Matt Edgers: On Deck

October 13

DOB: 06.12.86 Home Mtn: Summit-at-Snoqualmie, WA Stance: Regular

After you spend a lot of time with a person, it’s easy to overlook the obvious, which, for the sake of this profile, would be that Matt Edgers fucking rips. That said, I thought Matt had a mild case of Tourette’s mixed with a fair portion of bipolarity the first year we rode together. He would blurt out sentences laced with foulness that related to nothing happening at the moment, going from calm to freaking-the-fuck-out every other run, over issues I will never fully comprehend. Regardless of his mental state, he is one of the nicest people I know and is always down to go shred, whether it’s the mountain, the skatepark, the beach, or the bar. It’s always nice to have a second opinion, though…
Blair Habenicht ––

Edgers made a conscious decision to move to Baker, and it paid-off, seeing as the dude's got more street cred up there than Biggie's mom does in Brooklyn. Photo: Dylan Hart

You grew up riding the park at Snoqualmie Pass, taking more of a man-made/urban-oriented approach to shredding, building jumps andwhatnot. Then you moved to Baker, started following me around, and I don’t think we have built more than two handfuls of cheese wedges in the last four years. What happened?
It wasn’t a conscious decision. Really, it was after I met you through [John] Laing and [Patrick] McCarthy that I started realizing that going super fast and scaring the shit out of myself was more fun for me, and it just kept going from there.

You took a series of avalanche safety courses this past winter at Mt. Baker. Did it affect your previous outlook on snowboarding?
Yeah, it did. What I learned changed my outlook on snowboarding, the mountains, and the power of Mother Nature… I feel like it can go both ways—the more information you have, the scarier it can be and it can make you more cautious, but at the same time, your guard isn’t always up so much on a powder day if you have an understanding of the conditions.

Do you find that your beard scores you any points with the ladies?
This is going to take a second. Let me think…

You might as well just say no.
[Laughs] No, because I haven’t scored with any ladies when I’ve had the beard, so no. Maybe I’ll meet a girl that’s really into beards, though.

You could move to Portland.
Yeah. Uh, no, no. I’m not moving to Portland. Fuck that.