The following article was originally printed in the October 2026 Issue of Slush. To get more articles and subscribe, click here.
By Norm Schoff
Keyan Adams is awesome. No point in burying the lead on this one. And, as this interview unfolds, you’ll hopefully see what I mean here. He’s excited about snowboarding in a way that makes everyone else excited about it too. What separates him from so many other people though is he’s created a platform to get people to do something about it. With his goggle company, Nerve, he’s constantly creating situations for his friends to be themselves, whether that’s through extremely convoluted (and I mean that in the best possible way) ads, or the 420 Sunshine Hip session that takes place yearly. Or even with Gap Year, the band he’s in with other snowboarders Justin Phipps and Ethan Guertler, the community is constantly popping out for their shows, using it all as an excuse to hangout and listen to music. Boarders have even filled their video parts with his songs (Reid Smith in Rated R). I said at the top that Keyan Adams is awesome but what I think I meant is that he’s great for the community. Though, in the end, isn’t that part of what makes him so awesome?
Gap Year just went on tour, how many stops did you guys hit?
It was something between like 15 and 20. I think it was maybe 18.
Where'd you guys go?
We started the day after Reid [Smith]’s wedding. So we did that whole thing, super fun, and then we drove straight to Kansas. Then we went to Nashville, then to North Carolina, and then we went to Georgia, DC, Philly for a night because we had an off day. We got our tires slashed in Philly, so we had to uber to Brooklyn, stayed in Brooklyn, and then we went to Boston, Pittsburgh, fucking Missouri, Ohio.
That's a big tour. How was, how was it? Did you have fans in all the stops?
Dude, somehow—there were a couple of the shows where most of the people were there for First Day Back, who we were touring with. But at every show there were at least a couple kids that would pull up and be like, "I'm here for you guys." Like one or two or. And then we'd have people afterwards say, "I'd never heard of you guys before, but that was sick." They were getting stoked on it. Some cities, though, for sure, there were kids that knew some of our songs which was insane.
I feel like I have to ask the obligatory question about the connection between snowboarding and art-
What do you mean?
I feel like any time people interview an artist within snowboarding there’s some form of, "Oh, what do you think the connection between snowboarding and art is because they're so intertwined?" But I guess I'll just ask it this way: What's a word that you would use to describe playing music that you could also use to describe snowboarding?
Expressive. Or outlet, I would say.
Would you also use that word to describe running a goggle company?
Yes, but not all of it.
What do you mean?
I guess it's similar, because there's work and art in everything. There are some parts of being in a band that are work, and then there's parts of it that are art. I feel like it's the same with snowboarding. There’s parts of it that are kind of like work, but it's all a piece of the art.
Like putting in work to get the art?
Yeah, or just stuff you have to do after. Like, I wouldn't say, screen printing is necessarily art, but making the graphic…well, I guess it is, a part of the art.
I mean, there's a talent to it. I'm so bad at it, and then there are other people who are great.
Yeah, true.
Well, speaking of Nerve, why did you want to start a goggle company?
The snowboarding that I really identified with and appreciated as a kid seemed like it was shrinking, and a lot of my friends that were snowboarding a lot that I grew up with, they started having to phase out of it just because they were getting older and—I don't know. I felt like there were some people that I would look at and think, damn, this kid is so good, and has a sick-ass perspective, and they're not getting put on by anybody. And so I just wanted to make something to—the dream was: We sell a bunch of goggles. We make enough money that I can just go film a video with my friends that don't have sponsors and can just pay for it. I guess that was the main drive for it. Also, I just love making stuff. I love making T-shirts, I love making graphics, and I was like, damn, what do I do with all this? Because you can't just get commissions all the time, you know? And I was screen printing shirts on my own, which was fun, but I wanted to just kind of concentrate all it in one place, and then if it works out and people fuck with it, hell yeah. And if not, then I just have a portfolio, like I made this website, or like I made these goggles. I remember too when I first was starting Nerve, Dragon just discontinued the D3 frame, I think they have it again now, but it was originally this smaller frame '90s goggle. And so that goggle wasn't really around, and that was my favorite looking goggle. I was just like, fuck it we could make that I guess [laughs].
I know I did this with Garage a lot, and I see it with you for sure, even just with the way you described it now, being like, "I want to basically have a more reasonable excuse to do cool shit with my friends." Because looking back on Garage, I enjoyed making the magazine just like I'm sure you enjoy making goggles, but my favorite times were the shit that that allowed me to do. And, I feel like it's probably the same with you, whether you’re making ads or doing the 420 jam.
Yeah, that's honestly the one thing that's kept me in it. I was in school, and that was the intention for it, and I was kind of getting frustrated that I was like—I'm putting so much work into this. I didn’t have time to actually do the shit that it was for, like, go on trips and all that. But the 420 jam every year, that helps. It's so cool to see everybody up there. That’s one of my favorite days of the year, for sure.
Do you have a dream goggle collab?
Anti-Hero goggle collab would be fucked. It makes no sense, but that'd be fucked.
We're putting it out into print now if any skaters are reading this. Ok, so what's next? New tour coming up?
Yeah, we're actually going on tour in November. We're touring with P.E.E. and our friends in The Ritornello Form. We're going to Canada, we're going to New York again, DC again. I think we're going to Chicago. I hope we go somewhere more Midwest. It'd be fun to go to Minnesota or something.
Minnesota would be sick.
Hey, maybe we could snowboard on tour.
Hit a Troll show under the lights.
Bruh, just freeze to death. Guitar just ices over.
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