See that jacket on Mr. Pollard? Doesn’t it look an awful lot like the Holden Banks jacket (below)? Now, remember that the Causwell deal suspiciously sadly fell through, and that Eric is exactly the type of dude that could bridge that “gap” between skiers and snowboarders. All signs are pointing to Eric Pollard being a Holden skier, aren’t they?

For our part, we hope it’s true. Everyone we’ve met at Holden has been solid as hell, and the same definitely goes for Mr. Pollard (not to mention our fondness for their respective outerwear tastes). We’ll let you know when we hear more.

Josh Dirksen hurt my feelings. For those of you who don’t know who he is, Josh is a snowboarder and he appeared in my favorite snow film of all time- Robot Food’s Afterlame. If I’m remembering correctly he gives a little speech about how he doesn’t “spin the 900” anymore, unless sponsors are watching or there’s some contest. What a ridiculously cool guy. He couldn’t be among the ski-hating snomophobes that seem to be hiding behind every blog these days, could he?

Well he recently put on a banked slalom event at Mt. Bachelor to benefit an injured friend. You can read a description of the event here, and let me tell you it’s a real honest feel good story. Just the kind of thing I’d expect from one of my snow heroes. But, then I asked if I could run a couple photos of Eric Pollard and Chris Benchetler, who competed in the event, and I was told that Josh specifically requested I mention that it was a snowboard event with a “token skier division.” That’s just hurtful. Haven’t all these years of bigotry taught us anything?

Well here are the pics of Eric and Chris supporting a great cause, and I have a dream, brothers and sisters, that Josh Dirksen and I will slide down the hill on our respective snow devices holding hands in perfect harmony. In fact, I have that dream quite often. Call me.

Photos brought to you by Abe Blair- Blindman Photos

EP on his way to being the first token skier to finish.

Benchetler, just another token in the crowd.

I remember ski movies before Nimbus Independent’s Idea came out. I know that to think of aesthetics in a ski film was like worrying about global warming at a monster truck rally, a misplaced affectation. There were no videos in “crew” format, and nobody dared upset the accepted ratio of park :  powder : contest footage : urban. It was a really good film in its own right, but compared to what had come before, it’s a classic.

Given their position as a breath of fresh air in the ski industry, I was willing to forgive some of Hunting Yeti’s faults. Sure they felt the need to include quasi-intellectual reflections on style, war, peace, and everything else your favorite college pothead would want to talk to you about. They had to tell us that they’re a crew who finds nirvana in the mountains, and they don’t like the daily grind of other lifestyles. It was repetitive, but they were such a departure from the norm that it made sense for them to hammer the point home with a bit too much force.

In Contrast we have the Nimbus crew’s third full-length product, and I’m sad to say nothing’s changed. The cardinal rule of “show us, don’t tell us” is broken from the outset. The monologues have grown longer and less organic. We have the riders sitting on a white chair in a borderless white room pontificating on: learning, creativity, crew, and adventure. The tired platitudes of skiing as passion, self-expression, and bonding are uttered once more. Even the guys seem bored of it.

As a visual product the movie is about what you’d expect from Nimbus. It’s about 90% backcountry, with one park jump for good measure. They’ve taken a break from the crew format, and gone with more traditional rider segments. The segments are nicely shot, aside from the tendency to film everything from a mile away (especially step-ups). The skiing is fluid and creative, we really can see all their theories about style, in action, without being told repeatedly.

If you like movies with tons of park and urban, then this is not the film to spend money on. It’s nearly all big mountain stuff, and for a solid quarter of the movie you are watching someone’s head move through a cloud of kicked up powder. If powder and nature get you going, you’re going to get a fair share of what you like. 

Moral of the Story: There’s definitely beauty in it, but I wish they’d let us find it for ourselves.