Eric and John Jackson are two of the best snowboarders in the world who just happen to be brothers. Their Crowley Lake, Calif., upbringing might now be the stuff of legend -- big hikes, big cliffs, big tricks, big fish and true mountain-man style -- but their new road warrior Web series, "Brothers on the Run," helps flesh out any assumptions regarding which bro is radder: They're both radder.
"BOTR" documents the trip of a lifetime: Alaska to southern Chile, by rig, on the longest navigable road in the world -- 15,000 miles minimum. They started in Anchorage on April 1 and expect to reach Chile by August, shooting and shredding the whole way down. The series will feature cameos by other pros, bros and guides.
We hit up younger-brother-with-more-manly-beard, E-Jack, to see how the trip's been going so far:
ESPN: When's the last time you and John spent this much time together?
E-Jack: I can't remember the last time we spent a whole summer together. Probably since we were kids and still lived at home. It's been a long time.
How does filming this "bro movie" differ from your normal winter filming routines? Seems like you guys aren't often in the same crew.
Totally. This particular project isn't like a snowboard movie. It's more of just ... we are going on this crazy journey and documenting it. We're gonna do awesome snowboarding. Awesome surfing. Fishing. Whatever crazy adventures we can get ourselves into.
That's why it's so much fun -- it's totally different than your average, film-all-winter-just-to-have-a-four-or-five-minute-video part at the end of the year. This is cool because it's actually coming out every two weeks and people can follow us on our journey. It's not something that's really been done before.
“This is our journey, our life. It's not just some whatever YouTube show ... It has a story. We have a goal: To make it all the way down to the southern tip of South America where the road ends...
” -- Eric Jackson
This is our journey, our life. It's not just some whatever YouTube show where you spend a day to get an episode. It has a story. We have a goal: To make it all the way down to the southern tip of South America where the road ends, to Ushuaia.
The plan is to just make it down to Chile by mid-August and just snowboard until the snow goes to s---. [Talkeetna, Alaska, was the northernmost part of the trip.]
Starting things off with a Travis Rice cameo showed some guts.
It was awesome having Travis come to AK with us. Obviously, he's on another level in snowboarding. It was just rad to be in those big mountains with him, to see how he rides and learn stuff from watching him.
We're looking at the same terrain, you know, and I feel comfortable in it, but it's what he does in that terrain that makes it next-level. I would ride the same line and take it conservative whereas he would... He doesn't even know what conservative is.
Are you going to grab other people along the way?
We are talking about bringing more people on, like, the whole journey, but it's kinda hard to say who. It comes down to space. We're rolling five, sometimes six deep. We don't have room for everyone we want there. We're meeting up with a bunch of rad surfers along the way, but I can't really name-drop right now [laughs]. Snowboarders, too. There's DCP, Sammy Luebke...
Keeping it casual?
Our program's pretty loose. [Laughs] We're trying to make all these plans but there are variables in everything! It's bound to change.
Our goal is to just be in Chile on Aug. 15, and that's not that far away. It's hard to plan out where we're going to be at what time, so I think it's going to be more spontaneous, a free-for-all.
If people want to just come and be a part of this journey and hold their own ... They can't necessarily just hop in the vehicle, but if they want to come and get a rental car or whatever and just come camp on the beach -- hell yeah! We're all about that. The more the merrier. We just want to have a good ol' time.
How serious is the Jackson musical instrument collection on this trip?
We've got all kinds of instruments! I flew to Alaska with a banjo, a mandolin, a guitar, a little travel djembe [hand drum], and three harmonicas. That was kinda like my kit. And, you know, I'm trying to figure out what I should bring the rest of the way through Central and South America. I'm definitely bringing two guitars, a bunch of harmonicas, definitely bringing my mandolin, couple of djembes... Pretty much the only thing that's on the bench right now is the banjo.
Take the banjo.
Yeah [laughs]. I think the banjo's probably comin' with... For sure! But, man, we've got a ton of instruments and a ton of driving to do!
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