Interview & Photos // Jake Sullivan
December 6, 2025
Ryan Sihler, the official king of Dark Park, just dropped his first street part in Episode 2 of Gomez’s “Vermont Bound and Down”, and it’s a heater. I sat down with him to ask a few questions about his first year in the streets working on a video, and the significance of this project’s concept.
Congratulations on your first part coming out! How are you feeling?
Ryan: Really, really happy. Just stoked to have it in the books. Getting to ride so much with Gomez was such a fun experience, and I'm just really excited to keep doing it.
Did you learn a lot last year?
Ryan: Yeah, I was telling Gomez each time we'd pull up to a spot, there would be a little tidbit of information he'd pass on to me. I kept saying, “I could write a book ‘101 Rules To Street Snowboarding I learned from Gomez’” (laughs). Stuff like how to make a lip last in super soft snow, or how to act when you're getting kicked out of a spot. Because sometimes, if you're kind enough and you play your cards right, you can get the security guard to let you stay for a few more tries. So many things like that, little Easter eggs that just make your day easier, so you can just focus on snowboarding.
The whole concept of the project was to film a Vermont-based video, with most of the spots centered on the Killington/Rutland area, which is where you grew up, right?
Ryan: Yeah. Born in Rutland, raised in Killington and Rutland, born and bred Vermonter (laughs).
What was it like being geographically contained by this project?
Ryan: That was one of the coolest things to have on my mind when we were going to film in the streets. I've never done this before. I've snowboarded for a long time, but never really made the leap or motivated myself to actually go film in the streets and put a part together. Most people just go out to Salt Lake or the Midwest to try to find all these bigger or more famous spots. But I really wanted to cover my bases locally and show the historical side of snowboarding where I’m from. It was so cool to check off all these spots that I've seen growing up that crews like GBP, Spotheads, or the Grenade team hit over the years. That’s the stuff that brought me up in snowboarding—getting to go to the down bar by the library, or ride around in Rutland trying to find spots and seeing the whale ledge that Lucas (Magoon) has ridden countless times, or going to the red rail, seeing that it's knobbed now, but knowing that so many people got clips on that back in the day. It was all so personal to me, and that made it so impactful for my first part.
Your first spot of the year turned out to be your ender, right?
Ryan: Yeah, that was pretty crazy. I’ve looked at it for probably three years, talked about it with all my friends, and we just finally did it. It's a really gnarly rail. It's a down-flat-down that's just like super, super kinked. You can feel every bit of it. You actually taught me that Shane Flood tried it back in the day and didn’t get it, and shortly after, they put a roof over it, so it was just unhittable for years. Fern and Joey tried to find a way to hit it with the roof, and it just didn't really play out. Same with Lucas. So it's never been hit. And then, a few years ago, they took the roof away. Connor Waldron sent me a picture of it and was like, “Yo, you should hit this.” At that point, I was still pretty timid and not really getting out into the streets. Every single time I looked at it, I was just like, “Oh, that would be a dream spot.” So, when we decided to film for this Signal project, I was like, we gotta do it. Truthfully, it was the only rail I could think of to go hit (laughs). I kind of didn't have anything else to hit on that day.
Yeah, it was early December of last year. It kind of just happened.
Ryan: Yeah, it was early in the morning. We were just at Joey’s and decided to hit it. All the homies were there: Joey, Gomez, Tucker, you, and Henry. It was crazy that we did that. It was a really cool start to the year of filming.
Aside from what you said you learned from Gomez, what do you think is the biggest takeaway from filming a street part?
Ryan: Keep your expectations open. I wouldn't say to keep your expectations low, because that's setting yourself up for failure, but keep your expectations open and your confidence high. Last year, I had a lot of mental strain, and I got down on myself a lot. I put a lot of pressure on myself because I had a lot going on behind the scenes in my life, which took the fun out of it at times. Remind yourself just to have fun with your friends. You’re just going to hit some cool architecture that’s been placed there by someone else; it’s as simple as that. Just go snowboarding with your friends and try to be creative. Also, the idea of filling your gas tank. I say it all the time with things that aren’t even snowboarding. Whenever you're feeling like you're grinding for something and it’s not going so well, or you need a little boost, watch your clip of a bail or of an almost-make, and fill your gas tank with some confidence. Then all of a sudden, you’ll have that little extra to keep going and push yourself through the challenge that's in front of you.
That’s such good advice, dude. People need to remember that. In the video, before your street part is a whole Dark Park section. It’s been said you might be the official “King of Dark Park” (laughs)
Ryan: I don’t know about that, but to the homies, if that’s the claim, I’ll take it (laughs). Shoutout Dark Park. It's the best place in the world. It's been a saving grace for my life, honestly, and it was cool to have it butted up with my street footage. I just ride it as much as I can. When I come here, I feel like I'm at home, my confidence goes up, and it’s my favorite place to snowboard.
Now that you’ve put one part out and have the itch, what are your plans for this winter?
Ryan: Keep snowboarding (laughs). We already hit a spot this year that just got put in. So the first spot is out of the way, even though my butt is entirely black and blue right now from it (laughs). But just keep filming with my friends as much as possible. It's really fun to explore and find different places to board. Finding some interesting architecture in some cutty zone is really cool. And it keeps evolving as buildings are demolished and new ones are built or new spaces are developed. There's endless opportunity to be creative.
First spot of the year out of the way
Any shout-outs to end it off?
Ryan: Thank you to my Mom. Tucker, you, and everyone at Darkside for everything you do for me. Tom and everyone at Signal for the support. Tom we have to start a band. And last but not least, Gomez and Henry, you guys are the absolute best for putting this all together. All the filming, editing, and putting in countless hours on the video. It was so sick to do this, a really awesome first experience for me, and a dream come true. Thank you for everything.
Check out Ryan, Cali, Gomez, and friends in Vermont Bound and Down Episode 2 now!
