Servus, Winter ist Jetzt

Although winter in it offical capicity is still a few months off, the Austria glacier of Hintertux has other ideas. Located in the Zillertal Valley and renound the world over for its progressive early season park you can expect anyone looking to get warmed up for the season will be over there shredding in the next weeks.

It is offically open for business on Friday and Peter Konig and Werni Stock headed up for hotzone to gicve you a look around. That jealous.

Glucklich winter. Spass haben!

Skate Vancouver

The people and parks that made the Vancouver scene what it was, and what it has become today. As the California of Canada, Vancouver has been home to most professional skaters in the country, with many international visitors on a regular basis.

Less Than A Second

Andy Lawrence has started a blog in the lead up to releasing a website. The Perth bred Kat is living in Berlin these days and can be found floating around the Austrian Alps in the winter months. This guy has had a lot of stuff published over the years and his work is boss.

But don't take my word for it. Scope his blog. The proof is in the pudding.

http://lessthanasecond.blogspot.com/

fisheye fridays

Fun day spring shredding by a few of australias best riders at the tailend of the season. youtube intro is banger.

Fisheye Fridays Episode 4 from Andy Lloyd on Vimeo.

Liftline tv

Burtons Liftline tv has just launched. Ive been waiting in anticipation for this since i heard about it a few months ago. The idea is pretty much a behind the scenes look into the Burton snowboard team. This particular video we follow photographer Cyrill Müller to Flachauwinkl Austria and we see how an average day turn's out to be one of the most productive days of the season. This video is real interesting and I cant wait to see what more they have for us in the upcoming season.

Third Chapter-CULVERT NIGHT SESSION

Will at Third Chapter just flowed us through another great clip. Looks like these guys have been working hard this season. Check it out!

THIRD CHAPTER PEEPSHOW- Culvert Night Session from THIRD CHAPTER on Vimeo.

Absinthe x Citizensofshred

The other day I stumbled across something I have no idea how id missed. At the end of last year Absinthe did a competition together with Whitelines Magazine where you download a whole heap of RAW footage and edit a alternative intro to Neverland. You then submitted it to the magazine where Brusti himself would judge it.

The best edit got put into the extras of Absinthe films 2011 realease, Now/here. Maybe it was the bad internet in Perth at the time, or maybe it was the fact I had no access to internet the whole of December and have been traveling non stop since then. Either way i missed the boat. But I wanted to put an edit together any way just for the fun of it. Here it is Absinthe x Citizensofshred alternative Neverland intro. I really hope they do it again this year, it was truly a lot of fun and a real amazing concept.

vote for jye

if you do one thing this weekend head to the onehitwonder website and vote for jye kearneys backside 7 mute tail. its amaz.! and you could win a trip to japan

http://www.onehitwonderevent.com/vote-win/

Jye Kearney from One Hit Wonder Event on Vimeo.

Rottnest Island Soggybones

Head over to our friends site here to see some frames of a trip we took to Rottobox a few weeks back.

hot off the press

Another edited flowed through from 3rd Chapter. This time its Blake Harris and Brett Roydon getting creative in a run down factory in Melbourne town.

Third Chapter - Sunshine Slums from THIRD CHAPTER on Vimeo.

hoppipolla

Petter Foshaug is the man behind one of our favorite film companies, Factor Films. He has put that baby to rest this past season to go out and film freelance for Standard and Pirates, it is sad to think there may never be another classic release like Up In The Sky but I guess everyone has to pay the bills.

Turns out he has also started a headwear company and by the looks of his team he shouldn't have to much trouble convincing people that his hats are worth a try.

Hoppipolla Friends Promo from Petter Foshaug - Factor Films on Vimeo.

http://www.hoppipollaheadwear.com/

Diaries Downunder ep 4

Diaries Downunder Episode 4 - Mt Hutt Road Trip from WinterVolume Productions on Vimeo.

Greg Hunt

Greg Hunt is one of the biggest and best photographers in skateboarding. On top of his latest work "Dylan" which Im sure you have all seen, he has made many instant classic including Transworlds, Sight Unseen, DC's, The DC movie and my personal, favorite skate movie of all time Alien Workshops, Mind Field. Weather its shooting tricks for the latest skate flick, making commercials or even shooting photos for a magazine, Greg knows more the a thing or two about being behind the lens. In this documentary Greg explains how the unique culture became an enormous creative catalyst in his life. Watch and be inspired.

third chapter jib session

Third Chapter Peepshow- Culvert Sessions from THIRD CHAPTER on Vimeo.

paint it red

Bear Mountain Califoria. No beacons needed

life of a ski bum

I normally try to steer clear of posting ski stuff on this site, but i just loved this video. The perfect example of what life in Whistler is really like. Make sure you watch the hollywood bails section at the end it is amazing.

More INCOLOR B FOOTY

Can't wait to see this. IN COLOR tease.

In Color Week: B Footage Montage 2 from boardbro420 on Vimeo.

EASTSIDE NIGGA

FULL MOVIE FROM THE ICECOAST. ONLY WATCHED THE INTRO SO FAR BUT LOOKS THE GOODS

NUMSKULL from IceCoast KillsShit.com on Vimeo.

The boys at 3rd Chapter spent a weekend up in Hotham a month or so back. They sent through this edit for your enjoyment. Check it.

Third Chapter - Weekend at Mount Hotham from THIRD CHAPTER on Vimeo.

BEARCubs 09/10

Full length movie for these dudes from the states. Some super fun, inventive shredding that makes us wanna grab our boards and shred down the snowless street.

Bear Cubs - 09/10 from Brendon Hupp on Vimeo.

This is the shit. Once you get past the intro

KP and Mitrani

So good to see KP getting better. Some fun skating on Kevins mini from Luke too

Pontus Alv

Pontus Alv is what skateboarding is all about. Creativity, Individuality, Style and most of all, fun.


The Ingenious Hidalgo Pontus Quixote of La Malmö
Text by: John ‘de Cervantes’ Dahlquist

“A person is better understood by his actions rather than his words. Pontus Alv is definitely a man of action. He has done some of the most impressive, craziest, smartest and dumbest things I know. But a person can also be understood by his background and I think his home town, the city of Malmö has shaped his personality more than any other aspect in his not so long but very eventful life. This is where his friends, his (so called) skatespots are. But most of all this is where his heart is. It seems that his first love, Malmö, is the only constant as family, sponsors, trends and phases has come and gone. Pontus is still skating the same spots with the same gang that he started riding with when he first picked up his first board at the age of seven. It is not possible, nor fair, to write about Pontus without writing about the Malmö skate scene. They are so closely affiliated that it is sometimes hard to keep them separated. In a true guerrilla manner Pontus has shaped his own environment in which he lives, breathes and skates.

Skating with Pontus sucks. He is always keen on going on a skate mission and will pick you up with his turquoise Volkswagen Golf and the only free spot is riding bitch. His small car is filled with essential equipment such as pieces of plywood for run up and landing, photographer Nils Svensson, sidekicks and constant rippers Daniel Håkansson, Johan Linö-Waad and an I-pod filled with hip hop from the epic, but oh so crappy mid nineties. The ride is a pleasant one compared to the destination. You get to ride for a good half hour only to turn up to a spot with no landing or run up. Yet somehow Pontus always manages to produce and deliver. No rock is left unturned and with his pieces of plywood and some rubbish to support them he builds his own spots. He hates the rules set by his surroundings and pays no attention to what you are and are not supposed to do, say or act like to be considered normal. His creativity is triggered by the impossible and, for better and for worse, knows no boundaries. Has never been the one to follow the stream. Only dead fish follow the stream and Pontus is into salmon.

In a sense he is the Don Quixote of skateboarding, a lonely warrior with his own perception of reality. Nils Svensson, his squire is much like Sancho Panza. Nils is friendly, always supportive and has been kind enough not to tell Pontus that the stuff he skates is not spots but windmills. To Pontus it is all the same. Whatever comes in front of him sparks his creativity and makes him happy. Most of all it provides him with enough footage and pictures to be able to please his sponsors and allows him to stay in his bubble and not leave his hometown for longer periods of time. Still he is one of the most productive pros out there. All the footage and pictures you have seen of him the last couple of years is all Malmö made. He has learnt by now that going on tours and moving to where his sponsors are is not his thing. A long time ago he earned the nickname “Taxi” as he has left most tours early by catching the first cab to the airport as soon as he saw his mission accomplished. We, his friends, have said good bye to him many a time as he has “moved” to San Francisco, San Diego and Lyon only to call back just hours later after catching the returning flight home and asking if we wanted to go for coffee and a skate. This somewhat odd behaviour has set him back thousands of euros. Home sickness to Pontus is like diarrhoea, when you have got to go, you have got to go.

While Don Quixote suffered from the cruel spell which does not permit him to see the truth it is the straight opposite with Pontus. He is a true realist and is not misled by free flight tickets around the world, expensive hotels or free drinks. He sees things for what they are, knows what he wants and that he already has got it. All he wants is right outside his doorstep. He puts local skate missions before tours and friends before team mates. Life has taught him a lesson at an early age. Prior to his dad’s tragic passing when Pontus was 10 years old he was told by his old man to hang on to his skateboard and he sure has. The words of his father Torsten has been his constant motivation. The result is obvious, persuading a pro career at seventeen and still going at it at 28. On his way he has filmed plenty of video parts, built a handful of DIY concrete skateparks, made a full length videoproduction and has another one in the making. We all have our reasons to skate. Pontus is one of those people that does not skate just for fun but does it because he has to. To him skating has always been a way to evolve and express himself. He is convinced that skateboarding is not what it makes you but what you make of it.

You might think he is nuts. Perhaps he is but more likely he is, like Don Quixote at the end, sane and broken.

Either way there is no stopping the Ingenious Hidalgo Pontus Quixote of La Malmö.”

NZ BRU

Our mate Maily took a trip to NZ recently to chase some shredding. One of the biggest snow frothers you would ever find this guy hadnt been able to feed his addiction for a while after missing out on the last Swiss season due to work comitments. He tells us the parks in NZ were like nothing he has ever seen and he even got a day in a heli. This little taster has got him pumped for his 6 week European adventure coming up some time in Feb/Mar 2011. Hope I am there with you mate.

As you can see he also knows how to take a pretty mean pic.

Heli day

Snowpark

Lake Wanaka

Lord of thr Rings

Now/here

This story was in the local paper today. With the Whistler premier to Absinthes latest offering No/where just one sleep away, I thought I would post it. Read on.

It's hard to pack your swimsuit away for the season, but do you know what makes the transition into fall just a little bit easier? When a new snowboard film drops.

Yep, it's that time of year again! The homegrown Dendrite Films released their debut ski film, Out of the Shadows, during Crankworx, and now, Absinthe Films is rolling into town and keeping the momentum going with a screening of Now/Here later this week.

Justin Hostynek, director for Absinthe Films, was raised in the mountains of Switzerland, where he started skiing as soon as he could walk.

"I grew up skiing there; we had a ski lift right out our back door, so I've been skiing since I was two," he said.

So, it's not overly shocking that when snowboarding emerged on the scene, he was intrigued.

"I just fell in love with it and knew that I wanted to be somehow involved with this sport, long term."

Soon, he started shooting photos and came out with a calendar, then spent about 15 years working for Snowboarder magazine before going on to work as a team manager for a clothing company called Twist. Eventually he started working on a team video for Twist, and soon, he was hooked on filmmaking. For the past 17 years or so, he's been making some of the industry's most highly anticipated snowboard films (Transcendence and Neverland, just to name a few). He recently became a Canadian citizen and has set down roots in Nelson, though he spends plenty of time on the road during the winter season shooting for the next season's big flicks.

So, after almost two decades of making snowboard flicks, how does he keep things fresh, not only for viewers, but for himself?

"Well, I think the key is to keep it fun and make a point of spending time with good riders, of course, but good riders that are intent on making their existence fun and not just racking up dollars and buying houses and stuff," he said. "I've been really lucky to find a crew who is not really all about money, and we have fun when we're out there, and I think the fun translates to the film. There's not like a list of tricks that they have to get; it's just like, 'okay, let's go out and snowboard and I'll film you guys, and then we turn that into a film!'"

That off-the-cuff, unscripted approach seems to be working for Absinthe.

"You just don't get very far if you try to plan things out too far in this world," Hostynek said. "In the snowboard world, I've found, you just have to freestyle it and document what is happening, whatever it may be."

That laidback attitude is reflected in spades with the underlying theme of their latest film, Now/Here. So, wait a minute - is it nowhere, or now, here?

"It depends on the audience and what they bring to it, how they want to pronounce it," Hostynek mused.

"It's a subtle one," he added. "Our themes are not really knocking you over the head, but it gives you something to think about, and I think it's best not to over explain it... a lot of it is about the lyrics in the music and the pacing, the messages that are in there."

Let's see what you make of the description on their website:

"Movement can give the illusion of progress. And they say that all the world is illusion. So what is the difference between exploring and being lost? In a winter that brought an exceptional amount of challenges to riders all over the world, Absinthe's newest snowboard film reminds us how much our reality is affected by what we make of it. Whether you are lost... or exactly where you want to be... all depends on how you look at it."

Are we intrigued yet? Read on.

This time around, their roster features Dan Brisse, Gigi Rüf, Fredi Kalbermatten, Sylvain Bourbousson, Romain deMarchi, DCP, JP Solberg, Tadashi Fuse, Annie Boulanger, Marie-France Roy, Bjorn Leines, Jules Reymond, Cale Zima, Taka Nakai, Terje Haakonsen, Bode Merrill, Blair Habenicht, Wolfgang Nyvelt and Nicolas Müller, as well as two relative newcomers, Lucas Debari and Jake Blauvelt. They traveled to ride and shoot in the Interior of B.C., Alaska, throughout Europe and Eastern Russia and Japan.

"I think it's one of our best. I think the soundtrack might be the best," Hostynek said.

For Hostynek and the Absinthe crew, music is a crucial component of each and every film. They start the filmmaking process by canvassing the riders, crew and a team of "music advisors" to select songs, then they hang the imagery and film segments off of each. And sometimes, despite their best efforts, it just doesn't work.

In fact, they put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this latest project.

"We had an exceptionally challenging winter. We had a lot of injuries, really heavy injuries," Hostynek explained. "... So we had those heavy setbacks along with really challenging weather.

"The weather part of it really made a lot of the riders want to keep moving on - 'oh, the grass must be greener over there.' And so that was just an underlying theme," he laughed. "And I feel like we ended up with an amazing film, but it took a lot of doing and a lot of lessons were learned along the way."

They debuted Now/Here to crowds in Park City, Utah at the end of August, and so far the film has been met with a warm reception from fans. Next up, they're heading to Whistler, with featured riders Nicolas Muller, Annie Boulanger, and Romain de Marchi in tow to sign autographs and talk about the project and the upcoming season.

This is hot off the press. Didn't even watch this one before putting it up because anyone who likes snowboarding and has seen the previous series on Fuel or the web should know how good these are.

SHANE CROSS FOREVER

Some new footage of Shane Cross has popped up.

SHANE CROSS FOREVER (PART 1 RUTHLESS) from J'aime Fazackerley on Vimeo.

Shane was alive – a man of soul and compassion, a dreamer, a night prowler. The style was high, the night higher, and the spirit levels were off the scale. He would want nothing less than for us all to carry on the torch. Let his spirit ride on – Geoff Rowley

SHANE CROSS FOREVER (PART 2 KILLSELF TOUR) from J'aime Fazackerley on Vimeo.

In Switzerland tailgating can result in a loss of your licence little fact I picked up the other day off a friend from over that way when discussing the different road rules of our homelands. In Alaska though the word tailgate refers to a annual pilgrimage to the mecca of big mountain shredding. This is the first episode to come from the showporn capital and shows you what can go wrong up there.

Tailgate Alaska Un-Cut Episode 1 from TAILGATE ALASKA on Vimeo.

Teaser to a doco coming out of Bulgaria. We sort of missed the boat on this one. Watch it for the snow. Or the amazing blonde girl.

AT EQULIBRIUm - the new snowboard documentary by BLICKINSFREIE from René Eckert on Vimeo.

Louie Barletta

I have alot of favorite skaters but if i had to choose one favorite skater it would be, hands down, Louie Barletta. Thanks for making skating look fun.

Welcome Home

This is a short video I made (along with the help of Karoline) of my house is Whistler. I’m lucky enough to have a perfect carpark under my apartment where I can skate any time and no one seems to care. This was all filmed on my Casio EX 100. The quality of the slow mo footage didn’t turn out to great because it needs almost perfect sunlight to produce a non-pixilated picture, but I actually like the way it came out. I apologies but it may not work in some country’s because of my song choice. If it doesn’t work in your country please let me know in the comments section. Enjoy.

Stay Gold

Just got my hands on a copy of Emerica Stay Gold. The movie is through and through well edited and very polished. It is well worth the wait. High lights include Braydon Westgate with opening part and his high speed ollie powers, Jerry Hsu with a crazy bails section followed by and all switch section which shows that pro skaters are real and not everything is a first try, Leo Romero with an amazing part with final trick 50-50ing up a high 8 stair handrail. Andrew Renolds gets the finisher with an amazing part mixed with technical, hand rail and the classic big gap skating that we've long been acustomed too, showing everyone why he is still "The Boss". Do your self a favour and grab a copy. It will blow your mind.

Rusty Snoject One

As many of you may have heard Rusty is starting to make snowboard outerwear again. They have also signed up big hitters Romain De Marchi and Stian Solberg. This is the first of some webisodes they will be releasing this season and it is a cracker. Do your self a favor and check it out....

Snoject One from rustyintl on Vimeo.

soggybones Ca tour