Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin Interview

A big interview for you today as we speak to two-time Olympian and two-time World Champion in the sport of snowboard cross Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin! From the roots of his unique nickname right through to his blossoming music career, Chumpy chats about a wide variety of topics as he prepares for his third Olympics in Korea next year! He also lets us know about just how much sledging goes on in his sport and just how often riders come to blows after the events. It's an interview you won't want to miss!

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.

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BEN WATERWORTH: Welcome back to Off The Podium, An Olympics Podcast, as we continue our athlete interviews in the lead up to Pyeongchang 2018. And a very excitable one for you today. We have Alex Chumpy Pullin, Australian Snowboard Cross Legend, I'm going to say it, two-time Olympian, multiple world champion, multiple world championship medals, X-Games medallist, this guy has done it all. He can even sing a mean song or two, and definitely has a huge career ahead of him, I think, in that industry, which we talk about in this chat. And easily one of Australia's most recognisable winter athletes, definitely one of our highest medal hopes heading into Pyeongchang next year. And generally an all-around good guy. So this is a fun chat with Chumpy. I have to get used to calling him that. And we also, I guess, had to point out how on earth he got that nickname, in particular to help out our co-host, of course, Colin Hilding over there in Canada. So sit back and enjoy our chat with Australian snowboard cross legend, Alex Chumpy Pullin. It is a massive pleasure to be able to welcome our next guest here to Off The Podium as we continue our athlete profiles in the lead up to Pyeongchang 2018. He's one of Australia's most well-known winter athletes, a two-time Olympian, multiple world champion, and let's be honest, has one of the greatest names in the history of sport. I do, of course, speak of Mr. Alex Chumpy Pullin, Olympic snowboarder, and he's with us on the line here today. Alex Chumpy, welcome to Off The Podium. Now, I've got to start off with it. What do I call you? Alex Chumpy, what do you prefer?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Well, Chumpy seems to be the more popular. Ever since I was little, so I'd probably stick with that one, I guess.

BEN WATERWORTH: Now, I've also got to clarify this, I feel, because we've got a co-host on this show, he's Canadian, and we recently did sort of a preview episode looking ahead to the games last year, and we were talking about some of our best medal prospects. We talked about you, and he seemed fascinated the entire time about this name, Chumpy. He's like, you know, what is that? What are you trying to say to me right now? Is this Australian for something I don't understand? So can you explain to Colin, and perhaps some of our listeners who have never, I guess, heard the story behind your nickname, where does Chumpy come from?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, it's not, like, I don't really have a particular story, which is a bit of a bummer, as you can imagine, because I do get asked that question quite often. But I think it's pretty Aussie, and that's, I guess, you know, one of the things that I grew up with, in high country Victoria, up in the mountains, and everyone I went to school with, all my mates, even older people, pretty much everyone had a nickname or a handle. And, but, for some reason, I never escaped mine, and it stuck with me for a long time. I got into snowboarding pretty young, and was doing kind of a couple of different things. It probably came from the community I was hanging out with then, and people that are sort of, I guess, maybe a bit creative. But, yeah, it stuck with me. It was definitely what most people called me throughout school, teachers, everything. And then, and here we are, still today. Most people get confused when someone calls me Alex, so I just had to stick with it.

BEN WATERWORTH: I just kind of imagined it was, I don't know if you remember they had those ads, was that dog food chum? And they just had that line when they said, so chumpy, you can carve it. And I kind of thought like chumpy, snowboarding, carving, like I kind of just thought it must have come from that, but you could use that story. That kind of makes it sound a bit exciting, perhaps.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, we can make that work.

BEN WATERWORTH: Go for it, go for it. You can use that. But you've come off the back of another fairly successful season. So some medals again, sort of from a lot of the events. I mean, how are you feeling right now? I guess now less than a year out from your third Olympics. You know, are you feeling good? Are you feeling strong? I mean, kind of what's the mindset happening right now?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, look, I'm feeling really good. For me, I don't really, and kind of never have based my seasons or my career around the Olympic cycle too much. I mean, obviously it's a huge event on the calendar, and definitely looking forward to that coming up. But I have a World Cup tour every year, which is obviously stacked with events where I compete against all the same guys on that tour as I would at the Olympics. So I get that opportunity to race the guys that I'm really sizing myself up against all quite often throughout that Northern Hemisphere and even Southern Hemisphere season sometimes. Really, yeah, I mean, I can't say that I'm feeling better or, I guess in a performance sense, because I've had really good results in the past too. So it's always a hard thing to gauge, but what I am feeling is, I'm really enjoying my sport at the moment, probably more than I ever have. And my body feels better than ever, which is probably a surprise to me, at a later stage in my career. You'd obviously think that in action sports, high impact, that sort of thing, that I tend to be somewhere in tear by now. But I think I've really learnt to adapt my training and to suit my body as best possible so they get the best performance out of it at the end of the day. And on that side of things, I'm feeling really good. And then something I've really put a lot of time into over the past sort of three or so years is my snowboard development and custom-made snowboards, which is happening a lot in our sport now, but I work with a really good company overseas in Austria, brand called Apex, and work closely with those guys. It's everything custom designed, and it takes a lot of time to get that dialed in, but yeah, the boards that I've been on for the last sort of six months has felt pretty amazing. So yeah, on all those sort of things, looking ahead with the year that I have ahead of me, it's pretty exciting. I'm definitely feeling good for it.

BEN WATERWORTH: Cause I can imagine, I mean, the sport of snowboard cross is obviously, I mean, it's a fantastic sport to watch from a spectator's perspective. Obviously, one of my favourite events to watch in the Olympics every year, and also not just the Olympics, obviously, your seasons that you're talking about, but I can imagine, given the amount of training, sort of the board prep you're talking about, and everything that goes into it, it just does come down to the day though, doesn't it? Because I mean, it's such a sport where you can be feeling your absolute best, but come a quarter, semi or a final, you just can land wrong, you can get knocked out of the way, and that's your day done. It's kind of just one of those sports where at the end of the day, luck comes into a huge factor of it.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: And look, it's sometimes hard to swallow when people do sort of say, oh, wow, there's a lot of luck in your sport because I do pour, you know, and so do so many other athletes pour a lot of time and strategy and all of our year into trying to put forward their best performances every day. But sometimes things can sort of prevent that for whatever reason. And, but that's what I love about racing too. It's not a set routine that I'm going out to perform the same every time. You know, it's racing, but it's different every single run. It's not a matter of just going out and performing my run safely in my own lane. But that's what makes it so exciting. That's what I love. And that's probably why I have, you know, I enjoy absolutely every year that I'm competing with those best guys on the World Cup Tour because each race brings about a whole bunch of different challenges. And, you know, sometimes you get the strategies dead on and you have a really good day and other times you slightly miss it. It's probably the biggest challenge for us as Australian athletes is that that World Cup Tour doesn't have so much of a focus from the general public between each Winter Olympics. Given that, you know, our tour stops in the backyard of most Northern Hemisphere countries at least once or twice during that winter, you know, it's quite common that everyone over there really knows and follows that tour and sees a lot of different races and follows it like any other sport that say Aussies would follow down here where it comes through town a bit more commonly. The challenge for us is that, yeah, it does. It gains a lot of focus coming into the Winter Olympics, which is awesome, but there's also a lot for people who are watching and tuning in to catch up on. And it's probably, the beauty of our sport, I guess, is that it's not a judging sport or judge sport at all. It's purely racing. And that's probably why it is so popular in Australia, is because people can sort of tune in, see one run and pretty much understand everything they need to see to sit back and enjoy the sport. But understanding the results as they unfold sometimes can be a little bit tricky. And Pyeongchang does have quite a bit going on as far as variables that will probably provide some pretty good challenges to decide what strategies I'll execute there. But as you say, you can work up on the day, conditions play into your favour. The course is running a certain speed, which often is either with you or against you. But if it's in your favour, you're pretty much rubbing your hands together and getting set to go out and make the absolute most of it.

BEN WATERWORTH: You mentioned about the attention, and obviously, it's something that we've talked a lot about through all these interviews in terms of Australia when it comes to, as you said, sort of focus kind of comes down about a month before the Winter Games that a lot of Australians realise, we have athletes competing in Winter Olympics. But I remember in Sochi, the focus was so heavy on you. Channel 10 had the coverage, and obviously there was just so much coverage about sort of your prospects going into it as a reigning two-time champion. And just, I guess, there was all this, I felt pressure on you, I guess, from our perspective. Did you feel there was that pressure, and how did you kind of go into Sochi with all that attention on you from Australia?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, look, I guess I did. We're away a lot of the year and a lot of the lead up to the games. So I wasn't here often. We're away for all the buildup and the coverage that gets sort of played leading into the Winter Olympics as it gets closer, which it's probably not a bad thing. You know, we're on the other side of the world and not seeing more and more content and footage of interviews of ourselves that we've done previously pop up on the screen a bit more often. But certainly, you know, like this, it is probably one of the tricks to master when coming into an Olympics, being an Australian Winter Olympian, when things will sort of take a drastic change and suddenly there's a whole bunch of attention there. But, you know, for me, it's always been about the racing and always about the performance. And, you know, that's what I really focus on. You know, that's what I'm in love with. And the Olympics again is another stage. I'd say it's a great opportunity to have a lot of friends and family being able to tune in and watch on, you know, probably a free-to-air channel, which never happens for us with our stock standard World Cup Tour, which runs every year. I think that's a cool opportunity. It's good for our sport. And if anything, I just try to make the most of that. And hopefully, you know, if anything, maybe make some kids up in the mountains or wherever in Australia, keen to give it a try.

BEN WATERWORTH: You mentioned strategy aspect before kind of in your sport. Is this, when it comes down to it, the preparation involved, obviously, there's all your gym and physical training you gotta do, but then how much of a percentage do you then focus to strategy? Do you have coaches that kind of come down, sit down with you and work out sort of different strategic ways? And how do you come up with these different strategies based on the events?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, I think that's where border cross has an interesting element, because when you're young and gung-ho, and I remember when I hit the tour, I was just kind of shooting from the hip. It's pretty unknown and a lot of things that you need to pick up as a rookie rider. And the only way to find out is trial and error. So further down the track, experience does come in very handy. And that's honestly the way that I still use today. I do work with some coaches who I discuss things with, but it's very tricky to find someone who's willing to pull the trigger on a strategy, given that if it goes wrong, I guess the sort of discussion can fall back on them a bit. So it's pretty tricky to find someone who's willing to put themselves out there and maybe suggest something a bit obscure. Because sometimes the strategies, which we may see in Pyeongchang, when there's a heavy headwind or gusty winds, you actually pull out behind the pack. And we're riding in heats of six, and sometimes you'll see riders stay in the gate, choose to sit behind for most of the run, and use the draft like a cyclist would in a peloton, you know, to pull past and in the finishing straight. It can work beautifully well. And I'll tell you what, there's no better feeling than coming from, you know, an executed behind position and then just fanging right through everyone. But it can also go terribly wrong, and it looks pretty bad if you pull out intentionally last and don't get through the heat or don't have a good result. So, you know, you can go from zero to hero pretty quickly, but again, a bold strategy. And it really does come back to the rider. To me, that's when I feel most confident and I call on sort of experience and try to make that decision, you know, very last minute because things can change in, you know, up in the mountains pretty quickly and maybe a strategy that would have been good half an hour ago or an hour ago won't any longer be a good move to be putting into place. So yeah, I find that, you know, that's why you commonly see riders that have been on tour for a bit longer than others. You know, on the consistent side of things, stay right up in the pointy end of the field at most events. So, you know, that's a good thing for me leading into this next Olympics to have, you know, a good amount of experience. I've been on tour for nine or 10 years now. So, and that's been on the top level. Got a lot of good rivals on that tour. I've had plenty of good battles. You know, you start to learn a lot about the other riders, their weaknesses and strengths. Learn a lot about conditions. You adapt your equipment. And as it all comes together, yeah, the best way to be with it all is keep it very simple. You know, make a plan that you're confident in and execute that. And you know, that's really all you can do. Sometimes, like I said, it works like a dream. Other times, might slightly miss it and it can cost you a lot. But you know, that's racing and that's the beauty of it, I guess.

BEN WATERWORTH: Is there much sledging when you're going down the course? I mean, not necessarily off the course on the way up to the run, but like, you know, halfway down the course, you're bumping and driving, you know, can you drop a few little sledges there at the time, Chumpy? And be like, you know, just get on their nerves a little bit?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, I'd say that happens a bit if there's fewer US crisis in the heat, tends to be a bit more noise around, but yeah, look, you know, sometimes it's, it's most of the time just to make people aware of where you are or if you're, you know, on the inside and maybe in a blind spot, you can sometimes sort of say on your inside or something like this, but there's also a beauty in, you know, kind of utilising or using that surprise element to make a pass. Most of the time, you're trying to be dead quiet and sneak up on people as you're passing so they don't know to shut that line down. But again, there's certain situations where two riders can cause an unnecessary crash and a bit of awareness can maybe help in that situation. But yeah, that's where it gets back to experience, you know, knowing who you should maybe lend a mention to and who you should maybe keep your mouth zipped and just work on getting through them depending on who it is. So, you know, there's definitely, I think, you know, as far as the sport goes, it's pretty clean and it'd be similar to MotoGP. I kind of refer back to that a bit. You've got guys that are riding incredibly close together, taking really tight race lines on extremely fast bikes. And there's obviously quite a lot of danger with that. When they crash, they're crashing with their bodies. There's no roll cage and that's much the same as us at high speed and even in a sense of trying to keep your speed throughout the track and hold speed throughout the turns. The last thing you want to do is actually be crashing into everyone. It's probably something that gets a bit misunderstood with our sport is that's a bit of a tactic, fly out the inside and take people out. But it can happen. But one thing, you won't last very long on tour because people will be pretty fed up with you and there's tend to be a bit of a gentleman's agreement against that sort of thing. And plus, as you'll see with pikes, it's better to try and just keep it clean, ride through the turn, take the battles down the straight where everyone can stay nice and clean and hold their speed and not cost, maybe two riders that are battling for position and other two spots by the guards behind are able to pick them off. Again, it depends who you're in a heat with. There's some riders, some countries that have different styles that tend to be a bit dirty, if I'm allowed to say that, but-

BEN WATERWORTH: Of course, Kev, I wanna know where these countries are, Chumpy. I kinda feel like you need to say them. Ha ha. It's fascinating, the thing that I find really fascinating too is that for a sport, yeah, where there's so much argy bargy and accidents happen and things like that, that there doesn't ever seem to be, maybe I'm just not watching the right races, like guys getting up and just giving each other like, what the hell was that, man? And just like shoving each other and getting into a bit of a fight afterwards. It does happen. We need to see more of this thing.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Oh yeah. Yeah, even this past season, quite often like, you know, hopefully I know nothing about it. Because if I'm in the heat, I don't want to have anything to do with that. But yeah, it's not very often, but in the heat of the moment, you might see someone come through the line, obviously not going through that heat and come in and absolutely spray another rider and have a few words in the finish area. And I think it's fair enough some of the time, it's always hard to know what actually happened. And most of the time, everyone goes away, watches footage, has a far clearer idea of how certain things went down, realises it wasn't intentional. And most of the time, it isn't intentional. I'd say 95% of the time, it's not intentional. And that's the thing to understand. In our sport, you can actually get disqualified for intentional contact and pushing off another rider to develop speed. But at the same time, there's six guys or six girls racing down the track all at once. And there's gotta be contact, and it's kind of expected that arms are gonna hit backs and that sort of thing. And most of the time, we'll just be protecting your own personal area as you're riding. And yeah, as long as it's all in good intentions, it's all good.

BEN WATERWORTH: Have you ever lost it? Have you ever kind of done that, broken the line and gone after someone?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: No, I see it happen sometimes. The thing is, it's not going to change anything. And I guess that's probably one of the most valuable lessons that racing's taught me is what's done is done, the heat's over. I'm not really wanting to put in a protest or anything and try and change the outcome. I always try to develop myself as a racer and a competitor by looking at what just unfolded and how I could best prevent that from happening if I was to have that scenario again. And actually, one of the guys I used to race this way back in the day, Damon Haylor, he kind of taught me that when I was younger. He was like, well, that heat just went wrong, but figure out what you would do, how you would prevent it, and then let it go and move on. There's no point sitting here crying over spilled milk when the milk's already spilled. And it's just about figuring out how best to fix that. So yeah, at times it can be really frustrating, but the best way to use that towards something good, I find, is adjusting what I would have done and putting that into the bag of tricks for next time.

BEN WATERWORTH: You're mentioning about the conditions in Pyeongchang, head of the games next year. You mentioned sort of about the crosswinds. Is this something that is much different, I guess, to some of the other places that you have competed? Is this a sort of a more windier venue, I guess, or kind of what are some of the other challenges maybe at Pyeongchang that you don't face at other venues you've competed at?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, look, it's gotta be predominantly man-made snow, pretty much all of it. It's really cold and dry there, so that shouldn't be a problem. And that's not bad for our courses because they can build pretty well with that. It can be a little bit more chopped and bumpy, but to be honest, my strength, I can really sort of use my strength of riding and skill in firmer, faster conditions, which is what that man-made snow should produce. So that's probably something that will be almost a definite. The other thing that is definitely on my mind for that event is that it is a windy location, and probably one of the things, one of my pet hates is racing in wind because, and I'd say most other races as well, it just throws variables into the mix, into a sport that's already got a ton of variables without the extras. And I know this because we went there two years ago, or a year and a half ago now, for the test event, the Olympics, and we were there in Pyeongchang, and there's two massive big wind generators, or wind turbines, right on the hill next to our track. Huge ones, like the big white ones spinning there. And one of our wax techs at the time, who actually works for wind turbines over summer in the US actually said, well, you don't put them there if it's not windy every day, because it's otherwise a silly idea. And so that would kind of suggest that there's gotta be pretty commonly wind in that valley. I'd say hearing what other athletes said who went there this previous Northern Winter for their test event, there was some people that sort of said, yep, we definitely had some issues. I think the aerials might have had some issues with the wind. Some other venues like Halfpipe might have been just well enough to be out of reach. For us, because we come down a valley, it's probably gonna affect us a little bit more because it's quite gusty, and it sort of channels up that valley. But I guess, you know, the way I'm looking at it is that that's what it is. We do get that. Some other courses, you know, you'll get windy days, but not commonly is there a place where we go where you'd actually expect to see wind. It'd just be, oh bugger, it's gonna be windy today. We're gonna have to deal with that. But most of the time, that's just, you know, a front coming through or whatever might be happening. Whereas it seems in Pyeongchang, there's pretty much a daily thing that's pushing the wind up that valley. And yeah, that'll probably be something that plays heavily into the strategies and things that will unfold and yeah, make it interesting.

BEN WATERWORTH: Is there anything that you can do, I guess, in your training in the lead up to the games to kind of try and prepare yourself for that? I mean, can you just, I don't know, strap yourself on a snowboard and put a giant fan in front of yourself or something along those lines?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, look, there's probably, I mean, yes and no. There's definitely different racing strategies which I'd probably train a bit more often in terms of, you know, the board across the Australian has grown a lot over the past three, four, five years now. And there's quite a good team that we have coming together and building towards Pyeongchang. And that's a strength because we can kind of have a group of people to train with, which is all our own country. I used to have to travel a lot and kind of merge in with other teams, like Canada or, you know, Austrian teams to be able to get riding in traffic. Whereas now, you know, we've got a lot of those riders ourselves, and that's really awesome. And probably how I'll be using that is pulling out behind quite often and just practice drafting and practising, which is something we do a lot of anyway. But maybe a little bit more emphasis on a few things that I'm looking to practice this year down at Houghton when we're training. And yeah, I mean, but in another sense, the treaty part about gusty winds is sometimes you still want to be in front, and obviously it's a big dice to roll when the whole world's watching in is to pull out in second or third or even behind the whole pack. If it goes wrong, you know, you've got a lot to answer for. So, yeah, look, you know, I really just try to stay open-minded about it. The reality is it is a windy place. The reality is that the track will most likely have a headwind involved at some point of the day, whether it's every run or just a few. And so I'm really trying to just, yeah, work on certain things with my writing and even just mentally being ready for that, you know, so that when I rock up and plan on doing what I do, that's in the equation.

BEN WATERWORTH: Do you have much of a mental preparation going on that? I mean, obviously, you know, you can train in the gym, you can work out these strategies, but I guess every athlete would have their own individual way to really getting in that head space. I know you're a bit of a musician, Chumpy, we'll talk about that shortly, but is there, say, music you listen to? Do you do yoga? I mean, kind of what's your mindset, your mental preparation going into an event?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, I'd say it varies a little bit, depending on how I feel the track is sort of playing into my hands, or maybe not in some situations. Music's a huge thing for me. I grew up listening to what my parents were listening to a lot of the time, and a bunch of Jimi Hendrix and Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, bands that I just have grown up with and love so much, especially Jimi, and there's a couple of songs of his which I'll play on the morning before competing most of the time. I don't really have set rituals as such. Like I said, I like being a bit flexible with that, but Jimi definitely puts me in the mood to go race board across. But on top of that, yeah, it'll depend. Sometimes a course can be very intimidating. Actually, without the racing and the expectations of the result, I can be quite nervous just to ride the track at full speed because it's literally pretty gnarly. And so then add in the event and everything else. So then that'll take a different frame of mind, which often sort of I kick in the gear, probably a little bit more warrior mode, I guess. When you just got it in your head that you go out and have to do absolutely anything to get to the bottom in first and kind of make it this, I don't know, just fight for your, fight for everything, fight for every inch and centimeter and as well as that, fight with absolutely 100% of skills so that the day pans out as good as it can because sometimes a bit of holding back can be your own worst nightmare and cause an accident pretty easy just because you're slightly off the pace. So I kind of counteract that by going, okay, this course is a little bit gnarly and scary and I'm gonna absolutely tear it apart, like rip into it as hard as I can. Other times, I'll have a course where it's more about trying to get everything really smooth and finesse and if I do that, I'm pretty confident that that sort of style of writing will work out really well for me to get a good result on the day and if I'm feeling it and I'm feeling it's good and all playing into my hands, I'll often have quite a lot of fun with it, just sort of enjoy it. I guess it's probably a lot of similar to Surfers and their tour and I know quite a few, but even just watching that tour, there's days when it's really fun, bells where you go out and you've just got this big sweeping right hander where you can just unleash all the best turns you've ever had. And then there's other days when you're at 10 to 15 foot pipeline, and it's literally terrifying, and you've got everyone tuned in. There's definitely that aspect in our sport as well. And I definitely enjoy the ones that are more intimidating and more challenging technically. Not only are they normally the events that I do really well at, but it's just honestly the full thrill and rush of our sport. When your heart's beating and you're kind of nervous before anything's even started, because you know how fast you got to be going on this track, how far you got to be flying off some of the jumps and then throwing into the mix, you got to have five guys all around you at the same time. That's the best part of the sport I compete in. So yeah, I certainly prefer the ones where it's a bit gnarly, that's for sure.

BEN WATERWORTH: The confidence levels of the entire Australian winter team must be so high right now. I mean, speaking to a lot of the other athletes kind of in the lead up to the games, you know, with such the fantastic results that everybody's been having. I mean, this is obviously going into your third Olympics. Has the confidence levels of an Australian team ever been this high based on the results going into a games?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yes and no. I think it's hard to probably read everyone's situation, given that we're not always training together and all disciplines pretty much are on their own program. I think the moguls guys are still overseas training at the moment. They were back, obviously, just at the end of the season, but, and aerials too, I think are heading away soon to be over in the States. A lot of us are on kind of different programs, but one thing I do think is that, I think everyone's in a really good place. There's probably a generation of athletes that I've sort of come through the mix with, even in different sports, you know, Britt Cox would be one of those who I was at my first Olympics with, and that was her first Olympics when she was really young. And, you know, it's cool to see that she's had such a good year and, you know, really building up to hopefully another really good year on the back of that one. And yeah, I guess that's something that I can relate to because I've seen, you know, quite a lot of others, as well as her and myself, you know, move through the sport and build up quite a strong sort of career, I guess. But everyone's got their own journey, and each year brings about different things and different situations. And I'd say right now, you know, probably the one thing I felt when we all came together for our awards night just last month, was just the vibes were good and happy and positive. And, you know, I think everyone's going to want to come out and really push the envelope for this next year. And as the focus swings around towards the Olympics back here at home, and more so, I think, just put on a really good show that when people do tune in and see how exciting, well, you know, the Winter Olympics can be, and hopefully it is. And I think everyone's in a very good place to go and do that. But, you know, we've also had really strong athletes in the past as well. So it's hard to say that we're more confident than ever. But I would say that it's definitely, you know, positive looking forward, and everyone's feeling good and happy and ready to get stuck into it.

BEN WATERWORTH: Your first Olympics, of course, 2010, you finished 17th in Vancouver, then eliminated in the quarterfinals in Sochi. But I guess kind of the highlight perhaps out of both those games, Chumpy, you were the flag bearer, of course, for Australia, heading into the opening ceremony there. I mean, that's something that very few athletes obviously get that honour with. I mean, how does that rank up there in terms of, I guess, competition results and everything that you've achieved throughout your athletic career?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, it was massive. I mean, a huge honour to be given that opportunity and be amongst a lot of other Australian athletes that have had that same opportunity that I've really looked up to. And yeah, massive, very different though in terms of, I guess, what I sort of think of with results and success on that front. I mean, obviously with my events, a full day of adrenaline-packed racing sort of unfold and you cross the line. It's all very raw and happening. Being the flag bearer for the Australian team at Sochi was, I don't know, it was huge, but it was totally different, I guess. And something very special to feel. And yeah, I think something I'll remember forever.

BEN WATERWORTH: Is our tip then for flag bearer, Britt Cox, next year, given the season that she's had? I mean, is kind of the whisper amongst the entire Australian winter team?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Hard to say. I haven't really thought about it too much. I haven't really been able to talk about it so far, but I mean, yeah, definitely. She'd probably be a pretty good pick. Scotty James has had a really good year as well. Also, Danny Scott in the aerials has also had a really good year. So, you know, I think there's still quite a long way to go, or at least on our front with the border cross, there's a lot of racing, and I'm sure most of those other athletes still have quite a bit of racing before the games, given that it's not until February. And our Northern winters kick off, you know, late November. Even for us, we start our World Cup tour in September over in South America in the Southern winter, but yeah, I think, you know, I mean, that's definitely would be a good pick if we were looking at it right now. And yeah, I just hope that everyone has a really good remainder of the year and gets over to Pyeongchang with the same momentum that they've had, and probably even we'll see a few others really spike up towards that moment as well, which is really exciting. So yeah, it's all good times ahead.

BEN WATERWORTH: Very much, very much. So now, I'm gonna ask you a bunch of fun questions here in a sec, Chumpy, to close it out. But just before I do, I sort of mentioned your music before. I'm on your website right now. People can visit that, alexchumpypullin.com. We'll link that on our page. And of course, very active on social media too. But listening to a bit of your music, you're definitely setting yourself up here for a career, post-retirement, aren't you here? Like you're surely, you're a thinking man, I feel, because you've got some great songs going out there. I mean, this seems more than a passion. You can make a career out of this.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, hopefully, I'd like to. Yeah, not really a plan and such. And it's probably, I mean, when I was a lot younger, we used to be quite proactive on that front and perform a lot of gigs and play a lot of festivals and that sort of thing. Before my snowboarding career really got too busy. Now I obviously spend a lot of my year travelling on the road and I've always got a guitar with me or a ukulele or anything with strings. And yeah, it's, I don't know, I just love music and I love playing and I love writing the old song here and there and we'll see, I mean, maybe something opens up in the future and I'd definitely be keen to. I love playing music and I love listening to music and certainly something where, I guess, snowboarding still involves a lot of that creativity for me as well. It's something that's constantly evolving and probably a side of me that it will always be a part of what I do in some shape or form and maybe it won't be necessarily sitting down and drawing my snowboard designs, but it might be spending a bit more time on the guitar. Hopefully, who knows?

BEN WATERWORTH: I can just picture you there performing gigs with an Olympic gold medal around your neck, getting up there in front of a crowd. That would be a unique little stick that somebody, there'd be many singers out there who can say that they've got an Olympic gold medal to put around their neck, wouldn't they?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: No, no, it could be a bit of an additive to the music, make up for it maybe if it wasn't good enough.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, yes. Look at my medal, just ignore the song. This one's one of my best. That's a good way of looking at it, I like that. Now, I've got some questions to close out here now. Basically, yeah, these come from the Canadian Olympic website. They asked a bunch of athletes in the lead up to Rio 2016, some fun, interesting questions. And we've taken this from, yeah, our Canadian co-host who asked this to the Canadian athletes. Now, obviously it starts off here by saying, hello, my name is, and we can put in there Alex Chumpy Pullin, of course, we know who we're talking to. But the first question here, and I won't go through all of these, I'll just go through some of them. What is your favourite ever Olympic moment?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Oh, whoa. Probably Cathy Freeman back at Sydney. That was a pretty big one, watching her win. And also probably, yeah, another one for me would have been watching a guy that I started snowboarding with when I was about 17, Damon Haylor, doing really well in Torino at the Winter Olympics. We later teamed up and sort of became the Australian team. That was awesome, too. Obviously, that was the first time my own sport had been in the Olympics and pretty awesome to see. So yeah, but actually Australia's got tons. I actually really like watching the Aussie relay swim team play guitars after being American. That was pretty awesome as well. That was pretty rock and roll.

BEN WATERWORTH: That was a great start to those games.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: It just happens to happen more, in my opinion.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it does, doesn't it? Like, come on.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Maybe we'll take some guitars to the track over in Pyeongchang.

BEN WATERWORTH: You need to have one at the finish line there in Pyeongchang, so when you cross for the gold, you're pumping the line, then you just whip out the guitar and just start playing.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, big Marshall stack.

BEN WATERWORTH: That would be fun. Don't go viral. That would be one of these moments that everybody will remember from the Olympics. Done. If you could choose any Olympic host city, where would it be?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: I've never been to Norway. And yeah, if I could get the opportunity to go up to that Scandinavian area, and heard a lot about it, got a lot of really good friends and two of them are Norwegian, I just think it's one of the always biggest nations competing at the Winter Olympics. I think I pretty often end up in the top three if not win the Winter Olympic medal tallies, but certainly would be a really cool place. And I'm sure, yeah, they host a really good one.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it's been a while. It's been 94, I think, the last time they've been there for the Winter Games. So it's about time we go back to Norway. You might have sort of already answered this one, because we obviously just touched on your music, but you might have something else here. What do you like to do most in your spare time? Surf. Ah, get rid of the snow and put a different type of board on your feet. Well, surfing is of course going to be an Olympic sport in 2020 there, Chumpy. So you look, you know, you get good enough. You can be a summer and winter Olympian.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: That would be quite bizarre.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: I can handle some summer though.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, you're overdue, chasing the snow all year. Chase that sand. What is the weirdest instruction a coach has ever given you?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Huh, not sure if it's PG enough to mention.

BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, look, you can say whatever you want to on this show. It can be anything up to X, basically.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Um, I don't know. That's quite bizarre.

BEN WATERWORTH: Hmm.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: I don't, I probably, yeah. Problem is, I probably don't pay much attention when a coach gives me a random bit of information, because I'll normally fire it back per yard. Yeah, I don't know. I don't really have an answer to that one. I might have to get back to you. I'll think about it.

BEN WATERWORTH: Shoot us a tweet or something along those lines when you think about it later tonight. Yeah. Next time your coach says something crazy like, hey, I remember that podcast guy asked me that question. I'll shoot him a tweet. What is your favourite workout?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Probably like, yeah, probably sports that I like, crossover sports. So, you know, obviously I use surfing for a bit of training. You know, obviously when I'm not on snow, it's still a really fun and, you know, a good board sport, which I can do on the side. But on top of that, I really like sort of sprint and explosive type of training. It's something that's very relevant to my sport as well. And then one that I've been doing a fair bit with, with a trainer, Naam Baldwin, was some breath hold training. And that's been really interesting as well, for actually under the water. And yeah, very challenging, but pretty different. And really, yeah, really, really fun.

BEN WATERWORTH: There you go. Never thought about that one. It's one that's very interesting. And speaking of interesting.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, you learn all kind of things about yourself when you're forced to hold your breath.

BEN WATERWORTH: I can imagine. I can definitely imagine.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Quite interesting, yeah.

BEN WATERWORTH: Speaking of interesting, he's a really random one for you. What is your favourite sandwich?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: A favourite sandwich? Ham, cheese, tomato, toastie, probably.

BEN WATERWORTH: Nice, simple.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Hard to get any better than that.

BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Homemade relish or something.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, that would be pretty delicious right now.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, you're making me hungry, I was about to say. You know what I'm having for dinner? If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: I've answered this one before, and I said something pretty good. Now I can't remember it. Probably the ability to wipe all rubbish from the faces, yeah. That one really bugs me.

BEN WATERWORTH: That is a fact. I've never heard that before. I was about to say, I'm sorry. Earth, fire, wind, water.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, just the combination of the whole lot is banged.

BEN WATERWORTH: That is a good one. That is a good one. I like that. Ticking all the boxes and making us think of great sandwiches and great TV shows as well. Why have they brought Captain Planet back? Isn't that just the most very convenient in this age and day? Like, shouldn't Captain Planet be a thing again?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, more so than ever.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. I think they're making a movie. I think they're finally getting around to making a movie on it. I think. I think there was a whisper for a while, but it's been a while. There you go. You can try out for the role. You can sing. You can snowboard, surf and play Captain Planet in the movie. Why not?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Definitely got to be able to sing then, actually.

BEN WATERWORTH: You've got a bit of a movie star name. I could see the poster. Chumpy Pullin, star of Captain Planet. That would work. As a kid, who was your favourite sports team?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: I didn't really follow a lot of teams, but I did heavily follow tennis. I was pretty into tennis when I was younger, and someone I really looked up to a lot was Pat Rafter. And yeah, just because he was a great bloke, he still is. A great bloke, a great athlete, and just a really great personality to watch around the sport. Probably a lot of things I could learn watching him play even more than just his awesome tennis playing at the time. But yeah, I felt like he had a really good attitude and loved what he did. At that time, he was in his peak. So as a young kid, I watched him a lot, and then also really liked watching Kelly Seder too, surfing. Obviously just an absolute animal and as a competitor and focus, but it's really exciting to watch. So yeah, I didn't really follow too many teams, but I definitely had a huge interest in a lot of particular athletes like that.

BEN WATERWORTH: Good choices, good choices. Have you switched any teams now? I mean, you're a Victorian boy. Is there any AFL teams that you kind of follow and are not really into AFL?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, my mate on tour, Ken Bolden, who's also on the Australian board across team. He's heavily, like he's a massive D supporter, Melbourne Demon. So yeah, I sort of just jump on that bandwagon. It's just more interesting for me because then he fills me in with all these crazy stats that I probably wouldn't have the time to go looking up. But yeah, it makes it pretty interesting when we're watching a game. That's pretty cool. And then other than that, yeah, it's pretty cool. Actually, I've trained at the Academy of Sport a lot over the past sort of six, seven years. And training out there the past few years has been the Rugby Seven team, the chicks and the guys. But yeah, it's pretty cool to see the chicks team. They obviously won a gold in Rio, which was awesome. And now a few of them just a little bit. Yeah, it's pretty cool when you get to see a few behind the scenes training sessions and that kind of thing, and then go and see them play on the big stage. It's pretty cool. Fantastic. Yeah, that adds interest for sure.

BEN WATERWORTH: Definitely. And look, you know, Melbourne, you could have picked a lot worse teams.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, I hear a lot about it. So, yeah, I keep getting told by Cannes that they're really, they're about to do it. There's something big about to happen. I'm still waiting, but it seems like they've started their year pretty well. And yeah, maybe this is the year. I'll be happy for them and Cannes.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well, in all fairness to Melbourne, I think they've been waiting for about the last, you know, what, 60 years since their premiership. But hey, look, it's got to happen eventually.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Yeah, yeah, feels like we're building up to something big.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, yes. If I don't ask you here today, Alex Chumpy Pullin, what is your favourite sports movie?

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Wow, that is tricky. Sports movie.

BEN WATERWORTH: Hmm.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: Probably, I mean, I've spent a lot of time watching surf movies just because I love surfing. And as well as that snowboard movie. I don't have to be in the snowboard realm, a tie between That's It, That's All, which is a Travis Rice snowboard movie, which is just breathtaking and awesome for so many other reasons. And if you haven't seen it, you need to go see that. And then other than that would be Letting Go, which is a movie on Kelly Slater, back when he won his seventh world title, I think. Obviously, since then, he's won a bunch more, but it was just a really... I just love those in-depth behind the scenes on stories on athletes. It's pretty cool to see. So, yeah, probably those two would take it from me.

BEN WATERWORTH: Good answers. I like it and definitely, yeah, I have to go out and see them as well to add them to the list. But Alex, Chumpy Pullin, this has been a lot of fun, mate. It was an absolute pleasure having you on the show. We're going to be obviously keeping an eye on you very closely come the lead up to Pyeongchang and obviously the Olympics. And everybody in Australia will be having those fingers, toes and everything else crossed that it will be third time lucky for you at the Olympic Games, mate. But best of luck and we hope to talk to you back on the show with a gold medal around your neck and a guitar in your arms post Korea next year.

ALEX 'CHUMPY' PULLIN: So, yeah, that'll be fun.

BEN WATERWORTH: Definitely a fun chat there with Chumpy, and we're gonna be looking forward to seeing how he goes into his third Olympics next year, third time lucky, as I mentioned, and everybody will have those fingers and toes crossed that he can finally come home with a medal in his third Olympic Games. So fingers crossed, as I just said, and we'll keep an eye out on how he goes in the games next year. We have more athletes to come, more interviews to come. Colin's got some Canadians lined up. I've got some Australians lined up. Jared's probably got some lined up too. He just hasn't really told us, but stay tuned. Facebook, like us on there, easiest way to stay up to date. Remember to subscribe to us on iTunes and all other podcast platforms that you do have. Leave us some feedback while you're there. We always appreciate hearing your thoughts on the show, and we always appreciate your time listening to us as well. Big thanks again to Chumpy. We'll be back once again very shortly here on Off The Podium. Thanks for your time and good night.