It’s the summer of 2011. A 20-year-old Dan Liedhal, Danimals aka @littleyogurtbottle, is on a 26-hour road trip to Mt. Hood for Videograss week. He just spent the previous winter filming in Minnesota with his friends and occasionally his idols, including Jake OE. Dan's a passionate snowboarder and he dreams of pursuing it forever. Little does he know, his dreams are about to start coming true.

Fast forward to the summer of 2024. Dan is now giving me a tour of his beautifully handcrafted home in Minnesota. His backyard is a luxurious mid-west haven complete with a chicken coop. He gathers some eggs and shows me the kiddy pool, inviting me to relax there if I ever visit. Virtually, he welcomes me into his office space, where we reminisce about the glory days of his surprise part in "Shoot The Moon." - Katie Kennedy

 

All right, Dan. In 2011, how old were you?
I was probably 18. Wait, let’s do the math. I was born in 1991. I graduated high school in 2009. So I was actually 20.

The years leading up to that, I was riding Highland every day. We had an awesome crew of friends. We had been starting to film our own stuff. So, our crew knew what we were doing. I’d filmed some stuff before in the streets. But I didn’t really have any sponsors. I knew reps, and I had been talking to some loosely about sponsorships.

We were filming and putting things out with Jake Durham. At that time, we were actually getting a decent amount of views, and people seemed to really like it. But it was small. Then I started filming with a local production called Bald Eagle Productions. They were more well known. I thought that I was just filming for Bald Eagle and was stoked on that.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, he was one of these guys that we always looked up to and had filmed really awesome stuff. He was part of the crew before us that we idolized growing up. We wanted to snowboard with them and do the things they did. We were always homies. He was riding Highland, and he was super friendly. Then started having these opportunities to go and film with them. Him and Jonas, guys like that.

So they brought us under their wing a bit. We would tag along for like the one stop they needed help with or a spot that they didn’t know year one. And then year two, they’re like, "Do you want to just film with us?"

Riley Erickson, who lived here in Minneapolis, was a full-time VG filmer. He would go and ride Highland and film these guys all the time, making edits and stuff. We became really good friends with him. So, we would just film at Highland, and then he’d be like, “You should just come and tag along with us. We're going to these spots.” And then he would bring us to the spots, and I'd just be there with the crew, filming, but also under the impression that I'm filming for something different.

That summer, I drove out to Hood with Jake, which is pretty far, with no plan. That was my first summer going to Hood, and it was VG week. These were the guys I wanted to hang with. At the end of the session, they premiered the video, and I’m just thinking I’m getting an early viewing of a sick video. But then I was surprised with a little part. It was really cool. That was my first time being in a big video. I actually haven’t watched this in a long time.

I was so hyped to be riding Academy boards. Jake OE was a big reason I switched and was down to ride for Signal.

Watching a second time

What happened to your career after this part?

After this, I filmed for VG until VG took a break. Damn, I must have filmed for like six more VGs or something after this. I would say at this time VG was the shit, and I still think VG is the shit. But at this time, it was this new video production company like MacDawg or Absinthe. And VG was the cool new one that I wanted to be a part of. To me, it was the coolest place to be in snowboarding. Before this, I was filming smaller things and totally happy with it, but then this happened, and it definitely kicked off a lot of things in my career. I started riding for Signal, and pretty soon after that, I started riding for Quicksilver. They would support me in Videograss year after year. This part had a very big impact on whether I’d still be snowboarding right now or not.