April 1, 1999

How long have you known Mike? What have gone through together? How many times you have been coming up here?

Yeah, I think I met Mike, I seen him riding around Tahoe, kinda randomly, just knew of him and stuff, around 9 years ago. We were kinda doing the same gig. He started to make a movie, which was the original Totally Bored, and he has his little gig going, and I was working with Fall Line, we were kinda doing the same thing always bumping heads in Tahoe, and just kinda buddies like that, and I kinda started following him and shooting with him, in the TV series, and we just kinda became good friends, We've been coming up to Valdez here every Spring, for the last 7 years now, and its pretty sweet, he's a good man to be with, super smart, he could be working with a lot of other people in the industry, but I feel Mike, the way represents himself, the way he deals with people, he's like well liked, you know, he's not to cocky really, and kinda gets the job done. Kinda my reason for sticking with him. Cause I've been with some other people before, not that I don't like them, I just think that, I just think that I get along with Mike, our repour is good. He's a good guy to be around, he's funny.

What do you like most about him?

What do I like most about Spike? Probably just his direction and professionalism, you know he gets stuff done. You know if someone needs to take charge, you know Mike, he's kinda serious, in that sense, but a lot of times, when you're up here, that works to your benefit, you know, you need someone to kind of do that, and Mikes definitely a good director type a guy like that.� What's the thing you like least about him? Same thing, slave driver. He gets you up at 5:30, in the morning, but it always works out, you're thanking him, by seven when your getting shots. And like, you know, and sometimes you get up two hours earlier than everyone else in Tahoe, but it gets you out there, and crack the whip, and it can be brutal sometimes. But, really sweet, when you get out there, you know. There's not to much that I can really say that I actually dislike about Mike or Dave for that matter.

What will this years segment be like, from your end do you have any goals? From my part in general? Ummmh, yeah actually we had a really good season this year in Tahoe and I've already, I'm like 70% there, maybe one of the best parts I've had with these guys ever. And I really need to back it up with a couple strong freestyle moves right now, so thats kinda what I really want to do up here is find a couple big jumps that we've never really shot in Valdez, cause there is really big stuff up here and were always, always on the big bases and, and doing different stuff, but if I can get some of that wrapped up, I'd have a really good part and then do another super spine, or something like that, for a big one, you know a big helly shot, I'd be stoked, I'd feel like I really had a well rounded part and I �threw out� (meaning �pulled off�) some good stuff in Tahoe, was a really good year. So yeah, I'm really hyped, actually at working right now, finishing out the season, maybe even doing some stuff when we go back home, maybe on snowmobiles or something.�

How important are Mike's film to snowboarding?

I think its pretty important, I think, you know when I grew up skating and snow boarding, when I started it was always like you were looking at videos, seeing what other people were doing, kinda getting inspired by that, and I think a, thats pretty much what Mike's movies do. Especially with the footage, up here, not a lot of people can really get up here (Alaska) and afford to do what we do. I'm really fortunate to be able to be able to do it for this long. And I think its important to really represent each year and, and to show what you're doing, and the evolution of snow boarding, you know, and people want to see that, you know whether it be the freestyle movement or if its extreme riding up here and seeing powder, In the mid-summer you know when some of the movies come out its really a stoker, to sit down and go wow, thats what its about, I can't wait, you know and really get in the mood, and I think thats a part of it too. And I think people are really stoked in the movies.�

Tom Day

How is it working with Mike?

Makes my job easy.

How come?

'Cause he's a good director up here. I just like to be shooting sometimes, and not have to deal with all the logistic stuff that Mike can handle pretty well.�

What do you like most about him?

His single most enduring feature. �He does the same work that I do so he understands the complications that we all go through. He handles it well. He never gets mad when things get frustrating. He allows his fate to worry about the next day, instead of what happened in the past. Thats what I like best about him I think.�

What do you like least about him? Oh, least. I don't think I have anything least to say about him.� Where do you think his career is going as a film maker? �Well I don't know if he's ever going to get over snow boarding, I think he likes it pretty much, but ah, I think he wants to head more toward directing, which is ah, which is good. I think thats one of his stronger points of his directing. So hopefully its gonna go towards commercials and things like that, pictures. I know I'd like to start getting involved more with bigger cameras.� Packing bigger cameras up on the mountain? (Laugh) No, having other people pack them, and just stepping up to them when their fixed. That would be fun. �Yeah, I think one of the things that makes Mike such a great snow board - cinematographer, is the fact that he loves the sport and wants to portray it as being the best it possibly can be. Its not, its not necessarily about making a killer movie, its about making the sport look as awesome as it can be, and I think thats what makes, makes Mike's film good. And as far as a, as far as like directing me, he's, he's always a given me like the green light experiment, and whenever I have some new idea I wanna shoot, its always like, � yeah, give it a try�, its never like �mmh, no, I don't think thats gonna work�. He's always, he wants me to experiment and thats what makes it work for us.� Nate Cole

When did you meet him?

The first time I came to Lake Tahoe, those guys pretty muchtook me in. And, and let me stay at their house, I didn't even know him, I met them through Mike Macintire. They let me sleep wherever I wanted in their house,and stay there for pretty much good part of the season. My first time in Lake Tahoe, which was cool, I didn't know anyone there.

And ah, I would sleep under their pool table. And ah, they would wake up and go hike some kicker at like six AM, and I'd hide under the pool table so I wouldn't have to go, so I could still stay there, and go ride, I'd go ride later, cause Mack Dog would always go up at like around noon or something, you know, it'd be like, oh wake wake up, go with Mack Dog, but I just remember those guys would wake up so early, and at that point I wasn't ready for anything like that. Just out of high school, I was only like, I was like nineteen, god it must have been like 92, or 90-?, late 92', early 1993.

When did you make the transition to the dawn patrol?

I don't know if I have yet. Umm, I guess probably, only just over the past two years. I started, started to hang out with Mike a lot more. I could not tell the difference between Mike and Dave, for the first, probably the first two years I knew them, it took me a good two years to know who I, who I was talking to. Yeah, Mike actually called me once, it was one of the first trips he set up to on with me, and a, it was to go up to Black Comb or something, and we talked for maybe fifteen minutes about this trip, its gonna be me and him, and Tex , and some sort of deal, and after the conversation was all done, it was like, �All right, Thanks Dave.� Hung up, ten minutes later, I'm sitting there realizing, you know that, that wasn't Dave, that was Mike. What the hell am I talking about.� So when did you first come to AK? Last year was my first year here, yeah. What are you impressions of Mike?

�Ahh, ( Top Notch) I couldn't, I couldn't imagine coming up here with anyone else. I actually I flew with out tose guys for the first time time, and it was cool but, definitely like flying around with them and just having their path of knowledge, of all the stuff around here. It starts to rub off on you and you start to look around and get a feel for where you are which is a pretty good feeling, in any heli operations; especially this one being pretty much the best one, that I've, that I've ever seen.

So yeah, it's nice, I think a lot of their, a lot of their knowledge rubs off, he's real open, with you know, with that, and lets ya in on stuff, lets you be a part of it a lot. Tex Davenport

How long have you known him? How did you meet him?

�I met Mike at a trade show in San Diego, and he was just walking down the aisle, I thought he was Dave. Actually, stopped to talk to him, he said no I'm Mike, I go, �oh he has a brother, blah, blah, blah�, figured out the whole deal, and a, my favorite movie at the time was the first Totally Bored movie, so I just asked him some questions about the movie and told him it was my favorite movie, and blah, blah , blah and just enjoyed it, and he was super cool, and a, thought that, you know, that kinda surprised me I didn't think he would be super cool, but he liked my input that I gave him. And then a, I guess it was the second Extreme contest, we were just sitting around, its up here in Valdez. He was, he was trying to get powder, and trying to find out where it was. Some fresh deep stuff from Koosad , he just kept picking at Koosad, picking at Koosad for a couple of days. Finally Koosad was like, � You wanna ride something deep pow? All right we'll go right now.� . Just out of no where. We already had dinner, had a couple of beers at the bar. We thought the day was over. He goes, �I can show you some deep, thigh deep, pow, right now.� And ah, he looked around , and he goes �Craig,� to Craig Kelly, he wanted to go, he goes �Sure, I'm in.� And he asked Dan if he wanted to go, and he was stoked, and a he asked Tom Burt, and he was looking around for someone else to go, so I just kinda weaseled my way up to the crowd, and he goes �Tex , you want to go on the ride with us?� and I was like, �Sure.� . And ah, loaded up, went to the Wall for the first time. And we got out of the copter, and I would seriously say it was up to my waist when we got out of the heli. And ah, so popped out of the heli, super deep pow. And a, I could see the look in Dan's eye that he was super scared cause he was out there just not to long ago and saw a really big avalanche go off, that he was still spooked about. And it was my first time on anything that long, that was that steep, and a, talked about the situation, that we knew for sure that Sluffers would be going with out a doubt. And a, Tom kinda showed me the safe zone, where to go, and a, Spike did a heli shot, and it was in a TB2, towards the end, and a, came out good. We did two runs on the wall, smoked out, we were just ecstatic, just freakin' out, high fivin' and screamin' in the helicopter, and a, got a crazy helicopter ride back. And that was the first time I filmed with Mike and really got to hang out with him, and so forth.�

Pretty solid relationship with him ever since?

�Yup, umm, every year he's asked me to come back and film with him, on one trip or another. And that, always asks me to meet him up here in Alaska with the rest of the crew we've been with. Its ah, kind like a family, family reunion, up here every year.� Working with Mike as a Film Maker? �Umm, super structured, and really defined, after, I'm sure years of doing it. So he's put out six movies, well besides all his rock climbing movies and the motor cross movies. But, he's put out like six, a, snow board movies. And he's just learned all the ins and outs,its super smooth. Pretty much all the time when were out there, just a standard procedure you might say. Yeah, everyone knows what to do, its not like, everyone who comes up here knows whats up; so, usually when were out here only things are said that are needed to be said, to, you know, everything really clear, and defined over the radios, and what not.�

Secret love affair with Spike?

That's not quite where I'm going.(Laughing) He definitely gets, you know, cracks the whip and gets everything done. Gets up a little to early sometimes, but you gotta do what you gotta do, you now.� How's it working with Mike in Alaska? I like it a lot, but usually I'm on Tom day �s shift, so I don't get to work a with Mike as much as I'd like, but a, definitely has the ball rolling, and gets, you know, knows where we need to go.� What do you like about him most? Probably that he invites me to come back every year.� (Laugh)

What do you like least about him?

There's not too much there. Thats everybodys response.

Nurse AKA Spike, Mike Hatchet is 31. (????)

Total films? Fact -Ten total films, working on the eleventh and twelfth: six snow board films, working on seven; 1 motor cross; 3 rock climbing. How much total on heli-time and Valdez? Fact - since the beginning (standard film), about $150,000 over six trips; average almost ten hours of footage a year; Total 70 hours of footage; Use about 1/10 or 1/15 of each years footage. Last year we shot 150 rolls, it was half of that, like seven hours of footage, which was wiggled down to like 20 minutes. One out of fifteen shots I shoot makes it. Thats a high ratio, high standard. Film budget for this year, for TV 7? Fact- $130,000. Whats the production period? Start, like preorganization in October, and finished filming in the end of May, beginning of June, and then edit June and July, and last minute touch up in August, and the release in September. How many copies? Fact (Semi - Confidential) - over 50,000, best selling. Awards that you have one?

Fact - GPS; MTV Unveiled; (two years ago) TV 5 �Best Overall Snow Boarding Film.�; Fila Runner Up Award, for best snow board film: Fila Gravity Sports Film Festival. Tell me about standard films (who, what in)? Well right now its Dave and I. My brother, Dave are Standard, and it started out to be Mack Dawg, which is Mike Mackintire, and myself, and my brother, we made TB 2 in 1992, and then we worked together for three projects, three years of Mack Dog , and then, Mack Dog decided to do his own thing after TB 4, so now 5, 6 and 7 are just my brother and I. And Mack Dawg, you know made, he's like Colt, Freestyle guy, he made ?????? Pocahontas and Upping the Anty. You have Tom Day working for you, and how many camera men working for you? Well basically its mainly Tom Day and I and Rich, film most of the footage, and then we had about 4 other guys Matty Goodman, Jess Gibson, Matt Snoll, and Christian Beijing, kind of just contribute to other stuff as well.� Tell me about your first trip to Valdez, the year? First year, was with Fall Line films, was actually the first year of the Extremes contest, and I was working for Jerry and Artie for Fall Line, just up here to cover the contest. And umm, that was when there was only, a small number of people here, and there was ABA had the helies, one heli and two planes. And I was only really allowed to ride in the planes, cause Jerry and Artie got to ride in the heli, and they filmed a pretty decent segment up here, around the contest and the rest of the scene.� What year? That was 91. Who won that event? Ah, Tex got first, my brother got second, Liska was in third, I think. So You've see this place change dramatically. Yeah. How do you feel about your films contributing to that change? It's definitely more crowded, we go out there, and if there are people landing on the same LZ's you're on. Or tracking some run that you may have done a million times already. But yeah, our films, I can't really say that much, cause our films are one of the reasons its more crowded up here for sure, so I can't say much, really its partly my fault, but I mean it wasn't just us and there are so many other people shooting photos and making films now, maybe in the beginning it helped spark it, but now there are just so many film crews up here, its just a media blitz basically for everybody, its definitely the best place to film in the world, too, for filming, you couldn't ask for much more.� And the snow pack up there?

I personally think, you know, I'm not an experienced guy, but just as a film maker and having a general knowledge of avalanches, but this place is my favorite place to film. If you're going to hang it out, this is the place to do it, cause usually an avalanche is one of you're worries but not, its not high on the list, where if your in Colorado, or Utah, or even Europe, avalanches are a lot more frequent. And a, I think you can just push the envelope a lot more here, stability is a lot better. There is a pretty manageable snow pack in Valdez. Unique. So when did you first meet Doug Coombs? �Umm, I met him the second year up here.I quit working for Fall Line and came back when we were filming TB 2, ( AC - back in 92), 92, and we went to the Tsania Lodge, and that was basically when Kosak was at the end of his rope, he owned, used to own the Tsania Lodge, and he was the person who put on the first Extreme Snowboard contest, and a, he had really good vision, but no business sense, and he had a falling out ABA with Chet, so he, he cut hired Kenai Air to run his heli, so with that, AVA down the street at the time, and then just Kosak, he was running the second annual snowboard contest, and Coombs was just here hanging heli skiing, he was just using, he had his own group, doing first Decents. He was just using, umm, he was just using Kosak's helicopter; there was another group. And Coombs had a group, and we had our kind of film group, which was almost two groups, and then a Kosak had, kinda had a group, and that was basically it. And then there was the Extreme contest, and then after those guys left, there was basically just like four, five groups, using the same heli. There were no guides, no rules, no regulations, no, nothing was monitored, no repeaters on the peaks for safety, no radio, none of us even had radios, we just went down the slopes. No one knew exactly where, pilots knew the groups were being left off, but no one really knew the drainages that well, or the glaciers, or the topo (topographical), no one was looking at topo maps, and no one really knew exactly where they were. Seems so burley? Yeah, it was pretty burley. Definitely no guide, a little bit of pit digging, you know like Coombs was probably the only guy really digging, we were just diving into everything, you know, straight out, not waiting, just dive in, just ski cut was about the only thing we did. Do you feel like you cheated the odds? I don't think so. I mean, now looking back I'm glad we have guides now, a little bit we were lucky to some extent for sure, but I don't, I feel like the snow pack was so stable that year, and we weren't really stepping up, that big, like we do now, it was, more like we were warming up to what we're doing these days and, ummh, there was a couple close calls, for sure and we definitely got lucky, but, mmmh, I don't think we were going quite as big then either, as far as the exposure, and we were doing. We were doing more of the road runs, and just exploring more close to home.�

And how closely have you worked with Doug in setting up his operation? You're his biggest client, aren't you?

I'm potentially one of his biggest clients. We've helped him in the aspect that we've opened up areas where we've filmed a couple of shots. And then done first decents of all these lines. And then a year later he brings his clients in the same area. And umm, and then there's a spot where you can do ten runs in one little spot, for him its really good, cause he can open up his clients to a new area, and then ski ten runs in one circ, and we were the ones, Coombs and I, or umm, Conway and I, or Swany found the circ first. So I think in that aspect we've helped him open up terrain, and umm, just expand his area and kinda sniff it out for him so to speak, and, and set the runs up, so he can kinda next year bring his clients in there.� How important do you think riding Alaska is to the overall picture of snow boarding? I think it is just one facet of it; and it's a really important part of it, and its definitely, if you've never been here, you can, could never would really make a comment on it, cause you really wouldn't know whats its like. Anyone who's ever been here knows how big, how radical, and steep and exposed, adrenaline filled it is. It's just, I think to me, its the ultimate big mountain experience, and hands down its a major part of snow boarding. You know some kid from LA that just rides the Snow Summit jib park might not think so, but if he came up here at all enjoy riding powder, he would pretty much change his mind on his first run in Valdez. Anyone who's been here knows, in my opinion its the best place to snowboard in the world. It is the funnest snowboarding, for me personally, its the funnest snow boarding I've ever done.

I'd much rather ride down some steep 50 degree spine, then hit some jump in the park. You know, for me thats not where my interest lies in this, its a major part of snow- boarding to me cause thats a major part of it. Its not all about just riding a resort or hiking local back country or making a jump, it's a major part the heli-ski, big mountain, first descent, its just as much a part of snow boarding, is, as is, freestyle, half pipe, or anything. Just another part of it.� Tell me about the riders you choose this year. Umm, I chose Nate Cole, Noah Salasnek, Johan Olofsson and Tex, and, umm, I got the opportunity to work with a lot of good riders up here, and they're all really good riders and I just think that those guys consistently perform their best. Tom Burt was on the program too, but he unfortunately broke his leg, but I just, I think that those guys are the, are the king of Valdez in my opinion for filming, for filming. They have the most style, the most finesse, they pick the most coolest lines on film, and they usually execute them the best, and they are really well rounded riders. They can do airs, they can do steep descents, kickers, cliff drops, whatever. And I feel confident with them too. They know about slush and the avalanche danger somewhat, and they know about route selection and obvious hazards in mountains. I just feel really confident with them. I feel confident in their ability that they're not going to make some stupid maneuver just to get the movie.� List of first descents...