Today we’d like to introduce you to Toby Miller.
Hi Toby, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Toby Miller, and I’m a 24-year-old professional snowboarder. I was born in Big Bear Lake, California, and I learned to snowboard at the age of six, instantly falling in love with the sport. My family moved to Lake Tahoe when I was in the fourth grade, which allowed me to ride bigger mountains with better terrain parks. By the time I turned eight, snowboarding was my world; my parents often had to tell me the mountain was closed just to get me to take a day off.
I started finding success in USASA events at the age of nine, ten, and eleven; winning the USASA National Championships in both halfpipe and slopestyle multiple times. At 13, I decided to focus entirely on halfpipe. I started competing in the Revolution Tour, an amateur circuit just below the professional level, where I started finding myself on the podium. I won the Burton European Open Jr Jam, and became a member of the US Snowboarding Halfpipe team at 14 years old.
I continued to find success on the Rev Tour circuit and placed second at the Junior World Championships in Yabuli, China. This led to invitations to the Grand Prix World Cup events, placing me on the professional tour. At this time I also began working with major sponsors like Red Bull, Nike, and Pop Tarts (Kellogg’s). When I was 16 years old I started making finals (top 10) at World Cup competitions.
The years 2017 and 2018 were big for me. In 2017, I competed in my first X Games and finished in fifth place. In 2018, I won the Junior World Championships in New Zealand and got my first professional podium with a second-place finish at the Copper Mountain World Cup in Colorado. Shortly after, I got third place at the Dew Tour in Breckenridge, Colorado. Unfortunately, I broke my ankle during my final run at the Dew Tour, which put me out for a couple of months. Upon returning to snow, I finished fourth at the World Championships in Park City, Utah, but then shattered my wrist at the next event in Calgary Canada, requiring surgery and ending my competition season.
Despite the injuries, it was a successful year in terms of results. The following year, I got my first X Games podium, which has always been a childhood dream of mine. After a lot of competitions and a handful of injuries, I wanted to diversify my career. This past year, I linked up with legendary snowboarder, my halfpipe coach, and very close friend JJ Thomas. I found myself spending a lot time in the backcountry and fell in love with every aspect of it. I filmed two segments with Warren Miller for their new 75th movie, which was an incredible experience.
Halfpipe has been the main focus of my career for the last decade of my career and it will continue to be part of my career for many years to come, but I feel like I returned to why I fell in love with snowboarding in the first place: snowboarding. Snowboarding everything. Even though I’ve been in the sport for most of my life, I feel like this is just the beginning, and I have so much more to achieve in every aspect of the sport.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
In every profession, there are ups and downs. Throughout my career, I’ve faced challenges, with injuries being a big one. Wrists, ankles, shoulders, and a lot of concussions. These injuries have led to missing big events, losing sponsors, and a lot of missed days on the mountain. I always say “Injuries, they are part of the job description”.
The hardest part of injuries isn’t the injury itself; it’s watching events and seeing posts on social media about what I should be doing while I’m stuck in the gym doing physical therapy. It’s easy to get in your head and start questioning if I’ll ever get better or if I’ll ride at the same level as before.
After going through this process many times, I’ve learned that I can only focus on what’s within my control. If I trust the process and put in the work to get a little better every day, the results will come. From my experience, having this mindset during recovery typically gets you back on snow even stronger than when the injury happened. The idea of taking one step back to move two steps forward is very real.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I wouldn’t be where I am today without the people in my life. My family have been my biggest supporters throughout my career. I’m also really grateful for my amazing friends and mentors. Louie Vito, JJ Thomas, and Shaun White took me under their wings when I was younger, and now they’re some of my closest friends.
I also owe a lot to my fantastic partners, Backcountry, Toyota, and WHITESPACE. A big shoutout and thank you to them for providing me with the best products out there and allowing me to do what I love.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tobymiller/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Itstobymiller
