In this one, Cody talks to videographer Gary Milton. He describes himself as a snowboarder, through and through — one who, every year, has a best day ever. A day spent with old friends and new friends and riding powder. It’s reminiscent of his upbringing in Palmer, Alaska, where he and his buddies would explore the surrounding woods and mountains. They’d snowboard 16 mile and, for their age and their ability, it was filled with huge and intimidating jumps that had names like “The Beast,” and “Endless.” One was a big boulder and the other was basically a 20-ft step-down jump. The walls in his bedroom became proof of his love for snowboarding. It was plastered with posters and covers ripped from snowboard magazines. Years later, when he started filming for the TransWorld SNOWboarding video, he walked into their office in California and saw so many of the same photos he had on his walls as a kid. It was a surreal moment that felt like he had somehow manifested a childhood dream.

 

For 10 years, Gary helped film snowboard videos for Think Thank, TransWorld SNOWboarding and Videograss. It was all-consuming. Every year there’d be six months of filming — with chances to go home for maybe four days a month, if he was lucky. Then there’d be one or two months dedicated to editing. And then it was premier season. It was exhausting and rewarding, but he ultimately got burned out and moved on to film a hunting show called Team Elk for five years.

 

He eventually decided to get into therapy because he didn’t like where his personal life was heading. There was just too much drinking and bad decision-making going on. He wanted to understand and overcome his childhood trauma and end those patterns of abuse. To re-establish himself as reliable, thoughtful and caring. Someone his wife and daughter could rely on at any time of the day. And that’s exactly what he did.