Fifteen: The number of times Jesse Paul smoothly glides down a handrail and solidly lands on snowpack in one YouTube video.
While footage of this rising Maple Grove snowboarder on an afternoon session at Elm Creek Park Reserve lacks some of the sizzle and spice of other YouTube clips, it documents the 19-year-old’s commitment to practice, practice, practice.
“It’s either perfect or he wants to work until it is,” says Max Ronning, Paul’s friend and fellow snowboarder. “You can tell he knows what he’s doing when he does it.”
With four sponsors backing his skills, Paul travels the U.S. from one weekend competition to the next. The sophomore at the University of Minnesota-Duluth has moved away from Maple Grove and has his sights set on turning pro, but he quickly gives shout-outs to the hill he used to carve up – Elm Creek Park Reserve.
Paul says his backyard playground is better than Rocky Mountain spots in Colorado and Montana. The main reason is the towrope, so he can – you guessed it – practice. He estimates that you can get in at least twice as many runs with a towrope versus a chairlift.
“Those places don’t have towropes and it’s not as easy to progress,” says Paul, who took part-time jobs at Elm Creek to get his hands on free season passes. “Another reason Elm Creek was so great was they have a great variety of rails, so it was good to learn tricks on more types.”
Twice as many runs using a bevy of handrails multiplied by nearly daily appearances equal a lot of practice time for Paul. Divide that by newfound maturity, says his father, Bob Paul, and you have the reason he’s become an elite national rider.
“We’ve seen a maturity from him to go to competitions to participate and to go to a competition to compete,” Bob Paul says.
In April, Jesse Paul earned his highest achievement yet – the men’s open title at the Volcom Stone’s Peanut Butter Rail Jam in Mammoth Mountain, Calif. The win came as a bit of a surprise because he eked out a spot at the national event with a fourth-place finish at the Minnesota qualifier.
“Even the ability to qualify was amazing, and that I got first was unreal,” Paul says. “I didn’t even know. I was so filled with excitement and happiness. It was the best thing ever.”
Reaching that height took the kind of persistence Ronning has witnessed.
“When he falls, it’s more motivating than knocking him down,” says Ronning, who lives with Paul in Duluth. “If he wants something, he will do it – it extends beyond snowboarding. He will do what he has to do to accomplish what he wants.”
Paul studies videos of other boarders to spark inspiration, including clips of his favorite rider, Jed Anderson.
“Once I learn the things that other people are doing, then I try to take it to the next level,” Paul says. “Do another spin out or another variation that I haven’t really seen or take the tricks to bigger jumps or newer rails. Let my creativity flow.”
Paul was an eighth-grade skateboarder when he first tried snowboarding with a friend on the hills near Weaver Lake. Soon he was at Elm Creek nearly every day.
“I’ve always loved it from the very first day,” he says. “When I’m snowboarding, I only think of snowboarding. It’s very relaxing with no rules.”
Not abiding by other rules and norms earned Paul and some of fellow junior high school snowboarders the wary eyes of Elm Creek officials. Wayne Iseri, the park operations supervisor, says they weren’t very respectful. They would come into the chalet, be loud and leave a mess, so when Paul applied to be an instructor, other Elm Creek officials said he shouldn’t be hired. He might cause trouble, they told Iseri.
“Instead of throwing the application out the window, we should hire this guy,” Iseri recalls telling his staff. “If there was an opportunity to turn other kids around, it was with Jesse Paul.”
Hiring Paul worked out.
“Not only was he one of our best instructors, but he was a quiet leader and made other kids change their behavior a little bit,” says Iseri, who has been at the park reserve for 20 years.
Now the one-time trouble-maker is Elm Creek’s best ambassador.
“We consider him to be part of the Elm Creek team, which is pretty nice,” Iseri says. “It’s pretty nice to have him out there and give us a good name.”
Check out some videos of Jesse Paul below:
