“Onlooker; noun: A nonparticipating observer; a spectator. The role of an Onlooker reaches its hands out to a vast demographic of those who spend their summers longing for colder months and a snow white covered urban landscape. Snowboarding in the Midwest breeds a keen eye for turning urban obstacles into opportunities that aren’t easily multiplied in other zones around the globe. This keen eye has been bestowed onto the Onlooker crew. Midwestern young shooters Brandon Kirkland, Alex Kirkland, Jamal Awadallah and Pennsylvania transplants Dan Pergrin and Evan Pierce make up the Onlookers, who have been steady seeking new features around the Twin Cities to showcase their frozen steel savant style. A deep sack of tricks, double take spots, and a blue-collar workhouse mentality leaves these young urban padawans blazing trails in the streets.” -Tanner B.
PHOTO: Peter Limberg
Onlookers! What’s up dudes? Stoked to catch you guys for this.
Jamal Awadallah: Weeeeeem
Evan Pierce: What is up
Dan Pergrin: Yooooo
Alex Kirkland: What up
Brandon Kirkland: Ayeyoo!
Let’s get some intros in. Tell us about yourselves.
JA: Ayo wazzah my names Jamal Awadallah, I’m from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 21 years alive, Great Bear is my home resort, buy me a mango and we can be friends.
EP: I’m Evan (Tim) Pierce, I’m originally from Annville, Pennsylvania, which is super close to Hershey (where they used to make the chocolate), but now I live in Saint Paul where I go to college. I’m 20 years old.
DP: I’m Dan Pergrin, 20 years young, from Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania. Grew up boarding at Roundtop Mountain Resort, then moved to Minneapolis 3 years ago for school (but mainly to snowboard and film more)
AK: I’m Alex Kirkland, 16 years old, from St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Hyland Hills is my home resort.
BK: I’m Brandon Kirkland, I grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota about 10 minutes from my home resort Hyland. Born and raised right here in MN.
-A midwest must. Trollhaugen pre-season laps with (left to right) Dan Pergrin, Alex Kirkland and Brandon Kirkland. PHOTO: Evan Pierce-
How was your guys summer? How do you occupy your time until winter?
JA: This summer I got the opportunity to go on a study abroad in Tanzania which was just about the best experience of my life. I hung out with some baboons, spent a few nights in the Serengeti, met a great deal of wonderful humans, and grew to understand the power of community. It was all very inspiring and I feel like I’ve grown so much from it. Experiencing another culture is really an amazing thing and I recommend to everyone to take advantage of those opportunities. You won’t regret it!
EP: This summer I worked at High Cascade and Windells as a photographer. It was super sick. I met a ton of new people in the snowboard industry. Definitely a summer I’ll never forget.
DP: Took a couple of classes, fractured my elbow on my road bike, did some cool video work for The Interior Plain Project Snowboards, spent a frick ton of time editing a movie where my friends do a bunch of cool maneuvers on their snowboards. Also, took a trip back home to PA and skated the best skatepark, Reid Menzer Memorial in York, Pa. It was so tight to go home and skate where I grew up.
AK: This summer I keep myself busy through fishing and skateboarding. Overall, I would say it was a good summer.
BK: This summer was unreal, Evan and I worked out at High Cascade all summer. It was by far the coolest experience I’ve ever had. Got to meet so many cool people from all over, and got to see what it was like to live outside of Minnesota for the first time. Snowboarding all summer was an added plus.
How did you guys all get introduced?
JA: Oofta ummmm, I met Dan my first year of college through my good buddy Austin, whom I grew up riding with, because they met at Hood. Turns out Dan was planning on going to the U and Austin knew I was so he got us in contact. We officially met on campus when Dan said “Yo what up I’m Dan from PA” with a mouthful of peanut butter. I was like damn this guys cool af and we became roommates. I then met Brandon and Alex at some Wild Mountain preseason thing I think. I remember Brandon being really hyped about us and him and Dan hit it off pretty quick. And lastly I met Tim who’s name is apparently Evan but I doubt it.
DP: Like my ex-roommate Jam Jam said, we met through a mutual friend and were roommates for two years. (Aren’t roommates anymore because he couldn’t handle my love for peanut butter.) Then, I had met Brandon and Alex at The Interior Plain Project Shapeshifter premiere. Long story short, Jamal and I got our Minnesota initiation at the first spot of the year with half an inch of snow on a down flat down elbow rail. Tim (aka Evan) and I grew up at good ole roundtop together, then he missed me too much and moved here a year after I did.
EP: I’ve known Dan for awhile because we rode at the same resort in PA, and I came out to visit him and met the Kirkland brothers. Then I decided to move out here to go to college and join the crew.
AK: I think I met Jamal first briefly at Openhaugen like 3 years ago. I saw Jamal again at Cal Surf for the The Interior Plain Project Shapeshifter premier and that is where I met Dan. A few weeks later we hit a spot with them and have been with them ever since. The first time I met Evan was at my cabin when he was visiting schools in Minnesota, and was staying with Dan. We were all going to Duluth for the weekend and Evan tagged along with us. The next year, Evan moved to MN and jumped right into filing with us.
BK: We first met Dan and Jamal at Cal Surf at the The Interior Plain Project Shapeshifter premiere. A lot of our homies we had been filming with up until then had just graduated and started going to school up in Duluth. So when Dan and Jamal said they were down to film stuff that winter we were super hyped. Dan and I bonded pretty quickly over being huge snowboarding nerds and started to form a pretty tight group of friends, which consisted of Jamal, Dan, Alex and myself. That winter Evan came and visited Dan and went on a trip with us, we hit it off with him and we were really hoping he would come to school here the next year. Thankfully he did, and he quickly became a good friend and a big part of our crew.
-Lil’ Mute Scoot from Alex Kirkland. Style. PHOTO: Evan Pierce-
The Onlookers name is new to this last season? How did you guys all come together to come up with the crew?
JA: In my eyes it all happened pretty naturally. We just all became friends and hungout and snowboarded and whatever, and then Dan just stuck a name in there and voila. I think ultimately Dan is the glue between us, but of course, each and everyone one of us contributes and brings a uniqueness that makes the crew what it is. Onlookers is made up of an ever changing number of people. Yes, there are some core contributors, but I think it’s pretty evident that we believe in inclusion and anyone with eyes and motivation can be an Onlooker.
EP: MAKEFRIENDSORDIE
DP: I mean Jamal, Alex, and Brandon all can board really well. Evan shoots really great photos and I’m an artsy fartsy nerd with a desire to capture all the shenanigans these dudes decide to do. I want to thank these dudes for making my childhood dreams of making street snowboard movies a reality.
AK: I think we all planed on filming something again this year after the previous year. Dan came up with the name and we all where hyped on it. The people who make up our crew were really whoever wanted to come and film stuff. So, towards the end of the year it kinda just turned into the 5 of us.
BK: Ya, the name is new but we’re still doing the same shit. Snowboarding with our friends, having fun, and filming it. Dan’s the mastermind behind the name and he makes us having fun snowboarding look cool.
What role do you guys each take on for Onlookers?
JA: I would say I have had more of an acting role in the production. I have been kind of struggling with intimate relationships the past few years so I am not as close to my homies as I would like to be, but this year I’m bumpin J5 Power in Numbers and I am eager and motivated to stay more connected, as well as to play more of a role in artistic direction.
EP: I take photos of people and things.
DP: Apparently, I’m the glue that holds us all together *insert shoulder shrug gif.* In reality, I film and edit as well as give these guys crazy ideas to do, and usually they do it even cooler than I envisioned.
AK: The main role that I take on is to snowboard. But also run the winch or whichever way we are getting speed, so I’ll probably be the one to pull someone in. I also tend to shovel a lot, I like to build stuff so landings and jumps just kinda come naturally. I also make food at spots, I own a little portable grill so I’ll make hot dogs and hamburgers so we can be out filming all day.
BK: I mainly snowboard. But I occasionally film poor second angles, haha.
-Jamal and the yellow hat. A love story. PHOTO: Evan Pierce-
What was your favorite experience from the last season?
JA: Any spot when my best friend Zoe was there.
EP: Eating hot dogs at spots.
DP: Definitely a few surreal experiences for me. Filming side by side with Riley Erickson and having him send us to cool spots with tricks in mind as well as filming the main angle of a clip in Public Snowboards’ new video “Waiting Room”. Shoutout to Joe Sexton, that was a sick day.
AK: Like what Dan was saying, this winter was very surreal. I have always watched videos that Riley Erickson has filmed so just being at spots and having him filming, or just being there was very cool.
BK: Watching Evan eat “bomb ass hotdogs”-Evan (Tim)
Now give us the worst experience..
JA: That’s a tough one… I honestly can’t think of one because usually I think of my worst experiences as my greatest periods of growth. There’s no such thing as a bad experience with the right perspective!
EP: Getting kicked out of spots that we completely set up and haven’t hit yet.
DP: When I wanted to be in front of the camera once for a little follow cam line, chief filmer Brandon runs into me while filming me, we hit a tree, I break my wrist, such a good day.
AK: The worst experience of the winter was when I ran into a fence. There was this rail to fence gab, and I got weird on the rail and got pinched between the fence and rail. I sprained my ankle on the trick, but otherwise this winter went well.
BK: So we went to a spot and met up with Joe Sexton, and watching him snowboard in person was so insanely cool. The day turned bad when I tried to do this tap thing on an electrical box, I slipped out and smashed a pole in front of one of my favorite snowboarders of all time. To this day all these dudes still give me shit for it, haha.
Which Kirkland is better? Brandon or Alex?
JA: eini mini mine moe catch a tiger by its toe if he hollars let him go… well I guess it’s Alex.
EP: Depends on the situation, Alex can ollie over anything, but Brandon can destroy any rail.
DP: Currently, I think Brandon works really hard and pushes himself to constantly film better clips, while Alex has yet to truly show what he can do. (Yes, I’m calling you out Alex. This part doesn’t scrape the surface of Alex’s insane board control.)
AK: I would say that Brandon is better, he does some crazy gaps and rails that I would never touch.
BK: I would say Alex. I would way rather watch him ride any day, and he’s got kangaroo hops for days.
-Two Kirkland’s walk into a bar. They get asked to leave.. They’re not old enough to be there.. PHOTO: Evan Pierce-
Dan and Evan, you guys are not originally corn feed and midwest breed like the rest of us. How did you presence in our scene come about?
EP: Two words: Rope tows
DP: College was an opportunity for me to move wherever I wanted, and I wanted to go somewhere I could board a lot, and hopefully meet other snowboard nerds.
What’s the next step here boys? Can we expect another Onlooker flick this season?
JA: Keep them eyes peeled…
EP: You’ll definitely (see) a lot of us.
DP: There will be some cool shiz in the future.
AK: I think the plan is to keep filming and I’m not really sure for what yet.
BK: We’re just going to keep doing what we love, I’m sure Dan will continue to point a camera at us and make it look cool.
-Brandon redirecting between a rail and a hard place. PHOTO: Evan Pierce-
Last words.. Any shouts outs?
JA: Shoutout to my cat Juliet who just died from type 2 diabetes, rest in grease. I know you’ll be watchin the flick on Friday from the heavens.
EP: Shoutout: Culver’s, Jack and Dalton for always helping out at spots, Pete at The Interior Plain Project, Guf, Cal Surf, Wendy’s, and all the MN homies.
DP: Shoutout to my day one snowboard homies the moistboiz, Pete Harvieux, Guf, Cal Surf, Riley Erickson, Funtastik skate and snowboard shop back home, Colt Morgan for igniting my nerd fire at High Cascade 7 years ago.
AK: Shout to Wendy’s and Culver’s, Pete Harvieux, Cal Surf, The Dirty Boys, The Panic order dudes, my parents, Brandon, wildcard, Eli Lamm, Casey, Paddy Flanagan, Walker Murphy.
BK: Shout out to Pete Harvieux, Rich Whinnie, Matt Stillman, The Dirty Boys/All the hyland OG’s (too many homies to name), Jack Allen, Dalton Laterner, Paddy Flanagan, Walker Murphy, Casey Philipsen, Eli Lamm for being a G, and literally everyone that snowboards in Minnesota and makes the scene what it is!!
Check out our Cricket Podcast with a few of the Onlookers, Evan, Dan and Brandon!
