The following article was originally printed in the October 2025 Issue of Slush. To get more articles and subscribe, click here.

Jesse lifted up his shirt and pulled down his pants a little. His body was this tender, bruised thing. He looked as if he’d forgotten to pay a loan shark and they wanted to hit him in a place where the damage could be hidden. We all winced. He’d taken the hit only a day earlier, but the coloring of the bruise was already forming a pattern across his pale skin. He’d taken the hit only a day earlier, but still he was out shoveling and riding alongside Quin, fisheye in hand, hunched over in a filmer’s stance that no doubt shot pain throughout his torso. But Quin was working quickly, so whatever pain was there hopefully hadn’t lasted long. God damn, I thought. Legends.

It’s hard to say exactly what makes Quin and Jesse—and all of Paid Programming’s work, for that matter—special. But maybe the anecdote above can shine some light on why their work resonates. They’ve personified the idea of homies making videos. Although, calling their videos homie vids would be an insult. Whether you agree or not, homie vid has a negative connotation. A homie vid implies a certain level of detachment, a lack of caring because, fuck it, we’re all friends here, we don’t have to try.

What Quin and Jesse do is a step beyond that. They’re friends, of course—they film and live together—but their body of work can easily rival any big-budget video. We don’t release the full list of results for the Slush Awards, but Paid Programming’s Wishing Well came within just a singular vote of overtaking The North Face’s Blitz! for Short Video of the Year. Suffice it to say, what they do is special. The love they have for each other never clashes with the fucked-up-ness of the spots they hit. If anything, they complement each other, being able to hit the most absurd shit because they know, as a crew, everyone has their homies’ backs.

Alright, I have some icebreakers here. Who is the better Google Earther?

QUIN: Oh, Jesse. There’s no doubt.
JESSE: Yeah, I’ll take that one.
QUIN: You’ve seen the stats. I don’t think there’s a better Google Earther in North America when it comes to snowboard spots.
JESSE: I’ve definitely clocked some hours on the maps.

Wait, Jesse, are you agreeing with Quin that you’re the best in North America?
Q: He wouldn’t.
J: I can’t take that spot.
Q: You’ve been Google Earthing since what, grade nine?
J: Yeah, probably earlier, to be honest. I’d say I’ve almost mapped out all of Canada. Starting to break into the States and Europe.

For the folks at home, what’s a starter? I think this is a unique term to you guys.
Q: I’ll tap in on that one.
J: Yeah, take it.
Q: So, “starter” came from one of the Quebec homies, Gab Larivière. When I was younger, what I would call a drop-in, he would call a starter. Something about the simplicity of it—and it being kind of funny—made me take that word and run with it ever since. We’d be at a spot and he’d say, yeah, we’ll put up the starter here. I loved it. I fell in love with the word.
J: I don’t know if there’s a French word for drop-in.
Q: Exactly. His brain just went: Starter. That’s why I loved it. And as you know, I’ve passed that along to a lot of people along the way.

Oh yeah. You kind of converted us to saying starter. At first it was probably a joke, because it’s such an odd word for drop-in. But then all of a sudden we’re still saying it.
Q: That is 100% the truth.

I think the first time I saw you guys this year was in Cincinnati, which was kind of a fuck pit. How was it being there with literally eight other crews? Was that frustrating?
J: Not really. I feel like Cincinnati is still so untapped. There are so many spots. We’d run into people occasionally—we ran into you guys a couple times—but most of the time you’re pulling up to spots no one else is hitting, hopefully.
Q: There are just so many things to hit. It’s so hilly and there are stair sets everywhere. If you put the same amount of people into a city that’s already been picked apart, then maybe some crews would have the upper hand from being there before. That could get frustrating, because there wouldn’t be a lot to go around. But Cincinnati was so fresh—you’d go days without seeing other people. Even still, you knew other people were out there doing the same thing every day.

Totally. Ok, so if you guys didn’t mind all the crews, are you part of the mindset of jib secrecy? I feel like there are two sides: the people who say, fuck it, it’s gonna happen if it happens, and the people who try to keep everything under wraps. Are you on that under-wraps side?
J: Not really. I feel like we don’t care too much. We’re not necessarily going to go out of our way to tell people everything we’re doing or whatnot.
Q: Of course.
J: But if we’re talking about homies or if people hit us up, we’re definitely gonna let them know what’s up.

Honestly, I respect that. It’s hard because we’re all trying to do the same thing, but most of us are homies. It’s rare to see someone you don’t know or don’t fuck with.
J: Also, if you’re in the same town as people you never really get to see, you definitely want to hit them up and hang. It doesn’t happen every day.

Do you have a video name?
Q: It’s Red Ribbon.

Where’s that come from?
Q: There was this red ribbon on top of a hill—beautiful view. We kept staring at it and were like, yeah, that’s a red ribbon… [laughs] No, I’m fucking with you. I have no idea. I think it was just the RR thing. It sounds nice. I don’t think names with meaning are really that dope, to be honest. The funnier the name is, or the better it reads—
J: I feel like names don’t matter all that much… There are good names and bad names, but for the most part it’s the video that makes a name good.

I guess that’s true. Is it just the two of you filming everything?
Q: This year?
J: For the most part. We also had Dan [Bubalo], Marty [Vachon], and our homie Pat [Quesnel] on the camera.
Q: Kinda depending on who’s hitting what.
J: Yeah. If me or Quin are hitting a spot, we’ll have someone else on the second camera. But a lot of the time it’s me and Quin holding it down.

Was that always the intention? I guess I’m asking—how did it start? Was it just you guys saying, I want to make a video and we have a camera?
J: Yeah. Quin was making his own videos in Calgary when I was still living in Ontario, and I started the first two Paid Programming videos with my homie Vinny. Then once I moved out here, we grouped together. I ended up moving in with Quin, so it just kinda made sense. It’s definitely nice living in the same place when it comes to the editing side of things. I feel like our shit started to look a lot better once we linked up.

Does it ever get frustrating—filming together, working together on these videos, and then also living together? Do you ever get fed up with one another?
J: I don’t know. I haven’t gotten sick of Quin yet. He can speak for himself.
Q: No. If anything it makes it easier. Some people have completely different ideas and don’t know how to work together to make one. But we’re usually on the same page when it comes to editing. And editing just sucks in general.
J: It’s nice to have a place to bounce ideas off each other.
Q: Yeah. If you do it alone, you’ll literally go fucking insane.

That’s interesting. From the sound of it, you guys kind of just clicked as creative partners, which is sick.
Q: It works out pretty well. Having people you trust holding the camera while you’re hitting something is such an important factor in feeling confident. If you’re doing something sketchy and the people holding the camera aren’t people you trust, it’s a horrible feeling.
J: Yeah, there’s nothing worse than landing something you’ve been battling and then looking at the clip and thinking, fuck.

Right, you can’t be fully present in the trick if you’re wondering whether the filmer is gonna blow it.
Q: Definitely. But Dan holds it down. He knows what he’s doing behind the camera, which is always good.

I know it’s a strong working relationship, but does it ever get competitive? Just because you guys spend so much time together and work so closely.
Q: If Jesse hits a really awesome spot, it just makes me want to get a really good clip too. Same if Marty does something crazy—I’m like: fuck, now I want to do something.
J: We feed off each other, but we’re not really competing.
Q: It’s not like: oh, now I need to do what he did, but better. It’s more like: fuck, that was great, I want to get something really good.
J: I feel like there are times we’re both trying to hit similar spots.
Q: Definitely.
J: So we kind of do it on a turn basis. If you get a clip, then the next person’s up to bat.
Q: Yeah, kinda gotta choose wisely.
J: You pick the spot you want to hit most, then it’s just up for grabs after that.
Q: Spot list. Notebook. That was a new one this year.

What?
J: We implemented the list. We each made a list of the spots we wanted to hit and in what order.
Q: I think that started in Cincinnati. It’d be funny to send you a screen grab of how Cincinnati looks with the amount of pins on our computer. Everyone was going through this insane spot book Jesse had. Mike added a bunch, Marty added a bunch, I had a couple on my phone but not much. Everyone was scrolling through this photo list, getting hyped. Then the notebook came out. Everyone wrote their name down and listed eight to ten spots they wanted to scope or hit. That way, if we were out during the day and it was Dan’s turn to snowboard, you’d refer back to his list and be like—
J: Let’s see what’s close by.
Q: Exactly. And we put stars beside the priority spots.
J: We had quite the system down.

Like a physical notebook or just the Notes app?
Q: No, just a notepad. I mean, if you’ve been out there, you know what it’s like—it’s 2:00 p.m., you’ve only gotten one clip, and there’s maybe three and a half hours left until the sun’s gone, depending on the time of year. You gotta make quick work, but instead you find yourself driving around aimlessly. It’s the worst fucking feeling ever, whether you’re skating or snowboarding. With the notebook, you’re not depending on someone else’s half-organized photo list on their phone. You already know what they want to do, and you can help get there. It also forces you sometimes into hitting something on your list you didn’t necessarily want to do, but it’s good. You just find yourself in that situation, like, fuck, I guess we’re going here. I guess I’ll step up to this.

So, are you guys strong believers in the rotation then? Like, Jesse goes, and then it’s someone else’s turn?
Q: Back of the line, Norm.
J: Yeah, but if someone’s had a dry spell, we’ll let them hit a couple and some of us will take a break. But definitely taking turns out there.
Q: Toward the weekends it gets tricky, but you figure that out during the week. If there’s something you really want to hit on a weekend, you’ve probably already predetermined when you’re going to go to it—what time of day works, what day, when it’s closed, whatever. So it could be your turn, but the spot you want isn’t doable that day. Someone else might jump ahead, and then when the right day comes, you go and get yours.
J: Maybe you’ll hit two on a weekend if everyone else sticks to weekday spots.

Okay, that’s really what I was wondering. Some crews are strict about sticking to rotation, but it seems like for you guys it’s a light rotation with external factors playing into it.
Q: There’s definitely some strategy in the rotation.
J: Or if there are only two hours left in the day, it’s getting dark, and someone has a quick spot, we’ll just do it. Doesn’t matter whose turn it is.

That makes sense. There’s so much strategy in getting more than one clip a day. If any crew stacks clips, it’s you guys. I think when I saw you in Toronto, you had a seven-clip day?
Q: It was seven.
J: Yeah, we did. That was Marty, Dan, and Taco—three people. It was a catch-up day. Marty had been hurt, Dan had been hurt, Taco had just flown in. We were like, you guys gotta get some clips. So we hit a bunch of spots for them and they stacked quick.

That’s impressive.
Q: Three of the clips were at one spot…but they’re all getting used, so does it really matter? No. It ended up being a seven-clip day across four spots.

Still, if you hit four different spots in a day and got clips at all of them, that’s impressive.
Q: Yeah. Also, five tricks, two fifties.

I love that. It’s kind of cliché in snowboarding to rip on people doing fifty-fifties and board slides. I’m not trying to do that, but I’ll admit I’m a sucker for a good trick. And you guys do tricks [Both laugh] No, no, no. Quin, I’ve seen you back-two. Don’t try and walk out of this one.
Q: No, it’s just funny when you find yourself five board slides and eight fifty-fifties deep, trying to figure out what trick you actually want to do at that spot.
J: Marty really puts on for us. He can pull some tricks out of his ass.
Q: He really can. Same with Mike [Rosart]. Mike is really good at tricks, and Dan did a lot this year too. It’s nice, because otherwise you just keep finding cool-looking spots that don’t have much trick potential. Or big rails that aren’t really trickable. Having everyone doing something a little different helps, instead of a whole video of just fifties and board slides. That’s where a lot of the hate comes from—watching a full video that’s only that.

I feel like some of the hate too comes from people who don’t get the emotional side of editing. I see comments like, why are snowboard videos sad now? and it kind of irks me.

 Q: Oh, the emo hate. We’re talking about the emo hate.

What do you… I’m assuming you disagree with that?

Q: Some people don’t like it, but there’s something for everybody. Everyone has something to say. Some people want skits back in videos. You’re not gonna please everyone. And there are terrible ideas we’re not doing for good reason. People can hate, whatever. Maybe the person talking shit on “emo” just wants to hear a trap song in your part. Everyone has their own opinion. You’re never going to please everyone.
J: There are always people who like shitting on others about anything. We don’t really care that much.

For sure. You also kind of have to know who you’re playing to. The people who watch your videos are probably going to love them. And the people talking shit aren’t hating on you specifically, they’re just saying snowboarding has changed or whatever. I feel like you know your audience, and they’re hyped. Does that factor into your editing?

Q: No, but you definitely make it for the type of person you care about. Not for the one dude who only likes things you don’t vibe with. J: We’re kind of just using songs we actually enjoy listening to.

I feel like that’s important, but another thing for me is—I don’t just want to be hyped when I watch a video, I want to almost get chills, or feel something.
J: You want the clips to have emotion. A lot of work goes into it. If you’re not feeling anything watching a video, then whoever edited it fucked up and didn’t do their job.
Yeah, well, street snowboarding itself is such an emotional process.
J: Yeah, it can get pretty rough some days.
So, you’re doing the clips justice by having emotion in your video too. You’re out there cold, wet, maybe pissed at the people you’re with, things aren’t working out—it’s hard.
Q: Agreed. I think the biggest worry is: does it translate? You could do the craziest thing ever, but if it didn’t film like it was crazy, then you just put yourself at risk for something that wasn’t even worth it. If you edit it right, you show the fact that something was actually fucked. Skating is easy to pack—20 clips into 30 or 45 seconds depending on how fast they are. Boom, boom, boom, your brain doesn’t process everything, it’s just onto the next. Some snowboard clips are quick, but others need time to play. So, yeah, it doesn’t have to be as fast as skating, but if there’s something you really want to exaggerate, let it ride longer. Show two angles. Let it sink in—unless you want that fast skate effect.

Who are some people that hype you up on the filming and editing side? A lot of skaters or snowboard filmers?
Q: I would say both. But you can’t really emulate. You can try to make a snowboard video like a skate video, but it’s never going to come across the same—it’s a snowboard video. You can get hyped on how people edit, their effects, or filming, but snowboard filmers are really good at what they do. If that’s their job, they’re awesome at it.
J: I feel like we both watch the same stuff and get hyped on the same shit. Any Jake Durham video, or Colt Morgan, or Tanner Pendleton—anything those guys make is dope. Same with Jon Stark.
I feel like you can sometimes tell what filmers or snowboarders someone’s been watching. Not in a bad way, but it shows.
J: Well, you grow up on videos, and that’s what makes you want to make your own. So when you’re starting out you emulate to some extent. That’s the stuff that got me hyped, so it might shine through.
Yeah, in the beginning you’re copying until you find your own style.
Q: Let’s add some names to the filmer list [both laugh]: Feldman, Seamus, Hayden Rensch, Bryden.
J: Shit, forgot a bunch.
Q: Daniel Dent. Oh wait, we won’t get into skating.

I feel like I have to ask before we’re done—do you guys believe in the Canadian curse? Is that a real thing?
Q: Curse is an interesting word, factors maybe.
J: Yeah, I mean look at Marty. Debatably one of the best snowboarders out there and he doesn’t even have a board sponsor.
Q: I mean, it depends who you’re talking about. Even the people that came up were kind of within the same timeframe of snowboarding—except Kennedi, Ojo obviously.

Why do you think that timeframe was more possible? You mean Jed and Jake’s generation, right?
J: I mean there was a lot more money going around then. It was easier to bring people from out of the country into bigger roles with brands. Now the industry’s smaller, less money is going around, and because of that, yeah—it’s harder to get us on trips and whatnot.
Q: When you’re here, you’re seen and perceived from a distance, but no one actually knows you. Unless you’re heading down to SLC every year it’s hard to break through that.
J: Yeah, putting a face to a name and meeting people in person goes a long way and you can’t really do that if you stay in Canada.
Q: It really just comes down to being known in America. The better you are at pretending you’re American while being Canadian, the better you’ll do in snowboarding or skating.

What’s the solution then?
Q: I don’t think there’s a solution. You have to play the game. I don’t think you’re going to break the curse because it’s not even a “curse,” it’s just how things are. It’s not like people trying to “break through” get shut down. You just have to try harder at things you wouldn’t normally want to do. You gotta be seen and not just in snowboarding, just being a human. So it’s not a curse, it’s just how it is.

Are people bitter about it? Everywhere there are always people who say, I should be getting more. Do you see that a lot in Canada?
J: I feel like the people with that mindset don’t even do it—it doesn’t make sense to. Everyone in Canada that does it, does it because they want to.

Hearing you guys, it sounds like that’s just the way it is. And then—I mean, obviously, you love it—but you’re probably doing it just because you love it, right?
J: Yeah, for sure.
Q: Not much of a job, I’ll tell you that.
Damn.
Q: Did we answer that? I feel like there’s a summary in there somewhere, right?
No, absolutely. That was great.