On June 1, 2014, Chas Guldemond’s life changed forever when he won the ultimate prize, the birth of his son Rocky.
Since then, a lot has changed for Chas. The biggest change, he has learned to become a less selfish person. Chas has also learned that balance is key.
“Having a son definitely turned my world upside down, but for the better!”
At 29 years old, Chas knows that he is in his physical prime. Training these days doesn’t mean what it used to, says Chas. “I don’t have to train as much as I did when I was a young grommet.”
Clearly that much is true. Within a short matter of months from his son’s birth, Chas came and conquered at Dew Tour. Not only did Chas take home the Slopestyle win, he also managed to debut a new trick (switch double wildcat) that he had learned during the months when most new parents are struggling to get a decent night’s sleep.
Chas’ life is now about balance. If Rocky is at daycare, Chas is out and about skating or snowboarding. When Rocky takes a nap, Chas is excited and immediately gets to business training in some fashion.
“It’s just funny. Whenever he is sleeping, I’m just out the door thinking, ‘Okay, this is my time. Make the most of it.'”
But when Rocky is ready for daddy time, Chas is always there.
“My son and my wife are the most important things to me in my life.”
For the past 11 years (more or less), Chas has been living in the Tahoe area (currently Truckee) for two reasons; “One, it is beautiful. The second, it is an amazing place to train.”
Between snowboarding at Tahoe throughout the winter, utilizing the lake in the summer, and working with his personal trainer, Chas says living in that area is great because it is essentially a four-season mountain training hub.
Tahoe not only offers Chas the on-snow training in the winter, but during the summer he can be found working on trampolines and skateboarding to better his abilities come snowboard season once again.
Chas has been skating for 21 years, and this past summer he found himself skating a lot more than in recent years. Recognizing trends, Chas knows that anytime he spends getting technical on his skateboard will only help him in snowboarding.
“This summer I ended up skating about three days a week,” said Chas. “One thing that has
changed in snowboarding, it has gotten a lot more technical and a lot more creative, and that comes directly from its skateboarding roots. So, when I go out and skate, I try to do stuff outside of my comfort zone… I know that it directly translates to my snowboarding.”
Between the Truckee local park and Woodward Tahoe, Chas has regular access to train on his skateboard all summer.
So the question is, what will he be bringing to this year’s new two-part Slopestyle format? Chas has been known to ride it all. So, with the jump section being scored separate from the rails, how will he look to standout from the crowd?
“I’m really stoked to adapt and change my strategy for the new contest format,” said Chas following the first day of practice. “The key elements of a Slopestyle event are still there. It is just broken up, so it changes the game. Honestly, [with these changes] you are going to see way heavier tricks go down off a single jump, and on the rails, when people put down there heavy run, you will stuff you would not ever see if there were jumps following them. People are going to be hyped.”
For Chas in particular, he has been dialing in his triple cork variations over the off season and spent the entire first day of practice hiking the various rail sections.
“I hiked single features and figured out what was working for me on each one,” said Chas looking back on the day. “I’m trying to pick a couple lines that I want to refine and make my own. Actually, I had a pretty good day. Now I need to go home, stretch, and get after it again tomorrow.”
See what rail lines Chas stitches together and just how dialed his tripe corks are in the Slopestyle final on Saturday, December 10 live on DewTour.com at 9 a.m. Mountain Time.
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