Mark McMorris is referring to the Vancouver, BC drizzle. It tends to rain there in the spring. It’s a stark contrast to his current home in Encinitas, CA. Mark’s Canadian, but he grew up in the Saskatchewan prairies. It’s a thousand miles and a few mountain ranges east of the Pacific Northwest rainforest.

Mark’s in Vancouver rehabilitating a broken femur, which he suffered during the Air + Style contest in downtown Los Angeles in late February. He’s at the gym for three hours per day, then spends afternoons hiking the north shore or rolling around downtown on his skateboard, in between flights here and there for the kind of obligations that come with mainstream celebrity status.

At only 22 years old, Mark’s become used to the spotlight. Multiple X Games victories helped him get there, along with Travis Rice-endorsed appearances in Brain Farm’s The Art of Flight and at Baldface Lodge for Red Bull’s Super and Ultra Natural contests. But the Olympics bronze medal in 2014 was what really did it. That led to an MTV reality show, McMorris & McMorris, focused on him and older brother Craig, a ripping snowboarder and erstwhile TV personality himself. Now Mark’s got a signature console game about to drop, and, as evidenced by the fans who stopped him for a picture in the coffee shop downstairs 20 minutes ago, face recognition in the street…

Subscribe to start your collection of The Snowboarder’s Journal.