Interview Brett Tippie: Brilliant moments - I call it the "Fuck, yeah!" feeling!

FREERIDE: Can you remember when this shot was taken?
Brett Tippie: Yes, that must have been in 2002. I was riding for Specialized at the time. Specialized turned the photo into a poster to promote the Big Hit model.

Where did you drop?
In Kamloops. It wasn't the spot that featured in the first Kanked films, but at a place called the Molycot Pit. The drop is just over seven metres high. It was a big thing back then. One evening, I was having a campfire in the Molycot Pit with some friends and we were joking around over a few bottles of beer. When I saw the cliff, I told the buddies that I was going to jump off at the next opportunity - which of course the dudes made fun of. They said: No way! and said I didn't have the courage or the skills.

And?
By chance, the ski photographer Scott Markewitz was in town, with whom I had already taken a few photos. This was my chance, I thought to myself: dare to drop, deliver photo proof! We went to the Molycot Pit together and I took the drop.

How was the landing?
Very soft. It would have been good to have a more compact landing. But back then we didn't know any better and we didn't care - the main thing was to drop! I jumped four times, three times I sank deep into the gravel and crashed. The fourth time I managed to stay on the bike. And I was very happy about it.

Was that your highest drop?
It was one of the highest. But because it became a poster, I was always asked about it. In the film Kranked 2, I jumped a drop that was even higher and scratched the 10-metre mark.

Back then, freeriding was defined by drops and you had the reputation of being the sickest dropper.
Yes, that's true. But that was a few years earlier. Josh Bender hadn't turned up yet and Wade Simmons wasn't making any really big drops either. At that time, I was considered the super dropper and made the highest drops in freeriding for a while.

Who was your competition?
"Dangerous" Dan Cowan and Wade Simmons dared to do violent stunts on the Northshore of Vancouver, but rather technical stuff, nope, for a while I had no real competition when it came to high drops.

What qualified you for high drops?
Big balls (laughs) and the urge to be cool and impress others. You have to know that as a professional snowboarder in the 1980s, I was already dropping over cliffs into these gravel slopes on my sandboard. Up to five metres high - and landed. Jumping with my bike from seven metres didn't seem so far-fetched to me, after all I had suspension travel here. In most places, you had to drop anyway to get onto the gravel slopes, and I had years of experience.

But then you were pushed out of the freeride spotlight. Why was that?
Some sick guys turned up. First and foremost Bender with his kamikaze numbers, Wade Simmons jumped the Marzocchi gap and showed what he was capable of, Matt Hunter went big and Darren Berrecloth seemed unstoppable. At the same time, there were the first big crashes. My friend Tarek Rasouli ended up in a wheelchair, which made me question everything. Somehow I went astray. Parties, alcohol, drugs came into play and for a few years I got lost on the dark side of life.

How do things look today - still fascinated by drops?
I still think drops are cool. Freefalling through the air - great. It seems impossible until you try it and realise: it's possible. The feeling of having done it is exhilarating. I call it the "Fuck, yeah!" feeling. But now I'm 54 years old and have two daughters. In other words: I don't have to prove anything anymore. I love watching the guys throw themselves off cliffs at the Rampage or, like last year, when Brage Vestavik repeated Josh Bender's Jah drop. That's crazy. But personally, I only jump from five metres with a good landing - where I know I can do it without falling. I still have a lot of fun doing that.