I have known Ben since he first moved down to Florida from his home state of Massachusetts. I can remember watching him do these gigantic switch front flips and thinking “holy crap that was awesome”. Ben has always had a different approach to wakeboarding. His goal was never to be a Pro Tour champion. He simply wanted to get better at Wakeboarding. That drive to get better helped him develop one of the most unique styles the sport has ever seen. I have spent more time in the boat with Ben then any other rider I have ridden with. He has influenced the way that I look at Wakeboarding and if you have ever watched him ride odds are he has change your perception too. Ben has taken the road less traveled and he has had a career most riders would dream to have.
At what point in your life did you realize that you had a chance to make a career out of Wakeboarding?
Funny you ask that because there was never really, an “I made it” moment. My whole deal in moving to Florida in the first place was never to actually become a pro, it was just to ride as much as possible before getting a real job. Haha. I just got super lucky with support from sponsors, magazines, and films and stuff, so that I could keep feeding my habit. Kind of weird to say, but I don’t think I have realized it yet. Whether I was making a career out of it or not, I would still be trying to ride as much as possible, it just so happens that I get to do it a lot with my current employment. Score!
When you first started riding was it your goal to be known as a “Style conscious free rider”?
It was definitely not my goal, or intention, or direction really. I was like Mr. Base Invert/Raley guy for the first 5 years of riding. I think I could maybe grab like two different inverts, and could do like 3 different spins. The “Style” thing just sort of came out of being able to ride everyday in Florida and kind of let my riding go in the direction it wanted to go. Does that make sense? I definitely worked hard on tricks, but if I didn’t really like the way they looked or felt, I would just kind of let them go, or work on them in a different way until they did feel and look good. So I guess it kind of developed for me after really finding what it was on a wakeboard that I really liked to do. Which is still growing and changing to this day. I guess I’ve had the fortunate path through wakeboarding in which I never had to say, “Ok, I need a backside spinning mobe here in my pass, and I need to learn a whatever to put in my pass here…..”. Not to say I don’t like to keep up with the tech stuff that the crazy kids are doing these days, I just never liked any tricks to feel forced. They usually don’t look good when they are.
Where do you get the majority of your influences from when learning a new trick or throwing a new grab on a trick?
Tons of different places. Different riders for sure. I watch a lot more wakeboarding than people might imagine, and probably more than most other pro’s. I watch snowboard films from time to time to get ideas from them as well, when I see stuff I like. I think the majority of the influence would be from the guys who invented all the tricks back in the day, and then decided that grabbing them and controlling them looked better than flailing around. Nelson, Schmaltz, Byerly, etc. I guess anything I’m doing now has that sort of background and origin, rather than, “well if I grab my 7, I’ll get more points.”
photo by Carla Danieli
Videos have been a huge part of your career, is there one section that you have had that stands out to you as your favorite? (or that you had the most fun filming for)
I would say it’s a tie. The Butter Effect was the movie that “put me on the map” as Kilgus tells me…HAHAHA!!! No, but seriously, I would say that my section in that movie was the first one that showcased my riding after it had the chance to develop into something more like it is now. I mean, being in Relentless was the biggest honor I had received up to that point, but recovering from my knee and all that stuff, kind of kept it limited. So the Butter Effect was like, “here’s me, all healthy, here’s my tricks….I hope you like ‘em”. The Truth would be the other one, I worked really hard with Justin on that one, and had the pressure of just winning Rider of the Year in ’05 from Alliance. So I knew I had to deliver or else the people that talked crap about me winning would actually have some ammo in their corner.
What can we expect to see next from Ben Greenwood?
I would expect to see less hair. Haha! Lately I have been having fun re-learning some of the techy spins and stuff. Like take a toe 9 for example. That trick has been around for a while, but the coolest toe 9′s ever done have maybe had a nose grab or a melan grab. I kind of want to take tricks like and add some new life to them. Oh, and a top secret stunt too. MMMmmmmmwwwwwahahaha….
