Furniture Designer Was A Snowboarding Phenom
Amy Schumer’s new dude, Ben Hanisch, got some love from Sun-Times outdoor columnist Dale Bowman in 2004.
Date: March 26, 2004
Headline: Mountain Rises On Lakefront – That’s Snow Joke
“The metal contraption rises south of Soldier Field. Think mechanical mountain with an urban view. And fake snow. It’s a weird convergence.
“While weekend weather will have Chicagoans thinking spring, the richest snowboarding event in history sets up in Chicago. A cool quarter-million in prize winnings stokes the Boost Mobile Pro of Snowboarding today and Saturday at Soldier Field South Festival Area.”
*
“One of those in the rail jam today is from the northwest suburbs. In the rail jams, riders perform as the spirit moves them rather than in a regimented format. Ben Hanisch, a 17-year-old junior at Fremd High School, earned a berth in the rail jam when he won a Forum Youngblood series event at Raging Buffalo Snowboard Park in Algonquin earlier this month.
“I just want to have fun, not be too scared to go against all the top guys,” said Hanisch, who idolizes the styling of Eddie Wall. [It is] being as smooth as you can, so you don’t look all sketched out.”
–
Date: April 2, 2004
Headline: Local Snowboarding Teen Jams Rail With Best
“Ben Hanisch had something in his head. It’s still there. Last Friday night, Hanisch lined up with the best in the snowboarding world. A couple guys ahead was his idol, Eddie Wall.
You couldn’t miss Wall. He stood out like a neon bulb in his electric green snowboarding coat.
It was the rail jam of the Boost Mobile Pro of Snowboarding held just south of Soldier Field. In a rail jam, riders (the snowboarders) slide down a short approach, then hop their boards up on a rail and perform tricks.
It’s about improvisation. That’s partly explains the procedure, or lack of it. Riders roughly follow each other as they arrive at the approach. But occasionally, the spirit will move one “to jump in.”
Rail jams for snowboarders are cousins of the outlaw sport, perfected by skateboarders, of riding handrails and walls in public spaces.
Friday’s rail jam was legitimized with a $20,000 check going to the winner.
Hanisch had a plan.
“I wanted to try one trick I had for a long time, this one thing I had in my head,” Hanisch said. “I couldn’t do it. It got pretty frustrating. It is a 270 [degree spin] on and, at the kink, do another 180 facing the rail. It is pretty difficult.”
His first attempt was, well, an attempt.
“I went down the middle one, and slipped out,” Hanisch said. “I hadn’t snowboarded in like a week-and-a-half.”
*
“‘It takes more than [chutzpah] to do good tricks on walls,’ Hanisch said before the rail jam. ‘These days it is all about style. Whoever looks best on the rails should come out on top.'”
The 17-year-old junior at Fremd High School in Palatine earned a spot in the rail jam by looking good and winning a Forum Youngblood series event at Raging Buffalo Snowboard Park in Algonquin on March 13.
The world of snowboarding clips along. Hanisch already has sponsorships, including Jeenyus snowboards . . .
He came to snowboarding because of his older brother Tim. Having been born in Palatine, snowboarding wasn’t a natural fit. Ben started out with wakeboarding, the water sport similar to snowboarding.
“I know the next time, the next contest, I will have a lot more confidence,” Hanisch said. “And I will probably end up doing better.”
Part of winning the lead-in event at Raging Buffalo meant that Hanisch was put up in the same Chicago hotel with the other snowboarders for the weekend. And he tasted the lifestyle.
It seemed like an interesting life,” he said. You travel around to different countries. It seemed like it would be a great profession.”
–
Date: November 26, 2004
Headline: [Dale Bowman’s “Extreme” column]
“They made snow for two nights last week at Raging Buffalo Snowboard Park in Algonquin . . . In March, Hanisch qualified from Raging Buffalo for the Boost Mobile Pro of Snowboarding held just south of Soldier Field. Raging Buffalo will again host a Forum Youngbloods Contest on Jan. 16.”
–
There’s also video from 2006.
*
Hanisch was in a snowboarding film called workplay.
–
Now, to be absolutely accurate, Hanisch was named in three suburban Daily Herald articles when he was even younger.
Date: January 12, 1998
Headline: Northwest Charger Mite AA Team Wins Tourney
” . . . defensive line held their opponents to just 4 goals in five games behind the efforts of Drew Dobson, Jim Guarino, Ben Hanisch and Jaymes Huddleston.”
–
Date: April 13, 1998
Headline: Travelers Coach Gets Set To Fine-Tune Young Team
“The ‘group’ includes Palatine residents Brenden Dailey, Patrick Doloughty, Ben Hanisch, Ryan Hoch, Jaymes Huddleston, Brian Magnuson, Matt Samojedny and Jake Wilson . . . ”
–
As an adult, Hanisch got some pub before Schumer. The website Five O’Clock featured Hanisch in August 2014: “Furniture Fixer, Aspiring Actor, Hockey Player. We get an early start with Last Workshop’s Ben Hanisch.”
–
FYI: They met on the dating app Bumble.
–
Comments welcome.
Posted on January 7, 2016