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Brolin's been training at Park City and Jackson Hole as much as possible. Galen Knowles photo.
As you might have heard, Brolin Mawejje is on a quest to make history to be the first snowboarder to represent the African nation of Uganda in the 2018 Olympics. Not long after Brolin made it form Uganda to U.S. at the ripe age of 12, he met Phil Hessler, the oldest brother of a family of ripping snowboarders who would become a very influential friend—and later, an actual brother when the Hesslers decided to adopt Brolin at the age of 18. His transition into life in the States wasn't easy, as he felt like an outcast, and had to deal with his agression coming from a broken home, but found quickly found a home in snowboarding. Over the last several years, Brolin, Phil and their crew of close friends and family put together Far From Home, a full-length documentary that chronicles Brolin’s path from growing up in Uganda to his quest to represent his native country in the 2018 Olympics while simultaneously studying to become a doctor.
Yet all the excitement over the past year that came with premiering the film all over the country and the world took away from Brolin on snow and his actual goal of training for the 2018 Olympics. With the film completed and now available to the public through Vimeo, Brolin has been in full on Olympic training mode from a
month-long trip to Mt. Hood this summer to dialing in tricks on the trampolines at Snogression in Salt Lake City, all in between classes at Westminster University in Salt Lake City . At this point of where Brolin’s snowboarding is and what it takes to stand up in elite competition such as the Olympics he knows that training is a full time job both on and off the snow.
I've known Brolin for over ten years now, from growing up in the Boston area, skating, and riding the local ski hill, and got a chance to catch up with him about everything from Olympic training, his crew, and premiering
Far From Home in Uganda.
First of all, congrats on the official release to the public of Far From Home. Now I know you just got back from Uganda, premiering Far From Home for the first time in your native country, and doing some community work. What was that like, and did you feel support and pride from your country, especially a country that is so foreign to snowboarding?
Brolin, Phil, Adam Schellenburg and crew with kids while filming for Far From Home in Uganda. Galen Knowles photo.
The support was definitely there, it’s just that the timing of the premier was a little rough, with the political instability in Uganda right now generating a lot of political riots. I had to explain just the notion of what snowboarding was, sort of relating it to skateboarding but down mountains on snow which they have none of, but it was hard to explain it to this population and how it works. I had a chance to meet many of the same people when I was in Uganda when we were filming for
Far From Home, and many of the students had heard the story.
There was a great turnout, yet we thought there would be more people, but it was a tough time, a dangerous place to be at the moment. Uganda is currently in the midst of a presidential race for the 2016 election, and the streets of the capital Kampala have seen the havoc resulted from the growing opposition to current president Yoweri Museveni, who has held power since 1986.
Now that the full-length documentary is out to the public and you’ve spent a good part of the year premiering it around the world, how has that chaos detracted from your true goal, of representing Uganda in snowboarding in the 2018 winter Olympics?
I would say it's definitely been a double edged-sword. The excitement around
Far From Home, was, and still is very important for me to get the awareness out there, and at the same time, I need to get the awareness out there to get the support for my Olympic goal. I’ve got a lot of other things on my plate, between being a Teacher’s Assistant for a class, medical-school applications and Olympic training, and have learned that time is your greatest commodity, and trying to figure out to use it to your advantage and prioritize things is extremely important.
Could you just describe how difficult process of the politics of getting Uganda to form a ski federation, and get any sort of funding from them for Olympic training, travel, etc.?
Phil and Brolin to basically setup a ski federation for Uganda from scratch
It was definitely a crap shoot. The first day we went to Uganda, we knew we needed to meet the right people, because snowboarding is such an unknown sport to Uganda. The second time, it was only kind of a crapshoot, and with Phil’s persistence we met the right person, but had to stay determined in order to explain the seriousness of it all.
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Can you update us on what your training process has been like and where and how you will be training going forward?
Lately it's pretty much been all flat ground training, aside from a month at Mt. Hood this summer between school. In the last two months I’ve stepped back from going to the gym as much, and have been working with a great trampoline coach, Nick Poplawski at Snogression just outside of Salt Lake City. He’s been huge in helping me figure out what tricks I need have, and when I need to have them, and has helped given me more direction in the training process. He’s stressed the importance of getting tricks dialed without a snowboard under my feet just to get the muscle memory going, and instill the confidence before getting on the snow. Tramping has been huge for my confidence, and I’ve learned theres a huge difference in knowing how to do a trick, and thinking you
can do a trick.
Brolin working on his double flip while training at Camp Of Champions in Whistler. Jon Chandeler photo.
One thing that I know of, and the film highlights, is that you’ve got such a core crew of extremely talented and supportive riders around you, from your brothers Phil, Jack and Jimmy, and Jackson locals like Cam Fitzpatrick and Rob Kingwill. How important has the support from them been?
The crew is everything as a snowboarder—you're a mirror of the people around you, and to go to a level of snowboarding where you can try to make the Olympics, you need the support from people like Kingwill. And even riding a mountain like Jackson Hole Mountain Resort really makes you have to think consciously about your riding at all times. Having local guys like Cam Fitzpatrick and Blake Paul, and just seeing those older kids absolutely ripping, and even having the support from people like Travis Rice, Sage Kotsenburg and the entire Jackson Hole community made this process possible. These people never let you doubt yourself, and keep you stoked at all times, and at the end of the day, it's not just Brolin trying to go to the Olympics, it's team Brolin.
Now with your final semester at Westminster College coming to an end, and medical school applications in, would you say your snowboarding is now your number one focus?
Brolin's still hard at work finishing his two degrees at Westminter University. Galen Knowles photo
I’m still working on med. school apps, working as a TA, and finishing my two degrees at Westminter College to make sure med school is the next thing after the Olympics. But after the next four weeks of school, snowboarding is everything and Olympic training will be like a full-time job. You gotta do other things—snowboarding's not the end, and I still want to have a career outside of snowboarding, I’m just fortunate and blessed to have this opportunity to go for a dream and be surrounded by such supportive people.
Brolin's story is far from over, and he still needs your help! If Far From Home gets over $10,000 in sales by the 21st, Vimeo will kick in to help with Brolin's training training this year in preparation for the Olympics, so download a copy and spread the word!
