June 29, 2022
Transcription: “Pointing it” with Ted Wolff
Transcription
Anne Kelly (00:08):
Friends welcome to Art in the Raw conversations with creative people tonight, I’m excited to introduce you to Ted Wolf. Ted is an artist entrepreneur, and co-founder of just pointed to the company that makes snowboard’s, ski’s and apparel featuring works by local artists. If this is your first time watching, you might be wondering who I am. I have been in love with art and music, my entire life. I’ve now been working in the professional gallery world for about 15 years now. And I started Art in the Raw about halfway through 2020 to keep people connected and inspired. If you would like to know more of take a look at the description below, in the meantime, I’m excited to introduce you to Ted. Where are you joining us from tonight?
Ted Wolff (00:58):
I am joining you from Taos, New Mexico
Anne Kelly (01:00):
On the chairlift, this winter, looking at the design on my buddy’s snowboard and started thinking whose art is this? Where did this come from? This is another way that we see art in our world outside of galleries. That’s not framed out on the slopes, doing what we love to do. So that was kind of what started my exploration. Then a mutual friend of ours told me about you. You have a company called just point it.
Ted Wolff (01:27):
I grew up in Santa Fe skiing with my brothers and my family, and would always be in the mountains and yelling and skiing down the steep terrain, or came up with a slogan. Just point it, you know, you just gotta go for it down the mountain. Yeah. We started making clothing and started skiing, extremes and towels, and kind of just went from there. And now we’re designing New Mexico skis. We’re lucky to get all these local artists to design ’em showing off New Mexico.
Anne Kelly (01:52):
So at this point you’re offering both snowboards and skis, right?
Ted Wolff (01:56):
We started with skis. I grew up skiing and my girlfriend and partner is a snowboarder. So why not make snowboards? We’re making ’em out of the never summer factory in Denver. They make some really good snowboards. That’s what they’re known for. So I just said, why wouldn’t we make snowboards? So we got into snowboards too.
Anne Kelly (02:16):
I love that. And as I understand it, you started a little smaller.
Ted Wolff (02:21):
Oh, it started really with just stickers and t-shirts, I mean, I’d say we’ve probably been doing it for over 10 years. With that the skis kind of just fell into my lap. I had a buddy who was a pro rider for never summer and uh, said, Hey, you should talk to these guys. They have, you know, they’ll be willing to make you guys some skis and didn’t really ever think I’d be making skis. I just thought it was a childhood dream and went with it. And uh, now we’re super happy to be making ’em
Anne Kelly (02:44):
Are some of the designs, your artwork as well.
Ted Wolff (02:48):
So our first year we had a buddy of mine Vela. Who’s a muralist in Santa Fe and he used to do graffiti and a bunch of big murals. And so we got him the first year, which is actually, I think behind me here with the wolfs on it, he did the wolfs with the, you know, the mountains and the Pueblo and the Gorge. And then the next year another buddy designed. And then the third year I did the art for the Zs. Pretty simple. I like to get other people involved. So it’s not necessarily all mine tried to get local guys to, uh, show off their art, you know, and put it on top. And
Anne Kelly (03:22):
That’s just kind of a whole different way of going about curating art and collaborating and supporting local friends is very cool.
Ted Wolff (03:31):
I mean, I’m also a painter. Painted in the movies for, uh, over 10 years. So I do a lot of painting, but not necessarily fine painting. So I’m more of a design it and let them paint. It it’s a passion, but it’s not easy.
Anne Kelly (03:43):
The more of these conversations I have really kind of boils down to nothing that’s really worth doing. It’s particularly easy, but you, you just have that drive, right?
Ted Wolff (03:53):
Yeah. You gotta point it, you know, gotta go for it. And that’s some our motto. Just point it.
Anne Kelly (03:58):
Well, I love that the, the name of the company is also the motto and as someone that grew up skiing and is an active snowboarder. Now I, I know that moment. I can appreciate that.
Ted Wolff (04:11):
It speaks for itself and people that understand it, understand it. A lot of people don’t and they’re like, what is that? And it’s like, you probably haven’t pointed it before. So
Anne Kelly (04:21):
The people that don’t get it probably are just not your, your market to begin with your brothers are involved.
Ted Wolff (04:26):
I, I have two brothers, one lives in Costa Rica. He’s not involved as much as my other brother who lives in Santa Fe. He’s my partner in just point it. So it’s pretty much our company together. My other brother moved away a long time ago and he’s a surfer now. And we are the snow guys. So we hang out here and try to surf the snow
Anne Kelly (04:45):
For, for people who don’t live in New Mexico and are not familiar with the Zia, which is a big part of your designs. Wanna go into the Zia a little bit,
Ted Wolff (04:56):
Mean the Zia for us, new Mexicans is super important. I mean, you know, it’s on the flag. If I wanna explain it, what it means, it’s like the four stages of life. And then it’s the four seasons, all the lines. And then it’s the, uh, the four elements. This is what the natives have taught me. And then, so then the other four is the direction north, South ,east, and west. Right? And so it kind of gives you, you, this, this like circle and its unity that we all have together, you know, when someone sees ye like, oh, you’re from New Mexico. And so I thought, for sure, putting it on the skis is like, okay, we’re gonna, you know, show everybody that we’re from New Mexico. That’s such a special symbol for us and thought, why not? And
Anne Kelly (05:30):
I love it that it’s on the bottom of all the skis and boards. If you’re down on the run and you see somebody on the chair, lift with the gear, you immediately recognize
Ted Wolff (05:39):
It. And that is kind of our staple is, um, the bottoms is being red and yellow. And then this year we did red. We switched it, but we still kept the Zia. We made red bottoms with the yellow Zia just to kind of change it for the new ones. So I think we’ll keep doing that. One of the coolest things is seeing your buddies on the lift and you know, it’s your buddies cuz they got the point of skis on and you can see ’em from a mile away. And, and we only do a limited amount of skis every year. So we’re only making a hundred pairs and we just want to do small runs, sell out and go to next year.
Anne Kelly (06:09):
I love that. They’re all limited editions. I mean, you don’t necessarily number them.
Ted Wolff (06:13):
They are. So I originally, I didn’t know that. And so I was trying to number ’em all, but they do come out of the factory numbered. And so I kind of, you know, will sell them backwards. I always keep the first ones, but now I do it 20 of each size and they’ll be numbered. Then you’re like, oh you got number 15 out of 20
Anne Kelly (06:31):
There’s, there’s something about the fact that there’s only that small number. There’s not 10,000 copies of, of those skis behind you.
Ted Wolff (06:40):
Yeah. And I think that’s what people like, you know, I think they want to be different. They wanna have something that nothing nobody else really has. And that’s kind of our, the niche I’m trying to fill at this point, cause I’m not gonna compete with these big corporations that make thousands and thousands of pairs for a price that you know, is not really affordable anymore. Like, I mean they’re probably making ’em in China and doing this like, so we’re, we’re American made and we’re just want to keep it limited. And like you get ’em and they’re gone next year. You can sign up for next year and that’s kind of the way we’ve been liking it. Cause I don’t wanna get too involved where I can’t control it anymore. Maybe we’ll make a Colorado ski one day, but right now we’re happy sticking with New Mexico,
Anne Kelly (07:22):
But you’re working with never summer. So they’re producing X number of boards for you. And they’re known for making great gear to begin with.
Ted Wolff (07:31):
We’re very fortunate to be working with them. I couldn’t tell you enough about how happy we are with the product. It doesn’t just look good. It actually skis good to tell people like I’ve skied everything and I haven’t enjoyed to ski as much as the ones I’m on and I’m, you know, I could be biased, but also the snowboards, I’m not a snowboarder, but I have used them really durable, you know, that never someone makes a product that doesn’t break easily. And that has been a good thing for me because I’m not dealing with a lot of returns working with them has been awesome. Cause they’re just like, yeah man, we make a, we make a bomber product and you get to put your name on it. So we couldn’t be more stoked.
Anne Kelly (08:08):
So, so in terms of more traditional art and prints are signed and numbered, you mentioned the boards and skis are numbered as well. Where, where, where do you actually see the numbering?
Ted Wolff (08:19):
They’re on the top sheet. Let’s see. So actually on this one I could show you it’s right here. This is the very first pair of skis I ever made.
Anne Kelly (08:32):
Oh wow.
Ted Wolff (08:32):
And I kept them and it says 0 0 0 1. It’s 180 1 0 0 1. And it’ll say that on every pair, but there’ll be like 1, 2, 3, 4 up to however many I make of that size. So I didn’t know that when I first made him and somehow these came back to me and um, that’s the very first pair. So I’m not getting rid of those. It’ll be on the wall or in my collection forever. And so that that’s cool. And then I didn’t realize that cause I was gonna start actually numbering on myself
Anne Kelly (09:03):
Back to your history. You went to UNM, right?
Ted Wolff (09:07):
I did. Yep. I graduated from UNM.
Anne Kelly (09:09):
Uh, you were studying painting or general arts?
Ted Wolff (09:12):
No, I was actually a sociology major.
Anne Kelly (09:14):
Oh wow. Okay.
Ted Wolff (09:15):
I always painted mm-hmm <affirmative> I did, doing graffiti too. Went to college for sociology, which was interesting. And then when I graduated, my buddy was working in the movies and I needed a job. And so I went there and never left. It was like, I started painting movies for 10 years. You know, it allowed me to go skiing cuz I could take the winter off. I could work a lot and then come wintertime. I would just go skiing. And so that’s kind of how it developed into my passion and still trying to make money and learning how to paint. And now I’m painting houses and living in Taos and skiing as much as they can in the winter. And I paint houses in the summer.
Anne Kelly (09:53):
That’s kind of the dream in my, in my opinion,
Ted Wolff (09:56):
Love it. Raising a family here. And two girls finally gravitated towards these mountains cuz they pulled me up here. You know, I, I grew up in Santa Fe and loved there and you know, and it, but there’s always something about taos that just was pulling me in, you know, the big mountains is steep. It was just so extreme that it was like that’s, that’s it. And if you haven’t been there, you gotta go check it out. Cause I’ve skied a lot of places in the world and Thomas is still my favorite.
Anne Kelly (10:22):
It is known to be a world class mountain. That’s that’s interesting that you studied sociology. I, I actually know quite a few artists and I know a lot of artists that have studied sociology and psychology as, and come out, practicing art in one way or another. So I, I feel like those things are connected. Maybe there’s a curiosity about the world or
Ted Wolff (10:44):
Yeah. About people and why they do what they do. And I don’t really know why they do what they do. So I was like, I don’t want to do that. Do what I want to do, which is go skiing. And if I can make a company where I can enjoy what I’m doing, mm-hmm <affirmative> then that’s what I do. I didn’t wanna be in an office or you know, at a desk all the time. And I knew that as soon as I got out of there, I was like, it’s not for me. And I want to do something, you know, with my hands or something, painting was fun. It’s a lot of work, but it was, it was fun. And I learned to craft there and now I skiing was just why not try to do something that you’re gonna have fun doing every day and skiing is that for me,
Anne Kelly (11:25):
I hear you. And then the film industry is kind of amazing. I have other friends in the industry, so I understand you can pick up certain jobs, work that job for a while and then maybe skip the next job or pick up another one.
Ted Wolff (11:39):
I was fortunate to make that work for me, not everybody had that ability and they get kind of stuck in the, the race. If you find the right people though, you’re like, of course go do what you wanna do. Like they understood that my passion was not working on movie sets all the time. It was out the side being in mountains.
Anne Kelly (11:59):
And when you do take those jobs, it can be pretty intense. So you might need a little bit of time off.
Ted Wolff (12:05):
Oh definitely. They’re, they’re pretty intense. I mean the movies long hours, long days, long weeks turn into long months, it wears you out. There was fun stuff that we did, but with the family, it’s just so hard to you. Won’t have time to see your kids, you not home. You know, they always want you to go somewhere. And so you’re always traveling around and now that I have a family, it was just like, it’s just too hard to be away from them for that long. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been stay at home dad the last two years, I get to hang out with my baby and get that time with them when they’re young. I don’t know how many dads get that. So I I’ve been very fortunate to be able to do that. And my partner’s been awesome and she’s been working and you know, we’re making it work. So I do my ski in the winter and then in the summer I got to paint. So, you know, it’s a balancing act.
Anne Kelly (12:48):
The balancing act of of life seems like you have a pretty good balance.
Ted Wolff (12:52):
I think so. I like it so far. It’s going good.
Anne Kelly (12:55):
The hat you’re wearing is one of your offerings.
Ted Wolff (12:59):
This, yeah, this is actually another design mm-hmm <affirmative> um, artist here in taos, its the titanium with whatever logo you want. Just this unique part on a hat that I’ve never seen before. So when I met him, I was like, Hey, we need to make some point ones of those. He makes, you know, really cool other jewelry and stuff. But I was like, we need some of that. We need point at ones of those, you know, local guidance house and we’re making new belt buckles right now, which I’m really excited about like with the Wolf, hopefully on it. Cuz my last name’s Wolf. So we always put wolfs in all our, a lot of our designs. He’s designing something right now that I’m kind of waiting to see and excited for what it’s gonna be. And I’m not quite sure. He said he is making me something special. So I’m excited for that. We will have some really cool belt buckles coming out.
Anne Kelly (13:44):
So, so what’s his name?
Ted Wolff (13:45):
His name’s Peter Gilroy. Check him out. If you are interested in any kind of metal work in taos, cuz he does all kinds of different stuff. And I think he just got a new shop on the south side and Peter Gilroy’s name and just try to work with all these people that are locals around here trying to help each other out if we can, why not, you know, stay local.
Anne Kelly (14:04):
It, it seems like a lot of this just kind of naturally unfolded for you. Imagine there’s some perhaps struggle or, or maybe late nights trying to figure out how things were gonna work. Generally distribution. That can be kind of a tricky thing.
Ted Wolff (14:23):
There’s there’s nights when you’re like trying not to lose sleep over it. You know, like what am I doing here? Getting myself involved. And this industry of t-shirts and hats are cool, but skis are not a cheap product to make or to distribute or to compete with these other companies. Sometimes I wonder how I’m even doing it, but I just try to, you know, people are good and they want to have something unique and that’s kind of my niche, I guess in the whole world of it. I really don’t get it either. I’m like, why am I competing with these billionaire companies when they, I can’t afford what they’re doing. Skiing’s an interesting sport because not everybody skis, you know, not everybody’s pointing it. And so I’m in a very limited market, you could say can like hats, you can sell to anybody. Everybody buys a t-shirt skis. You don’t buy a pair every year. Usually I have a couple guys who do, which thank you guys, like Garson and comes and buys a board every year just to support us. And that’s really cool, but most people don’t. And so I’m always gotta find new customers every year. So that’s a challenge in itself because New Mexico isn’t as big as some other states, it usually always seems to work out and it just try not to worry too much about it because we’re doing what we like and what we love. And usually that pays off
Anne Kelly (15:32):
Well I’ve even just looked at doing a small run of t-shirts or hats. That’s an expense. So yeah, stepping it up to the extra level, the snowboard or skis, a certain point, you just have to believe that people who are under that niche thing are, are gonna, are gonna gonna
Ted Wolff (15:49):
Come out, gonna come out. Yeah. And they do. And they find me. It’s funny. I mean, I, I saw a couple stores like ski tech in Santa Fe sells my skis. They’re great taos has been changing a lot. And so now their ski area is got bought out and now they’re kind of more corporate, you know, and they’re not like taking the little guy anymore. So a lot of my sales come from online, just point.com. Most of my sales come from that and word of mouth. Like I sell how to more bars and galleries than I do at ski shops. You know, like they’ll hang my skis in the alley cantina and I sell skis outta there, which is a bar in taos.
Anne Kelly (16:19):
I mean I could picture myself sitting there having a drink and I see the skis or the board on the wall. I’m like, oh, what’s that? That’s great advertising. So, I mean, that was a question I had was about the initial distribution at this point, you’re selling out of a few shops and, and you have the website, but that’s the funny thing about websites is there’s so many websites that yes, anybody can have a website, but how do you direct traffic there?
Ted Wolff (16:44):
Right. That’s a big job right there. I don’t even like dealing with it. I’ve been actually thinking about getting an, assistant that just deals with the website, marketing and advertising is those are huge. Skiing is the best advertising when you’re there and you’re skiing. That’s the easiest way for me to sell skis. Off season like now I gotta definitely come up with new plans to keep it flowing and trying to be ready for winter ahead of everybody come to the end of the summer. I wanna have my skis in so that I’m selling them before Christmas, which is I I’ve never been able to do that really, cuz I’m behind all the time, but that’s the New Mexico way. I
Anne Kelly (17:20):
Just, we do live in the land of manana. And so they say
Ted Wolff (17:23):
It’s great most of the time, but then there’s times when you gotta buckle down and get on top of it, but I’m learning well,
Anne Kelly (17:30):
What is great about the fact that, that you are an actual skier? And I don’t know if, if you run your Instagram page,
Ted Wolff (17:37):
I, I do. I have help with my buddy. He’s a photographer. He helps me with it a little bit. Cuz that’s another thing I’m not as good at, but I’m getting better. Mm-hmm <affirmative> just trying to stay on top of that. Cuz that’s an easy way to advertise for me cuz it’s free and you can just do it. And people are looking at it,
Anne Kelly (17:53):
Amazing videos of powder skiing and anybody who’s into it is gonna see that and relate.
Ted Wolff (17:59):
Right. And that’s a good way to do it. I mean that’s an easy way for me to do it and we’re trying to get a movie made and there’s a whole lot of in the works going on right now for next year. Like we’re making like a taos movie ski kind of movie. That’s a lot of work. It’s gonna take a lot more time than I thought we don’t know when that’s coming out, coming soon.
Anne Kelly (18:15):
That’s an awesome plan. And I think it’ll pay off if, if you’re worried next year’s designs are gonna sell out.
Ted Wolff (18:20):
Like when I do come out with next year’s design, which we’re working on right now, I just need to be a way to pre-order it online on my website. You can go on there last year. We did. I mean, they were great. The Dober deans, which is another artist that I used last year on the snowboard Heskes there was, I don’t know if you saw those, but he’s a famous artist up here photographer. I should have put ’em out earlier sold out of a lot of ’em and people were like, well I didn’t, I wanted that snowboard. And I was like, well they’re gone. You know, that’s a whole nother ballpark of trying to figure out how to organize that.
Anne Kelly (18:49):
I’d say that’s a good problem to have.
Ted Wolff (18:51):
Yeah, I guess so. Right. I mean something else. Good. I don’t want to have a lot of snowboards in my closet at the end of the year.
Anne Kelly (18:57):
And like we mentioned our, our mutual friend, I, I know he told me personally that he buys a new board every year. Even if he doesn’t need a new one, just cuz he wants to support the cause and collect the new design. So that’s become his collection.
Ted Wolff (19:13):
Right? Yeah. Garson does do that. He uh, every year he’s bought in the boards since we made him, I think we’ve had four years of boards and this year he bought one. He just pretty much just signs up. I have a couple clients like that. That just when they get here, just send them a pair. Like I said, not many people do that because they don’t want, need a new board every year, unless they’re really pointing it a lot and destroy their, their gear pretty quickly, which we do
Anne Kelly (19:36):
And, and our mutual friend Garson, I, I can attest, I’ve been writing with him for like 20 years. So I know he does that, but I, I know in talking to him a big part of it too, was just almost the collecting aspect of it.
Ted Wolff (19:50):
Yeah. That’s the cool part. Right? That’s the being limited and I only made 45 the first year you have, those is kind of cool. Like, you know, you’re like, oh you got that very first pair of point skis right on man. I see ’em still out there. And I always just yell people when they have ’em on. I’m like, wow dude, you got the first ones rock on dude. So I know they’re, they’re loving them cuz it’s been five years and that’s a long time for me to have a pair of skis. It’s really cool. People are still skiing on it. I hold on to every first model I make now just so that I have it in my collection, I guess I want my kids to see him later down the line. So like, Hey, he made skis.
Anne Kelly (20:25):
I, I would imagine that would be something you would regret later on. If you didn’t do
Ted Wolff (20:29):
That. I, I do keep the ski stuff. It does have some meaning to it.
Anne Kelly (20:32):
Well, so speaking of collecting, this would not be Art in the Raw. I didn’t ask you if there’s anything you collect. So we, we know you collect skis. Is there anything else
Ted Wolff (20:44):
Just to collect like these little dunny things, if had graffiti artists doing them. So I used to collect those. Yeah. So everyone was like, you know, limited edition or I’m starting to collect more art,
Anne Kelly (20:53):
But you’re collaborating with, with artists on the different designs. So are you collecting originals or, or prints by any of the artists that you’re working with?
New Speaker (21:02):
I do you get originals? Yeah, like Vela. I got some from him when he does it. I usually have them try to paint me the piece. And then we digitalize it, starting to collect art, more, trying to support artists. I know that’s not easy to be an artist either. It’s it’s a labor of love.
Anne Kelly (21:17):
It truly is. It’s one of those endeavors you pursue not because you’re assuming you’re gonna get rich off of it. You’re just driven to do it, which I think is similar to, to what you’re doing with, with just pointed.
Ted Wolff (21:30):
I, I like doing it puts me skiing more. That’s cool. If you like painting, try to sell your art and you’ll be painting more. You gotta put yourself out there. You know, at some point you could be scared or nervous, but honestly people are pretty receptive to that and they want to help. It’s gotta try, you gotta plan it and go for it. And I find that works out better than, than not
Anne Kelly (21:50):
Just, just putting it out there and, and going for it.
Ted Wolff (21:52):
You know, don’t be scared to take the chance. You know, I could have been scared and not done it. And now it’s just been five years of doing this, the ski thing and it’s working and it’s, it’s totally fun. And I wouldn’t, I’m glad I did
Anne Kelly (22:03):
It. And where would you be now if you didn’t do it? Sure. That would be fine too. But
Ted Wolff (22:07):
Would it be as fun? Probably not
Anne Kelly (22:08):
Forwarded you more days on the mountain. And, and, and if your work day is, I need to go ski the powder to make the video to post on Instagram, to promote my product.
Ted Wolff (22:21):
That’s an awesome day. I love that part. And you know, not always is it that glamorous, but the best place to sell skis on the chair lift.
Anne Kelly (22:28):
True. So when work doesn’t feel like
Ted Wolff (22:30):
Work, that’s the best kind of work. Like a lot of people just, just go to work and come home. I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like the right way to go about it. There’s a whole lot more going on out there. It’s not what you make of it, right? I mean, it’s not about being rich. It’s about having quality of life is the most important.
Anne Kelly (22:45):
We have choices.
Ted Wolff (22:46):
We’re lucky to have those choices, but we should, you know, take advantage of having those choices. What I always thought, I was like, well, they, you can do whatever you want. We’re in America. Start a company. You you’re worth more. And everybody has something unique to give and people just get caught up in this world. Just makes it hard to not wanna just go for money back to balance and out. I’m glad I got to be raised in New Mexico where I’m not in a city. And I couldn’t imagine being there through this last couple years,
Anne Kelly (23:10):
I am not from New Mexico, but I’ve been here since 98. Where are
Ted Wolff (23:14):
You from?
Anne Kelly (23:15):
I’m from Colorado. I grew up kind of near beaver Creek back before it was what it is like now Eagle. Yeah. I went to elementary school in, in Eagle Eagle valley, lived on a mountain above the Woolcot exit. So I started skiing the year beaver Creek opened. It was a very different place at that at that time. So if, if you could go anywhere in the entire world and ski, where would you go?
Ted Wolff (23:45):
I’ve been to Alaska. That place is awesome. I would probably go back there first. I really want to go to Europe and like go to shaman. I’ve never been there and I just that’s on the bucket list for me. And Japan is the only one. They get so much snow there. They used to always seem to get so much that I want to go check out that country and see what Japan’s all about and skiing like, and then south America too, I want to go south America and ski down in Chile, you know, or in Argentina. And that would be really cool in the summertime to go there, go skiing.
Anne Kelly (24:15):
Yeah. And if you work it right, you could just
Ted Wolff (24:17):
Be skiing
Anne Kelly (24:19):
12 months out of the year almost right.
Ted Wolff (24:22):
There’s people that do that. It would, I would almost do that. Maybe not 12, but I’d go for like nine Argentina’s got ball. Hell you go down there, you got the beach. I’m not skiing.
Anne Kelly (24:31):
I, that could be quite a day.
Ted Wolff (24:33):
You can do both in the same day. Supposedly there
Anne Kelly (24:35):
Santa Fe, people who are into golfing and mountain biking, you could in theory do all of those things in one day.
Ted Wolff (24:43):
So what we do here, this sun, this spring has been weird, but we usually ski and then go rafting down the down the Rio grand we’ll ski at the peak and then go. And some people bike to the Rio grand and then float the river in the same day. I mean, now it’s river time. So we’re kind of transition into water.
Anne Kelly (24:59):
So do you think you might make some sort of water gear in the future?
Ted Wolff (25:04):
My buddy makes paddles, which are cool for paddleboards. Maybe just some like dry fit water shirts that you can wear on the river, come up with some kind of sunglasses or something. My buddy owns pit viper and I’m like, maybe we should make some Pit viper by point glasses.
Anne Kelly (25:18):
Oh no kidding. Your buddy owns Pit Viper pit.
Ted Wolff (25:22):
Yeah. Yep. He moved here. Oh no kidding. This is like that old eighties stuff is cool. It’s coming back and he’s he made it cool again. And it’s funny cuz you’re like, oh, people like that stuff and I might make a pink ski just cuz it’s oh cool. You should like a hot pink ski with a yellow Zia on
Anne Kelly (25:38):
It. Okay. So there’s maybe the younger generation that has never seen the thing before and they think it’s cool, but then there’s also the nostalgia element. Right? So like I was reminiscing about my hot pink Atomics with the yellow splattered paint. So I have a feeling if I saw a snowboard that had a similar kind of vibe to it,
Ted Wolff (25:57):
You might want it.
Anne Kelly (25:59):
I would be very accepted.
Ted Wolff (26:00):
You’d be like, Hey, that reminds me of something I’ve seen before. It has something that you like with the Zia. You totally get it. Exactly. Yeah. It’s on my list. It’s a big list, but it’s on there.
Anne Kelly (26:09):
So I like to ask a lot of guests about time travel. And so I kind of feel like we’re talking about time travel right now,
Ted Wolff (26:16):
Seventies and eighties. And I feel like that would’ve been a cool time to be older and wearing all that stuff for real. The scheme was so popular, you know, back then and it kind of died and it came back now and I was a little kid in the eighties. It snowed more than, and I don’t know, it seemed like towels was just thriving in back then. If I was gonna time travel, I guess maybe that I would pick back, like when I was
Anne Kelly (26:36):
Born, would you go back to Taos in the eighties or, or somewhere else? I
Ted Wolff (26:40):
Think I would to go to Toas cuz I, I always like love the St bernard vibe that a place gave me all the time and I just would, I think it was probably so cool in the eighties. Like it was probably just like the hip is place to be. I would’ve really liked to see that thing that really bump in with John May, which was the old owner, just like him and his prime, just French guy. And this is such a cool place. And it’s gone now, which is just changed the whole vibe up there, a different place. It’s not the same tos has changed. The ski valley is different. I mean I knew the owners when I was there now it’s owned by a billionaire and, and so I just really liked the Blake family and all family owned. It was really cool. You know, I had this European feel and they’re trying to keep it, but it’s just not the same for favorite movies. Hotdog. Have you ever seen that movie? I
Anne Kelly (27:24):
Dunno if I have,
Ted Wolff (27:25):
That’s kind of where I’m, I’m basing my movies kind of has that one in it and then it asks an extreme if I’m gonna like combine em, cause one’s like more Hollywood and then the other one’s, you know, ski bum watch hotdog. It’s my favorite one. But that lifestyle like a move to salt lake city or I’m gonna go to California, I’m gonna ski every day and this is the lifestyle. That’s not really people don’t do that stuff anymore or it doesn’t seem like it. Um, and it’s harder to do. It’s like you can’t just go and everything’s so expansive and you know, everything, the ski industry is, it’s a rich man of sport. What can I say? It’s like, we’re lucky we can do it. I
Anne Kelly (27:57):
Used to be that way as much
Ted Wolff (27:59):
As much. Yeah. It seems like it’s pushed more into that.
Anne Kelly (28:02):
Yeah. So speaking of time travel, how, how a lot of people got into these sports. It was not that way. My fiance, for example, like he grew up in Portland and they go to the safe way and you’d get the safe way passes for like 20 bucks or whatever.
Ted Wolff (28:17):
Yeah, no, I mean, we used to go rested Butte growing up all the time. Cuz they had a free month at the end of the year. They’d, they’d say free skiing for the month for everybody. So it was just like, my dad was like, alright, we’re gonna crusta Butte free ski month and we’d go ski for five days for free. And they just did that every year. That’s like a thing of the past. No they’re own by video.
Anne Kelly (28:35):
So how about other inspiration? Like music? Do you listen to music when you ski and when you paint?
Ted Wolff (28:42):
Um, I do I not necessarily when I ski as much. Cause I’m usually trying to listen to the mountain. Maybe. I don’t know if that sounds funny, but I, I wanna be like zoned into what I’m doing. So what I’m seeing, I, I don’t usually listen to music cuz unless I’m alone, but I’m usually not alone. So I’m always talking to somebody or something’s happening. And then when I’m painting, I definitely listen to music. So my, my main genre, like I used to listen to a lot of hip hop when I was growing up in reggae and then oldies and stuff with my parents, you know, I’d listen to like the Beatles and all this stuff growing up. But like right now, if I were like listen to something, it’d probably be in the genre of like more hip hoppy. I don’t think I have like a favorite artist or anything, but I was into that like break dancing, graffiti lifestyle in high school and even in college and all that. So it kind of, it’s still there. I’m like, oh I gotta put on the beat and it has to be loud. And so that’s kind of where some of my art, like I have graffiti shirts, you still have that street kind of mentality with, but not there’s these white kids out there that didn’t have that background. Like I lived in Albuquerque for a long time. Kind of have a little bit more of the background of like, you know, a little bit rougher. So I like, yeah, I kind of like the, like the gangster stuff.
Anne Kelly (29:49):
I’m pretty much always listening to music unless I’m snowboarding. Cuz I like the sound of the snow. And I wanna know if somebody’s flying up behind me,
Ted Wolff (29:59):
You gotta be aware of your surroundings and snow will tell you what’s happening. You know, you can hear it before it happens. They go, oh is it icy? Oh, it’s icy.
Anne Kelly (30:07):
You can hear that from the chairlift.
Ted Wolff (30:08):
And if you’re not listening, you don’t hear it. If you’re in your people, get in their little bubble and they’re not paying attention. And that part people get hurt cuz they’re not paying attention. That’s the problem I have with music skiing at like put one in, leave your other ear out so you can hear if something’s happening. Wait, I love music and you know, I’m looking forward to seeing more music again, we’ve been in the bubble for a while. Dancing again, like being somewhere where you can expressers over music. Taos is a great place for music. It was when I moved here and
Anne Kelly (30:36):
The shows that pop up in, in kit Carson park. Amazing.
Ted Wolff (30:40):
Yeah. Well there’s gonna be some good ones this summer. Like Ben Harper’s coming, uh, revolution. And I think it’s easy top
Anne Kelly (30:46):
As a fellow New Mexico person, red or green chili. Do you have a favorite? I’m
Ted Wolff (30:52):
A Christmas guy.
Anne Kelly (30:53):
You’re a Christmas guy.
Ted Wolff (30:54):
I always get both choose between the two. I, I loved red chili growing as a kid and then green chili came in and now I’m just like, give me both. I’m a mixer.
Anne Kelly (31:04):
You never know certain restaurants
Ted Wolff (31:06):
Somehow better at one than others. My favorite restaurant Santa is at atriscos. You know where that is?
Anne Kelly (31:11):
I do.
Ted Wolff (31:13):
They got great red chili. So I’ll get the red chili out there. But I like their green too. So like I it’s hard for me to not have both.
Anne Kelly (31:19):
And, and that is the beauty of the Christmas chili, which for those watching that’s when you put the green chili on one side and the red chili on the other side,
Ted Wolff (31:29):
Right?
Anne Kelly (31:29):
You have Christmas.
Ted Wolff (31:31):
If I was gonna hang out burrito, I do the same thing. I’m like, no, put it in there. And they, they mix ’em and
Anne Kelly (31:36):
Whatever much, like if you’re gonna buy some snow sports gears, snow sport gear from y’all you can get the skis or the snowboard. Hmm.
Ted Wolff (31:49):
Or, or the snowboard. Exactly.
Anne Kelly (31:51):
Huh? So maybe you’re not sure which one you like get both.
Ted Wolff (31:55):
You get both. <laugh> exactly. That’s a good way to put it. Right. Now’s kind of my like downtime. I mean, we’re getting ready. We’re making the new skis go to my website. Just pointit.com. Keep an eye out, you know, this summer, you know, hopefully you do do some events, but
Anne Kelly (32:09):
Well, well let me know if anything happens, I’ll I’ll come check it out. I started making Art in the Raw, in the wild episode. So sometimes that happens too.
Ted Wolff (32:19):
Go out and do the, you go and be in it.
Anne Kelly (32:23):
Yeah. Instead of being on the other side of the, the laptop, you know?
Ted Wolff (32:26):
Oh cool. That’ll be fun. Well, you have to do that when you come to towers.
Anne Kelly (32:29):
Exactly. So, so anyways, thank you so much, Ted, for, for joining us. It was fun hanging out and
Ted Wolff (32:36):
Oh thank you for having me.
Anne Kelly (32:37):
Let’s stay in touch and,
Ted Wolff (32:39):
And in. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you.
