Highlighter™ With Jesse

Jesse Gouveia just makes things look good. He can rip a pow line through the trees, grease a switch backside 270 onto a rail, then drop a better instagram photo than anybody you know. Plus, he’s pretty easy on the eyes. Jesse is one of the most energetic and upbeat people I’ve met in a long time; he’ll have these hilarious bursts of weird noises and dance moves that could turn any frown upside down. People like him are really important to have around because they’ll make light of situations that weren’t serious in the first place and have you in the good mood that you need to be in. He values his friends and family above all and he’ll devour any feature in front of him on the mountain and display some of the most stylish arm style you’ve ever seen. Keep an eye out for this hunk in High Cascade’s park this summer, you’re sure to have a good time when he’s around.

-Toby Witte, Fellow HCSC Counselor

How old are you and where are you from?

I’m 20 years old and I’m from Seattle.

Where did you grow up riding?

Summit at Snoqualmie but sometimes I rode Baker and Crystal

“SAAAAAADDD AIIIRRRR” – Castro Voice. Photo: Cole Atencio

Why did you move to Salt Lake instead of becoming a Baker local?

I’m not raw enough to be a Baker loc! I’d heard from friends like Chris Cloud that it was fun to live in Salt Lake and it snowed a lot more in the city, plus my friend Connor Brown was planning on moving here for school. Lots of friends already there so it worked out. I’d also rode Brighton before and it was a good place for riding everything and there’s better snow; it’s so light.

Was Snoqualmie a good place to hone in on your park riding or did you have to take trips to other places?

No, Snoqualmie is really sweet for park riding and they had a bunch of sick rails and stuff but for jumps it wasn’t that amazing. Alpental was really amazing for pow and actually boarding around the mountain.

Super top secret SLC spot. Photo: Ben Birk

Where did you get your start with CAPiTA and how long have you been involved with them?

One of my first snowboards was a CAPiTA when I was 13, I think. I always rode them through high school because they were based out of Seattle so I was super down. I’d also see Blue (Montgomery, CAPiTA founding owner) around at different events and always had chats with him here and there.  It was cool to see in person where the brand was coming from.  In my junior year of high school I talked to Blue and he connected me with the Northwest rep which I was so psyched about because I’d always wanted to ride for them but I didn’t know if I ever would. The next year I moved to Utah so I started going through that rep but over the summer I started moving towards going through (Sean) Tedore and Blue more. Couldn’t be more psyched to be involved with those guys and everybody on the team because they’re all people I’ve looked up to in snowboarding for a long time.

 

You are another one of the Under Dawgs, what’s it like filming with them?

It’s awesome because we’re all just filming with our best friends, not everybody gets to do that. We all kinda know each other well enough that we know when to push each other or know when we can do better. When I’m nervous or scared to try something at a spot one of the other guys will snap me out of it and put me in the right mental state. We all do that for each other, you know, telling a friend to keep trying and not getting over it. We couldn’t ask for anything better than going on trips like this and experiencing all of these new things together. Especially because most of us knew Drake so we all feel the same motivation to make the best movie we can for him.

Drake and Jesse

What is the difference between the Under Dawgs this year and the Nike Chosen event that you were a part of?

Well this is different because we didn’t know we were making a movie and none of us had projects to film for. Everything happened with Drake right around Christmas and Colton Morgan came up with the idea for us to do this for Drake and immediately we were so excited about it. In January Colton brought Sammy Spiteri and Max Tokunaga out to Salt Lake and it turned into this never-ending vacation. Last year we were doing lots of park riding for the contest while we were making ‘This Must Be The Place’. This year was more about us all finding ways to film new things and just have fun making the best movie we could. A big thing is that this year we all live together with Durell Williams, Shane Wright, Ben Strause and myself. Andrew Aldridge and Jordan Morse live close by, not to mention all of the people that have come and stayed with us this winter like Gared and Cory Schneider, Ben Maki, Jon Ray, Johnny Brady and some other dudes. Bedzilla was in full effect!  Filming with Colton is fun because he really knows how you do a trick or if you approach a spot differently he’ll work with you and he’s honest about what he sees as a filmer and if he’s not down with the shot or not. It was so sick that Jon Stark came out and stayed for over a month, too. One of the weirdest and most amazing people I’ve ever met, super creative and an amazing person to film with. Both of those guys are little kids with nerd brains and they’re the nicest people ever. I love spending time with them on trips. But yeah, this year was a lot more of things being unexpected. Things were way more spontaneous and we made a lot of last minute decisions to make this happen.

Stacks on Stacks on Stacks. Photo: Ben Birk

You seem to be pretty psyched in Salt Lake but is it still fun to go ride at home?

Yeah, but I didn’t get to do that much this year because I was just hanging out with my family most of the time that I was home. Washington is still one of the most fun places ever to snowboard, especially Baker.  We got to go for a week trip out in the Northwest at Mt. Bachelor in Oregon and Mt. Baker in Washington. It was Jordan, Colt, Shane and I and we met up with the Warbingtons (Max and Gus) in Bend and stayed on their farm for a couple days, it was amazing. Then we made our way out to Baker with Desiree Melancon and stayed at my friend Ben Maki’s house and met up with Gray Thompson. We had a really awesome few days building jumps and snow caves until the snow got bad. We also got to meet up with the Go! Boarding dudes, that was really sick. So we had a REALLY big crew that last day out there. After that we sent it to Mt. Hood and built a jump and headed home to Utah that same day. It was definitely a trip with a lot of new experiences, building stuff in the backcountry, but it was super fun.

Jesse looks better on the other side of the camera. Photo: Ben Birk

Tell me about your modeling career.

My mom is a makeup artist so they got me doing it when I was a little kid but I got over it really quickly once I was 14. My dad also did it for a really long time so they encouraged us to do it as a way to make money. It’s just a super weird industry that really freaked me out (laughs)

Yep. He was a child model.

Do you subscribe to the social media craze? Based on your coaching of when to drop a ‘gram I’d say you do.

Of course! (laughs) Instagram, vine, snapchat; who doesn’t! Throw it in the double toaster! (@jessegouveia, hit him with a follow!)

What’s your favorite part about working at camp?

There’s a lot of good parts but my favorite is hanging out with a bunch of my friends, snowboarding everyday and getting to meet tons of really awesome kids all summer that are goofy and fun to hang out with. Reminds us of ourselves when we were campers.

Oregon is a playground in the summertime, what is one of your favorite things to do on the in-betweens?

Going on any of the many trips we took to Portland or wherever and getting close to people you didn’t know before like Drake Edwards or Dick Fink and others. We all get to wind down and spend time in Seattle, go skating, see movies or just enjoying the weather outside. Oregon is a really beautiful place to drive around with your friends and find something to do.

Coolest miller flip to date. Photo: Darrell Mathes

How many times did you watch Cosmic Vomit 2 when Jon Ray was staying with you guys?

Definitely over 10 or 12 times, the extras in that movie are the best part about it.

When are you going to get a coconut water sponsor?

When someone gives me the email of Vita Coco or C20’s TM. Cause I’m so down!

Which energy drink sponsor does Under Dawgs have?

Um, we’re still searching (heavy sarcasm). Maybe that’s how we’ll get Vita Coco!

Tell me about your house’s infatuation with Top 40 jamz.

Well Shane Wright is a bro at heart, so he loves that stuff. Ben Strause is the ultimate Top 40 expert, he knows everything about the wheres and what’s about the latest billboard charts. Durell Williams is super down for that Ke$ha. So they pretty much have all turned me into a Top 40 fan, because any time we drive anywhere Shane turns it into a fist pumping, sunroof breaking dance party. “Die Young” by Ke$ha, “Beauty and a Beat” by Nicki and Biebs and any Katy Perry track are our favorites for sure. Some people think they aren’t down for Top 40 at all but after a car ride with Shane they have to choice but to be down for life. He’s made his knuckles bleed over a good fist-pumping track. It might be inspired by a lot of van rides to or from the mountain at camp when we were growing up as campers.

Serious Bro’s. Photo: Ben Strause

The season is wrapping up and so is this interview, what are you going to do until High Cascade rolls around?

Well, hopefully I’m headed to Bear on Thursday with a few friends for the Ashbury Demo then cruising to Hood for the Airblaster Board Games at Timberline. After that I’ll hopefully be headed to Tahoe to meet up with the Airblaster dudes to finish up their movie with a park shoot and maybe building some fun stuff around there. Maybe Super Park, not really sure yet. Then head home in May to hang out with my family in Seattle as much as I can before camp. Hyped for some good slush boarding and see some friends that I haven’t seen in a while.

Sponsors / Shoutouts?

I wanna thank my family and all of my best friends. Shoutout to Airblaster, CAPiTA, Union, Howl, Milosport and High Cascade. I also wanna thank Drake Edwards for keeping us safe and inspired this winter while we’re making his movie. We all miss you and love you, bud!