Some people spend their lives trying to fit in. Glen Plake has spent his trying to stand out, and more importantly, to stand true.
You know him before you meet him. The mohawk. The grin that could melt permafrost. The voice that sounds like gravel dragging across courage. He’s the face on a thousand posters, the silhouette on every snow-dusted dream. But what The Edge of Normal reminds us is that behind the legend is a man who still measures his worth by how close he gets to the edge, not of danger, but of authenticity.
Plake was skiing punk before skiing even knew what punk was. While the world was chasing medals, he was chasing meaning. He slept in parking lots, lived out of vans, broke skis, and maybe a few rules, all in pursuit of something deeper, that rare alchemy of gravity, flow, and freedom that happens only when you stop trying to be who you’re “supposed” to be.
“I’ve never been normal,” he says, his laugh echoing across his lake. “And I think that’s my greatest strength.”
In a culture obsessed with polish and performance, Glen’s gift is imperfection. He still wrenches on his own boats and engines. Still sharpens his own edges. Still throws himself into every turn like it might be his last. He lives what most of us only pretend to, a life driven by things with consequences.
That’s the heart of this Soul of Skiing story. Not just frozen or liquid spray. It’s about living loud enough to feel it, raw enough to remember it, and brave enough to keep doing it even when the world tells you to tone it down.
Because skiing, whether on snow or on water, has always been a mirror. And when Glen Plake looks into it, he sees something most of us have forgotten: that life’s not about being fearless. It’s about being yourself in the face of fear.
He’s proof that rebellion can be graceful, that consequence can be beautiful, and that maybe, just maybe, the edge of normal is exactly where we’re supposed to stand.
Watch “The Edge of Normal: Glen Plake,” the final 2025 episode of Soul of Skiing from FlowPoint TV and Syndicate.
This one is for those who still believe in the soul behind the turn.