Rome Snowboard Design Syndicate

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Locals Only with Willie McMillon

Sep 24, 2009 - 05:55 AM EDT

For the second look into Locals Only we decided to catch up with the man behind Bluebird Wax fame Willie Mcmillon. For those of you that have never had the pleasure of meeting him you are missing out. He is a snowboarder in the rawest form. He always speaks his mind and is not one to sugar coat his opinion. He has been living in Jackson Hole, WY for over 20 years and will most likely be there for the next 20. snowboarding needs more people like Willie

So where should we start? Do you want start with some background stuff or should we go into the story about you getting in deep shit for talking too openly while announcing the Natural Selection contest at Jackson Hole?
You give me a mic and a bottle of Crown, and that's what you’re going to get. I just bought my first pass in 15 years. $1,970.00. No more free passes for me.

How long have you been in Jackson?
24 cold years.

There are some obvious legends claiming that spot, can you give us a rundown of the who’s who that have been holding it down there for years?
Guch for sure. Lance used to, but I don't know what happened to him. Jeremy Jones. Kinger. There's mad new blood now. Dowell, Mark Carter. Then there are the big names that moved here recently. Kevin Jones and Clancy. There are mad shredders you've never heard of that will put your whole team to shame. They wash dishes for a living.

Give me the best local secret to entertainment in town? Free drinks, cheap food, loose women? Whatever you think someone should know that you are willing to give up?
I don't really go out. I'm too busy and pretty much hate everybody in this town. Except the true bloods. My secret is to drink some beer at home, then some friends roll over and I put them to work.

Why did you decide to start a business and keep it based out of Jackson? Did you ever think it would have been better if you moved to a shred “industry” hub?
This is where I live and what I want to be doing. If I'm not riding the best shit as much as possible, our company is fraudulent. The majority of the shred companies bring you their version of snowboarding five minutes from the beach. We bring it to you five minutes from the mountains. It's kind of like if I had a surf magazine or surf company out of Wyoming. Most of the snowboard industry is gay as fuck. That's another reason why we choose to hide out in the mountains. The shred industry is made up of a ton of people who don't shred. "You Don't Shred, You Just Work Here” that’s a new T-shirt out soon.

What is your go-to run on the mountain? Seems everyone has their stock run they hit up each day they ride?
There's this big ass roller down by the bottom of Thunder lift. I'd estimate I've done over 10,000 high speed backside 180's off of it since I was a kid.I get a lot of shit for that one. Sometimes I switch the grab or don't grab. That's all I'm giving up. It's on a groomer.

Tourists keep all resort towns going. How bad does it get? What do you guys do to keep the good spots for locals only?
There's no such thing. The "locals" are all people who just moved here and are trying to rush the scene. The real locals lay low. We have to keep going deeper to get away from those people. The tourist seasons here suck balls. I live a block from the town square and I’m dying to go move out into the woods. The way I deal with it is by fucking with the tourists like yelling “fuck” as loud as I can while they are shooting home videos. Or volunteering to take their group photo in front of the elk antler arches, but then zooming the shot in on a boob or something. Mostly just a lot of cussing. It sounds really immature and it is, but ask anyone who comes here in the summer; it's fun as fuck for some reason. I will still be doing it when I am 60.

So you make movies as well. Tell us about the Bluebird movie? Any chance you will be doing a new one?
The last movie was fun as hell. We sold more copies ourselves than Ally did. Ha ha. So yeah, we are starting a new one this season entitled, "Dobre Hombres". We are looking for funding if anyone is down. But we will make it with or without it.

What about Travis Rice when he was a kid growing up there, or old local Billy Bacon?
I didn't really know Travis as a kid. Met him around his junior or senior year in high school. I didn't learn about Rice's dark side until years later. Billy Bacon corrupted the shit out of me when I was younger. My home life sucked. And I was raised by much older kids who showed me the dark side. Billy was one of them. Those older dudes helped make me who I am today. Thanks, assholes.

Finally, what made you go to Jackson? Why there instead of some other mountain town?
I was brought here from San Diego at the age of nine. We were poor as fuck, moving into the richest county in the USA. I had no choice. I hated it here, until I found snowboarding. It was the single best thing my mom ever did for me, besides kicking my dad to the curb. R.I.P

All photos courtesy of: Stepanka Peterka, Danny Zapalac & Jesse Brown