“My name’s Nolan McMullen, I’m a 21 year old senior Finance major, and I’ll be graduating this May. I’ve been snowboarding for about 13 years and I’m currently the President of the WVU Snowboard Club. Whenever there’s no snow, I’m usually either surfing or wakeboarding.”
Q: How did you get into snowboarding in the first place?
A: I got into snowboarding when I was in 4th grade. As a kid I always watched it on tv and played snowboarding video games, so after nagging my parents enough, they finally took me to the mountain for my first lesson. I took one lesson when I was younger, my first day on snow, and ended up sticking with it. Throughout high school I rode after school almost everyday, and now ride as much as classes allow.
Q: How long have you been apart of the WVU Snowboard Club? When did you become President?
A: I’ve been a part of the club for 4 years now. I got involved with the snowboard club and the snowboard team my freshman year. I took over my sophomore year and have been the President of the club now for the last 3 years.
Q: Do you guys go to competitions?
A: Yeah – we’ve rode in a good number of competitions over the past few years (Transworld Snowboarding Trans AM, Rome Pre-Jib Tour, Motown Throwdown, PIST Preseason Jam, King of the Mountain, King of the Jib). At the end of the day though, my goal for the team is just for us to ride together and get better – my favorite part about riding with the other team guys is that we can just push each other to try new stuff and hopefully not kill ourselves doing it.
Q: What was it like when Jonas hit?
A: Jonas was insane – I think Morgantown got somewhere around 2 feet. I actually headed up to Seven Springs that Thursday night in preparation for the storm to hit Friday and Saturday – they got about 3 feet up there. It’s pretty incredible to get 2-3 feet in a 24 hour period, especially in the Mid-Atlantic. We were able to hit a few urban rails and do some filming/photos after the storm hit Morgantown too.
Q: Why would you recommend students coming into college to join the Snowboard Club?
A: It’s a good way to meet other students here at WVU that ride or ski, we’ve opened the club up to both snowboarders and skiers to simply just create as large of a network as possible. The club is also a good way to get discounts on gear at our local snowboard shop, Pathfinder, and also get a cheap Seven Springs season pass.
Q: Do you have any sponsors? If so, who?
A: Yeah, I currently ride for Signal Snowboards, Oakley, Nomad Gloves, Seven Springs Terrain Parks, and WVU Snowboard Team. These brands all make it possible for me to snowboard.
Q: What is the coolest thing that’s happened to you while Snowboarding? The worst?
A: Coolest: I got to ride in Snowboarder Magazine’s Superpark 19. Superpark is basically a 4-day invite-only film/photo shoot where some of the best snowboarders in the world fly-in to an entire mountain covered in crazy big terrain park features (rails/jumps) created just for the shoot.
Worst: I’ve had my share of concussions, black eyes, and other injuries over the years, but nothing I can’t overcome.
Q: Do you personally want to continue snowboarding after college?
A: I plan to snowboard until I physically can’t anymore.
**All photos were taken by Mike Zandron**