Wow, 2006. Could it be that even now-even after decades of snowboard-movie releases and even in our present state of jadedness-could it be that there’s still something to look forward to this year? Well, yes!
Let’s see … with financial help from Oakley, Travis Rice and his cronies launched The Community Project-a new take on the mystery of snowboard filmmaking that boasts parts from Jamie Lynn and Shaun White, not to mention newcomers like Pat Moore and Sammy Luebke. After three years’ worth of movies, Robot Food closed its doors for the season, leaving heavy-hitting Robots like Josh Dirksen, Chris Engelsman, and Jussi Oksanen free to pursue respective parts with Mack Dawg, Defective, et cetera. MDP is releasing two different cuts of its travel-tastic new movie in one package. The kidsKNOW crew is following up loveHATE with something even more honest and energetic-and remember, it’ll showcase Marc Frank’s only film part for the season. Basically, great things are happening, and all seems to be right and good in the world. Now get your bitter ass to some movie premieres. It’s time to get stoked.-Jennifer Sherowski
From ____, With Love
Mack Dawg Productions
Starring: Scotty Arnold, Aaron Bittner, David Carrier-Porcheron (DCP), Josh Dirksen, Eero Ettala, Louie Fountain, Lukas Huffman, Seth Huot, Jeremy Jones, Fillipo Kratter, Mitch Nelson, Jussi Oksanen, Chad Otterstrom, Heikki Sorsa, Wille Yli-Luoma
Production Team: Brad Kremer, Mike McEntire, Ross Steffey, Simon Turcotte
Locations: Finland, Russia, Tahoe, Canada, Alaska, Europe
You know when a guy like Brad Kremer-who has worked on some of snowboarding’s most prolific movies (from Kingpin’s Destroyer to last season’s MDP release Chulksmack)-says, “This has been the best year I’ve ever had,” that, well, things are gonna be nuts. From ____, With Love is all about travel-capturing the ups and downs of an entire season spent exploring the world in the name of shred. However, it wouldn’t be a Mack Dawg movie if it wasn’t about powerful, progressive snowboarding, too. The really big news here is that Kremer is giving you two cuts. Yep, by purchasing From ____, With Love, you’ll get two different cuts of the footage-the travel version with all the lifestyle and epic thrill of the journey, and a straight-up cut that’s pure shred bangers.
“I wanted a lot more out of our movie this year,” says Kremer. “We wanted to do some exploring.” For them, “exploring” means a hair-brained trip to Russia, a well-timed touchdown on the European mainland, and don’t forget Canada, Alaska, Tahoe, and everywhere in between. Also, with Robot Food on moviemaking hiatus for the season, MDP scooped up the cream of the Robots’ crop, including riders like Jussi Oksanen, Josh Dirksen, and Scotty Arnold.
Things to keep an eye out for in F_WL: footage of the June Mountain hip session-”Records were broken,” Kremer admits. If you take another look at this issue’s cover, you might realize that Dirksen was the one breaking ‘em. Also, DCP takes a trip back to the same Sonora Pass cliff he murdered in Back In Black: “We went at six a.m. to get the sunrise light,” David says. “It was freezing cold and so fricking windy on the top of the cliff. I was beating myself up for wanting to puss out … ”
Well, ya better pick up a copy to find out how that story ends. We’re sure you won’t be disappointed.-J.S.
The Community Project
Starring: Carsten Bahnson, Kyle Clancy, Guy Deschenes, Jonas Emery, Andy Finch, Terje Haakonsen, Bryan Iguchi, Willie McMillon, Travis Rice, JJ Thomas, Colin Langlois, Tyler Lepore, Zach Leach, Sammy Luebke, Jamie Lynn, Anne-Flore Marxer, Pat Moore, Doriane Vidal, Shaun White
Production Team: Rich Goodwin (director of photography), John Gotgart (B camera), Curt Morgan (director of editing), Gabe Langlois (C camera), Travis Rice (Super 8 time-lapse), Matty Swanson
Locations: Alas, California, Colorado (Aspen), New York, Wyoming, Boston and Denver, Canada (including Whistler), Japan, New Zealand
We first heard about The Community Project plan from Travis Rice in his TransWorld interview last September. Well, dreams really do come true, kids. Oakley stepped up with the major funding for this movie and left the decision about who was in it to the riders and filmers.
Few riders “on the outside” realize that there are piles of politics determining which riders film with which movies. Companies sponsor movies and their riders get spots while other riders don’t. People get excluded and feelings get hurt, and that’s where The Community Project comes in. Goodwin says, “The movie is all about breaking away from the ‘are you sponsored?’ style of moviemaking and letting friends ride together. You saw the difference on our shoots-it was more about having a good time.” That’s what’s going on behind the scenes anyway. And that’s the difference. Goodwin adds, “People take a lot of what we do way too seriously. Over all, people are f-king stoked, kind of like how people are stoked at a spring break wet T-shirt contest.” What that translates to on-screen is solid cinematic experience and, of course, sick-ass riding.
The crew has a laundry list of highlights in the video. Goodwin breaks it down: “How about Andy Finch doing a twenty-foot frontside air over Rice, Haakonsen, and Langlois while they’re doing handplants. That shit is sick-total circus shredding. Then there’s Shaun White hitting-killing-his first 100-foot backcountry jump with Rice and Haakonsen in Alaska. Oh yeah, and then there’s the 40-foot quarterpipe in Whistler-pretty self-explanatory.”-Annie Fast
Burning Bridges
kidsKNOW Productions
Starring: Justin Bennee, Eric Christensen, Andrew Crawford, Andy Forgash, Etienne Gilbert, Rube Goldberg, Justin Hebbel, J2, Jon Kooley, Mikey LeBlanc, Darrel Mathes, Marc Frank Montoya, Jordan Mendenhall, Matty Ryan, Scotty Wittlake
Production Team: Mikey LeBlanc, Shelby Menzel, Cole Taylor, Justin Eeeles
Is it me, or have people been putting out the same f-kin’ videos for the past five years? Thankfully, these idiots came along to shake things up a little. “Burning Bridges looks less like a football game and more like a skate video,” says kidsKNOW’s Shelby Menzel. And thank god for that. Who wants to see a video full of the types of people who would’ve beaten you up for snowboarding ten years ago? I doubt anyone on this film’s roster has ever “cross-trained”-well, maybe Hebbel, but we’ll let him slide. It’s just a bunch of dudes who really dig the shred.
When I asked Menzel for highlights from the season’s filming, this is what I got: “When Marco (Marc Frank Montoya) shatters the snowboarding halfpipe high-air world record at the X-Games in Aspen, and when Andy Forgash switch backside 900s that one jump “Chad’s Gap,” or whichever one no one ever shuts up about-but we misplaced the footage for that one.”
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait.-Chris Coyle
Derelictica
Defective Films
Starring: Alex Auchu, Jake Blauvelt, Simon Chamberlain, Chris Engelsman, Lauri Heiskari, Travis Kennedy, Joni Malmi, Hampus Mosesson, Mitch Reed, Mikey Rencz, Fredu Sirvio, Eddie Wall, Jakob Wilhelmson, Andreas Wiig
Production Team: Kirk Bereska, Chris Edmands, Pascal Gallant, Ryan Jickling, Sean Johnson, Ilari Suhonen
Locations: Tahoe, Utah, Whistler, Alberta, Japan, Finland, Central Europe
The simple truth about filming snowboarding is that, because of the pesky need for snow, there are limited filmable locations and features in the world. This fact became painfully clear to the Defective crew over the course of making Derelictica. “We fly halfway around the world to ride a rail in Finland and bump into Mack Dawg and White Out riders-even Tanner Hall and a bunch of skiers!” says Eddie Wall. “Reno, same deal, we show up, only to realize that seven-yes, seven-other crews were filming in the city.”
Lucky for Defective, there’re dudes like Wall, Andreas Wiig, Joni Malmi, and Simon Chamberlain on the roster-and these guys don’t “eff” around. The crew launched a travel assault on the world’s available shred spots, flying in, building what needed to be built, guinea-pigging, stomping, clocking shots, and moving on to the next location. They simply chewed spots up and spit them out.
Keep an eye out for airtime-annihilation on a 25-foot quarterpipe that took the crew three days to build (“We just realized that no one has had one of those in a film in a while, so we decided to go for it,” says Wall), up-and-comer Jake Blauvelt’s first major-movie part, and don’t forget a backcountry slaughterfest courtesy of Wiig, Hampus Mosesson, and Jakob Wilhelmson. All in all, you’re gonna get nothing short of sick, or, as Sean Johnson-the self-deprecating mastermind behind Defective-puts it, “Duh … snowboarding … to music-how original.”-J.S.
Paradox
Standard Films
Starring: Frederik Austbà®, Mikkel Bang, Dave Downing, Jonas Emery, Matt Hammer, Eric Jackson, John Jackson, Jeremy Jones, Mads Jonsson, Frederik Kalbermatten, Kazuhiro Kokubo, Markku Koski, Mark Landvik, Luke Mitrani, Jonaven Moore
Production Team: Sean Aaron, Mike Bagnoulo, Tom Day, Christoph Fritchi, Mike Hatchett, Dave Hatchett, Tim Manning, Chris Ondercin, Travis Robb
Locations: Alaska; Aspen, Colorado; Terrace, B.C.,; Whistler backcountry; Squaw Valley, California; Hemsedal, Norway; Lake Tahoe, California; Switzerland; Krasnaya Polyana, Russia
By now, you know to expect sick backcountry lines (meaning actual turning) and natural-terrain jibbing from Standard Films, but this year the boys stepped it up a notch with some nasty, nasty heli footage in the park at Whistler/Blackcomb. The results are cyber-dynamic, almost 3-D airs that’ll leave you wondering what postproduction tools they sneaked in there (none).
Paradox still stays true to Standard’s freeriding roots, but ups the ante with more freestyle riding in the big mountains. Jeremy Jones continues defining what’s possible on an Alaskan face, and the all-grown-up Jackson brothers keep progressing their freestyle skills in the backcountry. The crew at Standard named a couple of sessions as highlights, including a session with Mads Jonsson and Jeremy Jones on a secret convex roll in the Tahoe backcountry, and the aforementioned park footage shot from a helicopter at Whistler.
Overall, the unique camera angles, slick production, and next-level riding seal the deal for another welcome, not-so-Standard production. “Booyaka.”-Annie Fast
Some Kinda Life
Neoproto
Starring: Jake Devine, Stephen Duke, Tim Eddy, Bryan Fox, Nima Jalali, Pat McCarthy, Shaun McKay, Casey Neefus, Marius Otterstad, Robbie Sell, Gian Simmen, Corey Smith, Ryan Thompson, Curtis Woodman
Neoproto has become a force to be reckoned with over the last few years. Starting off as a showcase for some of Tahoe’s best ams, it has grown into a real deal, no bullshittin’ film crew. Take a look at the lineup, there’re some heavy hitters. They got an Olympic gold medalist, for Christ’s sake.
“This season everything just seemed to flow. Every person added his own motivation to our entire crew, and in return we ended up filming and traveling more than ever,” says Pierre Minhondo. And travel they did, filming in Iceland, Switzerland, Boston, Tahoe, Utah, New York, Idaho-all over god’s green earth.
But enough of that crap, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. The buzz around these parts is that after a few years on the injured reserve list, Curtis Woodman could finally have the part he deserves. Marius Otterstad is so good, his part can’t be anything short of “Wow!” They also added Gresham’s favorite son, Bryan Fox, as well as Ryan Thompson, and Pat McCarthy joined the am-stravaganza. If you don’t know who they realize that seven-yes, seven-other crews were filming in the city.”
Lucky for Defective, there’re dudes like Wall, Andreas Wiig, Joni Malmi, and Simon Chamberlain on the roster-and these guys don’t “eff” around. The crew launched a travel assault on the world’s available shred spots, flying in, building what needed to be built, guinea-pigging, stomping, clocking shots, and moving on to the next location. They simply chewed spots up and spit them out.
Keep an eye out for airtime-annihilation on a 25-foot quarterpipe that took the crew three days to build (“We just realized that no one has had one of those in a film in a while, so we decided to go for it,” says Wall), up-and-comer Jake Blauvelt’s first major-movie part, and don’t forget a backcountry slaughterfest courtesy of Wiig, Hampus Mosesson, and Jakob Wilhelmson. All in all, you’re gonna get nothing short of sick, or, as Sean Johnson-the self-deprecating mastermind behind Defective-puts it, “Duh … snowboarding … to music-how original.”-J.S.
Paradox
Standard Films
Starring: Frederik Austbà®, Mikkel Bang, Dave Downing, Jonas Emery, Matt Hammer, Eric Jackson, John Jackson, Jeremy Jones, Mads Jonsson, Frederik Kalbermatten, Kazuhiro Kokubo, Markku Koski, Mark Landvik, Luke Mitrani, Jonaven Moore
Production Team: Sean Aaron, Mike Bagnoulo, Tom Day, Christoph Fritchi, Mike Hatchett, Dave Hatchett, Tim Manning, Chris Ondercin, Travis Robb
Locations: Alaska; Aspen, Colorado; Terrace, B.C.,; Whistler backcountry; Squaw Valley, California; Hemsedal, Norway; Lake Tahoe, California; Switzerland; Krasnaya Polyana, Russia
By now, you know to expect sick backcountry lines (meaning actual turning) and natural-terrain jibbing from Standard Films, but this year the boys stepped it up a notch with some nasty, nasty heli footage in the park at Whistler/Blackcomb. The results are cyber-dynamic, almost 3-D airs that’ll leave you wondering what postproduction tools they sneaked in there (none).
Paradox still stays true to Standard’s freeriding roots, but ups the ante with more freestyle riding in the big mountains. Jeremy Jones continues defining what’s possible on an Alaskan face, and the all-grown-up Jackson brothers keep progressing their freestyle skills in the backcountry. The crew at Standard named a couple of sessions as highlights, including a session with Mads Jonsson and Jeremy Jones on a secret convex roll in the Tahoe backcountry, and the aforementioned park footage shot from a helicopter at Whistler.
Overall, the unique camera angles, slick production, and next-level riding seal the deal for another welcome, not-so-Standard production. “Booyaka.”-Annie Fast
Some Kinda Life
Neoproto
Starring: Jake Devine, Stephen Duke, Tim Eddy, Bryan Fox, Nima Jalali, Pat McCarthy, Shaun McKay, Casey Neefus, Marius Otterstad, Robbie Sell, Gian Simmen, Corey Smith, Ryan Thompson, Curtis Woodman
Neoproto has become a force to be reckoned with over the last few years. Starting off as a showcase for some of Tahoe’s best ams, it has grown into a real deal, no bullshittin’ film crew. Take a look at the lineup, there’re some heavy hitters. They got an Olympic gold medalist, for Christ’s sake.
“This season everything just seemed to flow. Every person added his own motivation to our entire crew, and in return we ended up filming and traveling more than ever,” says Pierre Minhondo. And travel they did, filming in Iceland, Switzerland, Boston, Tahoe, Utah, New York, Idaho-all over god’s green earth.
But enough of that crap, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. The buzz around these parts is that after a few years on the injured reserve list, Curtis Woodman could finally have the part he deserves. Marius Otterstad is so good, his part can’t be anything short of “Wow!” They also added Gresham’s favorite son, Bryan Fox, as well as Ryan Thompson, and Pat McCarthy joined the am-stravaganza. If you don’t know who they are-well, you’re blowin it. Go buy this video and pretend like you knew who they were all along.-C.C.
Smell The Glove
Soldiers Of The Frozen Battlefield Productions
Starring: Hana Beaman, Kyle Clancy, Shane Flood, Danny Kass, Rahm Klampert, Lane Knaack, Colin Langlois, Doran Laybourn, Pat Moore, Brian Regis, Sketchy-D, Gabe Taylor, and the rest of the Grenerds
“We have the biggest team in snowboarding,” says Grenade videographer John Cavan, “and we pride ourselves on the fact that everyone has a chance to put something together for the movie-from Danny Kass and Travis Rice to our warehouse workers Dirty Jay and Max.” It’s that all-for-one, one-for-all onslaught that has made Soldiers Of The Frozen Battlefield movies a lot more than team videos for the past few years. They document an entire scene of Jersey-dirts-turned-Mammoth-dirts, East Coast riffraff who moved out west, Tahoe and Utah hellions, a few of Canada’s finest, and everyone in between. Rumors have it that Kass takes his park prowess to the backcountry and up-and-comer Pat Moore slays it all-around style. You can count on footage to be fun and funny, you can count on rock and roll, you can count on seeing someone puke, and with parts from Kass, Klampert, and Rice, you can count on a selection of serious shred insanity. Now, if the boys can just manage to pull off a few good Spinal Tap references, we won’t have to give their movie the two-word “shit sandwich” review.-J.S.
As If!
Misschief Films
Starring: Jamie Anderson, Emily Akerblom, Jacqui Berg, Gretchen Bleiler, Annie Boulanger, Torah Bright, Kelly Clark, Erin Comstock, Tara Dakides, Jessica Dalpiaz, Laura Hadar, Victoria Jealouse, Priscilla Levac, Silvia Mittermueller, Amanda Mourant, Anne-Molin Kongsgaard, Anne-Flore Marxer, Rachel Nelson, Leanne Pelosi, Sara Philips, Macy Price, Colleen Quigley, Chanelle Sladics, Maribeth Swetkoff, Alexis Waite, Natasza Zurek
What is it about the label “all-girl” that ends up being so … you know what I mean. Well, As If! isn’t that. The motivators behind this movie, Fabia Grueebler and Amber Stackhouse, say their main goal is to inspire more girls to get out and ride. The outcome is this fun, accessible shred flick for the ladies. But that doesn’t mean As If! lets up on the action. Natasza Zurek comes out of the shadows and lets her riding do the talking, from healthy 720s to tricky bomb drops. Leanne Pelosi heats things up with a boardslide on a double-kink in the deep freeze of an Icelandic winter, and Laura Hadar holds up on rails for a clip and drops a solid Utah cliff. The girls collectively venture into the backcountry domain of “the men,” returning with battle scars, a few learning experiences, and some solid action shots.-A.F.
For Those About To Rock
Go to transworldsnowboarding.com for a complete list of soundtracks from all the best movies of 2006. That way, you can download ‘em off the Internet and play them on your iPod while you pretend that the three-foot backside 180 you just unleashed was really a Josh Dirksen backside nine or somethin’.
We got teasers—check ‘em out!
Order the year’s best snowboarding videos in the TWS SHOP!hey are-well, you’re blowin it. Go buy this video and pretend like you knew who they were all along.-C.C.
Smell The Glove
Soldiers Of The Frozen Battlefield Productions
Starring: Hana Beaman, Kyle Clancy, Shane Flood, Danny Kass, Rahm Klampert, Lane Knaack, Colin Langlois, Doran Laybourn, Pat Moore, Brian Regis, Sketchy-D, Gabe Taylor, and the rest of the Grenerds
“We have the biggest team in snowboarding,” says Grenade videographer John Cavan, “and we pride ourselves on the fact that everyone has a chance to put something together for the movie-from Danny Kass and Travis Rice to our warehouse workerrs Dirty Jay and Max.” It’s that all-for-one, one-for-all onslaught that has made Soldiers Of The Frozen Battlefield movies a lot more than team videos for the past few years. They document an entire scene of Jersey-dirts-turned-Mammoth-dirts, East Coast riffraff who moved out west, Tahoe and Utah hellions, a few of Canada’s finest, and everyone in between. Rumors have it that Kass takes his park prowess to the backcountry and up-and-comer Pat Moore slays it all-around style. You can count on footage to be fun and funny, you can count on rock and roll, you can count on seeing someone puke, and with parts from Kass, Klampert, and Rice, you can count on a selection of serious shred insanity. Now, if the boys can just manage to pull off a few good Spinal Tap references, we won’t have to give their movie the two-word “shit sandwich” review.-J.S.
As If!
Misschief Films
Starring: Jamie Anderson, Emily Akerblom, Jacqui Berg, Gretchen Bleiler, Annie Boulanger, Torah Bright, Kelly Clark, Erin Comstock, Tara Dakides, Jessica Dalpiaz, Laura Hadar, Victoria Jealouse, Priscilla Levac, Silvia Mittermueller, Amanda Mourant, Anne-Molin Kongsgaard, Anne-Flore Marxer, Rachel Nelson, Leanne Pelosi, Sara Philips, Macy Price, Colleen Quigley, Chanelle Sladics, Maribeth Swetkoff, Alexis Waite, Natasza Zurek
What is it about the label “all-girl” that ends up being so … you know what I mean. Well, As If! isn’t that. The motivators behind this movie, Fabia Grueebler and Amber Stackhouse, say their main goal is to inspire more girls to get out and ride. The outcome is this fun, accessible shred flick for the ladies. But that doesn’t mean As If! lets up on the action. Natasza Zurek comes out of the shadows and lets her riding do the talking, from healthy 720s to tricky bomb drops. Leanne Pelosi heats things up with a boardslide on a double-kink in the deep freeze of an Icelandic winter, and Laura Hadar holds up on rails for a clip and drops a solid Utah cliff. The girls collectively venture into the backcountry domain of “the men,” returning with battle scars, a few learning experiences, and some solid action shots.-A.F.
For Those About To Rock
Go to transworldsnowboarding.com for a complete list of soundtracks from all the best movies of 2006. That way, you can download ‘em off the Internet and play them on your iPod while you pretend that the three-foot backside 180 you just unleashed was really a Josh Dirksen backside nine or somethin’.
We got teasers—check ‘em out!
Order the year’s best snowboarding videos in the TWS SHOP!
