Episode 266: Jen Sherowski and Tricia Byrnes - Going Off!

Going Off!, the snowboarding history podcast conceptualised and presented by Jen Sherowski and Tricia Byrnes, is a brilliant concept. Each episode, they take key stages in snowboarding's history and development and dip into their enviable black book of contacts to tell the story expertly and even-handedly. Together they've made Going Off! into something different: not yet another four-hour interview show, but an oral history of snowboarding's early days, pieced together from the people who were actually there. And they make a great team - Jen with her journalistic and storytelling chops honed through years in the snowboard mag and creative industry trenches, and Tricia with her unimpeachable connections to snowboarding roots and history; both through her own career - she won the US Open halfpipe as a 17-year-old amateur in 1992, and rode for the US at Salt Lake in 2002 - and her links in the East Coast snowboarding firmament. Thanks to snowboarding, and the places it has taken me, I have known them both for years, so when they got in touch with me back in April 2025 when Going Off! was still in the planning stages and were canvassing a few people for advice on how to set it up, I was intrigued to hear more. I thought it was a great idea then, and having watched them pull it off since it launched last October, I still do. So when I came back to the podcast this summer, after a four-month break, they were the obvious choice for my first recording. We sat down in July, and as a way back into Looking Sideways it was a perfect conversation for me. With magazines like TransWorld gone, as they discuss in their latest episode, The Birth And Glory Of Snowboard Magazines, somebody has to tell these stories. I'm very glad it's these two. --- This week's codes for some big old savings, all kept up to date at wearelookingsideways.com: FINISIDEWAYS26 for 10% off any full-price order from Finisterre LOOKINGSWSXDB for 15% off anything from Db LOOKINGSIDEWAYS2026 for 15% off any full-price Albion purchase LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for 15% off full-price Stance orders LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for 10% off anything from Goodrays PASSENGER-SIDEWAYS10 for 10% off at Passenger LS27 for money off ski and snowboard hire at Intersport To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. 00:00 Introduction 04:19 80% Accurate 20:05 Skateboarder First 31:08 Transworld and the Olympics 44:01 Memory, AI and Archives 1:02:52 What Snowboarding Forgets 1:07:20 No Patreon, No Ads 1:19:28 Clip Culture 1:35:05 Housekeeping Corner This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe