The Athlete: JEFF MEYER
Episode: Flaming Rail Slide | Premiere: Aug. 15, 2006

Perry's Thoughts:
I love snowboarders; they are a fun, energetic breed of people who live to do nothing else but snowboard. They are truly a family, always looking after and taking care of each other. Jeff Meyer and his friends were no exception. I watched as they all worked very hard, in rough terrain, to help Jeff complete his goal of doing the flaming rail slide. As someone who in the past has worked a lot with fire, I especially enjoyed getting to work with Jeff and his crew on the fire portion of this stunt.

Eli's Thoughts:
The high mountains of Colorado are rich in beauty and full of opportunity for outdoor sports. When I met Jeff, he was much quieter than his rowdy bunch of guys; you could tell these guys would spend night and day on the mountains snowboarding and living the life. Brent Myer was there to help out Jeff. He had a good handle on the situation and lots of experience. It was extremely late in the year to be doing a stunt on snow, but they were able to use what was once the half-pipe and shred the remainder of the snow just enough to make the stunt possible. Seeing the snow cats move and shape the angle was really cool. The stunt was more difficult than previously thought, and seeing the fire on the rail was a nice addition. After practice day, Jeff seemed to realize that he was going to have to be on in order to get this right. Time after time, he hit the rail sliding from one side to the other, clearly frustrated that we had to call it for the night. On stunt day, Jeff was focused and kept to himself and his close friends. When night fell, it was on. Jeff was attacking the ramp with sheer determination, so we lit the board and the rail on fire and away he went. Although it took some tries to put it all together, it made it that much better when Jeff stuck it. I've got to hand it to him for never giving up and continuing to plug away. He showed an amazing amount of skill and drive and made it happen.