Monday, December 5, 2011

Nitro Snowboards : What Goes Up Must Come Down

Nitro's newest full length movie What Goes Up Must Come Down popped up online today and as it is available to watch free of charge, it's definitely worth checking out. The Nitro videos have and I'm sure will always be a strange beast. An odd mixture of Americans and Scandinavians, the team and riding rips but the videos never fail to omit this strange Euro vibe to all their productions.That's not to say it's not a good vid though. For a free internet offer, it'll definitely do the job for a few pre sesh psych ups.

The opener, super dramatic with it's pastel colored skylines and super slow mo shots is reminiscent of the Ty Evans book of video over production. It's just the intro though and really who cares, it's the riding and parts that matter right?

First part goes to Markus Keller. I've personally never followed much of this dude but I know he's Swiss and he loves the contest circuit. He rides to some throwback German dance song and does lots of tricks on steep walls. He's a good snowboarder. He does one bs melon off the side of a huge kicker that in my opinion is pretty sweet.

Eero Ettala- latest guest on Kingshit Mag's King vs. Snow with Evan Rissi. Seems like a cool Finnish guy, and he get's a lot of coverage. His part starts with the disclaimatory surgery footy, which all respect due is actually pretty gnarly. He goes on to kill it (which really a testament, lets be serious, to how fucking gnarly he is) with some really impressive tricks and style. The huge bs 180 the roof gap and bs 180 sw 50 sw fs 180 out were straight proper! Eero gets straight Leo Romero and Brandon Westgate on the boardslide 270 out UP the rail and of course the well served bs 180 gap out to sw 5050 the kinked conrete hubba thing...faaahk!

Next part comes at the hands of Marc Swoboda. An Australian dude who from what I can remember is down for the comp circuit, which is not really my proverbial cup of green tea as far as snowboarding is concerned. That being said however the dude does some crazy shit and respect given where respect due. I'm super down for the backlip 270 out (the hard and weird way) on the ledge on top of the gnarly wallride, his nosepress down the super legit kinker and mean bs 180 switch 5050 (soooo tight) which by now I'm sure people have gathered, is a trick I think is fucking siiiick.

In addition to full parts in this video, there is, which I think is kind of cool, trip sections which feature all or some of the riders. This is a rad addition and some awesome riding goes down.

Knut Eliassen is a character and has some hilarious clips throughout the video, adding some much needed life to the production. He's from Norway and has a business degree apparently and seems to have a pretty proper outlook on it all. He slays the back country and a bunch of other shit and has a good part.

Bryan Fox, the man, the myth the legend, my favourite rider in this video. I can't even front and say it's his riding in particular that I am a huge fan of, but more so his entire attitude. Perhaps bordering on flippant at times, I can't say I disagree with his staunch criticism of contest monopolized media coverage and sponsorship deals. He had one of the raddest interviews in the Snowboarder Mag and the dude represents to the fullest. Sick to see him in this video doing what he does in the back country. All day every day.

Austin Smith is good and reminds us to drink water. A reminder I feel like I could use far more often from 11pm - 2am most nights, where are you Austin?

This videos has a lot of good riding, a lot of weird stuff and some interesting music. It's was fun to watch and I'm glad it was free, that is always tight. Thanks Nitro







Darrel Mathes Kills It 7 Days a Week (or 2)

Sunday and Monday are always good days in the anticipatory shred world. I've always been pretty stoked on Transworld's Sundays in the Park and the Videograss site's Markass Mondays. There is no denying that from a boarding consumption perspective, park riding can sometimes get a bit stale. A plethora of shots featuring indistinguishable terrain and interchangeable features, originating from parks around the world, tends to get old pretty quick. From a boarders perspective however, the appeal of park riding is understandable. Why bother struggling with the inevitable conclusion of the security guard assisted boot in the downtown of some metropolis whilst simulataneously somewhere in some park there is a long line of features available to hit from open to close while there is also an even longer line of babes waiting to get on the lift. With the ever forward moving progression of snowboarding almost entirely eliminatined parts filmed entirely in parks (and not for the worse) there remains a pocket of the internet ripe with the fruits of park edits, and the aforementioned web series' Sundays in the Park and Markass Monday's are at the head of the class. Spending the day shredding in the park with the homeys is FUN, that is the bottom line, and these series encapsulate that sentiment accurately, week after week.

They both kicked off a new campaign for the 2012 season, and this weekend's posts, episode #2 and #3 respectively were extra crispy.


Both clips were apparently filmed on the same day during the same session, which is actually pretty funny. To make two different web episodes of a single session speaks volumes about both the level of riding of the dudes in the clips but also the level of entertainment, enough to watch both clips several times.

Darrel Mathes is the man! From his part in Love Hate to his involvement in VideoGrass, dude is slowly cementing a position for himself is snowboarding history, and it is clips like these two that show you why. His fs 180 sw 5050 sw bs 180 out at the beginning of the Sunday clip was flawless and his 5050 sitdown ipod song change in Mondays was hilarious, exactly the kind of fun and carelessness clips like this promote. Justin Mulford rips in the Sundays clip and dude has sick steeze, I'm definitely backing the SK8Mafia hat.

VideoGrass Mark Ass Mondays

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Cringing Countdown

Terje Haakonsen - Subject Haakonsen

Terje!! What more can be said that hasn't already been said. He's the man, will always be the man and forever changed snowboarding with parts like this one. Was never that stoked on the intro but the riding is amazing and there is no denying that. Speaks for itself.