mike basich was a snowboarding pioneer. butafter hundreds of competitions that brought money and fame, he went in search of somethingdifferent. [rock music playing] welcome. thank you. it's such a rush just to get uphere. [music playing] when did you first get into snowboarding? my mom was always looking for something differentand fun for us to try out, so that's how we discovered it. and the sport had no rules.and that's where-- that kept us in it, because
no one was telling us what to do. oh! ouch! from 7 to about 14 years old, i had epilepsy.and so being different than everyone else, you felt at home. that's something my parentsdrove into me every day, saying it's ok to be different. i just tackle things that way. well, welcome. wow. this is the inside. it's beautiful. how long did it take for youto build this place?
it took me five years-- two and a half yearsto do all the rock work. i think i moved about 175 ton of rock. every piece of cement washand mixed, and gathered the water for it by hand, as well. god, it's such a labor of love. you get to do fun things. this is actuallya shower here. and it's a seat in the daytime. but you get to use-- it's a bit camping style.no shower curtain, just out in the open. pouring water, sitting down. i've got a little oven, which the door's fromthe junkyard. and bought a nice little fireplace, which is my cooking, heating water, warmingthe place. so that's the central attention
for the utilities. yeah. this is it. where are you getting your water? yeah, this is creek water, which i have twocreeks on the property. mike, where do you sleep? i've got the loft as my bedroom-- very differentthan anywhere else i've lived. i go to bed with the sun, and i wake up with it. i don'tfeel like i'm trying to race time. in a city, you always feel like you're on a rat race.and here, it feels like you're in sync with what's actually happening.
so this was your dream. since you were a littleboy, you've been wanting to do this. this is my dream and reality, 40 acres todo whatever i want with. it's really fun. tell me when you first started getting intothat competitive circuit. competitive circuit was right off the start.the world cup, traveled the world a bunch-- i'd be in a different country almost everyweekend. worked my body hard. i was making about $170,000 a year. playedit pretty smart. i bought my first house, 4,000 square-foot house-- huge-- because iwent for the american dream. i bought the big house and had a fancy car. it didn't doanything different for me. it just took up time.
we started getting sponsors that didn't haveanything to do with snowboarding. you started dealing with people that didn't really careabout your imagination. i let go of the competition 15 years ago, at least. i do a lot throughphotography through snowboarding, so that's been my outlet versus the competition. andthat's how i end up in the back country. where did the decision come from to buildthis place off the grid? nature inspires me, and that's why i choosethis kind of environment. i want to learn how to live off the grid, have appreciationfor nature, and how to keep the rain off my head, stay warm. wow. this is breathtaking.
this glass is definitely a heating tool forme. it faces south, so it's a great space to have that much glass. not a bad view. [laughter] not a bad way to wake up. this is the great outdoors. i got a chairlift over here that's super funto ride. you built that? yeah, it took me about eight months with somefriends. you get to ride all this terrain
here, which is super fun. this is your giant playground right here. yeah, this is my own private resort. there'sa water source on this pillar, water falls into the hot tub. so you don't have a toilet in your house,but you have a hot tub. yep. how did you come up with the design for thehome? the design's built on the golden ratio. buildingunder that law of nature is supposed to make the space feel more fit to the body. thisone is a pentagon, which if you connect all
those dots, you get a star. and that's what the star you saw on the windowrepresents. it casts a shadow on the floor, which is another smaller pentagon. and theyall meet at 3:02 on my birthday. that was how it all came down to a personal buildingfor me. i've ended up here off the road, off the beatentrail, and loving it. i like to think of it as getting back to the basics of humanity.i like feeling connected to the earth more than i could with a 4,000 square-foot house.so it gave me the strength of doing everything myself, and the lessons, and a childhood dreamthat i wanted to fulfill. and that's what this project of this house was about, wasto fulfill a childhood dream.
in the next episode of "going off grid," wemeet a family that left everything behind. we carry water for the shower, just like wecarry everything, in a basin. and we heat up water on the propane torch, mix that togetherwith cold water until we have the temperature right. and then that mix , we'll run througha hose downhill to the shower. "going off grid" is a part of "seeker stories."to see all the stories we post here, be sure to subscribe. thanks for watching.
