Luke Allen, aka Ocho, aka DJ Och, aka Coacho, is the head honcho when it comes to the ski side of things here at Windells. Ocho has been head ski coach for the last 2 years so if you’ve been around camp, you might have seen him. You also might know Ocho if you’ve been skiing anywhere on the west coast in the last decade. He’s a man-about-town, er….moutain. When he’s not coaching kids in Colorado or hucking himself on the water ramps in Park City, he’s slaying pow laps and working on expanding the ski company he just started. Yeah, Ocho’s one busy guy, but he was nice enough to take a break and answer a few questions for me this afternoon so listen up:
What’s up Ocho?
Nothing much, I just got done watching Aspen Extreme, and now I am just sitting here at the ski house hanging with mad pros!
Nice. I have the VHS of Aspen Extreme, no big. Anyway, how’s your summer? What’re you up to at Windells?
Oh verrry nice! I just picked it up on Blu-Ray, pretty stoked on that gem!
Well this summer has been jam packed with ski campers and they’ve been slaying all summer!
This is my second year as the head coach here at Windells, and I gotta say I am loving every minute of it.
Yeah you’re up coaching and shredding the lane rain or shine. You’re always my weather man. “How’s the weather?” “Awesome” “Ok…I’ll get out of bed.” How was your winter? Where were you and what were you up to?
Yeah well here at Windells we ski rain or shine. That is if the mountain is open. We have even been up there a couple days when the lifts weren’t turning.
My winter was pretty good. It was filled coaching and trying to get in [as much] skiing for myself as humanly possible. It ended up being a rough winter as far as skiing pow but the parks in Colorado are always good so I kept my self entertained.
Colorado parks are the best. Huge jumps and rails for days. Speaking of Colorado/skiing, you’re on some Rocky Mountain Underground skis. They look pretty sweet. What’s RMU all about? Give me the rundown.
Well the funny thing is I am actually one of the founders and owners of RMU. My buddy Mike and myself started the company back in 2008 with the idea to build durable, trustworthy skis for our friends. After building multiple crappy prototypes with a homemade press in the garage, the word spread around Summit County and we then went to Never Summer that fall and created our first production line of 35 pairs of skis, thus Rocky Mountain Underground was born. RMU has grown from that measly 35 pairs in 2008 to now having distribution in four different continents across the globe for this upcoming season! It is crazy to think that RMU started from many nights hanging out together wondering how we could build our own skis. I am so stoked on how things are going for us now and I am excited to see what happens here in the future.
Booyah! That’s pretty sick. I should probably grab a pair of RMU’s out of the demo shed to check them out before the summer is over. Well it’s been fun chatting with you. Any final thoughts or shout-outs? Tell us what’s on your mind, Ocho…
Yes you better grab some!
As for my final thoughts, well as awesome as the summer has been I am super stoked to get home to Colorado, ski some POW, and get some sled time in.
I want to thank my family, all of my friends (lets be honest I cannot mention all of you its just impossible!) but seriously I love you guys…you know who you are! Also thanks to Shred Optics, Dalbello Boots, Slopestyle ski shop, and everyone else at RMU for the continued support throughout my career, I appreciate it! PEACE IM OUTTA HERE!!
