INTERVIEW
Will Macnab | 30/09/2025
Scotty James’ story begins in Melbourne, a place better known for cricket ovals than snowy mountains. Scotty was three years old when his father spotted a tiny display snowboard in a Vancouver shop window. That little piece of plastic set him on a path that has taken him from local hills to the grandest stages in sport.
He laughs when I ask him about his first time on the snow. “I can’t remember the first time I went snowboarding, because I was so young, around three or four years old,” he says. “The story is told that I started snowboarding because I wasn’t listening to my ski instructor. I would just go off on the mountain by myself… That’s quite dangerous. They put me on my snowboard to stop me and slow me down. It worked for a little bit, and then, sure enough, I figured it out.”
That instinct to push forward, to go a little faster than everyone expected, has never really left him. At six he was competing, and at ten he was travelling internationally with his mum, teaching him on the road. He was seen as a prodigy before he had even finished primary school. And by fifteen, he’d qualified for the Vancouver Olympics. He fractured his wrist in training but still dropped into the pipe, finishing 21st.
It was a brutal initiation. “One of my most challenging times,” he admits. “I’d been one of the best juniors in the world, then suddenly I was in the men’s category, a serious reality check. Overnight, I went from the top to the bottom, competing against the best in the world. It was hard to handle, and not living up to expectations really hit my ego. At 15 you don’t want to admit that; you want people to think everything’s fine. I ended up falling out of love with the sport very quickly.”
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But falling out of love didn’t mean walking away. “That period really forced me to figure out what I wanted going forward, what my priorities were. I realised I didn’t just want to grind endlessly. I wanted to find out how to bring the best out of myself.” Over the years that followed, he found that answer in sharper riding, more complex runs, and a new mindset. A bronze medal in PyeongChang in 2018, silver in Beijing four years later, and a string of World Championship and X Games victories earned him a reputation as one of the finest halfpipe riders of his generation.
Even now, after more than a decade at the top, fear remains a companion, and Scotty says it never disappears. “Every time, even to this day. But I like it,” he tells me. “Sometimes fear can be perceived as something we want to run away from. For me, I try to embrace it. Sometimes I think that if I’m not intimidated by what I’m doing, then I don’t have the same intent or adrenaline to actually do it. I use it as a strength rather than something that would stop me.
He credits his wife, Chloe, and their baby son, Leo, with grounding him in ways medals and titles never could. “We have a little baby now, which is fun. He’s huge for nine months. It’s a massive difference for me. If I haven’t been managing my life at home and lose the balance between my sport and my home life, it shows.”
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He grins when I ask if the pressure ever follows him through the front door. “Chloe’s the kryptonite,” he laughs. “She gets me to have a little bit more fun and be more playful, just be in the moment. You try to anticipate and control everything in sport, but being grounded is really important. Balance is everything.”
That sense of perspective is something he’s worked hard to earn. The mental side of competing, he admits, has been just as tough as any physical challenge. “When you’re young, you don’t really know how to manage it well,” he says. “You’re trying to understand how you feel and how to perform better. Naturally when you’re young, you’re more inclined to implode and explode and be emotionally upset, whereas now, I still do that sometimes, but I also know how to find a solution.” He wants that same openness for his son. “There’s a stigma, especially for men, about not showing too much emotion. My hope is that my son will always feel comfortable talking to me about anything. That would be the dream as a parent.”
That desire to talk openly about fear and resilience has even found its way into the pages of a children’s book. Together with Steve Worland and Dave Atze, Scotty co-wrote “MOOKi Vs. The Big Scary”, a playful story that sneaks serious themes inside colourful characters. The book follows a nervous MOOKi learning to face his worries, a stand-in for the butterflies Scotty still feels before dropping into a pipe. “I really love Disney films,” he says. “There are great, cryptic lessons throughout them for adults and kids. I thought we could do something similar, a story kids would enjoy but that also carried a message.”
He’s been surprised at how deeply children connect with it. When he visits schools or meets young fans at events, they’re quick to tell him their favourite parts. “They often know more about the story than I do and start telling me about the characters,” he says, grinning. “There’s a little dog in the book, Ralph, who does nervous wees, and that’s always their favourite part.”
He hasn’t forgotten what it felt like to be the odd one out, a boy from Melbourne chasing a winter sport that hardly anyone around him understood. Those early hurdles left a mark, and now he’s determined to smooth the path for the next generation. His latest project, MOOKi’s Mini Pipe with Thredbo, is designed for that very purpose: a halfpipe shrunk to kid-size, built to remove the intimidation factor that can come with towering walls of ice.
“Starting straight away on a full-size one can be intimidating, so this lets kids get comfortable first,” Scotty explains. “We invite a group to come along for a day, I teach them some snowboarding basics, and most importantly, we make it fun. Your first impression needs to be enjoyable. That’s what gets you through the tough moments later in your career. I can vouch for that.”
For all the medals, titles, and projects that fill his calendar, Scotty says the moments that bring him the most joy are the quietest ones. “It’s probably sitting around a campfire with my family,” he says, smiling at the thought. He grew up camping across Victoria, sleeping under canvas skies, and he still craves that simplicity. “I am still a kid. I’m just a tall kid. It’s very simple and basic, but that makes me really happy. Yeah, being in nature in Australia.”
Words Will Macnab
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