Thank U Snowboarding Podcast - S1 EP8 Tom Kingsnorth
If you’re reading this, there’s a pretty good chance you love snowboarding. We do too, so much so that we decided to make a podcast waxing poetic about it. Thank U Snowboarding is a celebration of the UK snowboard scene, a deep dive into its journey from ‘Ban This Killer Craze’ to the mainstream and a nostalgia-fuelled look back at the glory years. Each week we’ll sit down with an influential figure, exploring the past, present and future of the sport and remind ourselves why we leapt headfirst down the snowboarding rabbit hole in the first place.
For Episode 8, host Chris Cracknell gets into it with Tom Kingsnorth, longtime seasonaire, founder of Transform Gloves, Editor of Pleasure Snowboard Magazine and owner of the cutest kitten in Central Europe. Tom waltzed onto the UK dryslope scene as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 11-year-old, with boots that came up to his kneecaps and a setup that weighed more than he did. As a teenager, he decided to move to Mayrhofen from South London, stepped off the plane in Innsbruck chomping at the bit, clad in full thermals and outerwear, not realising that summer in the mountains equated to a semi-tropical climate. In the following decades, Tom carved out a successful career with a journey that’s equal parts funny and inspiring. He’s an all-around good egg, always up for a lap and a laugh, listen to his story below.