Level 1 continues their tradition of having one part stand way above the rest. The original was David Crichton’s two-part segment in Forward that I will mention in every other blog post until I quit writing about skiing and start doing environmental work to soothe my guilty conscience. Then there was Corey Vanular’s part to another DL Incognito song in Long Story Short which, at barely 1:20 long, is possibly the best exercise of restraint in ski film history.

Ahmet Dadali’s segment continued the trend of stand-out park head segments in Eye Trip and this year, Parker White picks up where Ahmet left off. Parker, possibly the only pro skier in recent history to film a part (or be allowed to) in all black, shows up and destroys with that “don’t give a fuck” style that works even if he’s not grabbing his skis (but works anytime he rolls out the right-side 180 inside tail a la Mik D.). Also, it turns out that despite spending the majority of his high school days at Mount Snow, king of the blue circle, he can ski big lines really fucking fast without flinching on Rossi mid-fats. It really doesn’t take many tricks to figure out that we’re all benefitting by having “P White” in skiing. And kudos to Level 1 for going completely off their own beaten path by making White ski to “Dead End Street” by The Kinks. Did not see that coming.

Thankfully Mike Hornbeck skied to another departure from the standard Level 1 soundtrack, Al Green. I actually watched his part this year, instead of wanting to shoot myself when that terrible, grinding Moloko song came on in Eye Trip.

While I’ll never accuse Wiley Miller of having the best style in the game, it’s still a bummer he has to ski to a soft-rock version of “Midnight Rider.”

I’m pretty sure it used to be a complete faux-pas to wear a helmet while filming. But given how often you find its hideous scuba shell in films these days, you might as well call the GoPro the iPhone of action sports. Everyone uses one, even against their better judgment.

It’s apparent from T. Rain’s segment that he was on the brink of getting sponsored by Rossignol. Good job, Klint!

Adam Delorme does not get enough credit for being able to butter the knuckle of an 80-foot stepover. Mostly because he has to ski to “Hello Badmind” by Chan Dizzy, which is just a terrible song for skiing.

If Ahmet Dadali was skiing as well last season as he was two years ago, it was hard to tell because all you could hear was a terrible Damian Marley song picked by the same dude who chose the soundtrack to DeLorme’s part.

Then there was a dumb skit with a female bunny and the movie was over.

Parting shots:

The quarter pipe over-transfer thing at Mammoth will take a lot of physics to explain, but is sick.

Being a small gradeschooler from Quebec with braces makes it very hard to open your part with a hip-hop hand flash at the camera while nodding to the beat… showing your braces. Take note Alex Bellemare.

It’s pretty apparent you can’t make a Japan segment I won’t watch.

Coolest feature: quarter-pipe/hip gap into regular jump landing.

Sound good? Then go buy it:

$12.99 on iTunes
$26.99 on DVD