by 4FRNT
Jan 18th 2011
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0 comments
Hey Guys!
Checking in for my first blog entry, and I just wanted to give a quick update on what I've been up to since Christmas!
After an awesome Christmas with my family up the coast from Vancouver, in beautiful British Columbia, I returned to Whistler to try to continue to stack urban shots around town. Although most of the spots in Whistler are generally seen as 'played', as they have been featured in many mainstream ski and snowboard films, we managed to find some new areas to hit that we had previously been unaware of their existence. It's always fun to try to think of new ways to hit areas that are seemingly 'played', as it keeps skiing fresh knowing that even the most popular spots can still be hit differently than they have before. With the use of bungees, it is now possible to hit things that I previously never imagined would be skiable, which makes looking for areas to ski on that much more exciting.
Once we had spent several days shooting around town, I got the call that I would be heading to Nelson, B.C. with Voleurz filmer Pat King and Rob Heule, an extremely well-rounded skier and an all round awesome guy. 9 or so hours of driving later, we found ourselves in Nelson, a small town in the interior that is built on the side of the mountain, which only means one thing: lots of handrails and cool features to ski on! Rob already had a general knowledge of the town's rails, so after we spent some time looking around town and with a little luck, we found enough features to keep us busy for the next couple days. With the amount of rails we had to hit, we ended up hitting 1 rail during the day, and 2 at night, every day that we were there. We ended up hitting some cool things around town, like an urban jump and some extremely long down rails, as well as hit some more popular rails in new ways. Hitting that many urban features is super exhausting and sometimes frustrating, but it's always so exciting when you get a shot that you're happy with.
After several days in Nelson, we decided to drive several hours to Kelowna to hit more rails in order to continue to stay productive. Although we had already visited there in early December to shoot rails, we figured there were still some things there to keep us busy and get shots on. We took at day or two to get some much needed rest and scope spots around town which we thought might have potential. Scoping areas to hit is definitely one of my favorite parts of hitting urban because it's always exciting to see what you might come across and imagine the possibilities of what you can do something with skis on, that other people simply see as an everyday utility, such as a handrail. We didn't find as much as we were hoping for, since we'd hit most of the staple spots around town on our December trip, but we still got work once we were rested and ready to go. After hitting several more rails, Pat and I decided it was time to head back to Whistler, and Rob began his trek back to his home in Calgary.
All in all, I'm super stoked on how the trip went, as we all worked really well together and got some good work done over the course of our time in Nelson and Kelowna. I can't wait to get back out there and shoot more!
I'm currently still in Whistler, but will be heading to Ottawa soon for a week and then on to the States to try to catch the tail end of SIA, and then onward to Breck/Keystone to get some training done with my friend Sandy Boville.
That's how I've kicked off the new year, and I'm looking forward to skiing out East as well as down in America!
Until next time, take it easy!
