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The Home of 4FRNT
4FRNT Team Shoot at Snowbasin
Prispeval Phil Herbert
TUESDAY, 11. maj 2010 ob 15:50
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Last week, we got the opportunity to travel up to Snowbasin to hit a few private features the terrain park crew had concocted for us. We grabbed team riders Will Berman, Finn Anderson, Cody Barnhill and Andy Partridge, and drove up from our Salt Lake headquarters.
The 'Basin crew had built us a 100-ft booter, a gap-box, a down rail and a super-gnarly rail to tree gap. After a brief warm-up we decided to hit the gap box first.
Will Berman throwing a rodeo off the box.
Andy
Finn. 450 all day long.
After the gap box, we made our way over to the field goal rail. This think was insane! The more people looked at it, the tighter the gap in the trees got. One of the local rippers who was up there with us guinea pigged it, and ended up breaking out some branches in the middle. Luckily, that created just enough space for Cody "Big Mountain" Barnhill to step up and hit the most technical rail feature of the day.
A failed nose-tap ended up breaking one of the trees, so we headed to the down rail. A quick session on the rail got a bunch of shots in the bag for all of our riders.
Finn. Switch-450 on.
We also set up a flip cam to film the warm up session on the down rail. Here is some raw footage from it:
With the sun going down, we moved to the biggest feature of the day, the 100-ft booter.
Cody Barnhill hits a smooth three.
Once the sun went down, we put a wrap on our two days of shooting. Keith Carlsen was the professional photographer on the shoot, and Sam Peters shot the video. Look for and edit, and some banger shots come from these two in the coming weeks and months.
Special thanks once again to the whole Snowbasin crew for making this happen. Especially the two Tims for setting us up and making great features.
The 7th Annual Orage Masters went down last week, and the Super 4FRNT Brothers took second place behind the hard-rockers of K2. Here are some shots from the event courtesy of Felix Rioux
SQUAW VALLEY, CALIFORNIA—Charles Russell Johnson III, 26, died earlier today while skiing at Squaw Valley, CA, on the Light Towers run off the Headwall lift.
According to eyewitness J.T. Holmes, who was riding on the Headwall lift and saw the accident, Johnson was skiing the steep run (according to Squaw Valley’s ski report, the mountain received 12-14 inches) comprised of tight chutes and countless exposed rocks. He lost control, struck a rock and immediately appeared lifeless. Despite wearing a helmet, he suffered immense trauma to his head and neck. Once at the top of the lift, Holmes notified the Squaw Valley Ski Patrol. They instantly skied to the scene and performed resuscitation to no avail.
“C.R. possessed a perspective for the mountains and the sport of skiing that transcended skiers all around the world to new heights,” says 4FRNT Skis’ Matt Sterbenz, who sponsored Johnson and assisted him in the design of C.R.’s pro model ski, the CRJ. Shortly after the accident, Sterbenz spoke to Johnson’s father, Russ, and Holmes. “His creative vision and positive personality brought the best out of anyone he ever met. He will remain a huge influence on my life and the many others that were fortunate to know him.”
An infectious skier and personality, Johnson filmed for ski industry leaders Teton Gravity Research and MSP Films before starting his own ski film production company with best friend and ski star Tanner Hall. The Truckee, CA, native and resident was a U.S. Open Big Air champion and two-time Winter X Games medalist (2001 Big Air bronze and 2002 Slopestyle silver).
Johnson suffered a traumatic brain injury in December 2005 when another skier landed on him while skiing inbounds at Brighton Ski Resort in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. He was induced in a coma for 10 days during his 34-day stay at the University of Utah hospital before returning home to his parents’ house in the Tahoe area.
“C.R. was much more than an athlete to Smith Optics,” says Gabe Schroder, Ski Promotions Manager of Smith Optics—one of the lone companies to continue a sponsorship of C.R. after his injury in 2005. “He was a friend, a brother, and an amazing person that we all believed in. We are deeply saddened by his passing and our thoughts and prayers go out to his entire family.”
Recently, C.R. was taking online college classes in design while evolving his star-studded ski career. Appearing in Poor Boyz Productions 2009 release Everyday Is A Saturday and filming for Level 1 Productions during the 2009-10 winter, C.R. placed third at the Red Bull Linecatcher event—a big mountain freestyle contest—in Vars, France, on January 13, 2010, in a field of some of the world’s best skiers.
C.R. Johnson is survived by his parents Loraine and Russ and his older sister Kahlil. And the entire ski community.
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既にご存知かと思いますが本日4frnt ski のマットよりCR JOHNSONの訃報が届きました。朝の１０時３０分のメールでした。最初の出だしのregretという文字を見たときには見たくないメールだと気がつきましたが、現実であることにを認め、本日は展示会だった為、来場されたお客様にこの事実を伝えることができました。
CRはコアゲームでの来日以来、スパイダーのライダーとして4frntのライダーとしての付き合いがありましたがここ数年は会って話をすることもできませんでした。
２００５年に撮影中に瀕死の怪我を負い奇跡の復活から数年経ちましたが、日本でも大変人気のあるライダーだけに沢山の人に惜しまれた死であることは間違いありません。
彼のフリースキーに対するポジティブさや情熱、明るい笑顔は決して忘れられることはないでしょう。
以下４frnt skiからのリリースとなります。
芳沢秀雄
HIDEO YOSHIZAWA
POWWAVE CO.,LTD
3-23-5 AUGUST HOUSE 3F UEHARA
SHIBUYA TOKYO
Every year, the town of Oppdal, Norway, host Fri Flyts' MEGApark event. 4FRNT has been with this event since year one. The Oppdal resort plays host to an exclusively built park for the event with natural features scattered amongst the rest of the mountain. We rolled in deep last year with riders like Wiley Miller, Finn Anderson, Erik Naess and others.
This year it was all about our Norweigian distributor, VPG, holding 4FRNT down in lieu of our American absence. In conjunction with the event this year was the first ever Norwegian Slopestyle National Championships. Two divisions, adult and junior. 4FRNT's very own Espen Bergh made his performance known for years placing first overall in the junior division and second overall highest score of the day.
In addition to the normal festivities at this years MEGApark was the annual 4FRNT Rail Jam. Espen scored 2nd at this as well where riders from the event sessioned a high bar that produced fronts, backs, rodeos, 450's and every 260 configuration known to man. Super rad event, perfect weather and terrific kick off to spring park shredding as we know it.
Congrats to Endre Lovaas, Espen Bergh, Trygve Sande, Fri Flyt, Oppdal community and Pepe's pizza cause I know you guys ate there every night like usual. HAHA.
You were given the chance to decide who should win the One Hit Wonder Down Under, and you did... After the votes were tallied, Slovenian skier Bine Zalohar and Australian local snowboarder Robbie Walker took top honours and of course the cash in the inaugural year of this first of its kind event held in Thredbo, Australia.
The One Hit Wonder Down Under event is film based and interactive, introducing a brand new competition format to the Southern hemisphere's 2009 calendar.
Skiers and snowboarders progressed their tricks during the week until their "wondrous one trick" was captured on film and posted online for the public to vote on who they think should win, thus doing away with the traditional judges.
Photographer Timothy Lloyd described "It was such a cool event to be involved with and you wil l see how the chilled vibe attracted some insane action." All the details plus the tricks that have never been seen in Australian competition can still be found at www.onehitwonderevent.com. The public had three weeks to have their say.
In addition to the publicly voted winner of the One Hit Wonder who will share in the $4000 prize purse, the riders themselves also voted the skiing and snowboarding winners of the Red Bull Charging Bull Award. Thredbo skier Johnny Lipzker made the strongest impression amongst his peers by jumping with one of the most unique styles seen in this country, before stepping it up a level with consistently big and smooth double back flips; "Good jump, good friends, good times. Best event of the season!" Jindabyne local snowboarder Andy Lloyd was deserving in sharing in the $1000 Red Bull award by charging so hard over every day of the competition, he had to be physically pulled off the Charles Beckinsale built jump long after the event had packed up.
Despite a few minor hiccups during the weeks preparing for the arrival of the competitors such as Thredbo Park Crew member Charles Beckinsale separating his shoulder whilst testing out his own jump, all the athletes responded well to the unique competition format. Skier Charlie Timmins commented; "It's much less pressure than normal where you would usually only have two jumps to do your best. The One Hit Wonder gave us time to safely build up to bigger tricks over three days, which allows for much more progression." Progression is exactly what was evident with an impressive array of double inverted spins, flips and some very unique styles that captured the essence of a freeride skiing and snowboarding event. "What these athletes are doing through 80-100ft of airspace is becoming more and more like stunt work rather than what most Australian's would know to be traditional ski jumping. It has to be seen to be believed." –Andreas Gloor, Team manager to a number of the participating athletes.
By voting, the public al so had the chance to win for themselves a $2500 head-to-toe ski equipment package f rom Dynastar skis, Sinner Outerwear and Lange boots, and a $2500 package from Rome Snowboards, Boots and Bindings for the snowboarders. Congratulations to Richie Carroll of Coogee and Jessica Arnold of Goulburn who will both be sharing in the lot.
