Switch Parties in San Francisco
by Shanti Sosienski
(October 18, 1996)

Jamie Lynn flying Switch owner/Rockstar Tony Guerrero jammin with his band which consisted of a few friends and his brother Tommy on bass.

Snowboarding was in the air Monday night at Slim's in San Francisco, a nightclub where Switch held a video premier party for "Daytrippers" and "Hera." The videos, produced by Vail film companies Room & Board and J2 Productions, helped the 200-plus people get amped for the cold weather just beginning to set in over the Fog City.

"We decided to have this party to support the films and to get some of our retailers together," said Patrick Brennan, marketing and PR director for Switch. "Besides, everyone has been working really hard this year and this is a great way to let off some steam. "The guest list consisted of 150 people from various companies in San Francisco. One of the strongest showings was Twist Clothing. Nearly the entire staff attended the party.

The first film, which Switch didn't sponsor, but was produced with the help of Room & Board productions was called "Hera." It featured only women and started with an old Bow Wow Wow song "I Want Candy." Some of the riders included Sabrina Sedeghi, Dresden Howell, and Stine Brunkjeldas.

While the film was nicely edited and showed some strong women, watching only females ride tends to get a bit boring. A lot of methods and a few spins don't quite excite like Jim Rippey doing a back flip off a cliff. Also, the non-snowboarding footage, while entertaining was totally pointless. The shots of backwoods people talking about Elvis and tap dancing to country music threaded throughout the piece are unusually shocking, but pointless and don't really add anything to the riding shots.

While I personally feel it sucks to slam any women's footage because it's hard to film, Hera definitely does a good job at capturing some up and coming women. There undoubtedly is a place for the film this year, and one of their sponsors Fresh And Tasty mag can attest to that.

The second film "Daytrippers" sponsored by Switch, Vans, A Snowboards, and Smith featured Switch rider Axel Pauporte and friends traveling around the U.S. and Canada in a school bus to various resorts. The riding is good, but the excitement rating doesn't rise much until about the middle of the film when the crew goes to Europe to ride some extreme stuff. At this point the music gets better and the riding becomes more intense, however it ends up being to little too late. In looking around the bar I could see that a lot of people were more interested in drinking and talking than watching the film.

What this film does do is use a lot of black and white footage, which is nice, some excellent lifestyle shots, and a good little storyline. Riders some of the riders featured other than Axel were Peter Screm, David Vincent, Tomi Tominen, Matt Hale, Daniel Wheeler. There are also a few rockstar shots from events like the U.S. Open that are noteworthy like a short bit on Todd Richards and some Brushie footage.

After the films, Beastie Boys keyboardist Money Mark played a one-man show for the crowd. Using an interesting homemade soundbox that consisted of a drum machine, distortion piece, and a microphone, Money Mark played a little feedback tune before moving onto playing a bass machine with his feet and keyboard with his hands. Then he strummed a number on a guitar and sang a song about his Mother. The music while a bit rudimentary because of the lack of backup, was unusually entertaining and the audience appeared to love it giving Money Mark their complete attention.

"I think this is a pretty cool party," said party-goer Brad Ley, Team Director from Twist, who was seen stickering the entire club and a number of people with Twist and Tuesday stickers. "Money Mark is the best. The videos were a little long, but they were good. I especially liked the dancing," he commented referring to a section which showed men tap dancing in Hera.

Overall the Switch party definitely turned out to provide what the company had hoped it would: a good time for all who attended and promotion of the film they sponsored.

Check out the photos and the Money Man!