The best solution for a restless city kid from Denver was playing in the snow, specifically in the Colorado backcountry. Learn how sled shredder and FOX Backcountry Team member Chris Burandt built his powder cred and a business around sharing that passion, while encouraging and educating others to do the same in our new FARTHER video series for FOX Stories.
“I think what made me fall in love with snow was growing up as a city kid in Denver,” Burandt explains. “My grandparents had a cabin up in the mountains and having exposure to them after the confinements of being in a city really unlocked the passion and love for snowmobiling."
“Getting out of city life and being able to literally come up to the mountains and just go explore really kind of started that fire of making snowmobiling a major part of my life. To be able to not only have that vision, but then decide this is the direction I'm going with no real avenues to get there. And that was I think, the most challenging part, but it's amazing how powerful the mind can be to give you that direction to really do whatever you want to accomplish in your life.
“I literally get to do the scope of work that I love, including teaching and exposing people to my passion for the snowmobile,” he adds. “I’ve realized no matter what you're doing in life, if you're passionate about it, that's something people can see. As long as I love snowmobiling and I can make a living at it, I'm going to share my passion with others."
“From the competition side, it's always you against the mountain, but I wanted more,” Burandt says. “And trying to figure out how to make a living building snowmobiles began with racing. The desire to compete was there; I just wasn't very good at racing, but I found that I really loved jumping. And so that transitioned from racing into the evolution of freestyle, being able to travel the world, doing freestyle shows all opened the doors to be able to compete on the biggest stage, which was X Games."
“My approach coming into X Games wasn't that I wanted to win it; I had to win it!” he explains. “I was at a point in my career where if I wanted to really push to that goal of winning at X Games, I needed to learn how to do a back flip. I was a little terrified, but that next step was what I needed. And I just put my mind in the right place: `if Heath Frisby and Justin Hoyer were doing back flips so can I'. It’s one thing to say, but another thing to do. Being able to check the back flip off the list literally two weeks prior to going into X Games in 2007 just gave me a ton of confidence going into the event. And I knew when I showed up, I was going to win…”
“My history with FOX suspension is the longest relationship I've had,” Burandt says. “And I remember my first encounter with FOX was because I broke all my stuff and I always needed something to replace or be better than OEM. This was early in my career trying to race snow cross. And I had no money, so trying to fix stuff myself I found if you wanted to be competitive, suspension was everything. Everything I was doing on the snowmobile involved FOX and sled setup."
"The biggest thing that stuck out to me was this was how the best suspension made a real difference to set the tone and raise the bar from those early days, when I was doing snowcross and freestyle. I knew early on that I needed to associate myself with the elite brands in the industry. FOX has established itself as one of those companies. I knew early that FOX was a company I needed to work with. I wouldn't be where I am today without the relationship I've had with FOX, from the branding standpoint and from the product standpoint. We've had just an incredible partnership and that’s the key to success."
“This is me. I’m a snowmobile dealer and I will be forever. My wife wonders if there's something wrong with me: when I have a day off and I want to go snowmobile! That's just who I am.”
