Humans of Red Bull Illume: Louie Vito, pro snowboarder, Red Bull Illume athlete
A story that really impacted me, that means a lot to me was my first time at the winter Xgames. I grew up in Ohio, which is in the mid-west part of the United States. It’s really flat, my biggest hill is 100 meters, maybe smaller. So I grew up watching every Summer Xgames, every winter Xgames, all the sports, when they had shovel racing and icepick climbing. Just anything that had to do with the Xgames. I remember my first time at Xgames, being on top of the pipe, looking around me, saying, holy cow, I made it, I’m here, my dream came through ! I almost wanted to slap myself in the face in order to wake up, but heard this voice saying, hey Louie, focus, you have to compete, you’re actually competing ! I had my jaw open and was kind of in awe, because I grew up watching it and now my dream has become true, standing on top of the halfpipe at the winter Xgames as a competitor. To me that is just one thing I’ll never forget, because when I was a little kid, when you go to my mam and dads house, still until to today,… above my bed, I have a sign that reads I am going to be pro snowboarder. Because I heard that, if you read a call over and over again, you have a higher chance achieving it. So I put that sign over my bed and every morning I stood up I was reading, ‘I’m going to be a prop snowboarder’, every night I went to bed, ‘I’m going to be a pro-snowboarder.’ So I think for me being at the Xgames for the first time and standing on top of the pipe I had that feeling of I made it, after so long, my dream has finally come through. And that moment meant a lot, I’ll never forget it and will always carry it with me.
