Ex-professional freeskier turned professional waterman, Chuck Patterson, has combined the two sports taking his skis to tow in Jaws.
What is next, inflatable water tube tow in or hydrofoil air chair?
Chuck Patterson is clearly a very talented athlete— and has much larger balls than all of us.
1. Described by their Twitter as ‘melon splitting film,’ Rocky Mountain Sherpas is nothing short of cranium blowing. From Canada they came to present action sports with a talent on par with film. A combination of time lapse, Canons and the cutting of a master, the story of skiing is shown unmatchable to the naked eye. Together, fimmaker Dave Mossop and producer Malcolm Sanger created All.I.Can.
All.I.Can. Official Teaser from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.
2. Derek Frankowski and Ryan Gibb from Stance Film. This is Life Cycles.
3. Renowned surf filmographer, Mickey Smith brings us The Dark Side of the Lens proving surf film is right there with the movement towards film quality action sports.
- Jenna
words by Jenna Hannon, media by Noah Lewkow
It is Friday in April and I solidified the Trifecta. Team manager of Arbor boards, Noah Lewkow, and myself have committed to completing three board sports all in one day (why biathlon is in the Olympics and not this is beyond me). We will start by snowboarding, then skateboard and finish with a surf; all materials supplied by Arbor.
I meet Noah at the corner of 4th and Ocean Park at 6:30 am to load up his Matrix with every action sport tool Arbor carries (all but the surfboards at this point). I open his hatch back to two Arbor 2011 snowboards (the Draft and the Westmark), 2 Arbor cruiser skates, and 2 Arbor skateboards with a Christmas morning glow. After a few minutes of trunk Tetris, we are on our way for some caffeine and the carpool to Mountain High in hopes of first lift (G.N.A.R. points!).
Some Chromeo, Rusko, and new Britney Spears later, sure enough we arrive right on schedule at Mountain High to 60 degrees and sunny. The parking lot looks more like a college football BBQ as fellow riders throw on t-shirts, tank tops and baseball caps. Noah and I set right to work assembling bindings on the boards, deciding which board we want to play on first. I go for the Draft.
Despite my popular review of the Draft in 2009 (my most read blog post to date), I have actually never ridden this craft. It is something I have learned way too much about, got way too stoked about, and never got the chance to hop on. So, to say the least, my expectations were exceedingly Nostradamus.
I set my sumo stance and we were on the lift just shy of first chair (no G.N.A.R. points) and the Draft was going to get it. Poppy, smooth, and light; a noodle yet speed chatter stiff, I think the Draft is just as I expected. This is not paid rhapsody or rhetoric, this is one damn fine snowboard.
I must give the snowboard world props for the exponential increase in technology and innovation. The last 5 years has seen a remarkable increase in the thought and technological application in building snowboards. Rocker, magnatraction, capped tips, serrated edges; Snowboard manufacturers have been laying on the sauce thick with competition to become market leaders steep.
I recall my first Rossingnol in 2001 as a laminated plank with flames on it. Now, I am gliding on several different types of wood, Grip Tech, reverse camber and popping off everything in sight at simplistic ease. now time to trade Noah and compare the Arbor Westmark.
Damn, this is smooth too. With a bit more stability, not solely due to a slight difference in length, the Westmark has equal amounts of pop with the versatility of all mountain riding. Feel free to straight line this piece of equipment at any time down any run. Just a glorious snow sled and by 12:30, Noah and I are equally worked and ready for round two.
Flash two hours later and Noah and I are sitting in Library Ale House on main street sipping afternoon IPAs and reds jamming down some well deserved calories. It is time to skate. We are off to the new Venice Park off the boardwalk for the busiest time of day to get in our skate sesh. This is Noah’s domain, as I witness 5 second intervals of ‘hey bro’s’ within a 500m radius of the park.
“I really need some shades,” announces Noah as we step out into the 75 degree sun. Hello Los Angeles summer and welcome. We will now commence skating.
I am way out of my element at the Venice skatepark. First of all, I am wearing short shorts and snowboard socks as I failed to plan for this activity accordingly, forgetting my jeans on my bedroom floor at 6 am. That and I don’t skate the Venice park due to the take-a-number and wait for your bowl run, which applies to all but rippers and snakers. I bro down with two Oxnard boys, Rilan and Austin, on ‘daycation’ and two inspiring female riders, Olmi-Jay and Jennifer, while waiting my turn on the bowl deck. Warming up or finding a line is next to impossible at five minute wait time intervals, although watching all the locals thrash this mini bowl is worth it.
By the time we left the park we were sweaty and pretty much exhausted. But we were not stopping until we had completed the Trifecta. As we went for the surf, we noticed there was a bit of a lack of swell. Although a cooling sunset surf did sound pretty tasty at the moment. The trouble was really just the fact that getting a wetsuit on a sweaty body is a circuit workout in itself— training your fingers and fore arms. Noah sounded like he was dualing in Wimbledon trying to get that thing on. It was a solid 5 minutes clocked to wetsuit application; but we were off. We grabbed some Firewire demos from the Arbor shop and headed for the pier— just walking distance from the Arbor flagship on Washington in Venice.
My arms felt like they were going to fall off by the time I got past the break. Not because it was firing, but rather with a 5:30 am start and two activities prior you tend to be running short of empty. The promise of the Arbor rooftop beer was the only thing that kept us paddling really. And by a few waves and a solid hour in the water, we were ready for accomplishment brew. Well played team, well played.
Thank you to Noah Lewkow and Arbor for supplying all the gear for the Friday Trifecta.
At 6:30 am on Saturday, Pat Stahl of Red Bull stands frozen on the beach of Malibu setting up a line of twenty surfboards. He is awaiting a plethora of stoked College students from around the city. The event is called Red Bull Switchboard and the only reason Pat is able to motivate these kids to get out of bed at this time on a Saturday is the promise of surfing and snowboarding in the same day.
Southern California is one of the only places in the world where you can accomplish this heavenly task. With Big Bear Mountain 2.5 hours from the coast, it makes for a fairly smooth transition from sunrise surf to sunset snow. And beyond, with Big Bear volunteering to stay open until 6 pm for Red Bull, there is plenty of time to clock some serious boarding hours.
It was 40 degrees, as I pulled up to the famous Malibu surf break at third point that Saturday. This is a rare occurrence in April, as I exited my car in my snowboard jacket. Pat Stahl looked like a human icicle as he was laying out loaner wetsuits and boards that he had picked up earlier from ZJ’s Boarding House in Santa Monica. Pat had been up since 4:30 am picking up rental vans, boards, and gear and probably drank a Red Bull or two, as he was cheery as usual.
Bus Loads of stoke.
I am always surprised by the amount of work that goes into these events. From the conception of ideas in the Red Bull board room (the fun part), to the execution of organizing 5 buses filled with college kids from a 100 mile radius to hit different breaks along the coast and meet at Big Bear. Why I am surprised doesn’t make sense, as you try to round up this many college kids to be at the same place at the same time. Although, Red Bull adds some serious motivation by giving these kids the dual boarding reality; did I mention they invited the Red Bull pros?
I am looking out at the break in Malibu at about 40 kids paddling around, fighting for waves among Red Bull Pipeline master, Jamie O’Brien. Jamie was one of the youngest surfers to win Pipe Masters Challenge and the star of Red Bull’s new surf flick, Who is Job. (Pat was horrified when I didn’t recognize Jamie or mentioned that I hadn’t even seen the teaser for the flick, which upon sitting down and watching I completely understood his horror. That is a seriously well done surf flick, no medium rare here). This would be a first for Jamie, being a Hawaiian native, the concept of surfing and snowboarding in one day seemed a little far fetched until now. I always enjoy seeing professional athletes jumble sports as they can quickly be humbled out of their domain. Although, in saying this Jamie hit the snow like a natural and was a sport when riding with some of the up-and-comers in the sport (Matt Cook of USC was slaying it on skis) for the cameras of Poor Boyz Productions.
Matt Cook sends a backer as we all kook around him.
The event itself was the brainchild of Pat Stahl (FMC of Hollywood and Malibu) as well as Sam Bennett of West LA field marketing. Together Pat and Sam control the two largest regions of Red Bull marketing comprised by sales and density of population. Pat himself, manages 21 girls on the Wing’s Team (constantly surrounded by the Ladies, not all bad eh) while arranging large-scale events for the region, including Red Bull Soapbox coming up in May in downtown LA.
Pat Stahl bonks.
In knowing Pat and Sam they are masterminds of stoke, creating the Los Angeles face of the international brand based upon their own stoke for action sports. With a 24/7 job you have to be, although it is rare that I talk to the boys that they aren’t doing something cooler (and I consider my life in action sports to be pretty damn proper). I can’t tell you the countless ‘thank yous’ and respects I witnessed from the students during Red Bull Switchboard. As they gnoshed burritos, hit rails, and follow trained through the Bear Mountain park thumbs up and high fives were plentiful (always Pat’s main goal in creating). And as the day wound down, I sat with Pat and Sam at the Knife Show Inc. house (the boys of the most epic edits in snowboarding, my opinion) up in Big Bear and didn’t even see a hint of stress. I must say, I just don’t know how these boys do it. But with the first event of this nature and hundreds of more than stoked college kids, I would have to say job well done boys. As surfing, burritos, and snowboarding all in one day on Red Bull’s tab has hands down exceeded the units of daily stoke.
This Red Bull perfection begs the question, ‘is surfing a sport or an art?’ In my opinion, sport is art. Like all Red Bull films, only acceptable in 1080p.
- Jenna
