What's the dumbest thing you've done in the past week? Month? Year? 39 pro skiers weigh in

Next up in our series of summer questions for pro skiers, we asked pro skiers, “What’s the stupidest thing you’ve done in the past week? Month? Year?” Our selection of 39 responses range from crashing in the Olympics to surfing with LJ Strenio. Enjoy.

Ingrid Backstrom:

“Haha, too many to count. I went for a long spring ski tour the other day wearing my race boots, that was dumb and really painful. But, the ski down was really good so it’s a hard call whether all the pain was worth it or not.

In the last month, I planted a bunch of seeds in the garden too early and they are not coming up; time to re-plant I guess! It’s all a learning process with the garden.

And in the last year, I scraped up my car backing out of a carport in a hurry and it still bugs me every time I see the scratch. I’m getting it fixed soon though, which will be nice.”

Chris Benchetler:

“Tough question. I guess the first one that comes to mind is the other day, when I was surfing in Hawaii for a GoPro trip. I jumped off of a small cliff into the line up at low tide, thinking I was avoiding a long paddle out, but knowing the tide was too low. I nailed my knee on a rock and cut it up, making it sore for the last few days. I make stupid decisions like that every day. I believe that is what gives us wisdom: Learning from mistakes. I’ve made bad calls with skiing, sketchy snow packs, hitting jumps or features with too much consequence and getting hurt. The list goes on.”

Aaron Blunck:

“Last week I did my senior prank; this month I died my hair black; and for the year I would say how many times I hit my head, haha!”

Sage Cattabriga-Alosa:

“We talking risky, or stupid? I had a scary knife-edge ridge experience in Alaska two weeks ago; a perch about the size of a lunch tray, cornices, cliffs and crappy snow in every direction and full on pucker factor for a line that basically was two turns. That was risky.”

Joss Christensen:

“This last week I started up a new account at American First Credit Union and had my credit pulled for a loan that they later told me was unavailable.

This last month I left my car keys in my hoodie pocket as I was shredding the Timberline park during West Coast Session and they flew out at some point. Karl [Fostvedt] ended up finding them.

And this past year must of been at the Breck Grand Prix in January. It was the first day of practice and the weather was horrible. I decided for some reason to try a switch right tail 270 onto a waterfall down rail. It was like the fourth run of the day and as I went to 270 on I caught my tail on the rail and sent my right knee cap straight to the metal. I instantly thought I broke my knee cap but luckily just bruised the sh*t out of it and split my skin pretty good.”

Ian Compton:

“My spelling is always tremendously off but probably cutting off the top of my thumb last year whittling an arrow takes the cake. It wasn’t that dope.”

Ahmet Dadali:

“For the year I guess it would be trying to do a switch backflip; I probably shouldn’t have done it, and it took about 15 tries before finally getting it right, out in the streets.”

Justin Dorey:

“I crashed at the Olympics.”

Karl Fostvedt:

“This week I went surfing with LJ Strenio. He’s crazy, I’m crazy, and crazy plus crazy equals stupid.

This month I sold my car for $300.

This year I passed up a free trip to Retallack to compete in the VARS tournament. More bad timing, than stupidity, but goddamn I wish I could re-up on that opportunity. I guess Mike Nick will have to reinvite 4bi9 to the Orage Masters.”

Vincent Gagnier:

“I hit a park rail and broke my back, that was pretty dumb. I should have pussied out.”

Banks Gilberti:

“That’s impossible. I do something majorly stupid just about every day. I guess the last one pertaining to skiing was hitting a jump we built in the Colorado backcountry and it had a pretty epic, flat landing. I punished myself for so long on it that I ended up fracturing off a piece of the bottom of my femur, ending my season early and causing me to forfeit all the park shoots with Level 1.”

Nick Goepper:

“The stupidest thing I’ve done in the last week was get five feet away from a moose in Park City. In the past month I ran six miles as fast as I could without any training and was sore for four days. This year I held a dating contest for myself after the Olympics.”

Magnus Granér:

“Tweaked my knee two months ago. Getting back now though. Enjoying the Mahalo Volcano at Mt. Hood this summer, I’ll be at the Graveyard if you want to get down!”

James Heim:

“It’s been a pretty good year for me so far but last summer I returned home from a trip and had my girlfriend (Jane) pick me up at the airport. I guess I stuck my passport in her door in a way that she didn’t notice. Two weeks later I was packing for a trip to Chile and of course couldn’t find my passport. Tore apart the whole house, and there was obviously nothing. I had to email the day before the trip saying I might not make it. Luckily, with a lot of running around for the next 12 hours and a little luck I managed to get a new passport and make my flight the next morning. Two months later, Jane found the passport in the door.”

Keri Herman:

“Oh man, I do stupid stuff all the time! I’m so uncoordinated off my skis. Yesterday I tripped twice in a row walking up the stairs in a restaurant and bribed a taxi driver to take me to McDonalds on the way home from Kuta in Bali by offering him a free number three. Last summer I got picked up by Officer Travis and boated home for trying to float on a raft 45 mins across the lake to Zorbaz for volleyball and beers because I didn’t feel like cranking the boat into the water. Jeez the list never ends. Stupid stuff is by far the most fun!”

Mike Hornbeck:

“In the past week I got too drunk to ski the next day. I had a cookie relapse this month. This year I hit stupid jumps and ended the filming season early.”

Khai Krepela:

“Haha, ah man there are just too many to name.”

Shay Lee:

“#NoRegrets”

Devin Logan:

“The question should be what is it I do that isn’t stupid. I do dumb stuff all the time, it’s hard to keep track of all of them.”

Matt Margetts:

“The stupidest thing I have done in the last couple months was blow my knee. What an idiot.”

Tim McChesney:

“In the past year I have somehow lost three passports. No clue how I keep losing them but I always figure it out a couple days before an international trip and then have to travel to a passport office to get a new one. They still won’t issue me a ten year one so I am on passport probation and can only get one year passports. Really stupid.”

Wiley Miller:

“This one time I told Tatum [Monod] that people are following her mostly because she is a good looking female, not because she skis. She immediately made me regret saying that, and was sure to let me know that was not how it was; she is not afraid to let me know when I’m being stupid. I think she is an amazing skier by the way. That’s not the stupidest thing I’ve done but just one time I could think of off hand that I felt stupid about.”

Tatum Monod:

“After a super long day of sledding this winter I forgot to fill up with oil for the next day. I blew my engine and it cost me $3,500 to replace…oops.”

Max Morello:

“This is a pretty easy question for me because I just got back from West Coast Session where I did a butt-naked double backflip on a 100-foot jump during the sunset shoot. I found myself at the top, and the girl radioing down told me I was the last one to jump. I was having such a good week, I figured I would have to end the session with a banger. So I stripped down, all I had on were the bear essentials: Boots, skis, poles. I came into the jump so hot cuz I had no wind resistance so went massive on it. I just layed the shit out of it and stomped it. The laughter and cheering I heard on the way in got me so hyped for the jump, I had the biggest smile during the whole thing. I was awarded “King Meat” at the end of the week for it and I felt absolutely honored.”

Michelle Parker:

“Leaving the skis that I film with in the back of [photographer] Grant Gunderson’s car. I stayed in Whistler and he drove over the border to Bellingham, Washington with my skis. I felt pretty stupid after that. Didn’t get them back until the end of the year when I drove south.”

Andy Parry:

“I can’t legally say.”

Sean Pettit:

“Shit, I ain’t stupid.”

Sierra Quitiquit:

“This week I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my skis on a tour. Finally realized I had one of my skins on backwards. This month I poached the halfpipe in Mammoth during a private grom snowboarding camp. Not only did I embarrass myself with my lack of pipe skills but also got called out hard in the lodge later. I felt super bad.”

Mike Riddle:

“I never do anything stupid. I’m perfect.”

Elyse Saugstad:

“A few weeks ago I pulled out my fairly new, shiny mountain bike to go riding for the first time this spring. In the process of getting ready I set the bike behind my truck instead of putting it in the truck bed as I all of a sudden remembered I forgot something inside. I ran back out, jumped in my truck and started to pull out. Shoot, my bike! So I pulled immediately forward, which in hindsight was a bad reaction, and found my bike perfectly wedged under my truck. I don’t know how it happened but I luckily missed running over the actual frame and the only damage was to my front tire rim. It got a little bent from being wedged perpendicular between the underside of the truck and the ground. Later, when I was picking it up at the bike shop from having it fixed, the shop guy asked me what I did to my bike because the tire was really messed up. I sheepishly grinned and said, “I don’t know, it was a pretty good crash.” I felt way too stupid to tell him I ran it over.”

TJ Schiller:

“Oh god. Climbing up the convention center roof this winter with Bushy and Alexi and then falling off full cliffhanger style. Stomped the landing on a snow bank switch and popped ‘er out to forward. Totally unintentional stomp. With swagger. Go HABS!”

Joe Schuster:

“Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Brita Sigourney:

“I lost my Beats by Dre ear buds last week. Bums me out but I’m not surprised, I can’t have anything nice. Last summer I stopped by the Cook Islands after skiing in New Zealand for vacation with some friends. It’s a tiny island and everyone there rides mopeds so obviously we went to the rental shop on our first day to rent some. The lady made me take a driving test before letting me leave because I had never driven one. It involved driving up the street about 100 yards, turning around and driving back. I made it the whole way, just a little sketchy on the first turn around, but when I was turning to park the moped back in the rental lot, I mixed up the break and the gas and ended up crashing into one of their rental cars. Needless to say, she didn’t let me take the scooter and I had to pay $200 to fix the fender and then ride on the back of Devin Logan’s moped the rest of the trip. Oops.”

LJ Strenio:

“This week I accepted a challenge to drink two cold Smirnoff Ices in two minutes. This month I bought a parachute and this year, who knows?”

Cody Townsend:

“I helped start a company called Arcade Belt Co. that now completely eats all my free time in the summer. Now I’m chained to my desk working every damn day. What was I thinking!?”

Noah Wallace:

“Last week I tried to stall on top of a wall ride when I didn’t have enough speed. This resulted in me not having enough height to clear the first part of the snow, and catching my tails and flipping hard to my back. Like an idiot, haha. Last month I tried a rodeo 12 on a tiny jump in Mammoth. This year I lost my ski boots on a bus in France.”

Beau-James Wells:

“I stalled my car at the intersection a few minutes ago.”

Byron Wells:

“Not gone hunting enough.”

Jacob Wester:

“In the past week, nothing comes to mind, been pretty on point lately. In the past month, not staying in Riksgränsen for another two weeks; it’s the best place I’ve been to and I’ll be going back many times. In the past year I lost two quite expensive compact cameras, one in Sumatra, Indonesia and one in Chamonix. Both due to poor choices of pocket stowage. Don’t store anything in your unbuttoned chest pockets while loading boats!”

Parker White:

“Probably that day of cat skiing in Retallack when I dropped my poles and skied around with a giant knife all day. That was pretty stupid.”