Run-In: Mason Lemery—As Seen in Issue 1.3

  |   SLUSH STAFF

p: Mike Yoshida

DOB:
4/26/2000
Home mountain: Mt. Bachelor, OR
Stance: Goofy
Sponsors: Ride Snowboards, Tactics, Mt. Bachelor, Tokyo Starfish, L1

The lack of fucks that this kid has to give is unmatched. From waking up half the snowboard industry at 7 AM, revving the piss out of his pit bike at Mt. Hood, to hiking a barrier up Mt. Bachelor so he could solo session it on a quarterpipe, only to be kicked out once he finally got it up there. The Vermont native knows a thing or two about pulling o insane tricks both on and off the hill. He’s got big mountain ripping in his blood, and is just getting warmed up for what will be many years of “what the fuck” moments on his snowboard. - Jared Elston

What have you been up to?

Dude, masonry, been working a lot. Vermont is mad rainy and gray.

So your name is Mason, or you are a mason?

Shit, I guess both now.

Tell us who your uncle is and the impact he’s had on you.

Jake Blauvelt is my uncle, and yeah, I have always looked up to him. He’s always kept me dialed with gear and keeps me inspired.

What’s up with your maple syrup obsession?

Haha, you know I’m always strapped. It goes in everything I consume. I use old syrup bottles as water bottles in the backcountry so I have maple water. If I’ve ever given someone maple syrup, I think they are a good person.

What made you decide to move across the country to Bend as an 18 year old?

I got really tired of Vermont, I just felt trapped in a bubble and the snowboarding sucked. My friend Dylan was moving there with his parents, so two days after graduating high school I packed up and left. It’s been sick, so much fun.

Sketchiest thing you did all summer?

Oh my god, actually, the dirtbike incident. Me and my friends were riding these mini bikes and I lost my homie in front of me so I was hauling ass to catch up to him. I caught him and we stopped super quick probably three or four feet from each other, but I forgot that our other friend was behind us on a quad. He couldn’t stop and the 4 wheeler went between us and caught my friend’s leg and threw us both off our bikes, that was pretty fucked.

Did you sell your bike after that?

Yeah, never got on it again.

Do you still owe Nik [Baden] money for your dirtbike?

Nik said I didn’t have to pay him back. I sent him money and he sent it back. Such a G.

Mason claims this was much easier than doing a backflip off a Redbox. Mt. Baker, WA. // p: Mike Yoshida

What’s the longest you have driven without stopping?

36 hours from Fort Collins, Colorado to Vermont. I was going to meet up with my friend Max in New York City, but once I was there he told me that he didn’t have a couch for me to stay on anymore. I turned around and just drove to Vermont. I drank so many Red Bulls and it was so sketchy.

Which is gnarlier: backflipping off of a Redbox over a parking block or Baker Road Gap?

Backflipping off of a Redbox, honestly. There’s so much concrete, and if you’re doing it you’re probably shitfaced. I hurt my ankle on the parking block. The road gap you stand on top of it, and it’s just like, if I ran for like five feet I could probably land in the snowbank on the other side.

Where do you find the drive to be the most fucked up kid at the party?

(Laughs) I guess it just happens, no drive at all. Not proud of it.

What’s your dream trick on your dream spot?

Dropping the retaining wall at Baker. [The massive cliff that Koonhead tried many years ago.

 

What happened on your 21st birthday and the following morning?

We went downtown and got pretty faded. The bars were dead and someone said that we should go to the strip club, so we all hopped in Alport’s truck and went to Stars. Everyone was tossin’ money, it was sick. I don’t remember much, but the boys got me a lap dance and the girl gave me her snapchat but by morning time I was blocked. My friend Eli drove me up early the next morning because I still felt drunk, and by 9 AM or so I was on top of cornice with Alport and decided to try to chicane off the top and somehow rode away on the first try.

Had you done a chicane before?

I tried a couple at Baker but never landed them.

What the hell was going on in your head when you decided to backside 180 off of the cornice into a bumpy-ass hill bomb with flat light, a t-shirt, and a sketchy directional board?

Not a whole lot dude, not a whole lot is going on up there. I didn’t really know what else to do on it, I was on the Warpig and thought it’d look sick to ride out fakie with no tail.

Did you get more instagram followers from those tricks or your backflips off of various objects?

Dude, I got like 300 followers from those backflips. I woke up that next morning and my phone was blowing up. Yeah that was pretty sick (laughs).

Let’s say it just snowed two feet at Baker, you get to pick any three people to shred with. Who you got?

Jake Blauvelt, Jared Elston, and Nik Baden. All day long. First time there I met and rode with you guys and it was such a trip, I felt like I was in a movie or something.

You run the “Street Snowboarding is Stupid” sticker pretty heavily, you believe that?

I can’t watch street boarding. I just get so bored.

Fight to the death with Gabe Ferguson, do you come out alive?

Dude I’d feel so bad. I’d rather fight Pete [Alport].

You think you could take Pete in a death match? 

Yeah, I wouldn’t be proving anything fighting Gabe, ya know? Death fight against Gabe? I wonder how that’d start.

What are your goals for this winter?

I’m gonna be in Baker for all of January, not much of a plan. Try and shred as much as possible and try to save my clips for something next fall.

Wackest thing in snowboarding at the moment?

Probably competitions. I don’t know, snowboarding is pretty dope, there’s not many wack things about it.

Anything else?

Shoutout Tokyo Starfish and I love all my friends.