For all the environmental talk you get from all kinds of granola big mountain skiers and ski companies, you don’t hear any come out like Scotty Wittlake and call out the Olympics for being so damaging environmentally and economically. Where is Mark Abma and other socially conscious skiers on this issue or are our big-name skiers scared to upset their big money sponsors like Salomon who will be sending teammates Bobby Brown and Simon Dumont to the Olympics?
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When I purchased Poor Boyz Productions’ X, back in 2004, I had understandably high expectations after 1242 and Ready Fire Aim. But after a viewing or two, the only segments that left me wanting more were Anthony Boronowski’s opening masterpiece and Dave Crichton’s last full segment. The rest was just repetitive trick-after-trick and a little too cliché. It was a familiar disappointment, but I dutifully went to the bonus features; much to my surprise, I found a little gem that changed the freeskiing world as we know it: U.P.1. What?!
I’ve always glamorized ski companies and their headquarters in my imagination. I’ve always envisioned something like a ski version of Dyrdek Industries, with dry slope rail setups, foam pits, endless gear, skate parks, and huge warehouses full of people reveling in their ski industry lives. I know this isn’t true and after a recent trip to Utah I know that the Causwell guys know it too.
Justin Nelson mans the counter, no blonde rapping receptionists here.
So you’re working on your season edits now and you’re looking to use some gritty, noisy, saturated, lens-flared style filming with burns and anything else you might have seen in Walks of Life or a Right as Rain edit. Well you need some chill moody music that you can’t understand to go along with visuals that are just as unclear. Why not some Shoegaze? This style of music comes to us from the UK in the late 80s. Folks coined the name Shoegaze as an insult since almost every band in the genre stood still, detached, staring down at their feet while using effects pedals for heavy amounts of distortion. The scene died quickly as Grunge and Britpop took off, but today you can see the influence of these bands throughout indie music via the likes of Yo La Tengo, Silversun Pickups, M83, DeerHunter, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, School of Seven Bells, etc. Continue reading this entry »
I have to admit, you’ve made a lot of progress this month. We’ve seen edit after edit with surprisingly good music. Recovery is looking promising, but you have to make sure you have a group of people to lean on when you think you might slip up. When you think you could fall off the wagon, you should have group of friends to turn to like Subpop, Matador, Saddle Creek, Modular, etc. That’s why I want to introduce you to DFA Records.
When you watch a couple edits everyday, you sometimes don’t notice subtle changes to the products being used. But one little thing caught my eye in a couple different edits. In recent Nimbus Point and Shoot edits and some photos from TC adventures in Europe, you’ll notice a yellow piece at the top of their poles. Well we called up Line and asked them “What the hell are those yellow things?” Line responded with this pretty sweet promo video for their new “pointy sticks” line. Check it out, you can’t see it anywhere else.
In a recent ESPN interview, Ahmet Dadali was questioned about the debate between “film segment vs. competition results.” He said, “people seem to remember a good ski segment, but will forget a competition standing.” When I think back to my freshman year of college in 2001/2002, I don’t remember who won the X-Games, U.S. Open, or even the Olympics, but I do remember watching Propaganda over and over and over again! I especially remember segments from JF Cusson, JP Auclair, Julien Regnier, and Eric Pollard/Mike Nick.
Nope, we’re not talking football. If you’re a betting man and looking for the next great sporting event to make some serious cash, well then ABC’s Skating With The Stars should get your adrenaline pumping. SWTS is a spin-off of the ultra popular Dancing With The Stars, a show so bad it has caused viewers to literally shoot their own television sets. It’s the same setup as Dancing: washed up superstar learns to skate with a no name pro skater and drama ensues. This season features skiing’s second most recognizable figure, Jonny “Mad Trix, Dinner Roll, 360 Mute” Moseley, as one of those washed up superstars. At this point, we are two episodes in and the Sports Betting Money Lines are out…shockingly Moseley is not the favorite.
If you were lucky enough to get into skiing between 1997 and 2005, you were able to witness Skiing’s Revolution on the pages of FREEZE magazine. During this period, FREEZE captured skiing’s culture from the big mountains of Valdez, Alaska to the terrain parks in New England, something new to ski magazines at the time. Skiing and Ski magazines seemed to be concerned with selling vacation packages and equipment to yuppie skiers, while Powder seemed reluctant to consistently cover the newschool movement outside of their Superpark issue. Freeskier came on the scene in ‘99, but they were, well, you know…Freeskier.
BroBomb: Come in; come in. Take a seat anywhere you’d like.
Ski Community: What’s going on here?
Just remember you’re surrounded by people who care for you and want the best for your life.
IS THIS AN INTERVENTION!?!?