Browsing “Festivals”

Words & Photos by Emily Kane.

Everyone’s perception of paradise is different. Some may picture their nirvana as lying on a beach sippin’ a big ol margarita, while for me the place I live in is truly my paradise.  Whistler is awesome. It seems everyone living here shares the same vision.  With that said, it’s important to venture outside of the Whistler bubble from time-to-time; if not just to experience new things, but to appreciate what we have.  This journey began with what any epic tale starts with: a road trip.

Any good road trip has to have a mind-blowing destination.  What better way to get stoked on a trip then to plan it around a music festival?  So off to Coachella we went.  For those of you not familiar, Coachella is one of the biggest music festivals in North America hosting a variety of music genres.  The festival features popular, established artists as well as up-and-comers in the music industry – all endured in the heat of the desert a.k.a. Indio, California.  So with the festival on the forefront of our minds, we made our way over the border.  Read more

When the Monster Energy Shred Show rolls into town promising free energy drinks and 50,000 bucks, a gauarnteed who’s who of dirt-bagging couch-surfing Pabst-drinking snowboarders line-up to cash in. Add a 65+ foot big air jump to the mix, a notorious hip-hop crew, and an ominious date like April 20^th and the table is set for a night of Whistler proportions.

The Shred Show, in it’s third year in Whistler and second as a TTR 5-star event, closed out the World Ski & Snowboard Festival with a big air jump in Skiers Plaza and showcased the current flip-spin-win formula of snowboarding trickery. The list of heavy-hitting shreds throwing down was deep and riders were pulling out the mandatory double-corks and 1260’s just to make the finals.  Read more

Boarderstyle was born at the Shred Show two years ago, and the first ever victor was once again crowned champion today! Jon Versteeg battled through a foggy course to take first place.

Photos courtesy Monster Energy

The final heat included X-Games champion Kevin Sansalone, perennial powerhouse Myrosha Daley and Martin Jaureguialzo who has made every cut so far in three years of Boarderstyle. Read more

Mike Douglas is such a hipster. If you didn’t already know this or didn’t see it coming, we have pictures to prove it and 2000 of Whistler’s finest crowd to back up our claim. From his shoes to his scarf to his Instagram how-to, host Mike made any late arriving Whistler-loc ask the same thing: “What the hell is Mike Douglas wearing?”

Ahh, but I digress before we begin. So here’s the rundown on the 16th annual Olympus Pro Photographer Showdown at the World Ski & Snowboard Festival.

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Words & photos from Josh Bauer.

With the World Ski & Snowboard Festival comes arguably one of the most exciting events of the festival, the 72 Hour Filmmakers Showdown. This year it grew and expanded to include another night of finals in which the People Choice was awarded. Votes were tallied by voting with ping ping balls, I abstained and kept my ball cause I am collecting them to do this science experiment. Serious.

Conrad Shapansky and his crew won the grand judged prize with this short film the night before and and took home $10,000 for their efforts; and rightly so they had a creative and entertaining film. It seems more often than not the films that win are creative concept films; which maybe speaks to future cotestants strategy for writing.

Long time contestant Angie Nolan and crew won the People’s Choice with a great movie about making a Canadian reality tv series; complete with Harper jokes and all. Congrats to the winners on both nights!

Roller Derby made its debut in Whistler during the World Ski and Snowboard Festival, with the Whistler Black Diamond Betties facing off against the Squamish Sea to Sky Sirens in front of over 1000 spectators. By half time the Black Diamond Betties were down over 50 points to the Sea to Sky Sirens who had their talented assistant captain “Honey Badger” on an unstoppable tear. In the second period they made a slow- yet steady comeback and in the last jam they were down by a mere 10 points. Lead Jammer “Princess Slaya” of the Black Diamond Betties came through for her team scoring a massive 18 points for her team to take the win. Here are some photos of the event.

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Highlights So Far Include: World Skiing Invitational Big Air and Slopestyle, Free Outdoor Concert Featuring Nas, and Whistler’s Black Diamond Betties Victory At Vengeance In The Valley

 The first half of the World Ski and Snowboard Festival (WSSF) in Whistler, BC has been an adrenaline-fueled and action-packed, five days; but that was only the beginning. There are still five more days of sport, art, music and fashion to come at WSSF, with the action continuing day and night right through to Sunday, April 21.

Looking ahead to what is still in store at the World Ski and Snowboard Festival:

• The Shred Show, presented by Monster Energy, will take place April 18 to 20. Snowboarding events include the Boarderstyle on Blackcomb Mountain Thursday, April 18; the Slopestyle on Blackcomb Mountain Friday, April 19; and the Big Air in Skiers Plaza at the base of Whistler Mountain on Saturday April 20. Both the Slopestyle and Big Air contests will be World Snowboard Tour 5 Star Events. Live scoring and results will be available online at http://live.eim-solutions.com/shredshow2013.
• The OLYMPUS Pro Photographer Showdown will take place on Thursday, April 18 in the Whistler Conference Centre. This year’s competitors who will be competing for $10,000 include: Andy Wright, Bryan Ralph, Chris Burkard, Darcy Bacha, and Oskar Enander.
• Intersection, presented by Bromley Baseboards will take place in the Whistler Conference Centre on Friday, April 19. The four competing teams have had seven days to shoot, edit and produce a five to seven minute action sports film. The teams competing for the $15,000 grand prize this year include Heart Films, Leo Zuckerman, Nuulife Cinema and Voleurz.
• The WSSF late night party circuit will wrap up with The END at the Whistler Conference Centre on Saturday, April 20. Featuring performances from The Funk Hunters, Luke McKeehan, SkiiTour and Neighbour, doors to The END will open at 10pm and the party will continue until 4am, Sunday morning. Tickets to The END are still available at the Whistler Activity Centre.
• The Outdoor Concert Series will also continue throughout the rest of the World Ski and Snowboard Festival, with free shows from K-OS, Swollen Members, Arkells and more. For the full schedule of events still to come at WSSF and for information on how to purchase tickets, visit www.wssf.com. Read more

The Olympus Pro Photographer Showdown remains one of the fan favorites at the World Ski and Snowboard Festival, with tickets always selling out in mere minutes.  This event returns with a stacked list of finalist including Bryan Ralph, Andy Wright, Darcy Bacha, Oskar Enander and Chris Burkard.

Selection wasn’t easy, but luckily the judging panel is loaded with industry heavyweight photographers like Paul Morrison and Bruce Rowles who have the daunting task of deciding the winner from a very talented field.

Photographer Bryan Ralph (affectionately known as “Ralphie” to friends and athletes) has been shooting for years, while working for Doppelmayr in the off season building ski lifts. He has worked with Red Bull Media House, Teton Gravity Research, Poor Boyz Production, Legs of Steel, Level 1, Matchstick Productions, and Sherpas Cinema.

He currently works for Freeride Entertainment based out of Nelson BC, but still finds time to shoot skiing on assignment with major companies like Red Bull, Under Armour, Armada, Degree, Smith, Oakley, Rossignol, Atomic, and many others. Read more

Jonny Fleet has lived in Whistler for 8 years but originally is from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He came to Vancouver for film school then made his way to Whistler and never found a way to escape. He began his show business career on stage before moving to film because he found it more creative. The 72 Hour Filmmakers Showdown was something he tried after graduating from school; at the time it was the biggest thing in the world. He and his crew have all grown so much together each year as filmmakers. “We kept trying to get better and challenge ourselves more and more, and it paid off. Plus, you can’t beat that audience!”

                                                                                                            -Jonny

WIA: Jonny, you’ve won the Filmmaker Showdown before. What are you feeling moments before your film premiers in front of 2000 people?

JF: Nerves ha ha! Nerves, sweaty palms, and constant bathroom visits. Wondering whether the jokes will work, if the dvd burned properly, if the crowd will like it. It’s all about the audience for me. If we won the whole thing, but got booed, I would consider that a failure.

How developed is your film concept going into the 72-hours of filming & production and how close does the finished film look to what you imagined?

We always have a script going into it. It doesn’t always help, but I think that also depends on what type of film you want to make. If the script requires music, we will try and make whatever we can before we shoot. Not a lot of people know that, but you are allowed to produce music beforehand as well. The finished product is never exactly how you imagine it but the closer the better.

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A huge crowd of spectators made their way into the village for last nights’ Association of Freeskiing Professionals big air event, a platinum level event on par with events like the Dew Tour and the X-Games. A who’s who of freeskiing’s elite paid homage to WSSF’s 70-foot kicker and in the end it was Canadian Vincent Gagnier who walked away with the prize money and a promise to uphold the 10% rule. Rounding out the podium was last year’s AFP World Tour overall champion Gus Kenworthy in second and Henrik Harlaut placed third. Missing the podium but never losing, there was also an astronaut in the mix of jumpers, because nothing beats an astronaut.

Check out some of the action from WIA photographers Michael Overbeck and Nadia Samer.

Photo: Nadia Samer

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