Lucas Magoon and Harrison Gordon From Snowboarder Magazine's "Resolution"

You need to watch this. If somehow you made it to this page without watching Gooner and Har Gor get after it in the Snowboarder Movie: Resolution, you're just doing things wrong. But I'm here to set you right. I don't know how much longer it will be available, but it's still there now. If they let me embed, it will appear below. Check for cameos from Jake OE and a groovy Japanese cop. Best soundtrack this season for sure. Watch it now, thank me later.

Bode Merrill's "Reckless Abandon" Premiere at evo, Portland

What else do you need? A trailer?? OK.

Reckless Abandon: A Film by Bode Merriill and Jon Ray from Snowboarder Magazine on Vimeo.

Snowboarder Magazine: Resolution

I'm not going to fuck around. Just go watch it, buy it and watch it again. The roster is heavy. You get rails, jumps, big mountain, pow, methods, heli, sleds, dabbing, fuckery, good music, the whole she-bang. Gooner, Grendys, Bang, Louif, Blum, Har Gor, Terje, Jamie Lynn, Guch, Ben Ferguson, Rencz, Blauvelt, Danny Davis, tons of cameos like Bryan Fox, Austin Smith and Shaun White (mmhmm, that guy). Shots get got by John Cavan and Colton Morgan. Peep the intro below and catch a premiere coming to a theater near you: Venice, November 4 or Mammoth, November 11. Whichever way, make it your resolution to check this one out.


The SNOWBOARDER Movie: Resolution - Intro from Snowboarder Magazine on Vimeo.

Runway Films' Full Moon Trailer Drops

The ladies at Runway are ready to rock with their multi-year, Kickstarter-backed project. Check the teaser below and pencil in the premiere date nearest you.

Runway Films presents Full Moon from Runway Films on Vimeo.

Discover Chile With Jake Blauvelt

Here's three minutes of Chilean pow with natural style master Jake Blauvelt. Enjoy!

Discover Chile with Jake Blauvelt from COLLAB FILMS on Vimeo.

ExplORe

Here's a little story about roadside snowboarding in Oregon. I can get behind this as a good start to September. Coming soon, premiere season. It won't be long now.

ExplORe - Roads Less Taken - Trailer from Ilusive on Vimeo.

Kickstart the Moon

The talented women of Runway Films are busy cranking out a movie this year and they're looking for a Kickstart. Internetsters, check out Full Moon: Women's Snowboarding, Past, Present & Future! Undoubtedly the deepest reward list from a women's snowboard film I've ever seen. It starts at the $5-level and moves all the way up to $8 grand! They've got goodies like trips to Baldface, Dakine backpacks and locks of hair from team riders in there. Go check it out and help make snowboarding history: Full Moon Kickstarter

Cool side note, I see this went live last night, which was also a full moon in the astronomical sense. Mad props for that bit of planning (or amazing turn of coincidence)! All the more reason to open your wallets, I say.

Absinthe Eversince Tour

I posted a couple of days ago about the new Absinthe film, Eversince. Well, it turns out, they're already on tour supporting the show. The big premiere was last Saturday in Salt Lake and the tour has eight more dates in the US, followed by a massive European slate. Also, it looks like Nicolas Müller has  a full part, so figure out where the nearest showing is and go see it!

Absinthe Films "Heavy Mental"

Absinthe Films: Heavy Mental teaser a snowboarding video by Absinthe Films

Justin Hostynek and the boys over at Absinthe Films dropped another superlative-expanding snowboard movie this year and it's as good as anything they've ever brought to the screen. The backcountry is as heavy as it always is from them (really heavy) and the urban riding is on-point, too. If there is a caveat here, it's that it's the first shred flick I've seen this year, so I'm primed to like whatever I see. I might have been impressed by an SD phone video from a five year-old filmed entirely in North Dakota. That said, Heavy Mental set the bar pretty high for the rest of the season and I'm sure they cut all the shots from North Dakota (though there were a few from a snow-covered Portland).

I'm not one to spoil the opener and the ender, so if you want to know, just watch the movie already. Any number of guys could have been the ender. Heavy Mental even pulled off the rare double-double: two, two-song sections. You'll want to see both. Trust me. Here are some of my highlights.

Austen Sweetin had a fully balanced part including a jump Justin Hostynek called the biggest he'd ever filmed. Yup. Let that sink in for a second. Justin's been in the game forever and filmed some giants. Travis Rice comes to mind. And this was the biggest. Now, Austen's a little dude. He makes pow look deeper and jumps look bigger. I call it the Josh Sherman phenomenon. His waist-deep is Mikkel Bang's knee-deep. I digress. But this jump would have looked huge if Shawn Bradley or Andre the damn Giant hit it. If big jumps are your gin, this one will have you calling a bail bondsman.

Jason Robinson, Blair Habenicht and Wolfgang Nyvelt all had memorable sections. Those are the types of guys whose parts I always look forward to. That riding looks fun AND gnarly. The type of shit that pushes boundaries while not looking like it's all insane all the time.

Bode Merrill tore it up once again. All around. I don't know how they picked his ender. He had at least four that I thought would bring the movie to the credits. They just kept coming. An early contender for video part of the year.

Other hits include weird homemade music, sketchy avalanches, strange urban scenarios and pow, lots of pow. The rest of the roster of riders includes: Victor de le Rue, Jason Robinson, Victor Daviet, Romain de Marchi, Mat Schaer, Scot Brown, Johnnie Paxson, Mathieu Crépel, Sylvain Bourbousson, Nils Arvidsson, Ozzy Henning, Rusty Ockenden and Manuel Diaz.

If I didn't get the point across, this is a movie to buy and watch all the damn time. It's an instant great. You'll see it at all the awards shows and you'll have parts that you watch on repeat. 

The Absinthe crew is still out on tour, so catch them while you can. This is one to watch and watching it live on a huge screen is always more fun. Check out the full tour schedule and get all the details on Absinthe's site.

Absinthe Goes 'Heavy Mental' in Portland

The way Absinthe is pumping their European premiere tour for this year's movie, 'Heavy Mental' you'd think they weren't even having a North American tour. This is not the case. Fact is, it started last Saturday in Salt Lake and continues on Tuesday (9/9) in Portland. Either way, check Absinthe's site for a date near you and let them fuel your stoke.

Absinthe Films: Heavy Mental 2014 Teaser, a snowboarding video by absinthe-films

Isenseven Premiere TONIGHT!

Who wouldn't want to use a product called Crack Grease?

That poster really says it all, doesn't it? Well, I have a little bit to add. SOS Outreach is a wonderful organization that provides outdoor adventure to at-risk youth. It's similar to a group I volunteer for called Snowdays. Put simply, we all know how expensive snowboarding is, but we all know how much fun it is and how rewarding it is, too. That's what groups like SOS and Snowdays are for, bridging the expense gap to provide the rewards. Rewards to deserving folks who might never get that chance otherwise.

The tricky part is raising the money. Enter Isenseven and Crack Grease and the movie premiere format. You donate $10 to SOS (or $5 and a useable pair of goggles) and you get to see some good snowboard movies at a theater with 100 of your closest friends. Throw in product tosses (look at all those sponsors), raffles and beer and you've got a solid Thursday night's entertainment. Get there. And don't forget K2uesday next Tuesday benefitting Snowdays.

Ready for Vacation?

Forum's new team video Vacation is premiering in Portland this Saturday night (October 15). Twice actually. Get to the Mission Theater (1624 NW Glisan) by 8:30pm if you're a minor or wait 'til 10 if you want to drink. If you're really ambitious and want some autographs, stop by US Outdoor at 5pm and get Peter Line to sign your Technical Difficulties VHS box (so I'm not the only one). If you're not in Portland, check Forum's site for a premiere near you. If you hate leaving home, just wait for iTunes.

Shred-tober?

I can see Rock-tober, Jock-tober, Shock-tober, Cock-tober and even Manitowoc-tober; but Shred-tober doesn't so much roll off the tongue as it stutters and gets spit out. Shred video double features are fun, though, whatever you call them. Sporting goods mega-store US Outdoor is teaming with K2 for three nights of action for a quality cause. That cause is Portland ripper Kevin Nimick's battle against cancer. All shows are $2 and at Portland's Clinton Street Theater. Here's the rest:

Videograss Leaves Grass Stains on Portland

Mr. Popper's Penguin is actually the subtitle of Gus Engle's section.

Videograss brought the whole crew out for a real-deal world premiere of both their movies, Retrospect and Shoot the Moon. Going in I thought there might be the feel of an 'A' movie and a 'B' movie, but it wasn't the case. So much that I can't really distinguish them in my mind anymore. Retrospect played first, so I'll talk about it first.

Title: Retrospect

Riders: Alex Andrews, Alex Cantin, Ben Bilocq, Austin Smith, Curtis Ciszek, Bryan Fox, Ethan Deiss, Jake Blauvelt, Jake Kuzyk, Harrison Gordon, Knut Eliassen, Xavier De Le Rue

Points of interest: The first rider's part ran in front of the obligatory sponsor section. Not sure I've seen that before. I like it. A decent dose of quality freeriding, including a surprise (to me) part by De Le Rue. Of course you know where Blauvelt, Smith, Cizek and Fox do most of their riding (hint: not on rails, with some exceptions). Ethan Deiss owned rails like Superman. The bespectacled rider never did find a phone booth to change out of his Clark Kent garb and into the cape and tights, though. No matter, the secret is out now.

Quick Verdict: Great balance of riding. Quality flick, but nothing extraordinary. Lacked lifestyle. All trick porn.

Imagine a brief intermission here. Product toss, raffle drawings, rock-paper-scissors, etc. NEXT!

Title: Shoot the Moon

Riders: Chris Grenier, Darrell Mathes, Gus Engle, Jake Olson-Elm, Jed Anderson, Johnny Miller, Jon Kooley, Jonas Michilot, Jordan Mendenhall, Justin Bennee, Louif Paradis, Nick Dirks, Nima Jalali, Will Tuddenham, Zac Marben


Points of Interest: Lots and lots of urban in this one. Then again it's about the best urban around. Jake OE slides things in ways I've never seen. Jon Kooley returns with a sickness. Gus Engle and Nick Dirks are true characters. Louif and Jed, well, they are just going to have the best video parts until they're dead or in jail, like the rappers say.

Quick Verdict: 90% urban, 100% trick porn yet still 100% enjoyable. Goes to show that if you do it well, you'll get the result

Videograss: Shoot the Moon Premiere

Is it that time already? Seems like snowboard movies come out earlier every year. I just found out about this one. Videograss' Shoot the Moon and Retrospect; Friday, August 12; Portland's Bagdad Theater & Pub; doors at 7:30pm; raffle drawings; autograph signings; oh yeah, and it's free. Minors allowed with parent/guardian. Check the flyer or Videograss' site for more info.

Thursday Things: Snowboard Movies

My mom always told me not to use the word 'hate.' I'm sure it had something to do with negativity and disrespect. Looking back, she also told me to be careful how I used the word 'perfect.' Perfection can't be achieved and doesn't exist in reality.

I think I get it now. 'Perfect' and 'hate' are two sides of the same coin. Use with caution. My mom didn't want me hating people (I don't) or being a perfectoinist (see that). Point taken.

Counterpoint: I just HATE some things about snowboarding. What better day than Thursday to air these grievances.

Snowboard movies are just not conducive to watching while eating. Let's say you just popped in a snowboard movie and you're hungry. Do yourself a favor and turn off the movie. Especially if you haven't seen it before. Go make your food and eat it, then come back to the video. Here's what happens otherwise. You ruin dinner while paying too much attention to the movie. Guaranteed. The pasta turns to mush. You curdle the milk. You forget to add the powder packet. That's right, you can't even make mac and cheese from a box. Too many bangers. You'll probably even burn your microwave popcorn.

In a slightly better scenario, you save dinner, but then forget to eat it. You ace the preparation, but then sit down with your bowl of yellow, noodley goodness and the spoon never hits the tongue. You can try eating while watching, but you'll either miss the bowl and put an empty spoon in your mouth or you'll put a spoonful of noodles into the side of your cheek. You can get away with finger foods, but we both know you're not going to look down while Nicolas Muller is going off. He's just too good. Then Gigi, then Wolle. You know what this means. Tepid cheesy mac 45 minutes later. I hate that.

All you have to do is press 'pause.' That's what it's there for. Fill your gut with deliciousness and feast on the flick fulfilled. Now that's perfection. Thanks, mom.