Ride For Jake - Billy Langlands Tells Stories From His Friendship With Jake Burton Carpenter
Story // Jake Sullivan. March 13, 2025
Every subculture has iconic figures whose names become synonymous with the movement. In snowboarding, this distinction often goes to those who have pushed the sport's progression or shaped the lifestyle that defines our culture. At the top of this list is Jake Burton Carpenter. He needs no introduction. His influence on all aspects of snowboarding is immeasurable.
Jake has affected anyone who has ever stepped on a board and aimed it down a snow-covered hill. Few people dedicated their lives to improving our sport more than him, from his early board designs to his campaign to convince ski areas to allow snowboarding. He helped to organize legitimate competitions, which led to the establishment of some of snowboarding’s longest-running events. These contests created countless household names, resulting in lucrative careers for multiple generations of riders, many of whom had no connection to the company that carries his name. The state of our industry today as a worldwide network of brands, shops, and riders is all a direct result of the groundwork he laid over decades.
Photo - vermontpublic.org
As with anyone holding such court, not everyone would call his influence positive. I should know; I was one of them. As a young punk snowboarder in Rutland, Vermont, I convinced myself Burton was the enemy. I viewed the brand as a corporate entity that was watering down snowboarding and feeding it to the masses. In my young mind, the brand was the epitome of everything I disliked about snowboarding, and Jake was the ringleader.
One October in the early 2000s, while riding for Burton’s biggest competitor of the era, I attended the infamous Fall Bash at the Carpenter’s property in Stowe, Vermont. In my mind, I was walking into enemy territory. My mission was to skate the mini-ramp and cover everything I possibly could with Rome stickers. After being asked to stop tagging the ramp multiple times, I decided it was time to move on. While slapping some stickers on the wall inside the barn, I was caught red-handed and asked to leave. A few months later, at the US Open, I was in the rider's tent atop the halfpipe, and I saw Jake talking with Mikkel, Shaun, and some coaches, one of whom watched the whole incident that previous autumn. I assumed he had no idea who I was, but as I walked by, Jake leaned in and, with a smile, spoke the only words he ever said to me, “Got any stickers?”.
As I got older, my confusion about that interaction turned to understanding. I realized my attitude had always aligned with what Jake represented. The “Fuck you, we’re snowboarders” mentality. A few years after that night in Stowe, Burton laid down a cash prize of $5,000 to anyone who could document themselves poaching the three remaining ski resorts that refused to allow snowboarding. That was the anti-authoritarian stance I had always thought went hand-in-hand with our culture. Jake lived with a middle finger pointed towards anyone who stood in the way of his dreams and hopes for the future of our culture. It’s a sentiment still shared today, embodied on the stickers and images surrounding Ride For Jake Day containing the raised digit.
His passing in 2019 was a massive blow to our industry. With Ride for Jake Day approaching, it was a good time to sit down with Darkside founder/owner Billy Langlands and hear a few stories about his interactions with Jake over the years.
Do you remember the first time you met Jake?
Billy: I don’t know if it was the first time we met, but early on in Las Vegas at the SIA tradeshow, I remember walking out of the convention center, and the line to wait for a taxi was massive. I saw Jake standing there alone and introduced myself. We made small talk, and eventually, he asked me what hotel I was staying at, which was the same as him. He offered me to hop in his cab, and off we went. That might’ve been the first time we spent any time together.
I’ve seen the poster in the shop that Jake signed saying, “Thanks, Bill! Shop #100!”. What was that from? You weren’t the 100th dealer, were you?
Billy: No, that was from Jake’s 100 Shops in 100 Days Tour, visiting 100 Burton dealers in 100 days. They asked me when I wanted him to come to Darkside, and I said either stop number 1 or 100! Jake brought me a bottle of wine when he came from 1989, the year Darkside opened. That was very thoughtful of him. It's an expensive bottle too!
When did you start carrying Burton?
Billy: It was the shop's second year, so that would’ve been 1990/91.
Wow, so 35 years as a dealer. That has to be a milestone. How was the relationship between Burton and the shop over the years?
Billy: Darkside and Burton have had a great relationship. As the industry and the economy have gone up and down, they have always been really good to us. They care about their core shops, our well-being, and our input. Jake would always have a notebook with him, and I’d see him write stuff down when he was in the shop hearing things from us. He and Donna always made us feel welcome. I went up to their property in Stowe once for a dealer meeting, about 20 or so shops from all over. We were all supposed to sleep in the Barn, and I thought, “Great, I’m in my 50’s (at the time), and I’m going to be sleeping on the floor or some bunk room with all these 20-somethings all week”. But when I got there, Jake had a private room just for me. We would eat dinner, and I’d sit at the table with them and their family instead of all the young guys. Donna and Jake always referred to Teeta, Paige, Katherine, and I as family.
Did you get to ride with Jake often?
Billy: Not a ton, but it was always a blast when we did. One year, Killington opened early, like early November. It was right after he got diagnosed with cancer, and he came down, and we rode together on Rhyme. I ride down, and I’m just slashing the sides the whole way, and when we get to the bottom, his face lights up, and he says very enthusiastically, “Fuck, that was awesome! I was with you turn for turn all the way down!”. We were at The Canyons in Utah once, and you had to cut through these woods to get over to a certain chair. It was snowing so hard you couldn’t tell which way was up or down. I was all turned around, almost as if I had vertigo. I made my way down and got to the chair. Everyone had gone up except Jake, who stayed to wait for me. We rode together that day, and he was just stoked all day. Me too.
That’s so awesome. Did you ever see a difference in who Jake was on the hill versus in a sales meeting or anything like that?
Billy: He definitely had a switch he could flip and be in full business mode when needed. He was just a rockstar, though. We were in Vail once, staying in this big house. After riding, Jake got changed, then came out and made us do two shots of tequila before we walked down to watch him do this TV interview alongside Shaun White for the opening of a Burton store in Vail. We all marched behind him down to the store. It felt like we were walking with Muhammad Ali into the ring! As soon as he gets in there, he’s on. He goes from Jake hanging out with everybody to Jake Burton of Burton Snowboards and just takes over the room. A few days later, he asked if I wanted to fly back to Vermont with him on his private jet.
Haha, no way! You did it, obviously, right?
Billy: Of course! You drive out on the private runway in Vail, drive right to the plane, and don’t even have to close the door; someone does that for you. It was 4 hours from Vail to Burlington. I told Jake on the flight, “I could get used to this!”. To which he replied, “You’re going to have to open a lot more shops for that Billy…”. (laughs)
What a legend. When he passed, it left such a hole in the industry.
Billy: We lost a rockstar. Look what he did for snowboarding. A lot of people claim they invented snowboarding. Jake never claimed that. But what he did do, that nobody else could do, was get snowboarding onto the mountains. He opened up resorts to snowboarding. Without that, we’re nothing. It was just a backyard toy, and he turned it into a global industry where we have a shop today filled with products from dozens of brands from all over the world. Once we were in the resorts, the equipment improved, and more products started selling. It was all from Jake.
Burton was always at the forefront of product design, especially in the 90s when so much garbage was coming out.
Billy: That was Jake. He was a product guy. He believed in talking to his pros and getting their input. He liked to talk to certain retailers as well. When you’d have these interactions in the shop with him, he would ask you lots of questions. He wanted to know it all.
Speaking of product, I heard a rumor that you coined the term Step On?
Billy: No comment (laughs).
(laughs) Thanks for your time, Billy.
Photo - Killington.comRide for Jake Day is March 15, 2025. Get out to your local hill, take some turns in Jake’s memory, and keep that middle finger high.
Killington is hosting its annual meetup on Saturday, March 15. Meet at the Stash House at 12 pm for a toast and group photo, followed by a group ride down to Bear Mountain. We'll see you there.
Thanks for everything, Jake.