The ASR Show may not have been a big deal for the snowboard industry, but
Friday night September 11, 1998, Spreckle's Theater was packed with
members of the snowboard industry--writers, reps, pros, and groupies
piled in to get in on images from the front lines.
The first film of the evening was Standard's "TB7/North of Heaven." This
year the intro gave the movie a little different feeling with it's
futuristic digital work announcing the sponsors. The rest of the movie
was Standard's best film yet. It featured the highest quality footage and
the most amazing riders in the world.
Tom Burt pulls one of the steepest lines I have ever see anyone do, Kevin
Jones is graceful and exciting to watch as he spins his way off cliffs
and kickers. Jeremy Jones, Johan Olafsson, Jim Rippey, and newcomers on
the standard roster Josh Dirksen and Travis Parker, were all impressive.
Insane Alaska descents and deep February Tahoe powder made watching the
movie easy. "North of Heaven" will without a doubt be the big mountain
snowboarder's video bible for the next season. The only things lacking
from the film were the women. There was no Morgan Lafonte, no Victoria
Jealouse, no Athena, or Tina Basich. Instead, testosterone fueled runs
ruled the film.
Mack Dawg's film "Decade" was rail slide madness, with the opener paying
tribute to the last ten years of documented jibbing. One comment I heard
in the crowd lurking after the films were finished was, "If I saw one
more rail slide in that film I was going to puke."
It's all personal preference though. Being that I enjoy both the rail
slide world and extreme lines, I thought the Mack Dawg film was pretty
exciting to watch. Utah's Jeremy Jones slid a rail while on fire, BJ
Leines pulled a nice ollie to 360 on a garbage can, JP Walker stomped it
again and again, Jason Borgstede showed a bit of the big air contest side
of things, and Peter Line was made out to be a god.
The music as always in Mack Dawg's films was great, opening and closing
with Wyclef Jean. Kurt Heine's follow cam is always tight, the brief
exposure shots they give to all of the up and comers is nice, but the
film was too long and pretty Utah/Forum heavy. Jaime MacLeod was the
token chick (she rides for Special Blend, which is part of the Forum
clan) and she deserved the coverage being one of the most aggressive
women riders out there, but it wasn't enough. Where was Nicola Thost
boosting out of the pipe, Tina Basich pulling 7s off of the big air, Tara
Dakides pulling inverted 7s?
If any movie should have had women in it this is the one because women
progressed more in the last year than they ever have before
unfortunately, it didn't show up in Decade.
Overall both movies bumped snowboarding cinematography up another notch,
but they still haven't changed the format much. Maybe they're afraid that
something different won't sell, but you never know until you try.
Regardless, it was nice to see that movie night at ASR still is a
tradition that won't be going away, even if snowboarding has become a
thing of the past at the trade show.