Meet Jack Willard | Action sports athlete and content creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jack Willard and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jack, how do you think about risk?
Risk is built into almost everything I like to do. Skating, park skiing, and freestyle mountain biking all have a wrap for being a good way to break your collar bone. But for me, that’s the environment I thrive in. I have pretty severe adhd and it can get overwhelming when my brain is just a string of intrusive thoughts. I’ve found that by forcing myself into high risk situations I experience clarity. Everything slows down and my focus is finally on the task at hand. It’s an incredible feeling that I don’t get from anything else. Action sports have changed the way I look at risks I feel like a much more competent human because of it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I make short videos and edits on Instagram and tik tok of my skateboarding, mountain biking, and skiing. I consider myself a very small content creator but even still I’ve learned a lot in my 3 years of posting. I’ve learned to spot trends coming before they happen, I’ve learned how to make my videos do better in the algorithms and be more engaging. I’m a self taught editor and my skills have grown considerably. My plan moving forward with my content creation is to launch a YouTube channel this summer and start posting on a consistent schedule. Tik tok is a great platform to grow an audience but I dislike how engineered all the content is to grab your attention and keep it. In the end I want to get more people outside not stuck to their phones.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I encourage anyone to check out the kingdom trails. I feel incredibly blessed to have over 100 miles of single track riding basically in my backyard. The lyndon outing club is my go to skate park. It’s very small but it’s built well. My personal favorite place is burke mountain bike park. I spend every chance I get lapping the park.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I vividly remember when I was 8 or 9 I fell on a jump biking and had to get stitches in my forehead. As soon the stitches were out they forced me to go back to the trail I crashed on to ride it again and conquer it. They weren’t going to let me be scared of a trail I had ridden many many times just because I had one bad fall on it. Something about that experience has stuck with me since so I think both my parents deserve some credit for that one.

Instagram: _jack_willard_

Other: Tik tok: jackwillard_

Image Credits
Zach Gould