Canadian skier/snowboarder Sean Pettit isn’t your average athlete.
A native of the nation’s capital, Pettit moved out west to Whistler, BC at an early age where he grew an interest in freeskiing. His passion translated into early success, and he was consequently signed by Oakley at just 11 years of age. Today, he is recognized globally as one of the best in his sport while also keeping busy in both the retail and restaurant industries.
So how exactly does a 25-year-old manage to become one of Red Bull’s most recognized faces, start his own clothing line, and open up his restaurant all at once? We had the opportunity to chat with Pettit and unravel how he balances such a hectic schedule. The 2015 X-Games medalist also revealed his favouritre Canadian sports team and the details behind making a freeskiing film.
Jesse Pollock: When did you get into freeskiing?
Sean Pettit: I started skiing when I was two years old; I was kind of born into it. Both of my parents skied. My mom was on the professional ski racing team. She had both me and my brother on skis at a really young age. Freeskiing didn’t happen until I first went into the terrain park at probably around eight years old. After experiencing what a terrain park was like, and that I could do tricks and realized that was a thing, I ended up getting picked up with my first sponsorship at 11 years old.
JP: And that was with Oakley, correct?
SP: Yeah, Oakley was first, and that quickly followed by K2 Skis.
JP: When you were 13 you got picked up by Red Bull. What has it been like being a part of their team?
SP: It’s huge. I feel special to be a part of such an insanely cool squad of really talented people. I think at the time when I got picked up, when I was 13, Red Bull was still really new to Canada. I didn’t really know what it was to be honest. I did know what Red Bull was but it was so new and there wasn’t this huge history behind it yet, at least in Canada. It was maybe after a couple of years of me being on their team when I started to realize what they were all about. It became so much more than I originally anticipated it to become. They’ve definitely done a lot for my career.
JP: What was it like getting picked up during elementary school?
SP: It probably did a lot for me being in school at the time. It must have been my last year of elementary school or first year of high school. We don’t have middle school in Whistler (laughs). It was kind of crazy. At first I wasn’t really sure what it was al about, and then maybe a year or two after being with Red Bull I didn’t realize that I was associated with such an all-star squad. It made me feel special and a lot of the kids I went to elementary school with probably thought it made me pretty special, too! (Laughs). Growing up in Whistler, everyone is pretty grounded. That didn’t change when I got signed. I don’t think it changed the way people respect me either. It’s done a ton for my career, but I think I’ve managed to stay grounded. The friends I surrounded myself with kept me grounded and didn’t let me get carried away too quickly, because you can imagine that a 13-year-old kid getting associated with a brand like Red Bull would be a major ego boost, so I’m glad it didn’t affect my head too much.
JP: You’ve been in a ton of skiing movies. How many attempts does it usually take before you get the right shot that filmmakers want?
SP: It depends. I think the best case scenario it’s first take, and a lot of the time it is the first take. The hardest part about shooting video or photos in skiing or snowboarding is that you don’t get too many takes. You don’t get too many opportunities to do the same thing you’re trying to do multiple times, especially in back-country skiing. Your day is super short and you’re trying to capitalize on your day. It’s so dependent on the conditions, when those are good you want to be able to perform at your absolute best because you don’t know when the next good day is going to come around. You only sometimes get a handful of solid shoot days in an entire season, so you have to pack those days in with a lot of action.
JP: I would imagine your quads are enormous. What is your workout routine like?
SP: (Laughs) I do have preseason training. Red Bull has a physiotherapist and trainer who’s on the program. He’s been treating me and making sure I’m fit since I first got onto the team. He knows how my body and muscles are supposed to function. But to be honest, during the season the best thing for me to do is to just go out and ride. There’s nothing that can prepare your muscles more than doing the actual act of skiing or snowboarding. There are just all of these little muscles in your legs and core that you cannot replicate or strengthen in a gym.
JP: You recently started your own fashion line. Can you talk about your brand?
SP: The brand is called Super Proof. I’ve always been really into fashion. This is not a sportswear brand and it’s not tied to what I do. It’s a brand that’s going to speak for itself, which is what I want it to be. We’re set to hopefully be launching this late spring in 2018. It’s all street wear, pretty much anything that I would wear (laughs). I’m not trying to appeal to what’s hot right now, I’m appealing to what I like to wear and hopefully there are people out there who like to wear the same clothes that I do (laughs).
JP: Where can I find it?
SP: Superproofbrand.com.
JP: So you’re doing this AND you have your own restaurant called Legs Diamond. Tell me about it, I checked out the menu and pictures and it looks absolutely fire.
SP: (Laughs) before getting into Legs Diamond, I became a part owner of three other restaurants called the El Furniture Warehouse in Whistler, Quebec and Toronto (Bloor street Location). That’s how I was introduced into the restaurant game. My old man owned some concessions and always ran music festivals and stuff like that with food trucks. He started as a kid in a restaurant and then eventually opened up his own food truck in Ottawa. He did the food truck thing at various types of festivals all around the Ottawa area for many, many years, and then once me, my brother and my mom moved out to Whistler, I think he always wanted to chase us out here because it’s where his boys are. Eventually over a 20 year period, he made the move out to Whistler to be closer with me and my brother. After a year of being here he was like, “I think we should do something,” and it came down to opening up a restaurant. We needed to find a space to do it, and that was a challenge in itself because Whistler is very hard to find any sort of real estate, especially when you’re trying to open up a business. There’s a lot of competition, particularly in the food business out here, but we were willing to make the move, we found a space and it fit the concept that we were going for. The concept came down to how can we do something different from the rest of Whistler. Whistler has a lot of places that are lodge, mountain kind of places.
JP:- Yeah, you’ve got to shake it up a bit.
SP: Exactly. Our inspiration came from the 1920’s in New York, nothing to do with Whistler whatsoever. It’s something that we were into and thought would work, so that’s where Legs Diamond all came from. The walls are all decked out in sheets of copper, there’s a purple heartwood bar, the silverware and plates are all China from old ladies in Vancouver that we found on Craig’s List. It’s really stylized to the last little bit of everything to make sure that it has that really different feel. It’s really been fun learning more about the business, and it’s really my old man that takes on most of the operations. I’m helping with some of the marketing and coming up with new concepts going forward. I definitely give my old man a lot of credit.
JP: How are you able to manage your time so well with everything going on at once?
SP: To some people it sounds impossible, but skiing is so weather dependent that sometimes I’m picking and choosing my days to go. The days that I’m not going, I can fully dive into everything else that I want to do. For my clothing line I’m often just sitting in front of a computer, making phone calls, and stuff like that. I think my time management has been important. Knowing how to pick and choose your days, and go all in on those days, I need to capitalize on them because the very next day I might not have any time to work on them. I don’t like being bored. Ever. If I’m bored at any point in time then I would realize that I should be picking up something else and adding it to my list of stuff. For now I have a list of stuff to do, so I don’t ever get bored. I don’t like not having something to do. I don’t really like vacation because there’s nothing to do for me on a vacation unless it involves sports every day. That’s an important factor that goes into everything working out.
JP: You’ve accomplished so much and you’re just 25... I’m also 25... uh... you’ve done a whole lot more than me (laughs).
SP: (Laughs) I hope it’s motivation. I try to push a bunch of ideas on my friends to go out and do something that’s out of their comfort zone. A lot of the time you just need to think, “what do I have to lose?” I know things cost money and stuff like that, but you’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t make any big changes or big moves. It’s a matter of making sacrifices sometimes or shaking up your routine and trying something different. It all comes down to what you’re really into, and following up with that. Thinking about the clothing thing, it was like, “well, I’m really into fashion and I love being apart of it. A lot of the time I can’t find the exact clothing I want to wear, so I’m going to make it myself!” It doesn’t have to be a mainstream world problem for me to start something cool, it’s just got to be a personal void that I can potentially fill.
JP: Are you a hockey fan?
SP: I wouldn’t call myself a huge hockey fan. If we’re going to go with team sports, I’m more into basketball. I went to my first Raptors game two springs ago when they played the Miami Heat in the playoffs and totally fell in love with it. I felt like I was at a concert. The energy in the building was a lot higher to me than a hockey game and it just made me super stoked on basketball. I’m definitely not a good basketball player (laughs), but it’s a super fun sport to watch and I’m waiting for my next opportunity to get back to another Raptors game.
JP: Can you go BarDown?
SP: What does that mean?
JP: Can you take a shot that hits the crossbar and goes into the net in hockey.
SP: Sounds like a challenge. I think my shot would be just as good closing my eyes than with my eyes open, so I have no idea if that puck would hit that crossbar and go into the net. I’d say my chances are pretty 50/50.
JP: We’re going to say that you can go BarDown with your eyes closed.
SP: (Laughs) ha-ha, yeah man.
