Abe Kislevitz and i teamed up for a few days of shredding in mammoth. Abe works for GoPro and does artwork for various 4FRNT models, such as the MSP. He's the man. Just sent me this edit on facebook, so i thought i'd post her here. Enjoy
So on Saturday i went up to Sugarbowl to to this competition entitled TRAINS, put on by High Fives and Volkl. They had this 70 ft death gap jump that no one could get speed for, but it was a rad comp regardless. The idea was that you had teams of five- one girl (captain) and four dudes. Courtney Royce was my CAP'N, and then it was Chris Logan, Jason Arens, Kyle Smain, and myself. We were all supposed to hit the feature at the same time, but....that didnt really work. The in-run was about 500 yards long with two turns in it- no speed whatsoever. I'm pretty sure no one fell into the actual death gap but a few definately got close...double ejectiles on the knuckle for sure. No hate! Suuuuuper fun competition though, had a blast chillin with the Electric crew...im pretty sure we had the whole Am team out there...Parker, Chris, Casey Cruiger, and myself.
Friday- Woke up in Reno, went to UNR campus, signed up for Campus Rail Jam tour. Won that, collected cash. by the way if anyone wants to buy some coreupt TJ's (163)...hit me up at finnanderson4@hotmail.com ........
Saturday- Woke up in reno, went to the CalNeva and got that 3.99$ steak and egg breakfast- delicious. Drove to Sierra-At-Tahoe for a photoshoot on this massive hip they built. When we got there TransWorld was still finishing up shooting Eero Ettala and Heiki Sorsa- PROS!
my version of TransWorld's five trick fix...lately i've been working on this edit im making for Sierra-At-Tahoe...im doing a spring edit for every ski resort i go to this spring...Sierra is the first, and my home mountain. Anyway, heres a little tease for yall- just ten clips from filming the past week or so. Some of this will be used for the edit, some wont, but it's all good i think so i'm pretty stoked....keep in mind i didn't really edit at all just put a song to some clips and saved it as an MPEG-4 instead of high quality. Just pumped her out in like two hours this afternoon. So, here we go, hope you enjoy, stay pumped for the final product- should be really good.
So on sunday i was just chillin, cruisin the park, you know. Endin up meetin up with my buddy Spencer to get a little shreddin done in the medium oark at Sierra. We took the camera out for about an hour and a half or so...probably 5 or 6 runs. Endin up havin a lot of fun just cruisin- it was super good to film for just a tiny portion of the day rather than all 6 or 7 hours like its been (workin on an edit for Sierra right now). Anyway, he sent me a text tonight telling me he put a little edit up on youtuber. Some of the shots arent really that sick cause you know...cant do everything raddly all the time. Theres actually a really funny shot at the end- tried to do a switch 5050 and ate it....hard. havent hit my mouth on a rail in a while.
So the other day i was filming a little bit with my bud hinderman trying to make a little spring edit at Sierra and we got a little buck on one run. I dropped in on the upper half of the run and everything went swell until the last jump- overshot that badboy to the flats...then when i was filming hinderman he landed on me, jibbed my shoulder and then popped a 180 to ride away. probably one of THE scariest runs of my life. Anywoays, we both came out injury free, and got a few sick shots doing it....here it is.
Before i ever hit a park jump, i watched Ski Movie 3, the Front Line. More specifically, i watched CR Johnson and Tanner Hall, nearly exclusively. I'd get home from school, and immediately plug in that old VCR and rewind The Front Line first to CR's part, then fast forward to Tanner's. Invincible, by Capone-n-Noreaga, was the first hip hop song i truly fell in love with, followed shortly by Madness by Deltron 3030. When i listened to them, i was watching CR and Tanners parts all over again. This was 2002. I was in fourth grade, less than 5 feet tall, and had never hit a rail. By 2003 i had hit my first rail, done my first 360, and listened to the Wu-Tang Clan. More importantly, i had found a true passion...freestyle skiing. Images of CR in the backcountry captivated me and kept me entertained throughout the fifth, sixth and seventh grade. Cork 7 to bio 10 BC booter line. Bio 12s. Tanners gorilla style. "Gorilla style" became my favorite term for a while. When i learned that CR was from North Lake Tahoe, a new goal was set before me. I was gonna rep South Lake just as hard as CR rep'd North Lake. I wanted to be the next CR Johnson. I wanted to be the next Tanner Hall.
Flash forward 5 years. I was still skiing, still trying to emulate the stars of Ski Movie 3. By this time, however, i was skiing for 4frnt, Electric, and through Jimbo with Electric, Spyder. I was invited to my first Team Summit, a yearly gathering of the Spyder Team in Boulder, Co. This was my first encounter with CR Johnson. I had followed his career ruthlessly. The previous year was the season of his accident, and he was still in a cloudy state of mind when i met him. I never knew CR before his accident, but even in his injured mindset he was Completely Righteous. CR was the first person i have ever been starstruck by, and this feeling of being in the presence of a true master, a sensei...it never left, throughout all of the following years.
The next few years i ran into CR regularly, whether it was at Team Summits or early season skiing at Northstar. I had the honor of watching him battle and defeat his injury, with a relentless and vicious attitude that only protrudes from those who have real passion; life passion. In a complete parallel to CR's recovery was my mother's. In 2008, she had a seizure while working and discovered that she had a large brain tumor. On november 18 she went into open brain surgery.
In most recent news, Tahoe has been getting puked on. Usually around this time of the year im in CO training for competitions and shredding the epicness of Keystone, but this year has been entirely different.
I first heard that this year was El Nino from my dad, back in the fall while i was still attending high school. He explained that it was a storm cycle that happened every once in a while, and basically it would mean that Tahoe and other Western states would get decimated by snow. I was stoked then, but not half as stoked as i am now. The past few weeks have been absolutely insane out here- by my estimation we got about 8 feet in a week and a half- endless pow days. For Sierra-At-Tahoe, it was a perfect opportunity to show off their pristine tree skiing that they have to offer, so i was stoked when my Team Manager Brooke gave me the call for a photoshoot in Huckleberry Bowl.
Well, its been a while since i've logged on here...i've been more than busy the past couple months. After summer camp in Whis it was pretty much straight back to school. This past fall semester was my last semester of high school- luckily i had gotten a few extra credits here and there my first three years, allowing me to graduate in December instead of May. Because of this, though, i had to take a few extra classes this year and was so busy with work that i really had no time to travel. As soon as snow started comin, however, it was time to start slacking and get away from the highschool hubbub. So i went to Montana to visit my brother Taven and enjoy Thanksgiving.
The trip started on November 20th, which happened to be my 18th birthday. I knew there was no better way to spend my 18th than in Reno, so as soon as school got out my buds Ramsey and Thomas packed themselves into ye ol' Lesbo Cruiser (my Subaru Forester, of course) and we headed out.
