The Square Life

At first glance Jeremy Jones looks like the kind of guy who might make Mom nervous when you say he’s your hero.
It could be the shoulder-length hair, scruffy beard, and hooded sweatshirt that may make her think he’s a bad influence—but one would be wrong in pinning a stereotype on Jones.
The 32-year-old free styling snowboarder who’s been a professional since he was 18, who is called a legend by his fans, who has two children, and who can pick up a dirty diaper without batting an eye, has made a point of avoiding the rebellious, rock star image that sometimes comes with a snowboard sponsorship.
He is who he is. You don’t have to like it.
“I’ve always just wanted to represent snowboarding in a way that is real,” Jones says from the steps inside his garage. “I’m not trying to follow a contest circuit and an energy drink sponsor or a cell phone sponsor and all of that just to get a lot of cash because, with all of that cash, comes so many obligations. I want to spend time with my family and be home. . . . I like being home and I like my time off. I’m not going to sacrifice the life I want to live, necessarily, for money.”
That being said, Jones is far from lazy. He’s traveled across the world to film mere seconds of footage, driven by a die-hard passion that pushes him to great lengths to try something new. His quest for originality makes the giant American flag painted on the inside wall of his garage seem a little less surprising, but eye-catching nonetheless. You might rather stare at his two shiny Harleys or ogle his hand-designed Burton prototype snowboards propped against the wall, but you can’t ignore the flag.
It’s big enough to make you think that Jones, who beats to no one else’s drum, must be really, really patriotic. After all, he painted the flag himself before also painting himself to match the flag—his shaved, blue head hidden among the white stars and striped clothes camouflaged in the red and white—for a photograph. In reality, the big flag is a kind of statement. It says just how far Jones will go to get creative. All that effort, for just one shot, and then Jones is on to the next big idea—without a second thought toward repeating the stunt.
“It’s been done,” he shrugs.
That’s the kind of energy Jones likes to put into snowboarding. That’s the kind of individuality he wants to inspire in young riders who watch his film segments with awe; and, like him, some might have started their love of snowboarding with an eighth-grade obsession with skateboarding.
Jones’s first encounter with snowboarding happened when he took the wheels off his skateboard, strapped his feet to the deck with a bicycle inner tube, and slid down a gully in his friend’s back yard. He was sold.
“I rode for two years before I went to a mountain,” Jones said. “And then I was posting up at the candy machines every day at school asking for change. Five days of that and I usually had enough for two lift tickets, or at least one. And that was it. I was focused on something, and I wanted to do it.”
On another day a few years later, when Jones was 19, a friend came to town and signed him to a team. Jones makes it sound like luck.
“I was just holding the right cards that day, pretty much,” he says.
From there, Jones competed in a few events, but he mostly concentrated on making movies and building a name for himself. About three years ago, as soon as he could avoid the large crowds of a snowboard competition, Jones stepped out of the contest scene.
Now if he’s at a competition, it’s as an anonymous spectator with is wife and kids, just like anyone else.
Jones admits that part of his aversion to live competitions comes from not being much of a live performer, but the main reason Jones says he’s dedicated his career to filming is because he prefers the lifestyle.
“I’m doing what the core kid wants to do,” Jones says. “The core kid doesn’t want to go to the Olympics. He might be doing some stuff to get his name out there because that’s kind of how you build it up nowadays; you do some local rail events and win a couple of contests and get your name out there, and then you’ll either go full contest guy or you’ll start filming. It’s a smaller lifestyle.”
When Jones rides, it’s usually in the middle of nowhere, with just a few people—including a photographer and a videographer—and miles of white snow. He mostly takes the summers off and spends time at home with his family. During the winter, he travels from one ideal condition to another, from across America to New Zealand to Japan, getting the best powder out there.
“It’s a different world than the contest or the X Games guys,” Jones says. “Nowadays, to be a winner in a contest, you have to commit your whole season to it because the contest goes and goes and goes. If you’re filming, you’re in Whistler one weekend, and overnight, you find out Salt Lake is going to be good, and you’re hopping on a plane, or you’re driving all night to get here the next day; so, you have to be on your game, no matter what you’re doing.”
Jones got most of his inspiration from snowboarding videos when he was younger, and now he’s trying to carry on the tradition.
His goal is to grab the far-off dreams of many young snowboarders who love the sport and bring them to a reachable reality. You don’t need fistfuls of money, you don’t need scads of sponsorships—you just need to be yourself, says Jones. And have a little ingenuity.
“I was never a hero type of guy,” Jones said. “I had people that were inspirational, and it influenced the way I snowboarded. I wanted to snowboard a certain way, and there were people that showed me how to do that through videos. It made my imagination, and the tricks I could see in my head—it made them become a reality because I saw them doing something similar. It was all those people that influenced me that helped me to get to the level that I’m at, and that’s what I want to give to kids. I want them to see you can push it as far as you want. When they watch me snowboard, I hope they realize, ‘Oh, I can do this.’”
After 12 years in the business, Jones thought he would have retired, but he’s still waiting for someone to take the torch from him. Most people have finished their snowboarding careers after three or four years, but Jones says he’ll just keep going until he’s lost the fire.
“My goal is to go out on top and be done at the level that kids know me as,” Jones says as he gets up for another photo shoot in his garage. “I don’t want to just fizzle away. I want people to say, where did he go? As soon as I feel like I can’t accomplish what I need to, I’m just going to be gone.”
He doesn’t know when he’ll retire, and he’s mysterious about what he’ll do next. You might see him in a feature-length documentary or hear his name when a new business starts up. Or you might not see Jones at all. He might just be out in his garage, tinkering on one of those Harleys.
Only one thing is for sure: Jones will do what Jones wants to do. Whatever he does, he’ll be keeping it real.

WHAT JEREMY'S ROCKIN'

Snowboard: 

Burton,  Jeremy Jones

Bindings: 

Burton, Cartel EST

Boots: 

Burton, Jeremy Jones

Outerwear: 

Burton, AK

Goggles: 

Anon, Figment-Jeremy Jones