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MZ: How does extreme snowboarding, downhill mountain biking and surfing reef compare?
Surf and snow are pretty close but the most exposure is in snowboarding because your danger factor is with you all the time - for as many as 8 to 10 hours. That's what's so draining.

Surfing reef is dangerous because of the power of the ocean, but if you stick the take off, you're usually okay unless the reef is sucking completely dry. Also, with surfing, you get a break when you're waiting for a set.

MZ: What's been your scariest moment on a snowboard?
It was in St. Moritz - it's a mountain called Piz Roseg - 3760 meters or so. It was the sketchiest heli drop in at the top. The heli was coming up on the ridge of the face to drop us off and it kept getting wrenched back by the wind.

The pilot was shaking and I was like, "Calm down man - relax, relax. Come in high," because he was coming in from underneath the ridge and as soon as he'd stick his nose over, the wind would wrench him back.

MZ: Did he stick it?
We ended up going in and sticking it after a few attempts.

I got out and the guide, Michel 'Chooky', got out onto the skid. As Michel was handing me his backpack, the pilot pulled away with Michel holding onto the door! The door was wide open at this point and Michel was hanging on the door handle while the pilot pulled up about 300 feet. I was screaming at him!

MZ: How'd he hold on?
He's a rock climber. The pilot eventually figured out what was going on and brought him back down close to the cornice and he jumped from the heli and landed on the cornice! That was a pretty heavy start.

MZ: You're a freak.
It gets better. We looked down the slope and it rolled so far over you couldn't see where you were going. Talk about pumped! I dropped in but had to traverse left to get out of the sluff - it was really fast and it was ripping. I waited at a safe spot for the sluff to clear, then dropped straight into the cliff.

I'd seen it (the cliff) from the heli but when I got up to the edge I couldn't see anything but rock below me. I'd picked my rocks from the heli, but just to be sure, I started communicating with the pilot. He confirmed my location and started handing me the rope

I said, "I don't want a rope, I want to jump this."

MZ: Nice. How big was it?
One hundred plus feet. Thirty meters maybe - big air.