Extreme Athlete Profile: RANDY JONES

Flying high off creativity, on camera and off

Ask any extreme athlete and they’ll tell ya what separates their sports from more traditional athletic conquests is the danger, the risk.
But there’s another thing too: the creative flair.
No diss to Albert Pujols, but there are only a few ways to hit a baseball. And LeBron, well, he can only put a ball in a basket so many ways.
But a skater or snowboarder? In their worlds, creativity reigns supreme.
Just ask Randy Jones -- the first of Erb Magazine’s sponsored athletes.
“The thing that appealed to me with skating and snowboarding is that you have creative freedom,” says Jones, 29, of Dinuba, a small Central California town near Fresno. “There are no rules on how to ride, if you can visualize yourself doing a trick you can probably do it.”
This, of course, leads to everybody who skates or snowboards having a crazy story about some trick they completed. So Jones took things a step further. He started his own production company, Daylife Productions, that creates videos of skaters and ’boarders.

“I’ve always been inspired after watching videos,” Jones says. “When you put so much work into something, having a video part is kinda the payoff.”
Jones started at China Peak Mountain Resort in Lakeshore, Calif., but he’s gone all over the western United States in search of footage.
“During winter we do a lot of traveling to film,” Jones says. “I’ve been everywhere from the local Sierra Nevadas to Tahoe, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Most of the people we film are all friends, but anyone can get involved and end up in a video.”
Much like he’d get creative as a rider, now Jones gets creative behind the camera.
“There is a lot to take into consideration when you’re filming,” Jones says. “Lighting is very important and shooting from the right angles can make the difference between a good or bad shot. I like to use two cameras for multiple angles, this gives you more options when you’re editing.”
Jones still finds time to get out and ride recreationally, but approaching something like snowboarding from a video standpoint has changed the way he prepares.
It’s not just about having the right gear to wear anymore.

“I try to snowboard as much as possible but the video aspect has definitely changed things,” Jones says. “Instead of just riding the resort I spend more time snowmobiling and exploring trying to find new places and new ideas to film.”

He also gets a little bit of help from what he’s smoking on. These days that’s Banana Kush, Candy Kush and O.G. Kush.

“I don’t know if makes me more creative,” Jones says. “But it gets me in the zone.”


ON THE WEB
youtube.com/RandyLJones