voleurz

X Games / Colorado

This was my first time at X….. an Xtreme Games virgin if you will. I don’t think I realized how big-league this event really is until I experiencing it first hand. Giant crowds of 20,000 + people all watching the most talented and focussed athletes that skiing, snowboarding, and snowmobiling have to offer. It was pretty darn cool to watch a handful of our team send themselves in the 22ft Superpipe.

The X Games course

The big screen

Colby James West boosting

Mike Riddle

Mike Riddle

Peter Olenick

Peter Olenicks first hit

Margetts is focussed

Matt Margetts

Jaimo D. and Meg O.

Jeff Schmuck is now our DOP

Roz G talking in front of 20,000 people

Rosalind Groenewoud was floating around Aspen after a successful week at X Games (Placing 3rd in Freeski Superpipe.. no big deal). We linked up for an afternoon of sunny shredding in Snowmass.

Roz, X Games bronze medalist

Roz G. first hit pipe

Once the chaos of X blew over it was time to hit the streets. Barry Hartman and Braden Dean dot com were the subjects of a week long urban assault. Much to our surprise we didn’t get kicked out of a single feature. Police literally watched us slingshot each other at top speed into high consequence stunts. I guess there aren’t any “Pedestrian Stunting” bylaws like in Canada.

Barry Hartman and Braden Dean

Barry's gap

The Bungee Incident
The first feature we shot was possibly the most dangerous, not only because of the big drop to flat, but because we needed to extend our bungee cable from 21ft to 60ft in order to get enough speed for the gap. Barry set up a picnic bench on the edge of a railing that he used to launch a 15 ft drop. On our 4th attempt, Braden and I pulled the bungee back with such force that it released at the anchor point and came blasting towards us at a calculated 268 km/h.

Mathematics proves that…
IF,
The bungee took 11 frames of video (at 30fps) to travel from the anchor point to where Barry, Braden and I were standing.
THEN,
it took 36.67ms to travel 27.27m.
THUS,
the bungee was moving at an avg. speed of 268.23 km/h

Somehow we it got on film (you’ll have to wait and see). And luckily Barry didn’t have more than a bruise on his thigh… although he was definitely in shock for a couple minutes…

Bungee pull

Look closely: the bungee flying at us!

Math 12

The Tunnel
Possibly the biggest urban build we’ve ever done (7 hours to be exact). Once completed we we’re ready to go, but apparently our generator wasn’t. Half an hour passed as we dissected the generator like the brain scientists we are…. No luck. We pretty much gave up on the session until we realized the generator was simply out of gas.

Lesson #1: Fill your generator with gas.

We filled ‘er up but after another 10 minute session 2 of our lights blew. With only 1 light left the high speed run-in was completely dark…. blackzoned.

Lesson #2: Bring spare bulbs

After an hour of filming our precious jump collapsed. With no water left and salt not making a difference Braden came up with the grand idea to melt and moisten the snow using heat from the exhaust of the generator. It worked. We rebuilt the jump and our session continued. Well worth it.

The wall ride

Barry Hartman

Braden Dean with a 1 foot wall ride

The Dad Ledge
Barry spotted this beaut of a ledge, we named it “The Dad” because we felt it had seniority over us. A few hours of building and 3 kinks later Barry and Braden tackled the Ledge. Barry stomped through the kinks on his 2nd hit while Braden (even with the backside disadvantage) slid and gapped over the last two sections. Never have we shot until 5:00am before… But we put it down as though it was our job, signing out of 9 to 5 work week.

4:59am.. Seconds before Braden put down a backside 5050

The Dad Ledge

Barry Hartman with a 5-0 on a ledge

Crew life

This trip wouldn’t have been possible without the support of these fine people:
Melissa Rhines, Greg Boyd and Isabelle Falardeau at Aspen / Snowmass.
Fergie for helping with passes when XGames media accreditation was useless.
The people of Colorado for being so chill with us filming in their streets.

And an extra special thanks you goes out to Michelle Wilson for providing unprecedented hospitality during our 12 day stay in the USA. “Gu Gu!!”

L to R: Darren, Braden, Michelle, Barry