Cover – The South Puget Sound is Northwest Snowboards territory; Olympia, Gig Harbor and Tacoma Tacoma Harbor is shown here with of course Mount Rainier towering over it all
Temple Cummins and parents Joe and Cheryl in front of the Tacoma Store. First opened in 1988, 22 years ago, and moved to current location in 2002 2805 Bridgeport Way West, Tacoma, WA 98466 (253) 564-5974
Northwest Snowboards consists of three shops in the South Puget Sound, which is south of Seattle. Since it's beginning in 1988 the shop has been owned and run by the legendary snowboard family, The Cummins; Joe and Cheryl and their sons Matt, Mike and Temple, all of whom have entered the Mount Baker Legendary Banked Slalom. They also have a bang up crew working for them. Heck their employees have gone on to be big whigs at Mervin (GNU, Lib Tech, Roxy Snowboards), sales reps and so on in the industry. Not just snowboarders either, all the brothers are avid and ripping skateboarders and surfers too. Two of the brothers, Temple and Matt even have their own pro model snowboards on GNU and Lib Tech. Of course NWS features skate and surf stuff too. Drop into NWS to buy a complete set up (you could even get your pro model snowboard autographed by Temple and/or Matt) , a t-shirt or everything in between!
Matt Cummins was making his own boards in 1983/84 ish (shown is his 3rd board he made) and urged the family to open NWS
The youngest of the Cummins Brothers, Temple blazing a sick line at Mount Baker. In case you don't know, Temple has won the Mount Baker Legendary Banked Slalom 4 times, been a key figure in snowboarding and could possibly put some trucks on your skateboard when he's working at the Gig Harbor Northwest Snowboards
Jamie Lynn (former NWS teamrider) art on the walls of the Tacoma store, yes, they carry other brands than just Mervin
Mike Cummins runs the Olympia and helps out with a lot of the NWS Graphics. Mike was nice enough to talk to us for a bit about running a family business, the perks, some history, keeping a small, independent shop going, keeping it true and real and things in general. Mikes a ripping snowboarder, skater, surfer and artisan
Mike Cummins holds down the Olympia NWS store, Mike still snowboards avidly, mostly at White Pass where the crowds are low and skates and surfs. Mike is also artist, doing a lot of the NWS graphics and doing tile work on the side. Shown here is the inside of Mikes home in Olympia which was abandon 2 years when he bought it for a song and fixed it up
SR: I guess what is super cool to me is the way you guys all live. All of you are still snowboarding; you, Temple, Matt, Barrett, Temple and Barrett's son, all doing all the things you are passionate about. There's no that many people living like that.
Mike: I think it's also seeing the drive of other friends; Mike Olson, Pete Saari, Paul Ferrel, friends we grew up with. Not like we were friends with those guys when we were younger but as we got older...it's like what are you going to get a job with the state or Starbucks or try to make something work, try to continue the shop, make One Ball Jay work, make those avenues so you can work and say “oh I want to go snowboarding today”
SR: You don't have to call in sick
Mike: I haven't called in sick my whole life but I can snowboard any good day that's out there
SR: Yea, but but your not living on the fringe of society in a van with no windows in the White Pass parking lot. You have a business, a house, live like a “normal” person
Mike: I think it's a whole lot of elements coming together but over all it's just the drive to be there, be healthy and get there on the good days. At least that's what I see with Temple, Matt, myself , there's only so many good snowboard days and surf days, so you want to be there
SR: I never really thought about it like that; there are only so many really good days. That is why the web exists, I mean would you be looking at Surfline for the perfect surf at your break if you were actually surfing perfect surf at your local break and not at work?
Mike: That's a cool thing here, they don't have the wish you were here cam.
SR: But with the right lifestyle you can go up if it snows 12”
Mike: Yea, instead of I wish I could call in sick or was on un-employment, whatever other people do.
SR: Drive up Friday night with everyone else, get up super early on Saturday, fight the crowds
Mike: (laughter) Yea, you don't catch it very good as often
SR: It's almost as much pressure snowboarding on weekends as being at work
Mike: I remember one day last year, it had snowed 24-30” Sunday evening through Monday. So Alpental was closed Monday then opened on Tuesday with 30” of new, Temple and I went up and it was just going to be super epic, we were on the chair and it's just more and more people showing up. Then the upper chair was being dug out. So many people were waiting that when we finally got on top it was like you were in a grocery store on a busy day. There were so many people around us that we like “this sucks” and we left. We went to the Snoqualmie park across the highway and did laps, We took one run and we were over the crowds
SR: That's what's it like in SoCal every weekend day.
SR: How did you get into doing tile.
Mike: I have been doing it since it High School as a hobby. Learned about glazes and clay bodies a little bit, kilns slowly got work
SR: Now you get paid to do it?
Mike: Half my income is from ceramics
SR: So you have a kind of artistic mindset and do a lot of the cool Northwest Snowboards graphics?
Mike: Temp did the Seahawks logo, they are going kick his ass because he stole their logo (laughter)
SR: Well, I don't know if it's stealing or more of a tribute, all the NWS stuff is so cool, it definitely sets the shop apart as a brand in itself, kind of?
Mike: There's some sweet stuff. That's the one thing that enables a shop like this to be here, is our branding. Where we slowly made our products as stuff people want. People buy equal our shirts to a Mervin or Indy shirt. We sell way more of our skateboards than other brands. It's not like it's cheaper or crappy but people want our logo.
SR: Independent shops like this...it seems like you almost need to create your own brand if you will. People take pride in it, Northwest Snowboards, "that's were I am from, Temple Cummins helped me put bindings on my snowboard, they got the cool graphics" and so on
Mike: People have to cometo NWS to get it, it's site specific. I think that's enabled the small shops to stay around
SR: No too mention the interaction, you know how to fit boots, not that someone at Zumiez can't fit boots...
Mike: Plus, if we see someone up at the mountain, we will try to take a few runs with customers. We sold them their snowboard and boots and then we take runs with them.
(I was actually with Temple and he took a run and gave a customer a ride back up the mountain at Hurricane Ridge) I have heard a lot of stories across America where Zumiez is the only place to buy stuff
SR: Maybe those towns that only have chain stores don't have people that take a big part part of the scene like Northwest Snowboards or even Snowboard Connection (another Puget Sound shop that is kind of a brand in itself)
Mike: Yea, it seems like there are places like that across the West Coast where there is the rad local shop to get stuff
SR: Like you don't go to Tacoma Washington, go to Zumiez to get a souvenir Zumiez t-shirt
Mike: Yea right, I think that's one thing that's cool about the snow, skate and surf culture. They embrace having that...it's not like they go to Wal Mart or Macy's and wear the same shirt as everyone else, it's a statement, you can go to these local stores where really knowledgeable people work and maybe live the life people dream they were living and you can buy stuff to support them
SR: Not to mention shop boards are a little cheaper?
Mike: Yea, but all these BMW skateboard models are made by M and M Skateboards, they're made by a skateboarder. Where everything else on the wall is made by Mexican workers or Chinese
SR: So other than NWS stuff, what's your big sellers?
Mike: Girl stuff is pretty sweet, they are big sellers
SR: What about local kid from Issaquah, David Gravette's Creature model?
Mike: I think only a certain amount of people care? Girl is a really good neutral company with a good team, good logos but they're not the crazy face tattoo guys or super partier skateboarder. A lot of companies really get that attitude where these guys are pretty out there which does not appeal to everyone. The magazines too, when Rob Dyrdek started his TV shows Thrasher stopped running photos of him. Or Andy Mac as soon as he started that stuff he is doing, they wouldn't even talk about him, they just sort of erased him from the skateboard pages
SR: That's actually what I don't like about skateboarding, even though I still skate
Mike: It's pretty interesting, skateboarding, like punk rock tries to be more...punk rock, kill the people making the money. It continuously tries to create that separation
SR: What snowboard stuff sells at NWS?
Mike: Man Mervin, how can you say anything bad about Mervin, they just hit the nail right on the head for a lot of people too. I was just at demo days at Mission Ridge, I rode 10 different reverse camber boards and they all rode so well
SR: Are all the board companies copying Mervin?
Mike: Mervin put reverse camber boards on the map but it would be like saying all these board companies who copied camber and what board company copied the first camber board. It's ideas that work.
SR: Or should all snowboard companies give money to Sherman Poppen for inventing snowboarding?
Mike: Or Matt Cummins, basically invented equal nose and tails?
SR: Really, what year was that?
Mike: pre Lib days
SR: That was a revolution
Mike: It's like all these boards are putting equal nose and tails on their boards a few years after Mervin but it's just a credit to board evolution. I mean skateboards used to look like this, now they look like this, who gets the money for the shape change, it's just evolution.
Every city has a mile of cars but do they have a mile of decks?
Gotta love the NWS branded goods! They are worth a stop even if you are not from the South Puget Sound
Water is everywhere in the Puget Sound from the sound itself to lakes, rivers, creeks, in frozen form on the mountains and as many people know in the pure form of rain falling from the sky. NWS sells wake boards and surfboards too to cover the water lovers. Surfing in the Northwest is kind of a mysto zone for surfing and hard to find info on. The Cummins family was prettty much born and raised on the water and have probably more local knowledge than anyone. Most of my friends replied “F-that, too cold” when I told them I surfed in Washington and that's how people in Washington like it, no surf schools, no surf hotels, no videos, hell most of the spots are private. Photo by Matt Cummins
More NWS branded clothes at the Olympia store
The Olympia Store, 2413 Harrison Ave. NW, Olympia, WA, 98502 (360) 357-3727
The Tacoma Store is 2 floors of snow skate, surf (and in the summer) wake goodness
Boots are the most important part of your snow arsenal and are you going to buy em online and complain all season or get someone to fit you in the right boots and love the season – support your local shop!
The Gig Harbor shop, 6820 Kimball Drive, Gig Harbor,WA 98335 (253) 853-5255
www.nwsnowboards.com