STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Shooting photos at the Peak Performance King of Style—an event comprised of maybe ten runs by each competitor over two hours slammed in the middle of four days and 11,000 miles of travel (for some of us)—means sometimes the details are lost to generalities.
And the judges, hopefully, have been focused on the details. The results are below, but I can concur with their judgment by saying that Andreas Håtveit went bigger, grabbed harder, and stomped cleaner than anyone else—dub 10 dub mute to the bottom. He finished just ahead of Phil Casabon, who put his shifty Japan 10 on display, and Sammy Carlson with trademark pop and poke on his dub 10 mute.
Talking to Jacob Wester afterward, he was rightfully disappointed with 12th place after dragging hands on his landing. But back to the generality of it all—as I ran around it was still obvious that when this elite group is jumping in front of an appreciative crowd on even just an average scaffolding jump they fall back on camaraderie and the general good nature that comes from skiing.
Tanner Rainville launches over a crevasse in Chamonix.
In the sixth and final episode of Level 1 and ESPN Freeskiing's Making of Refresh series, Tanner Rainville, Arnaud Rougier, and Duncan Adams explore the vast, wintry expanse of Chamonix for some glacial gaps and wide open terrain. Enjoy!
One lingering question in the aftermath of an opening day like the one Mt. Baker, Wash., experienced on a glorious (last) Thursday, Nov. 12, is whether that's the best it's ever gonna get. It is one thing to rank days as All Time or Top 10, whatever, it's another to nail one legitimately, drink deep in it, snap a few pics, etc.—frickin' ski euphoria, right? Still it's another thing when all that sickness collides on an opening day like it did at Baker. Because, at the end of the day, the inner-ski-bum brain knows, conditions-wise, it might just be all downhill from here (anti-jinx). And it's still Movember.
Segue deep thoughts to deep, deep pa-pow photographs—Bellingham/Mt. Baker-based photographer Grant Gunderson's opening day selects featuring Matthias Giraud (aka "Super Frenchie"):
It seems that somebody else thought so, too. Now several weeks after AllStar's release of "My Level," a rapper identified only by the handle Lil' Horsey has floated a response track titled "Off Warren."
"Off Warren" by Lil' Horsey
AllStar Photo: Matt Stauble
AllStar will battle anybody. But is this a battle?
AllStar might have been the first to notice the track, given the speed with which he hit back with a song titled "Lil Pony." According to Level 1 Productions, Haynes battled back at Horsey within a mere three hours:
Within 3 hours of Lil Horsey's "Off Warren," All Star dropped his rebuttal, "Lil Pony," calling out Lil Horsey verse by verse and officially starting round two of the ski industry's first public Internet rap battle.
With no response yet from Lil' Horsey, it remains unclear whether this is, as Level 1 calls it, a "rap battle." It is at least, however, obvious that AllStar is battling with both guns blazing — that is, if two guns is all he's holding.
Crystal Mountain's 3rd day of the 2009/10 campaign—Friday, Nov. 13—featured a little of this... (Tyler Ceccanti).
If the Tweetdecks are to be believed all the snow in the Pacific-Northwest is forcing Mike Douglas (@MikeDski) toward a fork in the road (will he take it?): To continue the top-secret (apart from tweets) big wave skiing project in Maui or return home to Whistler, which opened early, Saturday, and has something like 1,860 millimeters of base and counting.
"We are really hoping for one more day of wave skiing, but more and more my thoughts are turning to all that powder back in Whistler," MikeDski tweeted some 20 hours ago.
Those Pac-NWers not landlocked on Maui, meantime, have no conundrum. And they're getting it done and lowering booms at places like Whistler, Crystal Mountain and Mt. Baker, which broadcasted a "deep snow warning" when it opened last week. One Baker sampler had this say: "Totes Awes."
As for Crystal, "No one's up there," says photgrapher Ian Coble, "just the die-hards, no lines. The only people you'd encounter was on that final groomer at the bottom." (More storm doc coverage to follow... Update: Solid fall-line reporting from Baker over on ESPN Snowboarding, and tomorrow a Gunder-ithsonian photo project.)
23-year-old Jarred "AllStar" Haynes hails from the town of Wyandanch in Long Island, NY. The aspiring hip-hop artist first appeared on skiers' radar screens after he composed an original hip song for an episode of Salomon Freeski TV. This year, a skiing-related mixtape complete with a controversial courtroom-inspired song has made AllStar into a significant musical figure throughout freestyle skiing.
In early 2007, Riley Poor and Simon Dumont made a decision to collaborate on a two-year video. Their project began as a documentary on the superlative and influential halfpipe skier. As work continued, Riley's vision expanded Transitions to encompass the development of not only one influential athlete, but also an entire sport. Transitions parallels the life of Simon Dumont with the last ten years of freestyle skiing's history, calling special attention to many of its influential figures. The result is an engaging chronicle of creative, motivated people, and their drive to shape, nurture, and grow with the sport that they love.
The most compelling story about Transitions, however, is the one told behind the scenes: halfway through the making of the film, a tragic accident left filmmaker Riley Poor paralyzed from the chest down. With passion, determination, and a little help from his friends, Riley overcame his physical setbacks to complete the film that he undertook two years before.
Yes, we sampled the waffles and pancakes and the other goods.
November 12, 2009, 5:03 PM
By: Nate Abbott
Nate Abbott
The lift line (pictured) was slightly larger than the line for free pancakes and waffles this morning at Breckenridge. Notably, both lines diminished after 10:30 a.m. when the lift serving just the park opened.
With Copper Mountain and Keystone opening last weekend, the final Summit County resort came online for the season this morning. Breckenridge locals and the early season pro crew alike showed up and, after filling bellies with free pancakes, the Park Lane triple jump line started going off. I'm sure there will be edits and maybe even an amateur full-length video or two by tonight. But tomorrow snow is in the forecast so hopefully we can get back to the business of winter.
Video of the Breckenridge team shred-testing the jumps yesterday is over on the ESPN Snowboard blog.
