneicht U Carve in the 8, and Miles Fallon layed out backie over the middle jump. Those are just a few of many, so much happened in a short period of time it was hard to keep track of.
What’s so special about the Holy Bowly? Everyone was going bonkers over it!
It brings people together to go snowboarding which is the most important but the coolest thing about it is that it’s a unique set up where anybody can ride it, it’s the one time that all walks of life come together for an event and get to board together. Pow riders, park riders, jibbers, contest kids, and every other form of boarder that is out there. It’s really just about having a good time and drawing your line down the bowl and everyonesline is different, thats the beauty of it. Thanks for making it happen Krush, it’s a one of a kind event that need to stick around.
Best session that went down during Holy Bowly?
Sunny day sunset session! It was midweek, hottest day of the week, park was slushy and prime time and we did a Mervin/Quiksilver sunset shoot. The vibes were high and everybody was feeding off one another which brought the boarding to another level that evening, it was a special thing to be a part of and to witness.
Best session that went down at the pub during Holy Bowly?
Crazy DJ night, not sure what it was but we went to the pub and there was a line up that was hundreds of people long, we walked straight to the front and Matt Hoy was able to take us in there. We only stayed for a beer but it was wild to see the town of Thredbo light up, energy was at an all time high in there. The best session I had at the pub was in Merewether though, the hometown of Matt Hoy. We closed the place down playing pool and thanks to Joel’s sister we had bottomless jugs of beer, it was a proper Newy experience.
Australia is a great place for the trifecta, good waves, good mountains and lots of skate parks, it doesn’t get much better than that. Oh yeah, and flat whites to fuel you up for all the boarding your gonna do in the land Down Under.
