Who is Tim?
Tim Seward is both a former employee and team rider for Freebord. As a graphic designer, Tim illustrated a handful of different deck graphics. Tim has been around the company since VHS. A couple weeks ago we found his origional “team submission” which contained roughly 10% Freebording and 90% lifestyle footage. Tim is the type of person who puts in work to get tricks. Anyways, here are my ten questions for Timmy..
(1) Full Name?
Timothy Kevin Seward aka S.O.R.D
(2) When did you start Freebording?
I started freebording in the summer of 1999
(3) Recommendations for beginners?
Don’t be a pussy, and give up. If you snowboard you should have little trouble figuring it out as long as you think snowboarding not skateboarding. You may think you understand the physics of snowboarding, but I’ve only seen sponsored snowboarders jump on this first try and rip. Reason why they can rip and you think this product is hard to learn is cuz you suck at snowboarding.. no you suck and you really don’t understand how a snowboard works because you have nothing else to compare it to.. maybe wakeboarding, but in reality if you are a weekend warrior or a casual rider it’s going to take you anywhere from a few hours to a few days to connect turns and start riding steep hills. Once learned though you won’t suck at snowboarding.. in fact because you have been ripping on pavement during the off season you are going to mash on your snowboard buddies when it starts to dump… basically you might want to get new snowboard buddies because they now suck.. ; )
(4) How did you deal / cope with injuries?
I never really got hurt too bad.. I would sometimes rip the skin off my hands in a huge high speed bail because I didn’t wear gloves.. so I’d wear gloves to avoid this.. most the time if I fell I’d get minor road rash and just let it heal up.. if you know how to fall correctly you can eat it at 40mph and only come out with a huge hip bruise.. in the 9 years I was a sponsored rider I only broke one bone and that was towards the tail end of my career, and I fell A LOT!
(5) Any insight on the use of bindings & progression of S1 to S2 ?
freebord was designed to ride like a snowboard and if you can ride a snowboard at 40mph without bindings you are a god.. however most people are not gods and that’s why there are bindings on snowboards hence why Freebord’s have bindings. Freebord originally didn’t have bindings but to take huge hills you couldn’t hold a hard edge in hairpin turns without them. I originally was the first rider to mount what we now call S1 bindings to a freebord. I did it because I wear a prosthetic leg and I couldn’t feel my foot sliding of the deck which would cause me to eventually stack it without knowing. So the short story is I improved my riding and I was instantly faster and in more control than everyone else in 1999. The rest was history.. S2’s are a truly unique binding designed specifically for Freebording and it was the missing link to the design. I honestly think anyone who rides a Freebord without bindings either just doing it for kicks or you really are missing a few marbles..
(6) Whats it like to be the “only” Freeborder to ride with one leg?
having one leg is rad.. I can fall on it at 35-40mph and nothing but my pants get ripped.. If I am wearing pants that cover up the leg I can kick poles, snap sticks, stab it with a butcher knife, or light it on fire at parties making everyone who doesn’t know me think I am on PCP.. it’s the best party gag.. also girls fucking love it.. knowing what I know now if I had two legs I’d get an amputation just for the babe magnet instant enhancement..
(7) Any insight on the major difference that a proper prosthetic can make in your ability to ride?
having a quality leg makes a huge difference in riding ability.. just last year I was invited to go ride for GoPro down Lombard St in SF and I had this shitty leg on that snapped in half while riding.. I just duct tapped the foot back on and continued to ride but it seriously made it so GoPro didn’t use any of my riding in their edit.. so yeah having a proper leg is important, but a broken leg actually gets you sympathy from the ladies.. ; ) ; )
(8) what did you enjoy most about filming/ editing videos
I never enjoyed filming or editing videos that much.. I loved it at times, but other times I just wanted to be riding.. riding is way more fun than setting up shots and thinking about who you are filming than just enjoying the scenery and the feeling of freedom to ride chill to riding like a you have no care in the world.. don’t get me wrong though I love to edit to a good track and come up with sick scenes for a solid video, but there is always that feeling of just wanting to ride with no responsibility no matter what. Freebording is just that much fun it pains you to have to hold back to film someone else enjoying all the fun..
(9) Best Freebord memory of all time?
I have so many, but the one that changed my life was getting a phone call from Steen Strand offering me a job with Freebord to hand out stickers at the 1999 X-games. I remember it and always will. However if it wasn’t for my dad giving me the idea to call freebord the day earlier and offer to work as an unpaid intern I would never be who I am today. Freebord changed my life completely. Steen was such a good guy he called me up that day and offered $9hr to hand out stickers.. it eventually turned into a part time gig where I was designing prototype decks, creating deck graphics, designing marketing materials and so on.. though that phone call for a job wasn’t what changed my life it was Steen recommending I look into Industrial Design as a college degree. That bit of advice set me out on a path that honestly I might never of crossed if I didn’t pick up that phone and dialed 415-285-BORD.
(10) Favorite Freebord video of all time?
I don’t have a favorite video of all time, but Sam Trowbridge had a few.. the one with balloons was pretty creative, basically all his videos were rad.. though if I had to choose a favorite video I’d say Verbier 08.. it was all shot on 8mm film and it has a nice depressing / uplifting song that brings me back to a time in my life that anything seemed possible..
