When you hear "Jake Blattner" at a rally race, it makes you think. Why is that familiar? My mind went straight to my TWSnow subscription in 1995. Jake Blattner was a pro snowboarder progressing the sport - doing new jibs and new tricks that influenced the freestyle riding we see today at the world's premier contests, including the US Open and the Olympics. Jake's interest in rally isn't new, you're just rediscovering Jake - rally has been there the whole time.

blockwood: Jake, let's start easy. What's one thing that most people in rally don't know about you?

blattner: My left testicle is smaller than my right - due to a childhood complication. Incidentally, the right one grew to compensate; it's larger than most other guys jewels put together - and I drive a minivan.

blockwood: I'm not surprised you have huge balls. Was the minivan your start in rally?

blattner: No, the minivan is now, rally's something that's always been in my blood, but being born in Wisconsin and dealing with adverse weather conditions certainly helped. Getting my mom's hand-me-down Datsun 210 hatchback started my path, but we didn't call it rally. To us, it was bogging. I fit some gnarly tires and drove everywhere cars shouldn't go. I modified the rig as things broke. I replaced the transmission from a rock breaking out the drain plug and then fashioned a skid plate - all within the first year I had my license.

After I got a house in Oregon and settled down slightly, I saw a rally was coming to Portland. I dragged my good friend and neighbor Garin in 2005, saw Ken Block, and was like no way, I know him. We talked a bit about how to get into it, then when the Oregon Trail came around the next year, Garin couldn't go and said "Take my brother-in-law Mark [Fox], he'll like it." Mark did and said we had to do this.

A couple months before Oregon trail the next year - so 2007 - we got a car. Then right before the rally we were "testing" and Mark put us on its side Easter Sunday and we had to sleep under a bridge in the freezing rain. I flagged down the first logging truck in the morning and got a ride to cell service and had Garin pull us out. Ha ha, my wife wasn't that stoked. That's pretty much how it started.

blockwood: That's pretty OG. What'd your friends think?

blattner: I thought I was cool driving to school with a car that was caked with mud, and being delighted when there were snow days and the government encouraged people to stay home - it meant less traffic to worry about as we slid around. Things evolved from there. 4 wheel drive Audi's hit the streets of America and the that enlightened me to the sport of rally and the Group B heroes.

blockwood: And snowboarding?

blattner: It was all kind of going on at once. I started buying Duke [rally] Videos, and brought them with me on the snowboard circuit, forcing my teammates to watch the same rally videos over and over. I even forced my team to spectate the Monte Carlo rally for 2 days when we were in France in 93, I think. It was awesome. We rallied the piss out of rental cars - even on ski hills. We had a rental van shoot out on cat-tracks - Todd Fransen got fastest time in a Ford Aerostar.

blockwood: So you have a history with the rental car agencies, too?

blattner: We... I mean, Jason Ford rolled a minivan in Australia while rallying the back roads. He said, "A kangaroo jumped infront of us," as he drew the worst picture of the incident and handed it to the rental employee. [Laughs] Always get full coverage...

blockwood: Are you still involved in the snowboard industry?

blattner: Not so much anymore. I got burnt out. A while back, I did some snowboard and skate camps and worked at Windell's for a while, but then I kind of went underground and threw all my effort into music for years... then I got serious with rally and it took over my life.

blockwood: Does rally feel like the early days of snowboarding?

blattner: It has a lot of the same feel and excitement as snowboarding did in the beginning as the new thing... but it's kind of weird. In the U.S, Rally's popularity is so low that it seems like a new sport - it's only gaining recognition now that people have seen it on the X Games, but worldwide, it's just one of the greatest sports on earth - one of the most popular... just like snowboarding... Man I wanna shred now, too.

blockwood: Would you say that you are the most OG crossover athlete in rally?

blattner: I don't know about that, I guess maybe if you're talking about snowboarding. I mean, Travis obviously crossed over before I did. Ken was definitely in the snowboard scene, I don't know if he was Pro, but he obviously was competing on the rally scene before me. Maybe if it was phrased Most OG Crossover Co-Driver in Rally it would be true.

blockwood: What's the hardest thing about being a co-driver?

blattner: Not getting much respect or recognition for a lot of hard work.

blockwood: What are your plans for rally?

blattner: I was hoping to run a campaign full championship effort in 2010 with Fox, but sponsor agreements didn't come through. So now I'm just going to ride with who ever will take me and get as much experience as I can - and work on sponsor partnerships the rest of the time.

Check out the Jake Blattner Gallery... as soon as I get it built!