Everything Skiing - Reviewed

Jeff and I showed up at Park City late in the day today.  To our surprise the new Pick n Shovel park had just opened up.  We took a few runs just to get a feel for the jumps, and I followed trevor through with the camera in my hands.  I wasn't really paying attention and ended up filming everything crooked.  So, here is all we shot today, nothing great, but if you are interested in seeing the new Pick n Shovel park, check it out!

Oh, nice front flip Jeff!

BE SURE TO TURN ON THE HD!

This footage is just from a day at Snowbird UT testing out my new GoPro HD Camera and Chest Mount. I am trying to decide still how much I like the chest mount as compared to the helmet mount. It does allow you to see your skis and the horizon at the same time easier, but also looks weird whenever your arms raise above the level of the camera (dropping a cliff, etc.).

Footage isn't great, mostly because I was testing the camera as well as frame rates. The HD on this camera looks awesome though for sure!

My home network wasn't working when I threw this video together and there were about 10 random songs on my computer, I decided this one was as good as any. If anyone has some cool music that I could throw in an edit sometime let me know, would love some spanish guitar.

More video to come.

P.S. That day at the Bird was awesome! I was testing out the Lib Tech NAS Pow ReCURVE skis. A review will be posted on skijosh.com soon.

I ended up winning a GoPro HD camera from newschoolers.com and from gopro.  It is a sweet camera.  It shoots 1080p video as well as 5mp still shots with a 170 degree wide angle lens.  I am still trying tweaking a few video settings before I make an edit of the test shots I have gotten with the camera, but here are some stills that I pulled from the video.

I have been using the Chest Mount from GoPro to take this video, mainly because I am afraid that the camera will fall off of my helmet.  So, although it isn't true point of view, it does give some great shots.

These first two shots are from our second run of the day on January 19th, 2010.  We had some awesome snow on Baldy right after it opened.  15 inches fresh.  If you have never gotten a face shot before, this is a great example of what it fels like just a second before you get pummeled by fresh snow :)

This last picture is a nice drop we hit up around the end of the day. I was demoing some Lib Tech NAS Pow Recurve skis.  Watch for a review on these skis laster this week.  This shot was taken about 1/3 of the way through the entire air time.  Awesome cliff, awesome chute, awesome landing.  Good times!

Scott Smith arrived home from his 2 year mission in Guatemala and has skied a ton since he has been home.  Unfortunately Snowbird is not having the best snow year so far, but the last few days have been awesome. 

Today I skied on the 186 4Frnt EHP.  The ski is awesome.  I can't say much more about it now, but it is really a fun and stable ski.  A full review will be up soon.

Here are a couple of shots form the elevator shaft at Snowbird.  We really need a helmet camera, as you can tell, because Sean had to hold the camera in one hand while he followed Scott and I down the chute.  Sorry about the wobbly video.  If someone wants to donate an HD helmet camera, we would greatly appreciate it!

After a very very long preseason the snow has finally started to fall.  New Years Eve brought 2 feet of fresh powder and bluebird skies.  Being one of the first powder days of the year (and lots of hidden rocks under the snow) the camera stayed in the pocket. 

Almost everyone from Clandestino Films has been out of town the last few weeks, but now that we are all home some footage should start to come together.  Here is last years video to hold you through!

I need to apologize for not updating this blog as often as I would like.  Ski movie premier season is over.  Snow has fallen.  Finals have been taken.  Only 1 more final exam to go.  

The skiing was awesome today.  4 Feet fell last night which made for some awesome pow on top of rocks.  The snow was exceptionally heavy, but probably only in comparison to regular  Utah powder.  

Watch for more updates to come soon.  A few more product reviews have been added, go check them out!

Snowbird and Park City turned on their lifts for the first time this season.

Jeff Christensen, Sean Smith, and I rode Snowbird all morning on Friday.  With only one run and one real lift open, it left a lot to be desired.  The snow conditions were not great, but being on skis with operating lifts was awesome.

Fox 13 decided to roll up, and I happened to be put on the news, check it out.

On Saturday Trevor Evans (Clandestino Films) and I rode Park City almost all day.   The new terrain park manager Jeremy Cooper is doing a great job already.   2 20-foot jumps, 3 street rails, and 5 other jibs on opening day is almost unprecedented here in Utah.  If this is an indicator of things to come this season, it is time to get stoked!

Sorry for the lack of pictures from today, the park was so crowded and the sky was overcast, so shooting video/pictures was somewhat pointless.  Keep your eyes open for something better as we get closer to Thanksgiving.

Piete Leeflang, Jeff Christensen, and I went to Brighton on Saturday.  We had full intentions of filming some awesome jibbing (Brighton has been open for about a week), as well as some awesome groomers.  Right as we got to the parking lot, it started dumping snow.  The lift line was long so we decided to hike.

After a short 10 minute hike we got to the terrain park to get our jib on.  Brighton really needs to learn how to build park features.  None of their boxes or rails have jumps onto them at all. Yes, you can always ollie on to any feature, but it is hard to do more than a 270 on when there isn't a lip.  The jibs were not good enough to take pictures of, but we were also having too much fun on our first day on snow to stop and take pictures. 

After about an hour of jibbing the snowfall was so hard that we could no see more than a few feet in front of our faces.  We decided to ski down and we were able to ski some knee deep pow! Unfortunately the only thing under this fresh snow was a solid base of rocks and boulders. Again, the snow conditions weren't good enough for pictures, but we were having too much fun to even try.

All in all, the day was bittersweet, decent snow, horrible base, horrible jibs and a lot of fun!

Today Sean Smith (Clandestino Films) and I went to The Jibyard in Ogden Utah.  This facility is awesome for all of your preseason jibbing needs.   The setup right now consists of 4 in-runs with 4 rail/box options.  The in-runs are made out of the rollers that you might see on an industrial conveyor belt.  Rather than moving products in a warehouse, the rollers hurl skiers towards a rail or box at just the right speed in order to provide terrain park like skiing all year long.