Rob Roethler is one of snowboarding’s most magnetic personalities, on and off the board. His confidence shines through in his riding and his effortless tall‑guy style. Raised on rope tows at Hyland Hills, it’s no surprise that Rob gravitated toward street snowboarding. But his path hasn’t been guaranteed. He’s tried every sport, finished school, worked a job he hated, and faced a point where he had to consider walking away, until an opportunity came that turned it all around, and he doubled down on the thing he’s always loved most. That perspective becomes clear when you talk to him; he doesn’t take snowboarding for granted. It’s his commitment, motivation, and genuine passion that have carried him to where he is today. When it’s time to lock in, he locks in.

He’s also a core part of the Technically Doing It (TDI) crew, a collective pushing for greater representation and community in a sport that hasn’t always felt inclusive. Spend five minutes with him, and it’s obvious: he cares deeply about snowboarding. Not just the clips and the contests, but who snowboarding is for, how the culture supports its community, and where it’s headed next.

Intro & Interview by Veroniqi Hanssen

You're fresh off a (shared) win at DIYX. How did you approach the setup, and what did you think about Krakow?
Wow, let's see. I remember seeing the photo of the raw setup, no snow on it. All of us were looking at it like, "Oh, fuck, this is gonna be gnarly." I saw the ledge and knew they were going to put that slab on it, so I got a little excited right away. I was like, "Dude, someone's gotta frontboard that." That was the first thing on my mind, showing up on contest day with all the snow on it, the ledge looked great. The kink rail looked fucking scary. The downrail was chill, the day I left for Poland I actually hit a street rail that was exactly like that one, with the separations and everything. I felt at home on that, which I saved for last. It was kind of funny, because I was scared shitless for the first 10 minutes, but I just threw on some headphones and some noise cancelers. After about 10 more minutes, I was all fired up, felt like I was at home and just said, fuck it. Thought I'd go for the front board, thank God I did.

The front board was insane. I think you might have been one of the only people to make it through that scary kink rail, too.
Oh, really? I couldn't really tell, because I remember that after I landed the front board, I went over to the kink rail and absolutely nobody was hitting it. I thought “okay, cool, I just get some hot laps on this real quick.” I honestly have to attribute it to the fact that I could just go up there, strap in and drop every 20 seconds.

You grew up riding Hyland Hills, which is a small hill in Minnesota with a rope tow. Who did you look up to and how did it influence your riding style?
When I was a kid, I would try to follow Joe Sexton around the park whenever I saw him. Him and all the 1817 crew, whenever they'd show up to Hyland, it was like God himself showed up to shred with us. I would just follow them around. I was just reading about how Pat Fava turned pro and how he used to just stare at Deadlung. I am sure that's exactly what I did to Joe Sexton. I would try to copy all their tricks, I looked up to Joe big time. I loved his part in People’s film Cheers. That one really stuck with me. I was also a very big fan of Halldór [Helgason], Eiki [Helgason] and Torstein [Horgmo]. They made snowboarding look so fun that it was something that I knew I just wanted to do forever. Truly, I try to give it up to Black Winter and DC’s It. Because Halldór was the one that really made it seem so cool and fun.

Did you play any other sports growing up?
Yeah, I did. I started T ball when I was two, switched to golf, and then as soon as I started playing baseball, it was like, screw this golf stuff. I played baseball from 6 to 14, football from maybe 11/12 to 14/15. I played lacrosse all through high school, and for like a year or two in junior high as well. And then I played hockey for a year. I even wrestled for a little bit. Actually, Joe Sexton had an interview about how he tried every sport, and really snowboarding was just the one that stuck. And I truly feel like that's exactly what happened to me. Snowboarding was really the one that stuck out above all of those.

You have a marketing degree from Westminster, why did you choose to study marketing? And why in Salt Lake City?
Marketing sounded easy, so I wanted to do that. [laughs]. And because snowboarding was still Plan A at that point, I really wanted to continue pursuing it. I figured I'll have to market myself; I'll basically be a marketing agent for any company that might want to sponsor me. So, any of the knowledge or skills that I get from the business degree, I'm sure would be easily transferable to my life as a snowboarder. Thankfully, I feel like I made the right choice.

How do you think it shaped the way that you built your career and how you presented yourself?
I think in a big way, it made me really grateful for the opportunity when it came. Working in my field for almost two years and hating it really helped me see how lucky I am to do what I do, and how special it is to be able to get on a snowboard and call that my job. It really just puts it into perspective how lucky I am to get to go and have fun for a living. I try to just live it to the fullest and crush it, because I’m so damn lucky. It's so fun.

Halifax, Nova Scotia / p: Blotto

Do you have any advice for snowboarders that are trying to make it? Something that you think really makes a difference, or something that people overthink too much?
I have two parts to my answer. One part is to make it in snowboarding, it's not just about being the Mark McMorris or Dillon Ojo, the best of the best street riders, powder riders or contest riders. There are 1,000,001 lanes in snowboarding. So, if that's not exactly your forte, there are the filmers, the editors, the producers, and everyone behind the scenes making snowboarders look good. It takes a village. Even my team managers, I can't thank them enough, because without them, I would be screwed. There are engineers, marketers, and there's a million different jobs you can have within snowboarding. Just snowboarding isn’t the only way to make it.
The second part: if you do want to be the Mark [McMorris], you got to be better than everyone. Everyone's always asking, “how do you get sponsored?” It's like, dude, you have to be obviously better than the people around you. Start grinding and stop asking questions. If you're not spending more time on the hill or hiking, if you're not the first in and last out, then you don't want it that bad. That's just how it is.

What kind of role do you think social media plays in that?
That’s a funny conversation, because a lot of people have discerned the difference between a professional snowboarder and an Instagram snowboarder. You can have 100k on the gram, but you couldn’t go do a switch back five on an 80-foot powder jump or know what to do with a persistent weak layer. You don’t know how to keep people safe in the backcountry or in certain scenarios. There’s a big difference. Social media has definitely shown that there’s what’s called an Instagram snowboarder nowadays. If that’s what you want to do, it’s possible. But at the same time, professional snowboarders need to recognize that all these Instagram snowboarders are starting to take budget from them if they can't adapt and start to figure out how to market themselves the way that number one brands want them to be marketed. Social media and online representation basically dictate the way that purchasing decisions are made these days. If you can't change with the times, you're going to get left in the dust.

It feels like a lot of people aren’t really going after that opportunity, right?
I've had a conversation with my homies on Technically Doing It a few times. Right now, the people that are dominating the YouTube snowboarding space are not professional snowboarders, to say the least. No disrespect to these people, because I know that they're spreading positivity and trying to help people learn how to snowboard. But a lot of these people do not have any qualifications. Sometimes I see these clips and they're like, “Oh, do this.” And I’m like “Please, do not listen to these people.” So, I would love to see more snowboarders that I love and respect, that are really at the top of the game, go and take advantage of this opportunity. To own the YouTube online space, because that's definitely where things are going. It's really tough, because that shit is so cringe to most of us. But at the end of the day, snowboarding is only gonna grow if we can make it more understandable to people who don't already snowboard. That's my main critique of Atlas too. That's my favorite movie this year. But most people who don’t understand how sick that shit is aren’t really going to get that it just goes straight into hammers, with amazing song choices that are super out there. That kind of stuff is what we love as the “in-crowd” in street snowboarding. But maybe they go and watch a different movie that’s more about the personality or the story, like Paved, right? A snowboarder might not like Paved as much because there’s more talking and other things, but I loved it too, especially because of the riding. At the end of the day, the riding carries the video. I just think that’s one of those areas where we need to focus on communicating snowboarding to the general public, not just the people who already snowboard, because that’s not how we grow the sport.

How did you first connect with TDI? And what does being part of that crew mean to you?
Technically Doing It pretty much just started with a DM. Luis Medearis sent every single one of the black snowboarders DMS saying “we should start a crew, what do you guys think?”. And it was just a unanimous “yes”. I think that was 3 and a half years ago. Since then, we've just been trying to make our way as a crew. We've started with doing inclusivity events and just trying to invite different communities to the hill to show that we all exist in the space and belong in the space. To me, that's super important, because it was tough growing up as a black kid with no other black friends at the resort, and I know that that's the case for 90% of the people in Technically Doing It. It was really easy for us to all connect on that. We all shared a common goal to change that and make it easier for others that look like us to want to go and get on the hill. I think truly, that's the lasting impression we'd all like to leave. And now we really want to make our contribution to snowboarding and make a full length video. So that's what our focus has been since last winter. And this winter, we're all going full blast to try and get you guys a really sick snowboard video.

What's the story behind how you got on Burton?
It was actually on November 12, I want to say 2021 or 2020, at the height of covid. I surprised my sister by coming home for her birthday, as I'd done a couple years before. We had dinner with my sister. And during the drive home, my mom and dad are trying to hype me up. They’re like “You’ve done everything you ever put your mind to; we're so stoked for you”. And I said "Yeah, except for the only thing I've ever actually wanted to do, which is to go pro. So, I'm over it. That's why you guys got me through school. Like, I'm good. I'm just gonna give it up.” And we didn't talk for the next 30 minutes of that drive.
Then, the next morning, I woke up at 10AM and got a call from a random number. It was Alex Andrews, and he’s just like “Yo, we're trying to get you involved in this program. What do you think?” And I go “What?” He's like “Yeah, we want to pay you.” And I immediately started sobbing. My mom’s in another room, I bring her in the room, throw it on speaker, and it's just the best moment of my life. From there on, it was a complete 180. I was working a job already, I was working for property management Inc. Fuck that company. Holy shit, you guys suck.

So we have Burton to thank for you not giving up your snowboard career?
1,000%. In a big way, my happiness, my motivation, a lot of things turned around for me, and I was able to just lock in, be happy, focus on what I love. It’s one of those moments where I thought all this work was for nothing, and then it becomes “holy shit, it actually paid off”

Looking at the snowboard industry today, what's something you'd like to see evolve or be done differently moving forward?
Money and contests and money going to snowboarders. I think it's kind of insane how much everyone just gets screwed from the actual professional's perspective. I understand the snowboard industry is hurting, but is it really that hard to take care of the people that are driving the sport? It's insane to me. And then there's the fact that the contest money for everyone is fractions of what it was before. Obviously times change, money changes. The industry is not the same as it was, but it's just funny how everyone wants to be core, and core doesn't pay, and what pays isn't really what anyone wants to do. I think that's a big part of social media kind of fucking everything up. It's hard to blame the industry, but I'm watching my homies do 18’s, 21’s, 23’s for some points. And we can't even give these guys 5 G’s? We got sponsors like Toyota and Visa, and y'all can't fork over a couple grand, when these setups are million-dollar setups. It's just embarrassing. And these resorts, don't even get me started on Icon and Epic. All of these snowboarders are just getting cooked. And I just don't get it. Sometimes it feels like you probably get paid better just doing the YouTube bullshit and just go on TikTok and make dumb videos. And I can't even talk, because I'm out here, I tried to do that whole TikTok thing. I was broke as hell, I'm making zero money. I was going in the hole for the first two and a half years of my snowboarding career. So, I'll do anything at this point to figure out how to make some extra money. I'll try the TikTok shit, try and blow it up whatever. Thank God I did, because it ended up getting me a bunch of contracts. But I just try to never lose sight of the fact that I want to film street parts. I'm not here to go and make cringy ass TikToks for the rest of my life.

Maybe we all need to be a little bit more cringe?
100% core is poor. Honestly, everyone who thinks this shits core usually doesn't even know what core means. To me, core is lifting snowboarding up and paying homage to those who did it before you. I don't really understand how being a part of brands that are snowboarder owned or are directly supporting snowboarders is not core or not cool, it drives me nuts. I have enough choice opinions about core. The whole word core, what that's supposed to mean, but that’s a conversation for another time.

What do you enjoy doing outside of snowboarding?
I'm so obsessed with golf. It's my first love. When I was a kid, I wanted to be Tiger Woods. Then other sports started taking over and I stopped golfing until I was 19/20. Then I started playing golf again and I started falling in love with it, and I started getting kind of good. In the last two years, I've been grinding. It's gotten really, really fun. And I've actually also just gotten back into hockey. Played hockey for a year as a kid, and I got some buddies in Salt Lake that all like to skate. Friend of mine, Mason, he’s from Canada and he's sick, so he's been really fun to play hockey with. Since I’ve been back in Utah after Poland, I already played hockey four times. And then obviously skateboarding, too.

I heard you had German class in high school; can you still speak any?
Ein bisschen. Ich kann sehr gut deutsch sprechen. Ich verstehe vielleicht nicht alles, aber, yeah that's about as good as I got. I've lost a lot of it over the years. I just haven't had many German friends or people that I can speak German with. Since TDI, I talk with David and Yanneck as much as I can in German. David loves to correct me. I'm always doing something wrong [laughs].

Looking ahead, what are a few personal goals you're excited about, both within snowboarding and beyond?
Damn beyond. I've only thought about snowboarding for the next couple of years.
My plan has just been to film a fucking killer video part. I want to give my all, this season I have been laying off the adult beverages, which has been making me feel pretty awesome all of the time. I'm trying to put out a video part that turns heads. So that's the goal for this winter. And then moving forward, I want to keep doing that for at least five years, after that, maybe start thinking about kids, family around 35-ish.

I can’t wait to see your part. So you're not drinking at all right now?
No, I wanted to get off it. DIYX was an exception, because they told me I couldn't win if I didn't drink. I didn't even know that you got money. I thought I was just gonna get the chain. But now, we're back on NA’s, and it was so funny too. I was a pretty big drinker, I would look at NA’s and couldn't believe people like those, and now I'm drinking them. These things are awesome.

Why did you decide not to drink alcohol?
I needed this season to be big, and I didn’t want to be sore or hungover. I didn’t want to miss a good day because I ruined it the night before. I wanted to be dialed every day this winter. I knew I’d be so much more on it if I just didn’t use it at all. After a month of no booze, everything just felt easy. It couldn’t have been more of a reinforcement that I made a good decision. I felt good on this sketchy DIYX setup, felt chill, didn’t care. And then at Hyland, I could do every trick first try. So, I was like, wow, there’s something to this. The immediate reward of just feeling amazing, not uneasy, always feeling good and sure of myself, that’s already paid off. I love it. I might not go back.

Do you have any last words?
Watch out for the Technically Doing It movie, we’re gonna kick some ass, turn some heads. We’ve already got some sick footage for you guys, so stay tuned.

This article was originally published as the intro of Pleasure #157. For the complete reading experience, with more photos and the unmatched feel of a print magazine, order your copy of the magazine here, or even better, support print by becoming a subscriber!

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