Clark Robinson on Flying, Ski BASE, and Preserving It Enjoyable

Some athletes specialize. Others blur the strains.

Out of Salt Lake City’s tight-knit air sports activities scene, Clark Robinson has constructed a fame as a real hybrid; equally snug underneath cover, in a wingsuit, or on skis, typically mixing two of these disciplines right into a single, fluid goal. In latest years, he’s stacked a number of notable ski BASE descents in and round Jackson Hole; terrain that has lengthy served as a proving floor and artistic backdrop for Teton Gravity Research.

The Tetons have all the time attracted athletes keen to take a look at a line in another way. Clark suits naturally into that lineage; not as a result of he’s chasing spectacle, however as a result of he sees risk the place others see limitation. A powder subject that ends in a cliff turns into a launch level. A closeout turns into an exit. Gravity turns into a part of the plan.

From the skin, it might probably appear to be danger for danger’s sake. But Clark’s message is less complicated. This isn’t about ego. It’s about having enjoyable. It’s about exploring the overlap between snowboarding and flight, pushing curiosity additional, and sharing these moments with pals. Behind the parachutes and dedicated exits, the throughline is pleasure; and the reminder that even in critical terrain, it’s nonetheless about getting rad along with your homies.

Hear it from the man himself.

What’s up dude! I’m Clark Robinson, from Salt Lake City Utah, and I actually love being within the air. Skydiving, BASE leaping, wingsuiting, speedflying/speedriding, paragliding, and snowboarding are what I spend quite a lot of my time pursuing. Basically something that includes flying your physique, flying a parachute, snowboarding down a mountain, or typically all three. 

Flying and snowboarding are so superb and I really like exploring and being energetic outdoors. Growing up, snowboarding within the mountains was my favourite factor on the earth. I simply needed to ski each probability I might and was all the time drawn to climbing up stuff and being within the air, whether or not that was on skis, cliff leaping into water in the summertime, or no matter else. 

Watching folks like Shane McConkey, JT Holmes, Erik Roner, and different ski BASE leaping and fly wingsuits made it apparent that was one thing I needed to do in the future. That curiosity finally led me to join a skydiving course once I began school. When I confirmed up, the trainer requested why we had been there and I naively instructed them I needed to ski BASE soar haha. Well, I ended up doing a solo skydive and I bear in mind I simply couldn’t imagine it labored when the parachute opened. I simply couldn’t cease laughing out of pure pleasure and stoke. 

All of that has led me to largely shaping my way of life and power round studying to fly. I’ve put in quite a lot of work to turn into a effectively rounded athlete inside human flight and have been having the time of my life doing it!!

Yeah, I see them as totally different, however they’re actually much like me. What I feel is so cool is how you’ll be able to work together and play with the terrain and nature. 

In the winter we tour up mountains and ski a line, and in the summertime we hike up mountains and fly a line. It’s an analogous expertise, however clearly totally different. Either method, we get to exit and get rad with our buddies and the sentiments I get from each are sometimes fairly related. Usually leading to excessive fives and yelling actually loud about how cool that was hahahaha.

Yeah I don’t know. I bear in mind once I was little, I climbed up on a playhouse roof and full superman dived off of it, completely prolonged and parallel with the bottom with no thought beforehand of touchdown on my ft. Then midair put my arms out to catch my fall and ended up breaking my arm fairly unhealthy. I bear in mind crying to my mother telling her I used to be a large number hahaha. 

But yeah I all the time bear in mind being so stoked to leap off stuff and being drawn to that. I appreciated snowboarding once I began, however once I hit my first airs/cliffs/jumps on skis, that is once I was like “Oh wow this is so rad!” 

It was the identical with human flight/air sports activities. I used to be all the time drawn to the concept of BASE leaping and flying wingsuits. After discovering much more disciplines like speedriding, swooping, and freeflying, there may be much more to expertise and study and it continues to blow my thoughts.

Skiing is so sick. It’s such a cool option to discover and play outdoors. You and your mates can transport your self by means of loopy forests, chutes, gnarly terrain, off massive cliffs, all types of locations. It’s simply one of many coolest methods to play and transfer within the mountains that I’ve discovered. And there’s all the time one thing extra to get out of it, whether or not it’s park snowboarding, snowboarding in-bounds with my household, constructing backcountry jumps, airing cliffs, snowboarding strains, exploring new terrain, going for a tour and snowboarding powder, the checklist goes on.

I actually get pleasure from all types of snowboarding. And the most important draw to me proper now that I’m totally obsessive about is combining snowboarding with parachutes. Whether it’s speedriding or ski BASE leaping, it is wildly enjoyable.

There’s nothing prefer it. Normally if you find yourself hitting a soar on skis, you are attempting to determine the pace. You may take a flip or two or take a speedcheck so that you’ve the correct amount of pace for the touchdown. With ski BASE, there is just one pace, as quick as doable hahaha. You simply level your skis at an unsurvivable large cliff and let er buck!

The different cool half is that it permits you to ski strains which might be usually unskiable; that’s the truest type of it in my view.  When you discover a line that’s tremendous sick however ends in a closeout cliff. That’s if you add a magic backpack to the recipe and make it doable!

Well, you need an in-run and a cliff that permits you to have sufficient top and separation to securely open your parachute.  

It’s totally different from a standard BASE soar as a result of usually you don’t have any pace constructed up if you depart the cliff. So, after you soar it’s a must to speed up till you might have sufficient airspeed to your parachute to deploy. For ski BASE, you have already got pace constructed up if you depart the cliff, so your parachute opens faster. You can even soar off extra positively-angled cliffs with skis on as a result of you possibly can air method larger than you can simply working off of it.  

You might push the margins decrease than this, however typically talking, you are in search of a cliff round 200ft tall or larger. It needs to be pretty sheer, and have a pleasant inrun and clear lip to air off.  

There’s additionally quite a lot of components that make a ski BASE extra sophisticated than a standard BASE soar. Snag hazards, the relative wind’s impact in your skis, and pitch timing for various tips are only a few.

Ah man, that’s the bummer. All of those actions have dangers and risks. I might be keen to push tougher if I might simply smoke it into the bottom and simply stand again up and brush it off hahaha. It sucks if you hear about somebody having an accident or getting damage, and it’s even worse when it’s your buddy or your self. 

I’ve had some fairly gnarly experiences in my life.  Lots of individuals in the neighborhood cope with that with darkish humor. I’m method too delicate for that. I’m tremendous bummed when anybody will get damage or worse. But, additionally somebody on the market must get rad, so it might as effectively be us!

The danger of harm or loss of life is in all of those actions. But there may be additionally quite a lot of coaching, ability, and resolution making that may assist mitigate dangers and might make these actions comparatively protected for a very long time. There is all the time danger, and like all the pieces in life, errors and accidents occur.

People from the skin may suppose we’re all reckless danger takers. But on this group, if you see folks performing reckless and biting off greater than they will chew, everybody simply thinks they’re kooks and so they don’t get a lot respect from their friends. There’s a giant distinction between ability stage and urge for food for danger. From the skin, typically these two get confused. 

For instance, there are skilled jumpers with over 30,000 skydives which might be nonetheless round, wholesome and ripping it up. They have zero ego and don’t care what others suppose, but are extra skillful than the younger weapons charging laborious with one thing to show. The greatest athletes aren’t essentially those pushing the toughest, and when folks select to always enhance their urge for food for extra danger it can lead to writing checks that they will’t money. 

I’ve quite a lot of actually good mentors and heroes that I look as much as which were doing these actions for a very long time, and I actually hope I can proceed to get pleasure from these actions for a few years to return.

Also; Jesse Hall, Marshall Miller, Erik Roner, Espen Fadnes, Miles Daisher, Scotty Freeland, Pat Walker, Noah Bahnson, Sean Chuma, Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet, Mark Ortiz, Tom Erik, JT Holmes, Valentin Delluc, Ugo Gerola, Edgar Pascal, Kasha and Andy Farrington, Antoine Montant, Brian Wallace, Jon Devore, Mike Swanson, Jeff Provenzano, Vincent Cotte, and Ambroise Serrano are all folks I look as much as and have quite a lot of respect for.  

Man there are such a lot of legends it’s laborious to checklist, there’s many extra. Some of those folks have turn into good pals, however even when I didn’t know them, I nonetheless suppose they’re absolute legends.

Those folks have taught me a lot and it is rad to see their model, innovation, and ability of their crafts. More than something, it is about being a enjoyable and good particular person. There’s quite a lot of colourful personalities in these sports activities and it is humorous when folks take themselves too critically. It’s not distinctive to be expert, as there are a lot of people who find themselves actually expert. The stage is so excessive these days, so I’d reasonably dangle and fly with somebody who’s telling jokes and having a very good snigger. 

Hilltop Hoods, The McConkey Movie, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Everyday’s a Saturday, Game of Gnar, Claim, re:Session, The Tangerine Dream, something from TGR, climbing documentaries; I actually like watching footage from all of my pals from no matter adventures they’re on.

It’s cooler to see your buddies having fun with life than watching a TV present or some group sport of random those that I don’t know doing an exercise that I don’t observe haha.

My massive wrestle is that I get fairly unhealthy FOMO. If I’m not capable of be part of a powder day, a cool skydiving occasion, or good climate for flying, I get type of anxious and really feel like I’m lacking out. It’s laborious for me to be current in no matter I’m doing as a result of I will probably be considering “Dang, I wish I was there tearing it up too”.

I don’t actually really feel strain aside from that. My cause for all of this has all the time been as a result of it’s actually enjoyable. 

Continuing to have alternatives in these sports activities is commonly necessary to have the ability to maintain having enjoyable. You have to determine skilled alternatives throughout the sports activities if you wish to be doing it on a regular basis, until you might have daddy’s cash haha. 

So, typically I fear about attempting to make extra alternatives occur. I simply need to have the ability to maintain doing all of this. My dream journey is to go to Alaska to speedride, ski BASE, ski, and wingsuit; so if anybody needs to sponsor that chance, then lets speak. Hahaha!

It’s all about having enjoyable. Hiking up a mountain and flying off is enjoyable. Jumping out of a aircraft and flying in a formation with your mates is enjoyable. Skiing powder is enjoyable. Skiing powder, after which flying off a cliff with a wing, and touchdown again in your skis for extra powder turns is enjoyable. 

I’m simply tremendous grateful that I’ve issues I actually like to do.  

My favourite recollections are within the air and mountains. Lots of fine occasions, laughs, loopy adventures, tales, cool hikes, inspiration, inside peace, studying, development, and assembly superior folks. Staring on the stars, campfires, scorching canine, s’mores, and a lot extra!

In a world that usually frames air sports activities by means of the lens of consequence, Clark retains bringing it again to one thing easier. The terrain is critical. The margins matter. But the explanation he exhibits up isn’t sophisticated.

Jackson has all the time drawn athletes who see the mountains as extra than simply slopes to descend. Clark suits into that lineage; not as a result of he’s attempting to outdo what got here earlier than, however as a result of he’s nonetheless inquisitive about what’s doable. A ski line that ends in a cliff turns into a query. A cliff turns into an exit. Two disciplines, one mindset.

For him, it’s about mountain climbing with pals, studying always, and constructing abilities with out letting ego steer the ship. It’s about discovering new methods to maneuver by means of terrain that’s been there lengthy earlier than any of us.

Strip away the labels and the optics, and what’s left is straightforward: pleasure. As lengthy because it stays fun- actually, actually enjoyable, he’ll maintain climbing up and flying down.